NB: THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL

This year, James Woudhuysen will be giving the NMK Christmas Lecture, presented in association with Cybersalon...

James is Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester. Join James for the Cybersalon & NMK Xmas Lecture to speculate about how media and communications technologies are interacting and impacting on society, economics, politics and culture.

In tomorrow's living room, the mobile phone is a remote control unit that runs your computer games, your television and the videoconferencing calls you make to your granny (she has a Webcam, too). But what kind of creative content can we expect to see on wall-sized, wafer-thin TVs that are coming - and will the homes of the future be built efficiently enough for young people to be able to afford them?

The educated classes in Britain talk a lot about both its strength in creativity, and its need to accelerate innovation in the face of challenges from Asia. Yet from consumer electronics to construction, government is more interested in cutting down energy use than in turning British science into technological breakthroughs.

Perhaps it fears such breakthroughs. In this lecture, James, will talk about the cultural barriers to scientific progress, and why public debate about dismantling these barriers has become so essential.

How to book:

To book your ticket please email a request and your contact details to hannah.weimers@nmk.co.uk with 'Xmas Lecture Booking' in the subject line.

About James Woudhuysen:

James Woudhuysen, 52, is a physics graduate. He wrote about chemical weapons for the Economist in 1978, and devised an instruction manual for a word processor in 1983. He consulted on and advocated e-commerce in 1988 and Internet TV in 1993. He has worked with AT&T, BA, BT, Equant, Ford, HP, IBM, John Lewis Partnership, Johnson Controls, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Oracle, Orange, Philips, Symbian, Unisys, Vodafone, Xerox and Yamaha Motor, as well as the cities of London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow.

Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester, James has written for The Times and contributes regularly to IT Week, spiked and Radio 4’s You and Yours. His most recent publications are Why is construction so backward? (Wiley, 2004), The globalisation of UK manufacturing and services, 2004-2024 (UK Trade & Investment, 2004) and ‘Play as the main event in international and UK culture’ (Cultural Trends, 2003).

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