Gerd Leonhard to share 20-year vision at CommunicAsia2016 and BroadcastAsia2016 conferences

The next 20 years are likely to bring more changes to humanity than the past 300 years, and Gerd Leonhard, Futurist and Founder and CEO of The Futures Agency will be at the CommunicAsia2016 Summit and BroadcastAsia2016 International Conference to tell delegates why.

Source: CommunicAsia2016 website.
Leonhard.

As a top-rated futurist, with over 1,500 engagements in the past 15 years and a combined audience of over 1.5 million people, delegates can expect Leonhard’s visionary address to highlight near-future, ‘nowist’ observations and actionable foresights in the sectors of humanity, society, business, media, technology and communications. He will also share his view on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for ICT professionals in the Asia Pacific region as we continue our path towards a hyper connected world.

Leonhard is scheduled to deliver the combined Visionary Address, The Next 5 years in Global Digital Transformation on 1 June 2016 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The futurist predicts that in the next five years, globally increased connectivity, super-computing and more powerful interfaces will bring about exponential changes in how we communicate, how we consume media and content, how we transact and do business and how we learn and design our future:

Transforming what it means to be human

According to Leonhard, global digital transformation is bringing about an age of digital “ations” that all beg the question: what will it mean to be human in a digitally transformed future? Gerd’s “ations” include: mobilisation, digitisation, screenification, disintermediation, automation, virtualisation and robotisation.

In a world where connectivity flows like water, we can expect intelligent software and machines of all kinds to play an increasingly larger role in the future of communication, and drive growth in the video and radio streaming industries. In the coming years we will see over the top (OTT) services become the new normal, and computing becoming invisible.

Technology, like electricity, is just 'there'

Leonhard takes his prediction of the age of ‘ations’ further by predicting that the world will move from becoming increasingly hyper-connected to omnipresent technology. He emphasised that this will change the nature of our interactions and fundamentals of our environment whereby, “everything that can become digital will indeed become digital", an era of “smart-everything”. 

For instance, industrial processes could be revolutionised and efficiency increased through "smart farming”, “smart logistics” and “smart transportation”. On the other hand, with artificial intelligence (AI) feeding big data and the Internet of Things, Leonhard cautions that our new age of hyper connectivity could also heighten present challenges such as piracy and cyber security. Digital ethics will become of critical importance.

Global alignment against cybercrime

With technology becoming so much a part of our everyday lives, society will be even more susceptible to threats such as cyber warfare. The implications of data losses or breaches will reach new heights as cyber criminals become increasingly savvy and technology begins to play an even greater role in personal enterprise, business and government. The vast movement of data will be further catapulted by high speed, cheap devices and easier access to technology.

The future of cyber security, predicted by Leonhard, will lie in combining efforts to achieve an International Agreement on Data Standards and Digital Ethics. He stressed that a global treaty on ethics and security (including AI) will be essential as technology is moving from outside of us to ‘on top of us’ to finally, ‘inside of us.’

"The future is about identifying and managing the balance between maintaining our humanness in a highly automated and technologised world: embrace technology but don’t become it!" concludes Leonhard. 

Other plenary sessions at the conference will dive deeper into the foreseeable changes around how we communicate, how we consume media and content, how we transact and do business, and how we learn and design our future. Plenary speakers include Bill Morrow, CEO, NBN Co of Australia; Dato’ Sri Dr Halim Shafie, Chairman, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC); Magnus Ewerbring, CTO, Ericsson APAC as well as Robindhra Mangtani, Head of Competition & Strategic Relations – APAC, Google.

CommunicAsia2016 Summit topics include:

• Broadband
• Enterprise digital transformation
• Enterprise cybersecurity
• Enterprise mobility

• Smart cities
• The industrial Internet of Things
• Cloud networking and big data analytics

BroadcastAsia2016 International Conference topics include:

• Connected entertainment
• Big data and real time analytics
• IP broadcasting and TV everywhere
• Workflow and digital assets management
• Digital radio broadcasting

More than 280 C-level and senior executives will deliver key updates and share case studies on a wide range of the latest trends and technology advancements, such as OTT, the Internet of Things, smart cities, and big data analytics. Speakers include:

• Gabriel Lim, CEO, Media Development Authority (MDA), and CEO (Designate) for the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), the entity to be formed by the merger of the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and the MDA 
• Alex Wang Yufeng, Director of Huawei MBB Solution Support, WN (Products & Solutions), Huawei and 
• Azran Osman Rani, CEO, iflix Malaysia, COO, iflix Group

Interested?

The events, to run from 31 May to 3 June at the Marina Bay Sands, are only open to registered delegates. Register for this year’s CommunicAsia2016 Summit and BroadcastAsia2016 International Conference

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about the companies debuting at the event in 2016

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