This October, an elite group of corporate executives, start-up CEOs, investment managers, and academic luminaries will gather at the fourth annual Lux Executive Summit to explore how emerging technologies can meet these global challenges.
"Leaders attend the Lux Executive Summit to find the technologies and partners that will drive their future growth," said Lux Research President Matthew Nordan, "and energy and water challenges lie at the top of their agendas.
This year's conference will arm them with the tools they need to build successful strategies: leading voices, unconventional views, and proprietary Lux Research data."
Key themes at the fourth annual Lux Executive Summit include:
Alternative energy generation. The alternative energy landscape is changing as new technologies begin to compete with one another and as market growth shifts from Europe to the U.S. and Asia. Lux Senior Analyst Ted Sullivan will describe how a looming supply glut will impact solar energy's pricing and profitability, while speakers like Applied Materials Solar General Manager Charlie Gay, Good Energies CEO Richard Kauffman, and Schott Solar CEO Gerry Fine will debate the future of the solar industry.
Energy distribution and storage. In an all-star panel, Project Better Place CEO Shai Agassi will discuss his company's revolutionary business model for electric vehicle deployments, Synthetic Genomics President Ari Patrinos will describe how his firm is building microorganisms to manufacture alternative fuels, and Boston-Power CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud will detail her firms' fast-charging lithium-ion battery technology. Analysis from Lux Senior Analyst Ying Wu will highlight the most disruptive opportunities in energy storage.
Water technologies. Conventional wisdom says that "water is the new oil," but how can new technologies get a toehold in an industry dominated by municipal utilities? These questions will be addressed by keynote speakers across the water technology value chain - from Jeff Garwood, CEO of market leader GE Water, to Benjamin Hsiao, President of Co-founder of innovative start-up Stonybrook Purification.
Public policy's role in emerging technologies. Subsidies made today's solar market, and new policy schemes will make or break technologies like stationary fuel cells. U.S. Senator John Kerry will discuss the policymaker's role, while Austin Energy General Manager Roger Duncan will paint the view from a regulated utility - and Lux Research Director Michael Holman will present a framework for exploiting policy shifts. Open innovation strategies.
Companies rarely bring new clean technologies to market alone - instead, they collaborate to incubate new ideas and bring them to fruition. Voices on innovation at the Summit will include Segway inventor Dean Kamen, Nobel Laureate Sir Harold Kroto, and Lux Research Director Chris Hartshorn.
The resource infrastructure of the future. Energy and water present such great opportunities because everything about them is changing, from input materials to their channels to market. Keynotes from Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, Cabot Corporation CEO Roger Duncan, and Lux President Matthew Nordan will present scenarios for future decision-making - and spur debate between attendees in structured discussion sessions.
The 2008 Lux Executive Summit will be held in Cambridge, MA on October 19-21, 2008.
SolarDaily
