2010 - The Technology + Economy Conference - Special Report

Bill Gates was the grand finale of the "Techonomy" conference, taking the stage in a packed room to discuss "Reinventing Capitalism: How to jumpstart what the marketplace can't."

If there was consensus about one thing at "Techonomy," it's that education, and fostering the next generation of "techonomists" is crucial.

What is the future of media and journalism? Techonomy is organized by three former Fortune Magazine journalists, who have thought a lot about that question.

How is technology changing financial markets? That's the question the Techonomy conference tackled in a panel with NYSE Euronext's Duncan Niederauer, SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert, and J. Doyne Farmer, a former hedge fund manager, now looking to reinvent the study of markets at the Santa Fe Institute.

Companies are trying to figure how to use technology to accelerate growth in their business. The sectors most likely to be affected include energy, health care, and consumer markets.

Entrepreneurs and innovators including Jeff Bezos, Dean Kamen, and Eric Schmidt discussed and debated the future of technology and how it will drive improvements in business, society, and beyond.

In 2050, we expect the world population to reach 9 billion people. If we continue on the same path as we are today, those 9 billion people will require the resources of 2.3 planets in order to survive. While humankind has achieved many amazing technological innovations throughout time, creating two more Earths is likely out of the question.

The founder of Sun Microsystems Bill Joy sat down with Maria Bartiromo at the Techonomy Conference in Lake Tahoe. Joy says a main focus is to use innovation to create jobs.

A wave of innovation is redefining what’s possible. From nano-scale sensors to intuitive mobile devices, we can transform the noise of the information explosion into knowledge. Information technology will be the key to harnessing and democratizing the power of information.

Alcoa boasts to be one of the most sustainable miners in the industry. Today at Techonomy the Technology/Economy Conference in Lake Tahoe, Alcoa CTO, Mohammad Zaidi, believes that technology is essential to the overall growth of the individual’s quality of life.

Unsafe drinking water is the world’s largest cause of disease and death. The United Nations Development Program has stated that every $1 invested in water and sanitation produces $9 in healthcare cost reduction and economic development.

Bilateral investment treaties, or BITs, are usually portrayed, along with free-trade agreements, by the mainstream media as being ruinous to the U.S. economy. In fact, such pacts between the U.S. and emerging economic powerhouses such as China, India and Korea are key to maintaining our place as the world’s economic leader.

Health care spending both contributes to our current economic difficulties and provides us with a potential opportunity to help solve them. It is a great burden on companies, while at the same time it is helping create jobs.

Schmidt says job creation is the most important thing the economy needs right now, particularly in the manufacturing sector. He's very frustrated at the government's slow pace in boosting employment—effectively saying it's ridculous that so much proposed legislation has to wait until after the November elections.

As investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs search for the "Next Big Thing," this week's Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, Calif. brings together companies whose innovation is driving economic growth. Here are four to keep your eyes on.

I spent last week not far from there in St. Petersburg, and perhaps the most important observation I can make about the trip relates to the country’s efforts to spur technological innovation and encourage direct foreign investment in Russia.

Each of the executives we've spoken to this week has expressed some concern about the economy or deficit. But three big thinkers in the web space — Google's Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and venture investor Marc Andreesen — are taking a different, more pro-active approach to the issues.

In its bid to take on Apple and Google in smartphones, Hewlett-Packard won't use Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 software.