Tag: future

The act of purchase as we know it is progressively disappearing. Driving forces of it are the usual forces standing behind each global change happening: growing and aging population, higher standard of living, climate changes and scarce resources. Nowadays, we can also add the growing presence of digital in everyday’s life and the ever changing consumer behavior. The VP Digital Transformation of SCA Gael de Talhouet gave quite an insightful keynote at Webit. Festival 2017 in Sofia concerning the change in the customer of tomorrow. How do you sell products in a world where no one buys anything anymore? We’re moving from a world where we click, purchase, pay and collect to a world where we will just need to ask, because robots will know our needs. More and more companies are introducing their subscriptions models, allowing us to get the things we want directly delivered to our homes without the need of going physically to get them from the shop. Amazon has developed the dash buttons which after being connected to your smartphone and pressed, the product you’ve chosen is automatically reordered. You don’t need to order, you just receive. Or speak, as in the case with Amazon Echo. Just ask, tell the device what you need, and it will find it for you. The next step is when you don’t even need to speak. Fridges indicating the products that are missing from it, making lists of what needs to be purchased, washing machines and printers automatically ordering physical goods when supplies are running low. Smart devices noticing when you have a dinner with the friend who loves pizza or if you’re in need of a specific vitamins, asking to make an order for you. Or suggesting you a herbal detox tea after noticing you’ve woken up early and had a week full of meetings. It’s not rocket science, it’s history browsing and predictive analytics And what if these devices can recognise our emotions? Scientists and are relentlessly working on and getting closer to breakthrough in the face of voice assistants. The future of shopping is no shopping. People will not buy anymore because robots will buy. That brings the next question, how do you sell to a robot? Who will the robot buy from and how will it make the choice? Marketing strategies used to be consumer centric, while when this becomes a basis, companies will need to figure out is how to convince a robot to become their client. After digital marketing and e-commerce, welcome to robotic marketing and e-commerce. You can watch the keynote of Gael here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsT8LuHVg8s Webit.Festival 2018 will gather again top speakers, policy makers and enterprise leaders. Stay up to date with our upcoming guests and agenda on our website and learn more about our ticket options. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

Internet freedom differs from country to country which together with the constantly changing online landscape makes it quite hard to say whether Internet freedom is an existing phenomenon at the moment. People are social beings, we talk to each other, exchange information and emotion and this is what makes us human. The fast and easy access to information and the social interaction online has opened a door for Internet in our lives. At Webit.Festival Europe the Chief Digital Officer of AnchorFree Inc. Baglan Rhymes talked about the importance of Internet freedom. AnchorFree focuses on this topic because it aims to provide secure and anonymous access to information on the Internet to every single person on the planet. In reality, we take the online information and bring it into our physical world. This has an impact on who we are, our preferences, philosophies and the society we live in. In the world of today, the Internet is becoming less free. Many governments use it to take down content they don’t approve of or to launch cyber attacks against their critics or other governments. Censorship has taken control over free speech. It is important to understand the difference between the methods of suppression and those of censorship. Suppression of free speech doesn’t have to take sophisticated forms of technology. Most often it has a political or a legal aspect and it requires vigilance which governments and the police have. [caption id="attachment_5183" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Chief Digital Officer of AnchorFree Inc. Baglan Rhymes[/caption] Censorship, on the other hand, takes a lot of technological forms. Such a complex and constantly evolving system as the Internet can be adapted for propaganda and manipulation. Social media in many countries is a very politicized and polarized tool which if used correctly can send a convincing but also a leading message. The media diversity shrinks and this results in many people turning into alternative sources of information. According to Baglan Rhymes:

“Social media has been spectacular in busting censorship and creating a challenge in the social sphere.”

In the United States this role of social media has an impact on economy and trade. The country is most successful when the packaging and the messaging of the goods sold overseas, not the government propaganda or the military force, export the values of freedom and creativity. In reality, some of America’s best products exported abroad are in the form of downloading an application, accessing a website, streaming a movie or listening to music. People don’t have access to the culture and the values of America if their freedom on the Internet is restricted. Important companies as Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook export many of their products via the Internet and this is the only way they can reach consumers. Therefore, Internet freedom should be a priority for the US policy. Research shows that now there are 2.5 billion smartphones and 5 billion feature phones. It is expected that in a couple of years these feature phones will come online. The digital weapons in our hands in the face of social media, blogs and Wiki will make the way people access information and consume it a matter of life and death. The Internet is powerful enough to influence a change in any government regardless of it being democratic or not. It is our responsibility to respect that power and not to take the Internet freedom for granted. As Baglan Rhymes said:

“Make no mistake - if we lose the fight in Internet freedom we have lost the battle in maintaining our humanity and promoting democracy in the world.”

You can watch her full lecture here:   If you want to keep up with the latest trends in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 in 1 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

The 25th Hour Project of the German automobile manufacturer aims to research and understand how the self-driving cars of the future could restore the time we spend in commuting. Autonomous automobiles are bound to disrupt the urban mobility as we know it largely due to the combination of three very important trends. Computer vision is finally good enough to recognize objects on the road and to build 3D maps of the surrounding area. A ride-sharing, self-driving model will enable companies to cut costs from hiring drivers. Lastly, electrification will make the cost of maintenance of the vehicle lower and it will benefit the environment. Self-driving cars are expected to not only make people's lives easier, but also to make roads much safer.  According to KPMG, only in the UK autonomous cars will lead to 2,500 fewer deaths between 2014 and 2030. Currently, only some of the driver’s tasks are automated. Next year, it is expected for the car to take control on motorways while the driver is ready to take over if needed and is still required for many situations. According to the motor industry, in eight years cars should be able to drive entirely on their own with the driver only supervising the process. It is estimated that from 2030 drivers will no longer be necessary and cars will be completely autonomous. Americans spend approximately 50 minutes a day in their car. Audi aims to take this necessity time and develop autonomous cars which will be able to convert it into productive time for work, quality time spent with family and friends or into time to relax while watching a movie or playing a video game. Audi is still at the stage of testing how volunteers react to three major stimuli - light, sound and the frequency and density of information which is displayed on the screens in the car. Participants ride inside Audi’s simulated autonomous car which has four seats facing each other, large projection screens on all sides and no steering wheel. The company should consider how to implement commercials in a more elegant way in its premium car range because in-car advertising is inevitable. Especially when the car’s connectivity will shape the whole autonomous driving experience. According to Audi, the car will reach its full potential only when it becomes part of a completely networked road system which will enable the automated Audi cars to communicate to each other and to the nearby infrastructure, shops and restaurants. As the head of culture and trend communication at Audi Melanie Goldmann said:

“The car is going to be the ultimate mobile device.”

The car will adapt to the person using it by learning their habits and making suggestions based on the gathered information. This data collection could help turn the car into an even more productive space than the office itself. As far as privacy is concerned, Audi will store the data in the cloud rather than in the car. The research showed that productivity time is well developed and down time can be easily recreated in the car. The situation with quality time is different because it is extremely personal to each consumer. Therefore, Audi should collect as much data as possible about the life of the person in order to be able to predict and meet their needs. If you are interested in the latest news about Self-driving Vehicles, then Webit.Festival Europe is the right place for you. During the Mobility Summit, you can listen to top level speakers such as the following who have attended Webit before: the Investment Principal at the European BMW i Ventures team Sohaila Ouffata, the Regional General Manager EMEA of Uber Jambu Palaniappan and the CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Dirk Ahlborn.   Here you can get more information about Webit.Festival, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event.

As surprisingly as it might sound, in 2017 one in every nine people is deprived from access to a nutritious meal on a daily basis. There are different reasons behind this phenomenon. Natural disasters caused by climate change affect the most vulnerable people around the globe. One major consequence of conflict is hunger. The big conflict in the Middle East affects not only Syria, but also its neighbouring countries - Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. In reality, 20 million people worldwide are on the break of famine. During Webit.Festival Europe 2017 the Private Sector Partnerships and Innovation Accelerator Lead at World Food Programme Hila Cohen talked about how innovation can be used to reach the sustainable development goal of zero hunger. The World Food Programme is a United Nations agency which delivers food to people who need it the most. Trucks, ships and aircraft supply food to 80 million people a year in the most remote locations in the world. The World Food Programme needs partners like NGOs, governments and the private sector in order to find a solution to world hunger.

“Stopping world hunger is not something we can do on our own.”, Hila Cohen said.

When the location of the delivery is very hard to reach, the food is dropped from the aircraft. In the case of an existing food market, a cash-based transfer is applied. People receive credit cards, a SMS system or paper vouchers which enable them to go to the market and select and buy their own food. The World Food Programme contributes to the education system’s development by introducing the school feeding concept. The idea behind it is to give food to children in schools, which would mean parents will not have to decide between sending their child to school or to work.

“Even though the world population is growing, the number of hungry people is diminishing.”, Cohen said.

Regardless of this positive trend, if actions are not taken by 2030 the hungry people worldwide are estimated to be around half a billion. By opening the World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator, the agency is counting on technological innovation to help make these numbers go down. Startups related to food can receive funding and access to the field from the Innovation Accelerator. The variety of countries in which the World Food Programme operates, gives startups a great opportunity to get acquainted with a different ecosystem.   [caption id="attachment_5131" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Private Sector Partnerships and Innovation Accelerator Lead at World Food Programme Hila Cohen[/caption] The agency has developed an app called ShareTheMeal, which takes advantage of the fact that there are more people with mobile phones than hungry people on the planet. With the app, you can donate 50 cents at a time and feed a child for a day. Up to today thanks to 50 cents donations, more than 12 million people have been fed. Food for Tech is another project which aims to empower refugees by giving them tech skills. The idea is that these skills can be used at the current location of the refugees but also at other places they go as they migrate. The World Food Programme is looking into self-driving trucks which will be able to cope with the challenges of places where there is no real roads or a secure Internet connection.

“That’s how we are dreaming. We dream big.”, Cohen said.

Hydroponics is another area of interest for the agency. It enables people to grow food without soil by using water, minerals and a manageable ecosystem. The World Food Programme is testing to use the Blockchain technology to transfer money from the organisation to the people in need. You can watch her full lecture here:   If you want to keep up with the latest trends in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 in 1 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

Tesla, together with the French renewable energy provider Neoen and the South Australian government will install the world’s largest lithium-ion battery to ensure energy security for South Australia in the future. The future of the energy industry is defined by renewable energy sources and energy storage technologies. The shift towards cleaner and more sustainable alternatives enables energy storage systems to become more largely used. They store the renewable energy which can be then used during peak hours to prevent blackouts. The lithium-ion battery storage is expected to continue to dominate the market as well as to be a leader with regards to the increase of demand and the decrease of costs. This market position is a result of battery systems which meet the needs of the fastest growing utilities sector. Research shows that in 2017 around 76 percent of the energy storage market will account for utilities. Tesla will provide a 100 MW/129 MWh Powerpack system which will store the energy produced by Neoen’s Hornsdale Wind Farm situated near Jamestown, South Australia. Last September, a storm caused blackout which affected the entire state of South Australia and left 1.7 million people without electricity. Tesla Powerpack aims to use the stored renewable energy from the wind farm to solve and prevent power shortages. By delivering electricity during the peak hours this grid scale energy storage project will improve the reliability of the electrical infrastructure in South Australia. The system is expected to be completed by December 2017. It will be the largest lithium-ion battery storage project worldwide which will be able to provide electricity to more than 30,000 homes.

“The system will be three times more powerful than any system on Earth. This is not a minor foray into the frontier. This is going three times further than anyone has gone before.”, Elon Musk said.

This project aims to ensure energy security for the people of South Australia. It empowers the state to take the lead on its energy future, but it also sets an example by making a step forward towards the adoption of sustainable energy around the world. The global COO of Neoen Romain Desrousseaux shared that this project is the right way to introduce sustainable and reliable energy that is cheap to the residents of South Australia. By generating around 1,050,000 MWh of renewable electricity annually, the wind farm is the largest renewable energy generator in South Australia.

“We are creating dispatchable, renewable energy that is the cheapest source of energy in Australia and most places in the world.”, Desrousseaux said.

If you are interested in the latest trends in Sustainable Energy, then Webit.Festival Europe is the right place for you. During the Smart Cities Summit, you can listen to top level speakers such as the following who attended Webit before: the Strategist Energy Transition at Alliander Manon Jutte, the Interim Head of Urban Living and Built Environment  Mike Pitts who led on embedding sustainability across Innovate UK’s strategy and programmes and the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for EMEA at VMware Joe Baguley. Here you can get more information about Webit.Festival, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event.

Currently, the global infrastructure is expanding into Space. The truth is, this is something that has already started happening. The commercial activity in Space creates many opportunities for both investors and entrepreneurs. It is expected to exceed government activity by 2020. At the 2017 edition of Webit.Festival Europe the Chairman of Space Angels Network Joe Landon talked about the entrepreneurial revolution in Space. Space Angels is a company which searches the world for the best space startups. It aims to create opportunities for the investors while enabling them to make profit from the commercial space industry. No matter what the industry is, new technology is always considered crazy at first. The Space was once considered science fiction, now it is a science fact. To make the topic more tangible, Joe Landon shared a couple of examples of innovations in the Space industry with the audience at Webit. The Falcon-9 Rocket was launched, landed and re-launched by SpaceX. Such reusable rockets spread the costs over the multiple launches and present a revolution in the Space industry. The Blue Origin - the space company of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, had a similar success with its New Shepard suborbital rocket. It was launched and landed five times in a year.

“Reusability in Space is very important.”, Landon said.

There are innovations concerning 3D printing in Space. The company Made-in Space created a zero gravity 3D printer which enables the astronauts to print the exact tool they need in Space which lowers the costs. 3D Systems is a company which created the first manufactured object from asteroid material. The European banking center created $227 million fund to invest in space mining projects. According to a research report on the opportunities in the commercial space economy by Goldman Sachs, the costs of asteroid mining are comparable to these in Earth mines.   There are many forces which when acting together make Space innovations possible. Joe Landon stressed on the importance of the development in technology which reduces the costs of sending things to the Space. He emphasized on the role of the revolution in satellite technology. Commercial communication satellites a couple of years back were very heavy and extremely expensive to make and launch. It was important for these satellites to last for 15 years and to be very reliable which required further financing. The satellites from today can be held in a person’s hand and are far cheaper to produce and launch than their multi-million spacecraft predecessor. It is possible to launch dozens of them at the same time. This technology has a great impact on the space economy. Huge opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs arise.

“In ten years satellites will cost 10,000 times less, they will have 1,000 times lower mass and the launch will cost 350 times less.”, Joe Landon said.

He dispelled the myth that space companies need extremely big investments in comparison to other tech companies. In fact, the seeds and Series-A investment in space startups is identical to the rest of the tech market. The truth is that space companies from the past needed a lot of funding to build the expensive infrastructure which the space companies of today use. This advantage enables them to develop low-cost, quick businesses. Another myth is that space companies take too long before making any actual profit. The numbers show that since 2009 $14 billion were accounted as exits in the Space industry.

“In the future we’d like to think there are millions of people living and working in the Space.”, Landon said.

We are not talking about sending only missions to the Space, but also forming communities. Astronauts will be joined by people with all kind of expertise such as teachers, lawyers and doctors. Today, very few people go to Space. According to Landon in one or two generations there will be people who have lived their entire life only in the Space. This completely different perspective when the Earth is observed from the Space can change the way we think about it. As the Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell said:

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it.”

You can watch his full lecture here:   If you want to keep up with the latest trends in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 in 1 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

Nowadays, we have access to two things. First, a big amount of data about our personal information and second - access to AI which enables us to understand far better the insights that make us who we are. At the 2017 edition of Webit.Festival Europe the President and Global Brand Director of Havas Worldwide Jason Jercinovic, introduced the topic of ethics in the Artificial Intelligence because if this data is in the wrong hands, our privacy could be endangered.  An ethical imperative on how to use this data is necessary to be created. We should consider ethics from the perspective of both consumers and professionals to communicate in an informed way while considering the benefits and the risks which AI brings. Jason Jercinovic stressed on the development of the tools of today which compared to those of the past can recognize unstructured data. The truth is the world of social media and interconnected devices is one of unstructured data. And these tools enable us to understand the insights from that unstructured data at a scale and to work with them. [caption id="attachment_5137" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The President and Global Brand Director of Havas Worldwide Jason Jercinovic[/caption] The vast amount of data enables us to understand people’s behaviour in great detail. Furthermore, it allows us to create and deliver experiences which are extremely efficient since they are targeted to each individual based on personal preferences.

“With that information I can predict the future. I can influence how you think.”, Jercinovic said.

This technology is becoming more complex at a very fast pace. The reality is that companies are willing to use our personal information in order to target their products or services more precisely. Whether we accept this approach as ethical or not will not change the current situation. That is why, we need a code of conduct. At the end of his talk, Jason Jercinovic underlined once again the importance of making a difference between the benefits and the risks AI brings. It is no secret that this technology is used by companies to deliver high quality content and products to us, customers. AI is present in most parts of our live and it is here to make it better. To get a real idea of how AI is implemented in our daily life you can find more about eagleAi, an intelligence platform created by Havas Cognitive for ITV News. It aims to understand how consumers think and it was used during the USA elections. eagleAi processes a huge amount of posts, comments, tweets, news articles, debates and many more to determine what people are talking about and which issues they do find relevant. AiMEN is a cognitive social listening tool created by Havas Cognitive which with the help of AI discovers the posts of people who leave negative comments on the Internet and responds to them with quotes from the Bible. You can watch his full lecture here:   If you want to keep up with the latest trends in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 in 1 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

We are all talking about the Fourth industrial revolution and its potential toll on the labour market around the world. As the developments of robots, AI and automation seem inevitable, countries, communities and organizations must find ways to adapt our skills to the needs of the future. During Webit.Festival Europe we had the chance to listen to one of the people that are going to drive this existential change in the processes of learning. The Director of Strategic and International Development at Wolfram Research Conrad Wolfram shared his thoughts on fixing the education for the AI age and took us on a journey through the challenges education faces today. Wolfram technology and consulting solutions drives innovation in data analytics, software development and modelling from startups to Fortune 500 companies, in industries as diverse as medicine, finance and telecoms. Conrad is also recognized as a world authority on fixing Math education, including advocating a fundamental shift to focus on computer-based computational thinking rather than hand calculation. During his speech, he outlined the main effects computers and AI have on education. The first one is that we need to learn subjects that have changed, because the computers now do work that usually humans used to have to do. The second is that AI gives us the tools for building a more personalized learning, assessment and experience during the learning process.

“The key point to understand is that we need humans to focus on what they are good at and leave computers do the same. And that involves also humans learning how to connect with computers in a meaningful way, so that we have the best interface to get the computers do what we want”, Wolfram said.

He gave the example with the ever changing survival skills during the years. Hundreds of years ago it was crucial to be able to make a fire or to kill an animal to eat. There are now different and very modern survival skills to do with computational knowledge. According to him the skill at the top of the future value chain is what we may call computational thinking - knowing how to think in a computational way about life. Around the world we spend many hours of child’s life every week learning Math. But Wolfram thinks that the big question we must ask ourselves is whether this Math is fostering computational thinking, or not? He thinks that right now this is not the wrong subject and we should use all those hours to do much more computational thinking oriented subjects. [caption id="attachment_5052" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Director of Strategic and International Development at Wolfram Research Conrad Wolfram.[/caption] There are at least 3 good reasons for learning the right kind of Math. The first is that it gives us skills for the technical jobs that have powered our economies and continue to do so. The second is that it creates our everyday ability to work in the modern society and deal with the reask that are displayed to us. And the third is that it creates logical thinking about the ways we approach life. If we talk about the actual essence of Math, we must say that it is a four-step process. You define a question, you translate it to to this abstract notation and the reason you do that is that you can then compute answers much better than you can by talking about it in a normal language, like English or Bulgarian. Then you interpret the results. You take that abstract answer and you go back trying to produce the actual answer to the real question you asked.

“Here is what is going wrong in education. We spend almost all our time learning how to do step 3 by hand. This is the step that computers can do fantastically better than any humans. So what we all should be doing is use computers for step 3 much more and using students much more for steps 1, 2 and 4”, Wolfram said.

In school students learn how to solve a linear equation by hand, but in real life the equations we face are much harder and complex. Now our smartphones are able to solve linear equations after a voice command from us. So the key question is why are we spending 10 years of our students lives trying to get them to solve such tasks. Conrad Wolfram founded the computerbasedmath.org to drive implementation of the change. It is now a worldwide force in re-engineering the curriculum with early projects in Estonia, Ireland, Sweden and Africa. The main idea behind the project is that the computer already exist, we have it and it is not going away. And the main task is to figure out how the curriculum should look like. For years we had countries trying to be part of the knowledge economy as opposed to manual labour. The next step is an economy that is driven not only by knowledge, but by the interaction of humans and computation. According to Conrad Wolfram, without a fundamental reform of our education, we are not ready for that. So governments and organizations need to think about innovative ways to unstick the education ecosystem, so that we can have real innovations and not just have to stick with the same things.

“I am avoiding the term Math for much of what I’m now talking, because I think that Math has become a rather toxic word. I like the term computational thinking, but whatever it is called we have to reform what we are doing, either by making a new subjects or by doing a hostile takeover of the old subjects. And it is vital to make that as quickly as possible. Once you got automation in life from machines you need to use it so that humans can go further. We don’t have to make humans compete with the machines, because we will fail”, he said.

You may watch Conrad Wolfram’s full lecture here: If you want to keep up with the latest trend in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018 for just €100. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

In the next few decades we are going to witness an exponential change in the world of technology that is going to dramatically change every aspect of the way we live. But while many people are very concerned about the new technological trends coming, very few have noted one factor that they bring to the marketplace. According to the Founder and Executive Director of Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) Robert C. Wolcott each one of these trends push sensing, analytics and access to shared resources in more and more places in the economy and closer to us. That means that they push the production and provision of products and services ever closer to the moment at which they might be demanded. The Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship was among the 300 top level speakers at this years Webit.Festival Europe. During his on stage presentation he shared some of his views about how technology will transform every industry in the 21st century. In his work in KIN he looks for two things - strategy and implications of technology and change for large corporation. Wolcott is working hard to figure out where the world might be going and how to get there, while as an angel investor he is thinking about the future with respect to startups and emerging companies. He pointed out Amazon as an example of company with vision about its future connection with the customers. For the past two years the retail giant is trying out something called anticipatory shipping. This means that they are watching your online behavior and send products to the distribution centers near you before you have even ordered the product. [caption id="attachment_4993" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Founder and Executive Director of Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN)[/caption] Wolcott is sure that with the development of 3D printing will bring a real long-term revolution in the global supply chain of manufacturing. Things will start from the peripheries, because the biggest threats and opportunities never come in the middle of a market. The big players in different fields already know everything about their markets, but the disruptions often comes in small ways and emerge over time.

“For instance today 20% of plastic auto replacement parts cost more to ship than they do to manufacture. Do you think at some point in the next decade people will start to produce auto plastic replacement parts through 3D printing closer and closer to the moment at which it is demanded in time and space”, he asked.

The expert noted that last year there were 250 000 taxi and limo drivers in the US. But some time in the next 20 years all these jobs will be completely eliminated. This is a big concern both for governments and corporations, because we need an opportunity for everyone to evolve to transition to this new world. Today we have a global supply chain optimized for scale manufacturing at a distance. This means that the larger the manufacturing facility is, the lower the cost. In the next 30 or 40 years this equation will completely change and this will transform our economy fundamentally. During an interview with Mr. Wolcott at the Frankfurt auto show last year, the CEO of Peugeot-Citroen Carlos Tavarez said that just 5 years ago no one seriously paid attention to the idea of self-driving cars. Today every major player in the industry is trying to figure out how to catch up with disruptors like Tesla. He predicted that if the trend continues with this speed after 20 years we will not argue whether we should let autonomous cars on the road, but if we should let human drivers. And we can easily tell who is going to be the winner of this argument. [caption id="attachment_4991" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Founder and Executive Director of Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) presenting one of our Webit Awards.[/caption] The technology is going to change even the metrics we use to measure the impact on the market. The normal family today usually needs at least two cars, but it may only need one vehicle in the future. For the entire history of the global automotive industry we have used unit sales as the one metric to show how successful a company is. All of the capital allocation, inventory management, marketing decisions and sales channels are focused around this metric. According to the professor if we don’t recognize that soon it will not work in the same way as today, the tyranny of metrics will bring us down. Because we will continue to make decision based on performance metric that used to work and at some point of the future won’t work anymore. The solution is creating a portfolio of metrics to measure how things are going so that companies know how they are doing in advance of things changing.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel. If our vehicles in the future are driving around a lot more we will have what is called higher asset utilization. Which means we will need more replacement parts and services. And guess what automakers make a lot more money on then selling a car - replacement parts and service”, he said.

Wolcott thinks that enterprises should start asking themselves what are the client needs they can prototype today that gets them in the game for the future. They should also try to identify technologies and business models that are happening on the periphery and might add tons of value, because the peripheral vision might turn out to be the biggest source of competitive advantage. He predicts that over the next 20 to 40 years across all industries everything will be shifting to push the production and provision of products and services ever closer to the moment at which they are demanded. So the questions we should be asking ourselves are what value are we providing, can we produce and provide our products and services at the moment they are demanded and if not will we still be relevant in the next 20 years. You may watch his full lecture here: If you want to keep up with the latest trend in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018 for just €100. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]