When 483 of the world's top newsmedia executives get together with thought-leaders and its best-in-class exponents, you're in for a stimulating time.
INMA's first London Congress was exactly that: Promised an interactive conference, I hadn't quite expected one in which the conflicts - albeit simmering under the surface - were on stage.
Using a panel format, INMA delegates delivered some frank discussion with one member of a discussion on distributed content critical of platforms which "have a history of screwing their partners".
Some of the 'elephants' were in the room, some weren't: Google - on a charm offensive which included a substantial exhibit including its Cardboard VR headsets in the foyer - had strategic partnerships head Luca Forlin on stage; FaceBook were not represented in the conference programme.
Also instructive was the simmering difference of opinion between Simon Davies and Piers North - directors of publishers Quartz and Trinity Mirror, respectively - and PageFair head of ecosystem Johnny Ryan, who shamelessly plugged a business which seeks to make an "opportunity" out of ad blocking.
And despite the forward-looking optimism of author and entrepreneur Leonard Brody, there was much in his TedX-style keynote with which to disagree. I'd take issue with his assertion that "technology didn't matter"; somehow (technology-driven) costs did matter; and there was much comment on his claim that in a "post-innovation era" we had all missed the innovation boat. One speaker volunteered the suggestion that those who were not interested in technology should "get retired".
The conference, however, managed to deliver something for everyone, even print: Despite Sunday's 'brainsnacks' focus on "transition from print", two valid case histories - from the newly-optimistic Liverpool Echo and the free-distribution London Evening Standard - showed how the "print runway" could be extended.
Throughout, a strength was the prodding, informed moderation of Juan Senor, a partner in consultancy Innovation Media.
With a book of that name about to come out, The Great Rewrite was an apt title for Leonard Brody's discussion of upcoming "institutional seasickness".
First some definitions: Innovation is what Apple Carplay "could have done 15 years ago", Uber is disruption; rewriting is what GM is doing with its partnership with Cruise Automation on autonomous vehicles; buying Lyft "put jet fuel on it," he says.
Poster boy is Pope Francis, who "understands this better than anyone" and has made fundamental changes to make the roman catholic church relevant. And if technology is at least acknowledged as an enabler, what better example than Crispr, a DNA editing tool which could apparently "edit out entire species".
Underwriting change is unaccountable trust in the internet - "you wouldn't post baby pictures on a lamppost, so why FaceBook or Flickr?" - which sees a virtual ID trusted four times as much as a real one, and two-thirds of newly-weds having started their relationship on a dating site. And fundamental rewriting of capital markets which have allowed projects such as Tesla's electric car - "kept out for seven decades" - to prosper.
And it's going to get worse: Brody says he is involved in the growth of virtual entertainment - "live doesn't have to be live," he says - which will see Elvis Presley entering the building in much the same way as a holographic Michael Jackson has recently appeared on stage. With the bonus that Virtual Michael can work 365 days a year, and "doesn't get into trouble".
He cites the ability of Microsoft software to paint an "undetectable" Rembrandt fraud - "journalism is an art form, but no more so than this" - and encourages destructive investing, ten or more per cent of capital being invested in parallel organisations.
"I don't think this is a revolution, it's a complete tear-down an rewrite," says Brody, disclosing that he is working on a voting platform. "Social media is just cocktail parties and water coolers by comparison".
The opening programme also delivered McKinsey & Co partner Patrick Behar - on raising the bar for distinctiveness, multiple business models and "relevant scale" - and Ericsson group president Hans Vestberg on what mobile technology can deliver in the next five years. "Everything is skyrocketing," he says, disclosing that 5G, standardised "all the way to the cloud" and due in 2020, will be 35 times faster than the current peak of 3G.
The next big thing Vestberg says content is "going to be super-important" and quips that Behar's advice not to have more than two battlefronts open at once, is "easy for him to say".
Panel clusters took up the challenge of mobile's present and future: Condé Nast's Wil Harris, Debby Krenek and of Newsday and VG mobile development manager Padraic Woods had relaunches and new products to talk about. Norway's VG had a new crossplatform device you can talk to, with Woods urging a more personalized experience, responding to individual users by telling a story differently: FaceBook can't do that," he says.
Panels also tackled data - with contributions from Politico's Kate Day, Anthony Tan of Singapore Press Holdings' Chinese publishing division, and Stéphane Père of The Economist - paywalls and video. And on the second day, distributed content: Best of class case histories from Sebastian Tomich of the New York Times' TBrand Studio and Guardian Labs' Anna Watkins saw impressive showreels and a good deal of respect for each other's work.
And much more, on which we hope to touch later.
"Connecting the dots", INMA executive director Earl Wilkinson feigned frustration with the industry about which he is clearly passionate: "Maybe we should have blown it up," he says of the legacy business. Of the burning rope metaphor he used a year ago, he suggests the digital side "may be burning faster".
What is certain is that the challenges will not have gone away, and hopefully the 2016 World Congress - my first INMA event - will not be my last. The event returns to New York at "about the same time" next year.
Peter Coleman
Pictured: Juan Senor with distributed content - or should it be discontent - panellists Malcolm Coles (Telegraph Media), Luca Forlin (Google), INMA report author (and later Silver Shovel winner) Grzegorz Piechota and Robert Shrimsley (Financial Times).
On our homepage: Guardian Labs' managing director Anna Watkins