The Internet of Things will enable forms of collaboration and communication between people and things, and between objects (e.g, M2M), hitherto unknown and unimagined. With the benefit of integrated information processing capacity, industrial products will take on smart capabilities. They may also take on electronic identities (e.g. RFID) that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. Such developments will turn the static objects of today into dynamic objects - embedding intelligence in our environment and stimulating the creation of innovative products and new business opportunities. Without a doubt, the development of the Internet of Things also poses challenges to policy-makers and regulators. Are radically new approaches necessary to answer these challenges? What new business models will emerge? These and other questions will be addressed in this expert panel to help us anticipate and plan for how to prepare for these impending shifts.

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Internet technologies make it easier for big companies to collaborate with small companies and talented developers. Open innovation frameworks combine the speed and innovation of the Web with the trusted capabilities of service providers to offer new services. The smartest companies could be those that invest in challenges that recognise and financially reward the most innovative developers who can leverage the companies’ Application Programming Interfaces in the most innovative ways. These challenges create platforms where networks of developers can exchange and learn from each other, and venture start-ups can discover and develop new talent. What are the most effective models for open innovation and what lessons can be learned from experiences to date?

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The rapid spread of cloud computing has drawn significant attention and scrutiny in the media over recent months. It has also raised policy questions concerning how people, organizations, and governments handle information and interactions in the cloud environment. While moving to the cloud offers recognized benefits of cutting capital expenditure and enabling the more efficient use of computing resources, questions of information security, data privacy, interoperability, reliability and liability persist and need to be considered carefully and addressed rigorously. Lack of interoperability and portability between providers makes it difficult to migrate data from one service to another - good for cloud service providers, but not necessarily good for end-users. What happens if the business goes bust, or decides to change?

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Technology and social media have revolutionised the way most global citizens interact with the world and with each other. Start-ups are the life blood of the ICT industry and are responsible for some of the best innovative ideas and disruptive technologies.

Billions of global citizens, however, are still unconnected, with no easy way of accessing the Internet or online media. Entrepreneurial change-making tentrepreneurs across the world are designing technological solutions that could break down the walls of the digital divide, and to the benefit of all.

In this dynamic session, 6 small companies with big ideas explain how technology (disruptive future gazing applications and simple, pervasive technologies used in innovative ways) could make the world wealthier, smarter, safer and more secure.

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The burgeoning power of social tools and platforms has raised fresh questions over censorship, power, money and privacy.

Services like Facebook Places and Foursquare invite users to tell their friends where they are. Once Facebook know where users are, they can offer them nearby deals. If users choose to share their content and location openly in public, do users retain any rights over that content?

What does successful legislation look like that protects personal freedom, while allowing freedom of expression and nurturing creativity?

How do social network providers get the right balance between user experience and monetisation, especially given the expectations of their investors? The major social networking platforms have no choice but to monetise their services – how are they achieving this?

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