Ray Kurzweil
Friday, August 14th, 9am PDT
Ray Kurzweil will be the introductory keynote speaker. His talk will focus on the benefits of virtual environments and virtual reality in the terms of enabling communications with others and the blending between human and machine.
Biography
Described as “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes., Ray Kurzweil was ranked #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States by Inc. magazine, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison,” and PBS included Ray as one of 16 “revolutionaries who made America,” along with other inventors of the past two centuries.
Among Ray’s many honors, he is the recipient of the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson Prize, the world’s largest for innovation. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest honor in technology, from President Clinton in a White House ceremony. And in 2002, he was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame , established by the US Patent Office.
Author of six books, four of which have been national best sellers. The Age of Spiritual Machines has been translated into 9 languages and was the #1 best selling book on Amazon in science. Ray’s latest book, The Singularity is Near, was a New York Times best seller, and has been the #1 book on Amazon in both science and philosophy. Ray’s web site Kurzweil AI.net has over one million readers.
Mark Kingdon
CEO of Linden Lab
Saturday, August 15th, 9am PDT
Mark Kingdon joined Linden Lab in May 2008 as Chief Executive Officer. Mark leads the day-to-day management and operations of the company, working closely alongside Linden Lab founder, former CEO and current Chairman Philip Rosedale. Prior to joining Linden Lab, Mark served as Chief Executive Officer of Organic Inc. a leading digital communications agency, building its reputation as a groundbreaking, innovative provider of user-centered design. While at Organic, Mark built the company’s social media and social computing services and launched the company’s emerging platforms practice. Prior to Organic, Kingdon worked with idealab!, providing strategic guidance and operational support to emerging companies. Before that, Mark was a partner with the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PwC), where he held a variety of senior roles throughout his twelve-year tenure. He received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in Economics from UCLA.
Philip Rosedale
Founder and Chairman of the Board of Linden Lab
Saturday, August 15th, 9am PDT
Philip Rosedale founded San Francisco-based Linden Lab in 1999, and hasled the creation of the virtual world of Second Life from initial concept to a market-leading virtual world, with a robust economy and a global population.
As a pioneer in the virtual world industry, Rosedale is actively involved in the strategy, development and design of Linden Lab’s products, including the world of Second Life and the Second Life Grid platform.
Rosedale is known for his entrepreneurial approach to new technologies, starting a network software company when he was 17. In 1995 he created an innovative internet video conferencing product, which was later acquired by RealNetworks, where he went on to become Vice President and CTO. In 1999, the advent of consumer broadband and better PC 3D graphics inspired Rosedale to leave RealNetworks and found Linden Lab, pursuing his lifelong dream of creating an internet scale virtual world.
Rosedale holds a BS degree in Physics from the University of California at San Diego.
Tom Hale
Chief Product Officer of Linden Lab
Sunday, August 16th, 9am PDT
Tom Hale joined Linden Lab in September 2008 as Chief Product Officer. Tom drives the product strategy for Linden Lab’s diverse offerings, reporting directly to Linden Lab’s CEO, Mark Kingdon. Hale brings over 15 years of experience in product development, marketing and management to Linden Lab having most recently served as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) at Redpoint Ventures. Prior to Redpoint, Tom served as Vice President and General Manager for Adobe Systems’ Knowledge Worker Business Unit where he drove strategy for the Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Connect and Flash Media Server product lines. Prior to joining Adobe, Tom served a variety of senior roles at Macromedia, where he helped establish Flash as a web development standard and oversaw a learning and training business unit that generated over $100 million annually. Prior to his tenure at Macromedia, Tom was the director of sales and marketing at Fauve Software, an imaging software company. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University.
