Last night, I attended a dinner hosted by Fortune magazine at the La Mar, a new-ish Peruvian restaurant in San Francisco. The dinner, which was emceed by Fortune magazine managing editor Andy Serwer, attracted more than 20 of the better-known technology industry insiders and investors, among them Alan Patricof (GreyCroft Partners), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Ann Winblad (Hummer Winblad), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Ron Conway (Silicon Valley angel investor), Max Levchin (Slide) and Mark Pincus (Zynga).

Fortune editors wanted to find out what was on the mind of technology insiders so that they could craft the right agenda for their Brainstorm Tech 2009 conference, scheduled for later this summer in Half Moon Bay, Calif. The discussions were wide-ranging and the topic suggestions, diverse.

Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, believes that even people who find themselves unemployed are unlikely to give up their $50-a-month broadband connection; after all, it’ll be a way for them to find bargains, hunt for jobs or seek out cheaper apartments. She thinks more time will be spent online, including on social networks. Recent upsurges in the usage of Twitter, Facebook and other such services offer a good proxy for Gina’s predictions.