Wired’s Chris Anderson, Futurists Look Over the Horizon at >Play 2010

Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, who recently declared "the Web is dead" in an article on the rise of apps, will be among a host of futurists who share their predictions at the >play 2010 digital media conference Oct. 30.

In his talk, Anderson will argue that the iPad and other tablets are the future of media, drawing on lessons learned from the first six months of the iPad. Anderson is the author of two New York Times bestselling books: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More and Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

More than 500 industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and students juggling smart phones, iPads, and laptops are expected to take over the Haas campus to attend the popular student-run conference.

Themed ">play it forward," >play 2010 will take a cutting-edge approach to its subject, asking attendees to be full participants with live polling, Internet-enabled SMART boards, an idea room for collaboration and reflection, and a master "mission control board" displaying it all in real time.

"When we scanned the conference landscape, we found many events seek to diagnose what has happened over the last year," says conference co-chair Dan Parker, MBA 11. "We thought it would be more useful to focus on takeaways that any industry insider has to know over the next one to two years. And we want to make the whole experience interactive."

New this year is a "rocket pitch" session, in which conference sponsors—startups and established players showcasing their latest apps, games, social media innovations, and hardware—will have from one minute to three minutes to present to the full audience. The session gives a quick snapshot of the conference expo, where attendees can interact directly with the products throughout the day.

Another addition is >play talks, an hour-long session modeled on the popular TED talks, in which industry leaders from a range of areas will have a few minutes each to make pithy predictions on digital media.

Nine panels will focus on topics such as the increasingly fractured "Splinternet," social gaming, global perspectives, digital dwelling, privacy, venture capital, social change, geo-targeting, and mobile advertising.

The >play conference is a project of the Haas-based Berkeley Digital Media and Entertainment Club. For the first time this year, the club partnered on the conference with the Berkeley Center for New Media, allowing for a deeper, cross-disciplinary perspective.

Pre-registration is required for the conference, which is expected to sell out. Discounted registration ($25 for students) is available through Sept. 30 at http://playconference.org/registration.html. For detailed information on >play, visit http://playconference.org/panels.html. For updates on speakers, visit Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/playonfacebook.

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