#qznextbillion - A Dream Forum for the Futuristic

Quartz was kind enough to give me a discount ticket to their Next Billion forum last week. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend but tracked the talks via twitter as best I could. It seemed to be a fabulous event - here is the summary and here are all the talks.

I'm hoping to catch up on some of the talks soon - this one on Housing the Last Billion looked fantastic. And this one from dana boyd, who has done a ton of research on technology and youth culture, also looks great.

You might think some of this sounds far fetched and too futuristic. I would argue that most of it is incredibly relevant to emerging global student leaders. Issues like the global poor, sustainable design, the role of technology including how fast it gets adopted, and innovation and creativity are central to how the next generation of Kingdom centered leaders lead. And I'm grateful to be able to learn from some of the experts in this kind of stuff. Ah the Internet.

The Next Billion is in London next year....hint hint. Some of my favorite tweets from this year.

In 10 short years 80% of the global poor will become part of nomadic #cities: ones that don't exist yet. @casinclair #qznextbillion

— jeff nelder (@jnelder) November 5, 2014

Basically @biolitestove is inventing fire 2.0 (who knew you could disrupt fire?!) only at #qznextbillion pic.twitter.com/g3uWC3kinB

— Beth Temple (@bethtemple4u) November 5, 2014

First conference I've been to where you make smores with a camping stove that also charges phones. #qznextbillion pic.twitter.com/dNCcmRqrEW

— Anna Codrea-Rado (@annacod) November 5, 2014

Critical to understand generational vs. life-stage differences when designing for people's tech habits @zephoria @qzevents #qznextbillion

— we are experience (@weareexperience) November 5, 2014

Early adopters aren’t just geeks, freaks, and queers anymore. They’re experimenters, more mainstream. @zephoria #qznextbillion

— Rebecca Mir (@mirseum) November 5, 2014

"We put a man on the moon before we put wheels on a suitcase" -J. Donovan says to kids who might create the next big thing #qznextbillion

— Gully Flowers (@gul_ly) November 5, 2014

@mabb0tt "France leading on drone driven precision agriculture." Major implications for developing world #agriculture #qznextbillion

— Anthony Reddish (@anthonyreddish) November 5, 2014

@att Mobile data traffic 2007-13 50,000% growth #qznextbillion

— Kajal Sanghrajka (@Kajalnycmba) November 5, 2014

For every 10% increase of internet coverage in a country contributes to 1.4% GDP growth. @michaelpcassidy Project Loon #qznextbillion

— Robert Fine (@bobfine) November 5, 2014