Wired 2012: Fifteen sessions not to miss (Wired UK)

From science to social media, art to architecture. Here are 15 essential sessions you can't afford to miss at Wired 2012 this month.

Rethink what you see

Scientific research continues to confirm that humans are a visually driven species. Who are the image makers affecting how we see the world today? Thomas Heatherwick is an extraordinary innovator in architectural, product and visual design. But how does he use the visual to develop projects from the Olympic cauldron to the new London bus? Greg Asner understands the power of the image to shape opinion: he'll explain how his photographs of disappearing rainforests have helped people understand the perils facing the Amazon. And Alexa Meade is an artist whose human tableaux are unlike anything you've seen.

The new rules of business

How do you stay ahead of the curve when technology and the internet are disrupting markets in real time? Ajaz Ahmed, the co-author of Velocity and the founder of AKQA, explains seven new laws for a world gone digital. Tim Harford, the best-selling author of The Undercover Economist and Adapt, will examine what really motivates us. And Jessica Greenwood, expert trend spotter and director of business at digital agency R/GA, will share her insights from the frontline of the new marketing.

Download the Agenda PDF

Build a social business

How can you leverage the web and social media to connect people in powerful ways? Michael Acton Smith reached 50 million children in more than 150 countries though Moshi Monsters, the online game he created. Troy Carter turned Lady Gaga into a social media megastar, with 2.3 billion YouTube views, 30 million Twitter followers and 53 million Facebook fans. David Karp created a new way of publishing and sharing content -- and now hosts 66 million blogs. Actress, model and entrepreneur Lily Cole discusses her new social network that's designed to bring out the best of people. And Lior Raz will share his unique views on social media.

Keynote

Chef Ferran Adri? created the world's best restaurant at elBulli, serving up not just new dishes, but new ways of thinking about and creating food. In 2011, two million people requested a table and Adri? announced he was closing the restaurant. La Bullipedia is his vision for an online database that will contain every piece of gastronomic knowledge ever gathered. He's also setting up the elBulli Foundation, an innovation centre that's using digital technology to rethink food -- and to understand the very nature of creativity.

The power of data

Big data is the latest buzzword, but how does it work in practice? Stephen Cohen, the founder of Palantir, explains how his company's software helped the US Drug Enforcement Agency busted a Mexican drug ring. Christofer Toumazou is a medical innovator who is developing sensors for the human body that will usher in new age of personalised medicine. And Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist who directs the Human Nature lab at Harvard, will explain his research into the power of networks.

Wired 100 lightning talks

Throughout the conference, we'll be tapping the collective wisdom of the Wired 100 -- in our minds, the most influential people in UK tech.

BOOK NOW

Cyberwar

The new frontline of war is digital. Mikko Hypponen is fighting malware, tracking thousands of viruses every hour in a mission to bring to heel a criminal industry worth an estimated $38 billion (?23 billion). Keren Elazari has been a lynchpin of the Israeli cyber security and hacking scene for more than ten years, advising security firms, governments and Fortune 500 companies.

Problem-solving tech

Ilona Laarman is augmenting humans: her company Ekso Bionics builds exoskeletons to help paraplegics walk again.

Redesigning the non-profit

Charity is an industry waiting to be disrupted, so what can the non-profit world learn from entrepreneurs? Scott Harrison, who's using some of Silicon Valley's most accomplished founders to bring clean, safe drinking water to Africa, talks about practical charity. Jane Chen wanted to solve a problem: how to save new-born babies' living in remote locations without incubators? She explains how her Embrace Infant Warmer blanket is filling the gap. And Peter Thum is creating a new marketplace for used AK-47 rifles -- by turning them into jewellery. He talks about his strategy in this session.

The unfinished social revolution

Manal Al-Sharif posted videos of herself driving a car in Saudi Arabia to YouTube. The eight-minute clip won millions of views, but led to her arrest. Mona Eltahawy is an award winning journalist who was on the ground in Tahir Square. The pair meet at Wired 2012 to tell stories of their experiences during the Arab Spring.

The future as seen from the lab

The current issue of Wired is a special report from the MIT Media Lab -- the research centre that is inventing the future. We've brought over some of its stars. Ramesh Raskar is creating new devices from cameras that see around corners to low cost medical diagnostics. Tod Machover is a composer and innovator who has glimpsed the future of music and is bringing it into the world. And Sebastian Seung, author of Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are, is trying to map the human brain computationally.

WAYRA pitch session

Incubator Wayra has backed more than 170 startups. It's brought four of them to London to give a five-minute pitch. Andy King, CEO, Blue Butterfly Digital, Linda Paola Lobato, Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder, Machina, Nick Redwood, co-founder & CTO, Makelight Interactive and Jesus Miguel Perez Llano, CEO, Tedcas.

The future of the city

This session is curated by Maria Popova, creator of the Brain Pickings blog, which hunts down interesting things on the internet to share with a wider audience, with a focus on all things creative.

At the creative edge

Scott Belsky is the author of Making Ideas Happen, which chronicles the creative method of companies such as Google, IDEO and Disney. As founder and CEO of Behance, a platform for creatives to showcase their work, he has access to a host of talented artists and designers -- and he's brought four of the most exciting members of that community to Wired 2012. Diego Stocco, Levi van Veluw, Jennifer Chen and Shruti Veeramachineni discuss how art can exist across diverse disciplines and platforms: German collective LIGHTfaktor show us how to graffiti using light; Levi van Veluw turned his family into wooden sculptures by covering them in tiles; Diego Stocco is a sound engineer who, among other activities, sets fire to pianos and records the results; and German collective LIGHTfaktor are graffiti artists who use light instead of paint.

Hackers and makers

The first hacker movement kickstarted the digital revolution. Now, a new generation of hackers and makers is bringing the change. Pablos Holman is an entrepreneur, hacker, research and builder of spaceships at ideas laboratory Intellectual Ventures. Hojun Song is making his own satellites. Mark Suppes is a web developer who is also creating his own nuclear fusion reactor using parts bought from eBay. And Ed Cooke, the author of Remember, Remember: Learn the Stuff You Thought You Never Could is hacking memory: he explains how to remember everything.

For more information and to book tickets, visit wiredevent.co.uk.

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/11/wired-2012-sessions

at the drive in alternative minimum tax modeselektor gran torino gloria steinem war of the worlds rock and roll hall of fame