The Internet revolution is falling in love with the offline world.
Robots, connected sensors, and gadgets of all types are getting cheaper and faster, and obscure startups are riding crowdfunding campaigns to national prominence.
Always-on smartphone users are opening up new avenues for marshaling assets in the real world, making everything from grabbing a ride to moving around money simpler than ever.
Culture is changing, too, with people tapping networks of acquaintances and strangers to find unused assets, save time, or make money.
Seems like plenty to talk about, right? Well, you’re in luck.
On Dec. 9, Xconomy is convening a top group of entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators for “The Hardtech Revolution: Makers, Markets, & Mobile,” a fast-paced afternoon conference in New York City that will give you the lowdown on all of the new ideas moving from the online world to the offline reality.
Our keynote speaker is Rodney Brooks, a robotics and artificial intelligence expert and veteran entrepreneur. You may know Brooks as a co-founder of iRobot—makers of the Roomba vacuum—or a longtime MIT professor.
These days, he’s heading up technology at Rethink Robotics, a startup producing the intelligent humanoid robot Baxter, which can learn to perform repetitive assembly-line tasks with a little human coaching. Plus, it’s got a cute LCD screen for a face.
We’ll also hear from Filip Technologies CEO Jonathan Peachey, whose startup is making a security-focused smartwatch that lets parents monitor their small kids’ whereabouts; Adam Sager, the CEO of home-security hardware startup Canary; and Scott Miller, whose company Dragon Innovation is helping a new wave of hardware entrepreneurs fund and build their products in far-flung Chinese factories.
But we’re not stopping at hardware. The offline revolution is also about making marketplaces and personal connections smarter, easier, and more lucrative. That’s why we’re pumped to feature entrepreneurs like Nestio CEO Caren Maio, whose startup connects landlords and renters, and FlightCar CEO Rujul Zaparde, who is extending the “sharing economy” to the problem of parking and transportation in crowded cities.
There’s much more to come. But for now, you’ll want to lock in your tickets at the lowest price you can get by heading over to our event page and signing up for this killer event. End your year right by getting the latest scoop on the next wave of high-tech innovation—we’ll see you Dec. 9 at the headquarters of our awesome hosts, AppNexus.
