Wired Business Conference 2012

When Nike first got into the data-collection game it stuck sensors to elite athletes running, jumping, spinning and generally doing those impossible things they do. The idea was that the data collected would point Nike designers and engineers toward building better shoes.

Three years into the web’s most popular crowdfunding experiment, Kickstarter is still learning the ropes. The startup celebrated its third birthday with some impressive stats. More than 2 million people have shelled a combined $200 million to back 22,000 projects.

We'll find out, through a series of interviews with innovators, where the investment opportunity is now, and what the rapid pace of change means for economic growth.

The founders of WIRED set out with the notion that a revolution was about to whip through the world. It would be driven by technology and would transform business and daily life. They were right.

“I’m a designer and an engineer, I get angry about things that don’t work, like hand dryers, endless paper towels, what a huge waste.” But, he said, “what if you could scrape water off your hands with a blade of air?”

So how do we spot the future—and how might you? The seven rules that follow are not a bad place to start. They are the principles that underlie many of our contemporary innovations. They have played a major part in creating the world we see today. And they’ll be the forces behind the world we’ll be living in tomorrow.

He’s not a household name like Gates, Jobs, or Zuckerberg. His face isn’t known to millions. But during his remarkable 20-year career, no one has done more to change the way we communicate.