It’s the kind of event that could only happen in Silicon Valley: Bring together the smartest tech entrepreneurs and investors and ask them to predict that most important trends in the next five years.
Tonight on FORA.tv, the Churchill Club, the valley’s top business and tech forum, presented its 14th annual Top 10 Tech Trends event. This year’s line-up was nothing short of stellar and included Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn.
Each of the panelists presented their trend of choice, which was voted on by the other panelists and then the audience. The winner? Peter Thiel’s the Beginnings of Bioinformatics: Intelligent Design Over Random Drug Discovery.
Here’s the rest of the trends in order of importance:
2. Massive Sensors and Data: We now have sensors that can keep track and respond to nearly everything in our lives. These sensors are producing huge amounts of data that will be used to monitor and improve our health.
3. Zero Marginal Cost Education: The big old colleges and universities are heading for a fall as more and more students go online and demand a digital experience.
4. The New Hardware–Bits to Atoms: Manufacturing isn’t what you think. Revolutionary 3D printing will make it possible to print what was before painstakingly produced by hand. In the future? A human liver printed and ready for transplant.
5. Radical Globalization of Social Commerce: Successful startups must start and execute against a global strategy. It’s no longer enough to dominant the U.S. market.
6. Moore’s Law Accelerates Beyond Silicon: Moore’s Law (the doubling of chip performance every 18 months) moves beyond the computer chip and accelerates transformation across industries.
7. It’s Just the Venture Cycle: Silicon Valley is seeing another boom in investment and return. Sooner or later a bust will come.
8. Gamification of Everything: More and more we will see education and other industries adopt gaming techniques to engage their customers.
9. A Shift Toward Technocracy–Doing More with Less: As governments struggle to balance budgets and pay bills, new technology will play an even greater role in delivering services.
10. All Vehicles Go Electric: In the next five years, most vehicles on the road will have an electric drive train.
Check out the full program and free previews.
