The last time I was in the Nokia Theater in the heart of Times Square, I watched the movie Star Trek Generations, the one in which Captains Kirk and Picard are stuck in an energy ribbon of bliss and immortality called the Nexus, where they have to defeat the evil Soran, who just wants to live in the Nexus forever (and who could argue with him, really). Or something like that. Well, I just got a sneak peak at the World Innovation Forum 2010 set at the Nokia, and if appearances are any indication, this year's Forum is going to go where no prior WIF has gone before, and you won't want to leave. Hey, the technology involved, alone, makes Star Trek look like child's play--who needs a communicator when you have Twitter? And the Bloggers, Tweeters and other web reporters who will be working the two Bloggers Hubs overseeing the stage will make warp speed look like a traffic jam. That's innovation for you. Just about the only thing we can't do that they purported to do on Star Trek is beaming ourselves up, and who knows, maybe a speaker or two will broach that topic for us in the next couple days.
Anyway, workers were just testing the enormous video screen that will add the visual color to speakers' presentations (one guy said the screen was 24 x 18--I think it was bigger). There are 900 seats that will be occupied, and a VIP section filled with a who's who of innovation, not to mention a growing live web audience (still time to register) that includes attendees from Europe, Japan, and South America. The "w" in WIF is a reality this year.
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