It was a much different world in 1999, when EFI held its first Connect. Back then, EFI was a software company, wide-format printing was still a small niche (in both print size and market size), Google had just been founded, the economy was experiencing the massive dot-com-fueled boom, and the printing industry had just experienced its best year ever. The only downside was the looming “Y2K” glitch—and we know how that turned out.

What a long, strange, trip it’s been.

Connect’s—and EFI’s—long history (the company itself was founded a decade earlier in 1989) was highlighted by new CEO Bill Muir, who gave the event keynote on Tuesday, noting that it was his 99th day on the job. Despite all the changes wrought in the past 10, 20, even 30 years, the rate of change is not likely to slow down. In fact, it is likely to accelerate. And we all have to keep up with it. “Technology changes exponentially,” said Muir, “but business changes logarithmically.” Which is to say, businesses are not always able to keep up with the rate of technology change. As a result, tech companies like EFI have to help their customers surf the wave of change. “My responsibility as CEO is to keep the innovation machine going to allow your business to thrive.” That innovation machine is what drew him to EFI in the first place. “[EFI] demonstrated incredible managerial courage and foresight.” After all, the company that started simply as a Fiery business has grown to become a leading hardware vendor, as well. Muir said he was ushering in a new era known as “EFI 4.0”—combining innovation as well as the ability to execute and take advantage of those innovations.