AIGA - London - Pay Attention! Reports from the TED2006 and ETech April 5, 2006

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) and ETech (the OReilly Emerging Technology conference) are two of the most significant business, design and technology conferences of the year, and both took place in California in the last six weeks. We have brought together four participants to present their reflections and reports on these events, and inspire a more general discussion about contemporary trends and innovations in design and technology.

The theme for TED was The Future We Will Create... with presentations addressing the changing nature of education and careers; brands, narrative, character and conflict; the value of simplicity; information visualisation and epidemiology; and micro-manufacturing.

ETechs theme was the attention economy. Presentations included Linda Stone on the epidemic of continuous partial attention, Ray Ozzie on Microsofts Live Clipboard, Danah Boyd on MySpace, Peter Cochrane on the impact of children on the future of technology, and Bruce Sterling on defining the future of smart objects. Discussions addressed humanising technology, augmented human intelligence, social navigation and filtering, and the architecture of participation. Our reporters will be:

TED2006 (Monterey, CA, USA)

* Andy Hobsbawm, European Chairman, Agency.com
* Max Gadney, Head of Design & Audience Insight, BBC News Online

ETech 2006 (San Diego, CA, USA)

* Norman Lewis, Director of Technology Research, Wanadoo Group
* Lee Bryant, co-founder, Headshift

The event will be informal, anecdotal, thought-provoking, and (we hope) entertaining. Attendance will be limited to around 50.

Event submitted by Eventful on behalf of cubicgarden.