Global Threats...
Global Opportunities

NEXTGENS TECHNOLOGIES
December 5–6, 2007
Santa Monica, CA

conference overview
What is it about the future that makes predicting it so hard? Why do we often feel like we have techno-indigestion? Even though we think we can make reasonable assumptions about the general direction future technologies might take, we find it very hard to know what people are going to do with them, and how they might spawn even newer applications. In some respects, that leaves us behind the eight ball, riding the wave, ahead of the curve, pushing the envelope, or dodging the bullet!
 
At this annual conference, we’ll take a peek at some of the latest technology developments and concepts that may (or may not) be deployed in the next five to twenty years. We’ll look at technologies that are embryonic and emergent; technologies that are ready to come to market with new capabilities; and technologies not yet mastered, though potentially powerful if they ever come to fruition.

Exciting, disruptive breakthroughs are occurring in numerous fields: chips, displays, storage, networking and communications, search, media, biotechnology, health devices, robotics, vision, speech and voice recognition, presence, bionics, medicine, MEMS, and nanotechnology.

We will speculate on and try to assess the impact of these breakthroughs on our lives and work. What should we be wary of, and what should we embrace? If disruption means opportunity, where will we find the next most-favorable prospects and advantages? Is the convergence of computing, biology, physics, and chemistry accelerating? Will computers "disappear"? Is the Information Age almost over? And if it is, what happens next?

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Partial list of speakers

Mr. Charles Bell, Vice President, Information Technology Infrastructure, Amazon.com
Mr. Michael Callahan, CEO & Founder, Ambient Corporation
Ms. Liesl Capper, Co-founder, MycyberTwin.com
Dr. Pamela Clark, Professor of Physics, Catholic University
Dr. Peter Corke, Research Director, Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ICT Centre
Ms. Amanda McDonald Crowley, Executive Director, Eyebeam
Mr. Roy Freeland, CEO, Perpetuum, Ltd.
Mr. Stuart D. Harshbarger, Principal Professional Staff Member, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Andrew "bunnie" Huang, VP, Hardware, Chumby Industries
Mr. Justin Lyon, CEO, Simudyne
Mr. Mike Phillips, CTO and Co-founder, Vlingo
Dr. Peter Schulam, Co-director, Center for Advanced Surgical & Interventional Technology, UCLA
Mr. Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks
Dr. Vishal Sikka, Chief Technology Officer, SAP Labs
Dr. Burton Smith, Technical Fellow, Microsoft
Dr. Yu-Chong Tai, Director, Micromaching Laboratory, Caltech
Mr. Linh Tang, CEO, fix8.com
Mr. Tandy Trower, General Manager, Robotics Group, Microsoft
Dr. Richard Turco, Founding Director, UCLA Institute of the Environment
Dr. Carl Williams, Chief, Atomic Physics Division, NIST

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