Conversations 2007

Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future

Oh, that Niels Bohr.  What a kidder.  Who knew that a Danish quantum physicist could be so funny.  He's the source of today's title, which serves as a great introduction for our announcement of this year's keynote speaker.

When we began our keynote speaker search, we considered everything from notorious celebrities ("Hey, she did those Sidekick commercials, right?") to political figures (maybe he could call his speech, An Inconvenient Misrecognition?) to well-meaning inspirational speakers that leave everyone feeling good about themselves.  All of those might draw people to the conference.  All of those might be rewarding in their own fashion.  All of those are expensive, so we'd better be sure we've picked the right person to kick things off.

But we have a motif to maintain here -- focus, people, focus!  This year's "What's Next" Conversation's theme is all about the future.  Most of the content is geared towards the future we know we can predict, in the form of recent product releases, new applications of technology, and experiences shared by leaders and trend-setters in the industry.  You know, stuff that has already happened... but like the old NBC reruns slogan, if you haven't seen it, it's NEW to YOU!  Still, we wanted to reach a little further into the future, and really give folks a look into what the future could and should hold for them.

So then (cue drum roll) let me introduce... Dr. James Canton, our keynote speaker for this year's Conversations. Dr. Canton has been insightfully forecasting the impact of future trends and innovations on business, customers, and society for the past twenty-five years.  He has served as a commentator on CNN and Financial News, where he earned the nickname, "the Digital Guru."  He has written books such as Technofutures and The Extreme Future.  He's so good I bet he predicted that I would borrow heavily from his written bio to fill out this paragraph of my blog post.  Wow!  I'm impressed already! 

Seriously, though, the future is a beguiling topic.  The conventional wisdom is that if you could predict the future, you'd be rich.  Maybe that's why we're always trying to predict the future.  What's the weather like tomorrow?  Should I sell now or wait until the market recovers?  Will it be a boy or a girl?  What will this neighborhood be like in 10 years?  And in our jobs, we face the same barrage of decisions that forces us to peer into the murky void known as (duhn-duhn-DAHHHHH) The Future.  I'm very much looking forward to hearing what Dr. Canton has to say, and I've already got his books on my wish list.

But don't listen to me.  I'm no expert.  After all, "An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."  (Thank you again, Dr. Bohr!) 

Published Monday, September 17, 2007 2:41 PM POST BY: Jeff Foley