Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Michigan Technology Conference Provides Thought-Provoking Keynotes

DEARBORN – More than 400 business professionals packed the Ford Motor Company Conference Center for the 2006 Michigan Technology Conference to hear futurists predict the shape of technology to come and how right-brain creative thinkers will dominate the job markets of the 21st century.

The event, sponsored by the Detroit Regional Chamber, Michigan Economic Development Corp., and Automation Alley, also featured some of the hottest technology products and services coming out of Michigan on display at some three dozen booths set up in the lobby.

The morning keynote came from Andrew Zolli, founder of Z+ Partners of Brooklyn, N.Y. He outlined future business strategies and technologies, lead by ecovation, where products and services will take their design cues from Mother Nature.

For example, nature uses advanced concepts like self-assembly, chemistry based on water rather than toxic materials and solar power. Nature also uses the power of shape to solve problems, available materials and recycling. In other words, Earth friendly, rather than Earth polluting. He cited a couple of thought provoking examples, including:

Paint that uses the microstructure and hydrophobic coating of a lotus leaf to shed dirt:

A polymer that contains self-healing cells to patch tears in aircraft wings while in flight;

Bio-engineering plants so that they change from green to red when their roots touch the chemicals contained in land mines;

Display technology based on the refractive properties of peacock feathers not light emitting diodes;

A building in Zimbabwe kept at a year-around 78 degree temperature because its design was based on the air chambers found in two-meter tall termite mounds;

Billions of tiny RFID tags and sensors embedded in everything to help you find your luggage, and remind you to take your medications;

Replacement organs and bones grown from your cloned cells:

Personalized medications, rather than mass produced pills;

A hypoallergenic cat, for people who crave animal companionship without sneezing:

The luncheon keynote was Andrew Pink, former Al Gore speech writer and now author and lecturer, who said the left-brain rational attributes of the 20th Century will be replaced by the right-brain creative, emphathic, inventive types. Because of this, Pink said three factors will drive the world economy – Abundance, Asia and Automation.

Abundance drives the growth of the self-storage industry, for people with a lot of stuff, designer products to make us stand out from the crowd and aging Baby Boomers searching for the meaning of life, since their have their material wants and needs covered.

Asia, with its huge population, will take over the routine jobs - read left brain logic and routine - now done not only by blue collar factory workers, but white collar engineers, accounts and financial services professional in the United States. Like manufacturing, these routine white collar jobs will migrate to Asia.

Automation already is replacing brawn in manufacturing, software is replacing left-brain routine tasks, except in the case of the right-brain creative types. So the big question to ask in the future about whether you'll have a job in the 21st Cetury economy is does someone outside the United States do it cheaper, can a computer do it faster. For businesses, they need to ask if they are still selling a product or service in high demand in this age of abundance?

Pink said six characteristics will drive commerce in the future:

Design. He cited a recent quote from General Motors Corp.'s Robert Lutz that "we are in the arts and entertainment business";

Story, the ability to put facts in context with emotional impact;

Symphony, the ability to see the big picture;

Empathy, the ability to see another's perspective;

Play, to have fun on the job;

Meaning, the radical idea that there's more to business than just making money. Altruistic motives drive profits – or the Zen of a business shouldn’t be just the money, but the business itself, or the money will not come.

Author: Mike Brennan Source: Mitechnews.Com