Popular Mechanics launches FutureTech Conference for October

Prof Tim Noakes

PM has hosted the annual PM Inventors Conference for three years and, according to editor Alan Duggan, it is ready to up the ante with an event that is destined to become an essential addition to South Africa's tech calendar.

"The explosive spread of wireless connectivity, the social media landscape, humanity's relationship with technology, our sustainable future, security in cyberspace - all this, and more, will be tackled by presenters at the top of their game. We intend to unpack and demystify ideas and technologies that are already changing people's lives beyond recognition," he says

Speakers

• Ellis will speak about the occasionally uneasy relationship between science, technology and humanity. Professor Ellis co-authored The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time with University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking, and is considered one of the world's leading theorists in cosmology.
  
• Noakes, co-founder (with Morné du Plessis) of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa will address "Your body, your future: getting the science wrong."
  
• Nieman, a practising advocate and former head of a multi-disciplinary team that included cyber forensic experts, forensic auditors, computer engineers and data analysts, will discuss the policing of cyberspace.
  
• Alan Knott-Craig, founder of World of Avatar and CEO of MXit, Africa's largest social network ("In pursuit of a better-connected planet");
  
• James Munn, vice-president of business development in sub-Saharan Africa for wireless giant Qualcomm ("How wireless rules the world");
  
• Cavan Hill, GM at Sasol New Energy ("Sustainable energy and the opportunities for future mobility")

Reprising the popular "Pitch it to the panel" segment from last year's Inventors Conference, the organisers have invited leading innovators to present their work to delegates for comment and advice.

To reserve and pay for a seat at R980 per person, go to http://bit.ly/FutureTech2012.