Summit Speakers
The 6Sight® Mobile Imaging Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mobile Imaging Executive Summit Gathers Stellar Array of Speakers and Participants

SAN MATEO, CA – October 15, 2003 – Future Image, the leading provider of digital imaging information and analysis and the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A), the leading global imaging industry association today announced the program and speakers for their forthcoming Mobile Imaging North America Executive Summit. The conference, to be held in Monterey, California on November 3^rd and 4^th, will focus on the opportunities and challenges arising from the explosive growth of camera-phones and mobile imaging in North America. Forbes magazine is the media sponsor for the event.

Future Image’s executive events are noted for their unique format, which eschews the standard “presentations from the stage” formula. Instead, a cadre of senior executives whose actions and opinions have formative influence on the market are invited to offer and debate their views in a lively moderated discussion setting with broad participation by attendees, all of whom are senior decision makers – and more than forty percent are chief executives of their companies. This year’s opening Visionary Roundtable will feature Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, the executive who brought Hewlett-Packard’s inkjet printing technology to market and who built HP’s Imaging and Printing Group into a $22Billion/year business, which he leads; Philippe Kahn, the legendary technology entrepreneur whose latest venture, LightSurf, is credited with inventing the Mobile Imaging phenomenon that is revolutionizing imaging and communication; Lisa Walker, the President of I3A and industry evangelist who created the pre-eminent global imaging association by successfully merging the Digital Imaging Group and the Photo Industry Manufacturers Association, and Alexis Gerard, founder and president of Future Image and the most respected independent imaging industry analyst and visionary.

“In the past 20 years, two major technology waves have fundamentally changed the way we communicate visually: the digitization of image content and the Internet,” said Gerard. “Mobile imaging is the third such wave. As of next year, sales of camera-enabled mobile phones will exceed the combined total sales of digital and film cameras. By 2008 camera-phone sales will exceed 350 million units annually –over three times camera sales. Without a doubt, we are at an inflection point in both business and personal communication: The advent of the first ‘always there’ image capture appliance, and a proliferation of image capture devices in use at any given time that exceeds historical norms by orders of magnitude. This growth is driving fundamental shifts in opportunities around imaging, from appliances to infrastructure, and from services to content.”

The Mobile Imaging Summit will provide a unique opportunity for comprehensive and thoughtful examination of these issues, and an exclusive networking venue to make the high-level connections needed to act on the opportunities and challenges that present themselves. Sessions will cover:

Session 1: Mobile Visual Communication – The Transforming Convergence.

Far more than the sum of its parts, the camera-phone is the single most powerful “agent of change” device to emerge since the personal computer a quarter of a century ago, enabling communication from anywhere to anywhere at any time and removing the need for transcoding visual data into language. This session will deliver a strategic perspective on how camera-phones and the infrastructure behind them will fundamentally change how we, as businesses and societies, communicate and interact with each other.

Session 2: Devices Roadmap

Session Leader: Tony Henning, Managing Editor, The Future Image WIRE (Wireless Imaging Research Edition), Author "The Camera-phone Phenomenon", "Wireless Imaging - Infrastructure and Players"

Business planning requires an accurate view of the pace and scope of technology drivers – a pace and scope which, in this category, have caught many unawares. This session will benchmark imaging capabilities in devices over the next 18 months: sensors, displays, optics, storage, operating software and more.

Session 3: Infrastructure Roadmap

Session Leader: Tony Henning

This companion session to the Devices Roadmap will set expectations for back-end capabilities, ranging from bandwidth to Digital Rights Management.

Session 4: Consumer Market – Printing and Photofinishing

Session leader: Paul Worthington, Senior Analyst, Consumer Markets, author “Digital Cameras – The Battle for the Emerging Consumer Market”.

This session examines how the traditional photography value propositions of printing and sharing will be reinterpreted in light of the ubiquity of camera-phones. It will focus on opportunities to channel images originating from image-enabled mobile devices into downstream value-added activities such as sharing or printing offered by online and/or retail service providers, as well as home printing.

Session 5: Consumer Market –New Opportunities Stemming from Mobile Imaging

Session leader: Paul Worthington

This session will examine non-traditional imaging value propositions enabled by camera-phones, including content delivery, security/surveillance, and others.

Session 6: Mobile Imaging in Business Market

Session leader: Bob Goldstein, Co-Author, "Visual Communication - The Next Business Megatrend"

Once the business professional is armed with mobile devices capable of capturing, sending, receiving and displaying visual information, how does the enterprise leverage that power? As the gathering and transmission of vital business information becomes focused on image-enabled mobile devices, what opportunities arise? How will mobile sales forces, field maintenance teams, medical professionals, insurance claims adjusters, government agencies and a host of other business segments use mobile devices to instantly communicate visual information? What kind of rich media information - still images, streaming media, and live video - will flow to and from these devices? This session will investigate the types of systems and services required to meet the demands of a cross-section of business applications with a focus on creating, transmitting, viewing, storing, sharing, integrating and protecting this data.

“I3A’s mission is to advance the use of imaging and drive market growth; the Summit is a fundamental opportunity for the industry to examine the impact and potential for catalyzing the use of images in pursuit of those objectives,” said Lisa Walker, president, International Imaging Industry Association (I3A). “Meeting with imaging industry leaders and their wireless industry counterparts will provide a forum to discuss ways in which these industries can extend the influence and impact imaging has on the way we communicate.”

About Future Image

Future Image (www.futureimage.com) is the leading independent center of expertise focused on the convergence of imaging, technology, and business. It publishes two continuous information services: The Future Image Executive Information Service, and the Future Image WIRE (Wireless Imaging - Research Edition). In addition, Future Image underwrites and publishes numerous research studies on the impact of emerging, imaging-focused technologies or business trends. Future Image is the official information and research partner of the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A), and the managing partner of the Visual Communication initiative (www.visualcommunication.info) supported by Adobe Systems, Eastman Kodak, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, LightSurf, Microsoft, Nikon, and Sprint PCS. 

About the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A)
I3A is the leading global imaging industry association, driving growth of and setting standards for the photographic and information imaging markets. As the industry focal point, I3A offers a framework and environment where members can quickly find resources to solve critical issues and develop market solutions. Members of I3A work together to find common ground for advancing the industry and to enable better products and services for their customers. I3A is the product of the merger of the Digital Imaging Group (DIG) and the Photographic and Imaging Manufacturers Association (PIMA). Information about I3A can be found on the World Wide Web at www.i3a.org.

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