On September 5th, Futurist Thomas Frey will speak in Westminster, Colorado on the topic of "The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation". The public is invited.
In medieval times, books were valuable possessions far too expensive for most people to own. As a result, libraries often turned into a collections of lecterns with books chained to them.
In 1455 Johann Gutenberg unveiled his printing press to the world by printing copies of the Gutenberg Bible. Later Gutenberg had his printing press repossessed by Johann Fust, the man who had financed his work for the previous 10 years. The sons of Johann Fust were largely responsible for a printing revolution that saw over 500,000 books put into circulation before 1500.
A huge turning point in the evolution of libraries was architected by Andrew Carnegie. Between 1883 and 1929 he provided funding for 2,509 libraries, of which 1,689 of them were built in the US.
Leading up to today libraries have consisted of large collections of books and other materials, primarily funded and maintained by cities or other institutions. Collections are often used by people who choose not to, or can not afford to, purchase books for themselves.
But that definition is changing. Join us as we explore the next generation of libraries and why they are so important to our future.
EVENT: Night with a Futurist
DATE: September 5, 2006 – TuesdayTIME: 6:30 – 9:00 pm
WEBSITE: www.nightwithafuturist.comLOCATION: CB & Potts, 1257 W 120th Ave, Westminster, CO 80234
DIRECTIONS: Click here
COST: Free for Members, all others $25REGISTER: Click herePHONE: 303-666-4133TOPIC: "The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation"SPEAKER: Thomas Frey, Executive Director of the DaVinci InstituteMedia formats are continually disappearing. The 8-track tape was replaced by the cassette tape, which in turn was replaced by the CD, which is currently in the process of disappearing altogether.The telephone industry has gone from the dial phone, to push button phone, to cordless phones, to cell phones, to some sort of universal PDA, cell phone, music player, satellite radio, game machine device that will be totally unrecognizable by today’s standards. Eventually the cell phone device will disappear. We don’t need to see technology to interact with it.In a similar fashion, every device, tool, piece of hardware, equipment, and technology that we are using today will go away, and be replaced by something else. That something else will be faster, smarter, cheaper, more capable, more durable, work better, and look cooler than anything we have today.SPEAKER: Thomas Frey: "The greatest value in understanding the future comes from spotting the major cultural, demographic, societal, and economic shifts early and translating them into viable business opportunities," says Tom.
As the Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute, he works closely with his Board of Visionaries to develop original research studies, which enables him to speak on unusual topics, translating trends into unique opportunities.
Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come. His talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 100 companies including NASA, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, First Data, Boeing, Capital One, Bell Canada, Ford Motor Company, Qwest, Allied Signal, Hunter Douglas, Direct TV, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, and many more.
Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, the Boulder Daily Camera has referred to him as the "Father of Invention". The Denver Post and Seattle Post Intelligence have referred to him as the "Dean of Futurists".
Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer.
Tom has been a columnist for the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Colorado Company Magazine, and the Boulder County Business Report, and is the author of the 1998 book "Inventions of Impact". He currently writes a newsletter entitled "News from the Future" and has written numerous articles on a wide range of futurist topics. He has also been a contributing writer for The Futurist Magazine and is the Editor of the Impact Lab, an online emerging technology blog which was recently rated by Popular Science Magazine as one of the "top five science blogs in the known universe".
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