Star names will attract attention
Tech Notes with Herb Kim
THE Thinking Digital Conference returns to the Sage Gateshead in May 2011 for its fourth edition.
While the conference becomes increasingly international every year (in 2010 we entertained guests from 17 countries), it's the early and enthusiastic support of the North East digital and creative community that makes the big difference in our ability to attract some of the best and brightest speakers from around the globe.
This time we've attracted some fascinating speakers including Walter De Brouwer, Nancy Duarte, Sam Martin, Erin McKean, Magnus Lindkvist, Nicole Yershon, Caspar Berry and Tom Scott. I wanted to take the time to tell you a little bit about some of these fascinating people.
Walter De Brouwer is a Belgian internet entrepreneur and currently the CEO of OLPC Europe, the European branch of Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative. During his career he has been involved in the creation of 38 companies, two of which became successful IPOs.
Nancy Duarte is the founder of Duarte Design, one of the most successful and largest women-owned businesses in Silicon Valley. She is considered to be one of the world's foremost authorities on presentation development and design. For those of you that have seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, Duarte created the slide presentation that was at the heart of this Oscar-winning film. As so many of us are required to create and execute successful presentations in our jobs, Duarte's expertise will be invaluable to our delegates.
Next up we have Sam Martin who is editor-in-chief of Design Mind magazine and the director of content strategy at Frog Design. He is the author of nine books of non-fiction which include Manspace: A Primal Guide to Marking your Territory which looks at the history and advantages to creating your own 'manspace' which is dedicated to your possessions and activities. His writing has also appeared in publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Inspiring us with her enviable knowledge of words we have Erin McKean. McKean is a sort of double-geek in that she's a tech fan and a self-confessed 'dictionary evangelist'. She is the CEO of the new online dictionary Wordnik and was formerly the editor-in-chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary.
She is the author of five books about the wonder of words.
A special Early Bird price is available until midnight this Friday should you wish to join us. Checkout www.thinkingdigital.co.uk/2011
:: Herb Kim, founder of Thinking Digital and CEO of Codeworks
