Stephen Wolfram Joins Xconomy’s Mobile Madness Lineup on March 9: Here’s the Agenda

We’re coming off a fantastic health IT event last night at Microsoft New England Research & Development Center (more on that soon), but I wanted to take a minute to give our readers an update on Mobile Madness 2011, our next forum, which is just under a month away. It’s Xconomy’s third annual mobile event, and it’s happening on the afternoon of March 9, also at NERD (agenda here).

Stephen Wolfram, the distinguished scientist, author, and creator of Mathematica, A New Kind of Science, and Wolfram Alpha, has agreed to give a keynote presentation. You might wonder why Wolfram is speaking at a mobile conference. Well, it turns out that mobile computing is a big focus at Wolfram Research, the scientific software firm he founded in 1987 (he’s still CEO).

You’ll have to tune in on March 9, but I think Wolfram will touch on themes of information discovery, knowledge computing, and enterprise applications—all centered around his intellectual curiosity for mobile interfaces. (In an interview just over a year ago, he told me about the new kinds of computing he’s been doing on his iPhone, and the fact that “if you showed it to a technical person from years ago, they would think it’s a bizarre, impossible object.”)

The full agenda and speaker list for Mobile Madness is here. My colleague Wade Roush is making a triumphant return to Boston to emcee the event (unfortunately he’s going back to San Francisco afterward). Wade will kick things off by leading a panel on the future of 4G, which will be followed by moderated chats on mobile interfaces (how your phone is making you smarter), mobile payments and commerce, enterprise apps, and, lastly, the no-holds-barred “location smackdown”—a free-for-all discussion about the future of location-based apps and platforms—refereed by John Landry, in a reprise of his role from last year’s smackdown segment.

And a bonus feature: We will have not one, but two mobile startups coming out of stealth at the event. These companies and founders, who shall remain nameless until the big day, will give “burst” presentations to introduce their new businesses.

You can get more information and registration details on Mobile Madness 2011 here. Tickets have been going fast, but we hope to see you all on March 9.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.