Over the last 25 years, I have been to several dozen conferences of one sort or another. Early on, I came to realize three things that have always held true:
1) There's something about being away from the everyday routine that can free up creative thinking and spark new ideas.
2) The real reason to attend a conference is not to hear the speakers, but to meet new people.
3) The best discussion, learning, and insight takes place in the hallways between speaker sessions.
Of course, I'm not saying that you shouldn't attend the sessions and listen to the speakers -- after all, one of those speakers might be me! Typically, most of the presentations will be okay, some will be excellent, and a few will be duds. But you never know when the next gem might pop up, so it's worth checking out as many speakers as possible.
Last week, I attended WorldFuture 2005, in Chicago. It was a well-run event with many expert speakers and hundreds of attendees. In the next couple of days, I'll say more about the two talks that I gave there, but now I want to highlight a few of the sessions that most impressed me.
José Cordeiro of Venezuela made an entertaining and informative presentation on Saturday morning. His topic was "Religion, Science, and Immortality." It was a deeply researched talk, and José is always an engaging speaker.
Saturday was also the day for a stimulating panel discussion on "Emerging Trends in Crime and Terrorism." CRN special associate Tom Cowper was one of the panelists, and he did a great job. The standing-room-only audience had plenty of challenging questions for the speakers.
Later that evening, I enjoyed a session by Bill Bainbridge on "The Coming Conflict Between Religion and Cognitive Science." Bill is with the U.S. National Science Foundation and for many years has been one of the world's leading thinkers on the future of thinking. He gave a well-informed, passionate, and engrossing presentation.
I encourage everyone to attend one of the World Future Society's annual conferences. Next year's event will be July 28-30 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mike Treder
Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology future weblog blog
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