Feeling intellectually inferior at Brainstorm is nothing new for me: This conference consistently pulls together some of the smartest, most articulate, most impassioned people on the planet for a 48-hour gabfest that leaves me feeling both energized and exhausted. (I also go home with a really long reading list.) But at last night's opening dinner, I found myself feeling upstaged by a bunch of kids in their teens and early twenties when conference organizer David Kirkpatrick introduced five student fellows who are attending Brainstorm with the assistance of the Salesforce Foundation.

In true Brainstorm tradition, they are doing smart, important work - some at the ripe old age of 18. One young woman is pursuing human rights work from a legal perspective. another is working to improve the lives of indigenous people. One young man has been a spokesman for Israeli-Palestinian issues since he was 13 years old. And another fellow is using computer programming skills to help a non profit track human rights voilations. In all, an utterly impressive young group that reinforced that good old Brainstorm feeling of inadequacy. My only solace: I was sitting at an adjacent table at dinner, and I'm happy to report that I do have slightly better table manners!