Daniel Burrus, one of the world's leading technology forecasters and business strategists, addressed the gathering of area leaders as the evening’s keynote speaker. Burrus, author of six books including the highly acclaimed Technotrends, shared his techniques for visualizing the future.

Although the world contains great uncertainty, Burrus urged the audience to ask themselves what they can be certain about. He argued that certainty — "seeing into the visible future," — can be achieved by looking at what he refers to as hard trends, in other words the permanent, transformative trends typically triggered by demographics, government regulations and technological advances. Analyzing the impact of hard trends can help people see the future, lay strategies with greater certainty, and solve problems before they become problems.

Focusing especially on the impact of technology-driven trends, Burrus urged organizations to use technology to elevate their products or services from that of mere commodities. For example, using nanotechnology to make products smaller or embedding chips in everyday products to achieve superior performance or to detect problems are just a couple of ways to differentiate ones products from the competition.

Burrus also focused on how virtualization technology is creating a major trend in improving services and manufacturing. He cited Toyota's use of virtualization to help it bring a car from the idea stage to market within 12 months. He also envisions virtual hospitals in the future, where triage can be done at home, alleviating the crowded conditions and escalating cost of many emergency rooms. As a former college instructor, Burrus is encouraged that this period of technological transformation will help excite both boys and girls about embarking on careers in IT, as it becomes increasingly viewed as a way to improve quality of life.

Since technological transformation will change how we sell, collaborate, communicate and market, Burrus cautioned that as four generations attempt to work together in the workplace for the first time in history, it would behoove organizations to end the war between the young and old. The 78 million baby boomers, as they continue to work, have wisdom and knowledge to share but are sometimes close-minded about how things should be done. Young people, on the other hand, have energy, open-mindedness and technical savvy but don't yet know how to do the job. Burrus urged organizations to develop ways for employees to respect and share what each has to offer.