To provide a preview of the “world’s fair of ideas” that will transpire at the conference our partner, Bentley Systems, is hosting three Webinars featuring WorldFuture 2010 speakers. The Webinars are free but require advance registration. Registration here.

The Virtualization of America (and the World)
A Conversation with Michael Rogers
Time: Tuesday, June 8, 2:00 PM EDT US (6:00 UTC)
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The Internet will change tremendously in the next 10 years. A more important question is, how will it change us? Children born this decade will have to learn what “offline” means, because being online will be the normal condition of life. It is an era of social reorganization equaled only by the rise of cities 6,000 years ago. But unlike urbanization, this enormous transition will take place in a matter of decades rather than centuries. At WorldFuture 2010, “practical futurist” Michael Rogers will describe what will be gained in this historic transition, what will be lost, and what challenges are ahead.

Internet Evolution: Where Hyperconnectivity and Ambient Intimacy Take Us
A Conversation with Lee Rainie
Time: Thursday, June 17, 2:00 PM EDT (6:00 UTC)
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Imagine the implications of the future that most technology experts foresee: Wireless devices are embedded in everything including us; cameras record activity in all public spaces; databases catalogue our online moves; invisible, ambient networked computing makes us available to more people in more ways; software exhibits humanlike thinking; and a direct brain-to-computer interface is possible. These are just some of the future scenarios predicted by experts, as documented by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, directed by Lee Rainie. At WorldFuture 2010, Rainie will discuss the most recent, widely covered Future of the Internet Survey, which asked Internet experts from across the globe for their take on how the Web will evolve in the decade(s) ahead.

The City Sustainable
A Conversation with Jennifer Jarratt and John Mahaffie
Time: Tuesday June 29, 2:00 PM EDT (6:00 UTC)
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What’s the future for the metropolis? Except for some experiments in planned communities, cities develop haphazardly over the ages. At WorldFuture 2010, leading futurists Jennifer Jarratt and John Mahaffie will introduce alternatives to the city of today, which are masses of people, buildings, and structures linked together chaotically. The tools for reinventing the city in the twenty-first century include new building technologies that bring sustainability and greater efficiency into construction and changes in the very concept of “city” from urban concrete to green communities.