W3C Executive Forum - a discussion on the Future of the Web for YOU!

Thirty years ago the Web changed how you do business. We’re at another inflection point today with new emerging technologies on the Web, and new Web application areas that are already revolutionizing many business models.  Among these are the names you would recognize in Digital Publishing, FinTech, Automotive, Telco, Smart Manufacturing and Entertainment.

As the work in these areas continues to solve real-world concerns it has become apparent to the W3C Leadership that many of the senior executives in these industries don’t have a sufficient background to fully appreciate how the continued evolution of the Web will positively impact their technology and organizational strategies.

W3C has created an event designed to provide value and insight to executives in these industries with a goal of providing rich content and some food for thought.   W3C is pleased to announce the inaugural W3C Executive Forum, which will be co-located with the annual W3C TPAC event, in Burlingame, CA on 08 November 2017.  The Executive Forum event will have three great Industry panels with different themes and the capstone will be an interview of the Inventor of the Web and W3C Director, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Our kickoff panel will discuss the Future of Payments on the Web.  Moderated by Worldpay's Nick Telford-Reed, the panel includes Sang Ahn, Vice President and General Manager, Samsung Pay;  Souheil Badran, President, Alipay North America; and Karen Czack, Vice President of Industry Engagement and Regulation at American Express.  Quite a collection of diverse opinions and markets - this should be an insightful dialogue!

As automobiles become smarter, so do our cities.  We've got Steve Crumb, Executive Director, GENIVI moderating our second panel - Connected Cars, Cities and the Web!  In order to represent all aspects of this hot topic, we've invited Greg Bohl, Vice President HARMAN Connected Services; Patricia (Patti) Robb, Head of the Silicon Valley Innovation Center, Intel Corporation; and Tina Quigley, Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada to participate on the panel.

Many of you have heard or seen a presentation by Mark Pesce, Futurist and Web 3D pioneer.   We're excited that he's agreed to moderate the Emerging Technologies panel with experts Stina Ehrensvard, CEO & Founder, Yubico; Sean White, Senior Vice President of Emerging Technologies, Mozilla; and Megan Lindsay, Product Manager WebVR, Google. They will consider new forms on the Web, such as virtual and mixed reality and voice interfaces as well as user experiences and security.

Each of these sessions is designed to provide thought provoking insight and we expect there to be time for interactive engagement of the audience so bring your questions to participate in the conversations.

In addition to these three exciting panels, we're going to wrap up the day by having Brad Stone of Bloomberg engage Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a discussion on the overall future of the Web.  This is a rare chance to hear Sir Tim's thoughts on the overall future of the Web and the role of Industry in that evolution.

We've included a couple of networking sessions with the event as well - one with just the attendees at a break, and one with the broader W3C Community after the event over drinks and dinner.

If you're interested in more information, you can find that at http://www.webexecutiveforum.com/ or by contacting J. Alan Bird, Global Business Development Leader at abird@w3.org.

We look forward to seeing you in Burlingame this November and use #W3CForum to spread the word about this great event!