WSJ. D Tech Conference

Last week many of the big names in technology gathered in Laguna Beach, California for the annual Wall Street Journal Tech Conference. The conference included over 200 attendees from 21 countries. There were various speakers and roundtable discussions led by select CEO’s and up and coming entrepreneurs to talk about technology's biggest issues and breakthroughs. I’ll summarize a few of the discussions below.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook spoke opening night. He talked a little about Apple Pay; some retailers may be hesitant to cooperate, but Cook thinks they will come around when they start to realize how easy, private and secure it is. He reassured everyone that he has full confidence in Apple Pay and that we will soon see it take off. He was then asked about the not yet launched Apple watch. How is the battery life? Will it die halfway through the day while I’m wearing it? Cook is confident that the battery life will be adequate but that you will use the watch so much it will need to be charged every night. He also addressed Apple’s security, saying that they try to keep our data as private as possible by not reading our emails, iMessages, or keeping any of it. The iOS 8 has added encryption to help with keeping user’s data private.

Jake Ma, executive chairman of Albaba Group and richest man in China talked a little bit about his company’s past and its future. He said he originally got his inspiration from Silicon Valley. He loved the feeling of being there and seeing how hard everyone works. Now, many years later, he says he loves coming to these things and reinvesting in the Silicon Valley. One of his business helps sell American goods, especially agricultural goods, to China. There is even a chance of an electronic payment alliance with Apple Pay happening in the near future.

Along with CEO’s, the conference also featured a few entrepreneurs. One of them was Rabed Ziuod, the Vice President of business development for Voice Itt. Voice Itt is an Israeli technology company focused on voice translation technology. At the conference they demonstrated their newest app, Talk Itt which uses technology to help people with disabilities communicate, specifically targeting those with ALS, Parkinsons and Autism. The Talk Itt app memorizes the users speech patterns to help sort of translate what they are saying. Rabed is extra passionate about this project because two of his five siblings suffer from disabilities. This innovative technology along with Rabed’s passion made this app a crowd favorite. It was chosen as the audience’s favorite startup.

Google also had a presence at the conference. Google’s Andrew Conrad, head of Life Sciences talked about the one of Google X team’s newest projects. The Google X team has been working hard to create a tool that helps provide early detection of cancer. They are using nanotechnology, tiny magnetic particles, that once inside you will seek out and attach themselves to cells and send back data. They are still working out all of the details on how to read the data and power the wearable device that goes along with it. This project is still about five to seven years from being available, but will hopefully change the way we screen for cancer. 

These were just a few of the many speakers at the conference. If you would like more information I have posted a link (below) to the WSJ page where you can find more summaries and short videos. If you’re thinking about attending next year’s conference, you may want to start saving now. Tickets were said to cost about $5000. One reported noted that this did come with some fancy dinners and a nice “swag bag”. The price may be worth it for a short Californian getaway and and the opportunity to be inspired by some of the brightest minds in technology.

Jessa

http://wsjdlive.wsj.com