By Christian Veyre.
This year, once again, the Digital Tech Conference will be the place to be for all professionals, geeks and curious onlookers interested in emerging digital trends. Join us in Rennes on December 7th and 8th to make fascinating discoveries about robots and blockchain.
1 > Digital Tech, the awareness place!
Relaxation time… The Digital Tech Conference is not a spiritual event, nor is it a gathering of pumped-up martial arts fanatics. But it is a place for making connections: with oneself, to develop one’s own knowledge… with others, to share, discuss, and maybe even encourage dreams or projects… and finally, with digital topics and companies.
Following the internet of things and music, artificial intelligence and video, this year it’s time for blockchain and robots. A program dedicated to increasing your awareness and mastery of the issues that will stir up our companies. Both the issues we’re currently faced with, as well as those that are still in the making! This is a unique opportunity to discover and make sense of what’s in store.
2 > How to overcome – or possibly increase – your fear of robots
They’re everywhere, taking decisions for us and sometimes even taking our jobs. It would appear that some of them even dream of electric sheep (1). Even more incredibly, in late October, Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to Sophia, a robot made of silicone and printed circuits and equipped with artificial intelligence and even humour, as evidenced by her (do robots have gender?) gentle teasing of Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, Hyperloop).
According to Musk, artificial intelligence could represent a threat to civilization. Last August, he co-signed an open letter to the United Nations calling for research on autonomous weapons. Now is the time to look into these matters, pick a side and find out the winner of the final battle between Iron Man and Ultron. Will it be the augmented human or the AI?
The full program can be found here
3 > Get your money’s worth!
In just two years, the Digital Tech Conference has attracted over 1,000 participants, 49 speakers and 37 partners. Quite the feat! And despite this success, this year’s prices are roughly the same as the last two years. For the organizers, it’s a matter of principle!
It will cost you only €159 for the XL experience (Workshops and master class on Thursday, + keynotes, battles, performances, lunch and a VIP cocktail event at French Tech, followed by an evening at the Transmusicales on Friday). No more expensive than a round-trip ticket to Paris!
There are also “lighter” formulas for the M and L experiences (Friday only, and without the lunch and the VIP cocktail event). Startups, students and job-seekers also benefit from reduced prices. So what are you waiting for?
Register here
4 > Networking and a ball
The Digital Tech Conference is your yearly opportunity to experience the local ecosystem and rub shoulders with entrepreneurs, startups, investors, decisionmakers and students from near and far. Over half of the participants come from all over France (Paris, Brest, Nantes) or from abroad.
But more than a technology watch or networking, the event also presents an opportunity to meet the men and women who are currently inventing tomorrow, and who know how to sell it. And this year, there will be some heavy hitters in attendance to shake the foundations of our knowledge and assumptions.
Some names to pique your interest: Rodolphe Gelin, Romeo’s father;; Primavera de Filippi, a member of the Global Future Council on Blockchain Technologies at the World Economic Forum; Rita Baddoura, the poet who whispers in robots’ ears. As well as Andy Budd (co-founder of the Brighton Digital Festival), Pierre Paperon (a member of Observatoire-blockchains.com), Antonio Bicchi (a specialist in haptics and automatic control) and Cécile Monteil (a doctor and the founder of Eppocrate). And many more – including a few surprises!
Discover all of the speakers here
5 > Dancing with the stars. And with R2D2, C3PO, BB-8, and K-2SO (2)?
Some of you may have already experienced your first “robot party” during a family outing to the Futuroscope. Our “robots’ ball” offers the same thrills, just without Martin Solveig and in Rennes instead of Poitiers. And this ball also includes a parade, though it would be hard to explain exactly what a robot parade involves, considering the secrecy that’s been maintained surrounding this event.
All we know is that requests have been sent out to all four corners of the world. We still don’t know who will RSVP to the Digital Tech Conference: Thespian, the British robot actor, considered to be the most emotional robot in the world; Nao, the French robot assistant and concierge (if you recall, he played magic tricks for us last year with Stefan Leyshon); or the American collaborative worker robot Baxter? No sleight of hand is required to find out: we’ll see on December 8th.
To learn more, the hashtag to follow on social networks is #digitalTC, of course
(1) A reference to the sci-fi bestseller Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, adapted for the big screen as Blade Runner. Not 2049 – the original, with Harrison Fort and tons of slightly-psychopathic Nexus 6-style replicants.
(2) Robots and droids emblematic of the Star Wars saga created by George Lucas.
Originally published in Ouest-France “Cinq bonnes raisons d’assister à la Digital Tech Conference“