July 17-19, 2009 • Chicago Hilton • Chicago, Illinois
Professional Members' Forum: July 20, 2009

July 17, 2009
7:00-8:45 p.m.

Don Tapscott

Grown Up Digital: Understanding the Future Through the Lens of Youth

The Net Generation has come of age. The children of the baby boom, aged 13-30, are not only the largest generation ever  they are the first generation to come of age in the digital age. The new digital media, particularly the Internet, are at the heart of a new youth culture and a new generation who, in profound and fundamental ways, learn, work, play, communicate, shop and create communities very differently than their parents. For the first time in human history children are authorities on a central innovation. This generation gap has its implications.

While there are concerns about this generation, overall they are an enormously positive force for change in every institution in society. As they enter the workforce they bring a new high performance culture of collaboration and IT-enabled innovation and challenge some fundamental tenets of management. As they enter the new marketplace they are changing many facets of retail and marketing from advertising, to the brand. As they become citizens, they are beginning to change democracy and society. In their culture we can see the contours of a new future for the planet.

Don Tapscott is a leading authority on business strategy, with emphasis on how information technology changes business, government and society. He is the author or co-author of 13 widely read books, including Wikinomics, which was the best selling management book in the United States in 2007 and is now translated into 22 languages. He is Chairman of nGenera Insight, an Austin, Texas-based technology company serving a marquee list of Global 2000 customers. Tapscott is also an adjunct Professor at the J.L. Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. His most recent book, Grown Up Digital, is based on a $4.5 million research study and explores how the Net Generation is changing the world and all of its institutions.