Keynote Speakers
Ms Viviane Reding,
European Commissioner, DG Information Society and Media
Belgium
Viviane Reding currently serves as European Commissioner for Information Society and Media. She started her political career in 1979, as a Member of the Luxembourg Parliament where she held the following positions: President of Social Committee, Member of the Office of the Chamber of Deputies, Member of the Benelux Parliament, Member of the North Atlantic Assembly. She then became leader of Luxembourg's European People's Party delegation in the European Parliament from 1989 to 1999, and she was a Member of the group's office. Within the European Parliament, she has held positions as President of the Petitions Committee and Vice-President of the Social Committee and the Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee for 2 years each.
Room A1
Tuesday, 4 November
10:00
Professor Nicholas Negroponte,
Chairman Emeritus, MIT Media Lab
USA
Nicholas Negroponte is one of the foremost futurists of our time, a fine speaker with a distinguished history of valuable insights on innovation, technology and their impact on business that few can match. Professor Negroponte was the first to predict and describe how digitalization would affect every industry in every part of the world. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Being Digital. He has continued to understand the directions that technology is taking business and society and to effectively forecast the transformations that are defining our future.
He is also the founding chairman of MIT's Media Lab, one of the world's leading interdisciplinary research centres and the driving force behind One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a project to bring durable, affordable and innovative computers to children worldwide. Professor Negroponte's prototype computer for the OLPC project is a conceptual and technological breakthrough that is destined to revolutionize computing.
Room A1
Wednesday, 5 November
14:30
Esko Aho,
Former Prime Minister, Finland
President, SITRA, The Finnish Innovation Fund
Finland
Mr Esko Aho has had a long and distinguished career serving Finnish society. He held the post of Prime Minister of Finland from 1991 to 1995. During this period, Finland overcame a deep economic recession and made the historic decision to join the European Union. After the 2000 presidential campaign, Mr Aho joined Harvard University for one year as a lecturer, and following his retirement from the Finnish Parliament, he worked as a private consultant. He was appointed President of the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development, Sitra, as of 1 July 2004and was invited to head a group of experts on reinforcing EU research and innovation performance, which submitted its report to the European Commission in January 2006.
Room A1
Thursday, 6 November
12:00
