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About Where 2.0 2011
Conference Format | Experience Where 2.0 | Who Should Attend | Where 2.0 Conference Kudos | Program Chairs
Now in its seventh year, the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference is where the grassroots and leading-edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the businesses, marketers, and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. In the O'Reilly conference tradition, Where 2.0 presents leading trends rather than chasing them.
Where 2.0 is hitting mainstream consciousness—hard. From Facebook Places to foursquare, Android to iPhone, the USGS to NYU, the location ecosystem is at an exciting and fiercely competitive crossroads. Rigorous standards are emerging. Game-changing legislation is underway. Mobile, social, and cloud platforms have become interdependent. Tools and services vie for dominance in a fickle consumer marketplace. Corporations are in a tug-of-war with government and each other over privacy concerns and ownership of data.
As location-aware technologies progress and spread across the globe, the decisions are getting tougher to call. What can businesses do to stay ahead of the changes? Or simply stay afloat in these difficult economic times? Which technologies are the most efficient and flexible for creating location-aware apps? What does location data tell us about our customers and how do we use those insights to make money? Join us at Where 2.0 to debate and discuss what's happening now, what's lurking just below the radar, and learn how you can leverage location to grow your business. Learn more about O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Conference Format
Where 2.0’s unique conference format brings the most innovative and interesting people in this space to the stage, but keeps their presentations concise, snappy, and relevant. Day 1 is a full day of workshops led by experts and innovators. Days 2 and 3 feature a combination of plenary talks (keynotes, panel discussions, demos, product launches, Q&A, etc.) and then breakout sessions in four simultaneous tracks: Business & Strategy, Marketing, Development-Location, and Development-Mobile. There are also plenty of evening events mixed in, including Ignite, Startup Showcase, Birds of a Feather Sessions, receptions, and more.
Experience Where 2.0
Where 2.0's greatest asset is its participants. For the past six years, Where 2.0 has tapped into the creative spirit of all attendees, sparking provocative encounters and productive inspiration that continue long after the conference ends. Where 2.0 connects participants through:
- High level plenary sessions that address current opportunities and future possibilities in the location space.
- A full day of workshops led by experts and innovators, charting the depths of cutting-edge location technologies.
- Break-out sessions covering critical issues and new developments around location, mobile, business strategy, and marketing topics.
- Product demos and launches revealing exciting new tools pushing the location and mobile boundaries.
- An Exhibit Hall filled with some of the most important people, products, and services in the industry.
- A Startup Showcase that gives you a chance to see the newest location-related companies and products entering the market
- Ignite, an evening of rapid-fire presentations showcasing the unusual and unsung.
- Informal events and Birds of a Feather sessions, allowing all participants—speakers, attendees, media, and sponsors—to exchange ideas and debate face to face.
O'Reilly is committed to promoting diversity at the Where 2.0 Conference, and at all of our events.
Who Should Attend
Where 2.0 is for anyone looking to learn what location technology exists, what's on the horizon, and how to leverage location for their own businesses.
- CxOs, technology evangelists, and technology scouts
- Business Strategists and Business Development execs
- VCs, entrepreneurs, and owners of startups
- Software engineers, architects, and developers
- Product managers
- Marketing professionals
- Data Specialists who want to learn how to capitalize on the location data they already have
- City planners, government planners
- Officials from USGS, DOD
- Open source mapping and location tool developers
- Grassroots developers building important mashups and systems
- Researchers and academics studying the field and building prototypes
- Artists creating collaborative experiences with a spatial focus
- Activists and community organizers building tools for managing nonprofit location groups
- Neographers and traditional geographers working deep in the trenches of geospace
- GIS industry people looking to learn more about the latest developments in the mashup world
- Mobile and location vendors who provide tools and services
In the past, Where 2.0 has brought together representatives from such diverse companies, organizations and projects as: AAA, Adobe, Apple, AT&T Interactive, Autodesk, Citysearch, Defense Intelligence Agency, DigitalGlobe, eBay, ESRI, Facebook, FedEx, Foursquare, Garmin, General Motors, Google, Gowalla, Harvard University, City of San Francisco, Intel Capital, Korea Telecom, MapQuest, Microsoft, Motorola, NAVTEQ, Nokia, OpenGeo, OpenStreetMap, Orange Labs, OSGeo, Pitney Bowes, Quova, SimpleGeo, Skyhook Wireless, Stamen Design, Tele Atlas, TomTom, Twitter, Toyota InfoTechnology Center, UC Berkley, US Geological Survey, Urban Mapping Inc., WaveMarket, Inc., Yahoo!, Yelp, ZoomAtlas, and many more.
2010 sponsors and exhibitors included: ESRI, NAVTEQ Network for Developers, Veriplace, AT&T Interactive, DigitalGlobe, Google, Yahoo! Developer Network, ZoomAtlas, Digital Map Products, Microsoft Research, and Pitney Bowes Business Insight.
Where 2.0 Conference Kudos
"A who's who of location-aware players." —Michael Calore, Wired.com webmonkey
"Where 2.0 did a superb job of gathering the major parties to the table to discuss mobile-social-mapping." —Joe Francica, Directions Magazine
"The sixth edition of O'Reilly Media's annual Where 2.0 conference wrapped yesterday, possibly the most exciting and definitely the most widely attended edition to date. The premise was consistent with that of previous years: citizen map-making democratizes our world, location is pervasive, and we can be assured of the financial value of geographic data and location-aware advertising. But there was something else going on, too, something new, complex and big: the realization that we need to build services that let people manipulate their world, not just learn about it." —Di-Ann Eisnor, GigaOM
"Where 2.0 is a unique gathering that mixes together the usual geo-suspects with a potent mix of Silicon Valley strivers and curious IT folks. This year attendance is back up to just shy of 1000 and the venue is packed full. There is nothing like the psychology of a full room to get people buzzing." —Paul Ramsey, OpenGeo
"I would say Where 2.0 trumps SXSW and deserves some much needed contemplation." —Ian Stinson, Geo Local Road Map
"Three days of packed presentations by amazingly smart, passionate people. They are here to share their ideas with others and build upon their successes to make new applications and new ways of doing things. It is really interesting to see the supportive and sharing atmosphere working to drive the technology." —Stephanie Tamar Ayanian, Geospatial Revolution Project
"So this year's Where 2.0 in a sentence: location technology can help people have fun, and it can also just plain help people. Good news all around." —Paul Ramsey, OpenGeo
"Nokia…at the Where 2.0 Conference in San Jose, CA, the world's biggest event focused on exploring location based services." —Carlos Silva, The S60 blog
"Where 2.0, now in its fifth year, is the tech industry's biggest showcase for the latest geo-enabled hardware and software—an area that's hit a new level of saturation as location-based tech rapidly moves into our smartphones, our laptops and, consequently, into our experience on the web." —Michael Calore, Wired.com webmonkey
"Where 2.0 is THE event for location based services and with the evolution of Maps, the perfect place to talk about what's new and exciting." —JBC, Nokia Conversations
"Many thanks indeed for an excellent conference. I was dead-impressed with the welcoming congeniality of the staff, the quality of the presentations, and smooth running of it all. Thanks for making Yahoo! a part." —Tyler Bell, Yahoo! Inc.
"A hotspot of creative thinking and investigation into what's possible in terms of location-based services today, and what's just around the corner." —Mike Cooper, Nokia
"The presentations from the Where 2.0 conference always blow me away." —Andrew Crook, GIS and Agent-based Modeling
"Where 2.0 was tremendous." —Gregory Dicum, freelance journalist
"[Where 2.0 2008] was a great conference, an excellent set of speakers and a wonderful opportunity to learn and network." —Frank San Miguel, Founder, Concharto.org
"Back to the office after a great week at #where20 and #wherecamp—looking forward to following up with lots of the great folks we met." —Sarah Manley via Twitter
"Where 2.0 was the most interesting and provocative conference I have ever attended" —John Frank, Founder and CTO, MetaCarta, Inc.
"The Where 2.0 conference is probably one of the most important meetings of the year for developers of new Web 2.0 mapping technologies." —Frank Taylor, Google Earth Blog
"I can't remember a conference I have attended in the past few years where there was just so much to take-in. [The next] Where 2.0…will be a show not to miss." —Ed Parsons, edparsons.com
"Where 2.0 was a terrific event that showcased cutting-edge technology, geo-spatial tools and advanced thinking about place and participation. It's like a sneak preview of tomorrow's consumer and enterprise applications." —Greg Sterling, Sterling Market Intelligence
"Many companies are trying to position themselves as leaders in the geolocation field this week, which makes sense since the sure-to-be-fascinating Where 2.0 conference kicks off next week." —Rafe Needleman, CNET News.com
"[Where 2.0] presentations provided a stimulating combination of cartographic history, bleeding-edge technologies (many of them still under construction), and debate over how businesses can tap into the new excitement over consumer access to geo-referenced data on the Web." —Wade Roush
"The Where 2.0 Conference is an excellent forum for the mapping community to discuss the future of mapping for businesses and consumers." —Stephen Lawler, Microsoft MapPoint GM
"If you are in the web 2.0 mapping business, and the virtual globe business, I think this is probably one of the best conferences, if not the best, to attend." —Frank Taylor, Google Earth Blog
Program Chairs
Brady Forrest
Brady Forrest is co-chair for O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference. Additionally, he co-chairs Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and NYC. Brady writes for O'Reilly Radar tracking changes in technology. He previously worked at Microsoft on Live Search (he came to Microsoft when it acquired MongoMusic). Brady lives in Seattle, where he builds cars for Burning Man and runs Ignite. You can track his web travels at Truffle Honey.
Laurel Ruma
Laurel Ruma is the co-chair for Where 2.0 at O'Reilly Media. Most recently she co-chaired the Gov 2.0 Expo. She joined the company in 2005 after working for five years at various IT analyst firms in the Boston area. Laurel is also the co-editor of Open Government, published by O'Reilly.
Sponsorship Opportunities
For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at the conference, contact Yvonne Romaine at [email protected]
Download the Where 2.0 Sponsor/Exhibitor Prospectus
Contact Us
View a complete list of Where 2.0 contacts
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