Meet the Future, Science & Technology Summit 2010
Encyclopedia
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
convention
Convention (meeting)
A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...
held at the World Forum Convention Center
World Forum Convention Center
The World Forum Convention Center, formerly known as the Nederlands Congrescentrum , is a concert venue and convention centre in The Hague, Netherlands, near the buildings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical...
in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Netherlands
Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...
on November 18, 2010, organized by Platform Bèta Techniek (PBT), an organization which has been empowered by the Dutch government to increase the number of beta
Exact science
An exact science is any field of science capable of accurate quantitative expression or precise predictions and rigorous methods of testing hypotheses, especially reproducible experiments involving quantifiable predictions and measurements...
students in the Netherlands.
The summit offered Dutch science and technology related companies and educational institutions an opportunity to showcase their latest products, research and developments.
There was a gathering with selected international guests on the following day (November 19).
Notable guests
There were keynote speeches by several famous and influential persons such as Neil ArmstrongNeil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
(who was in The Netherlands for the first time and who said in his speech that he would offer his services as commander on a mission to Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, if he was asked, even though he was 80 years old at the time), Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary "Woz" Wozniak is an American computer engineer and programmer who founded Apple Computer, Co. with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne...
(who predicted in his speech that Android would be dominant over the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
market-wise but the iPhone would retain the quality edge), Spencer Wells
Spencer Wells
Spencer Wells is a geneticist and anthropologist, an at the National Geographic Society, and Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads The Genographic Project.-Education:...
(geneticist and anthropologist and professor at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
), Robbert Dijkgraaf
Robbert Dijkgraaf
Robertus Henricus "Robbert" Dijkgraaf is a Dutch mathematical physicist and string theorist.Robertus Henricus Dijkgraaf was born on 24 January 1960 in Ridderkerk, Netherlands. He currently lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands...
(president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organisation dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands...
) and Kishore Mahbubani
Kishore Mahbubani
Kishore Mahbubani is a notable academic and is currently Professor in the Practice of Public Policy and the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. From 1971 to 2004 he served in the Singaporean Foreign Services, ending up as Singapore's Permanent...
(professor at the National University of Singapore
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....
).
Other prominent guests were Sarah Darwin
Sarah Darwin
Sarah Catherine Vogel FLS is a British botanist.She is the daughter of George Erasmus Darwin, a metallurgist, and his wife Shuna . She has two older brothers; Robert George Darwin and the conservationist Chris Darwin...
(biologist and great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
) and author Redmond O'Hanlon
Redmond O'Hanlon
Redmond O'Hanlon, FRGS, FRSL is a British writer and scholar.-Life:O'Hanlon was born in 1947 in Dorset, England. He was educated at Marlborough College and then Oxford University. After taking his M.Phil. in nineteenth-century English studies in 1971 he was elected senior scholar, and in 1974...
, who had both featured in the Dutch
Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...
VPRO
VPRO
The VPRO was established in the Netherlands in 1926 as a religious broadcasting organization. Falling under the Protestant pillar, it represented the Liberal Protestant current...
television series Beagle: In Darwin's wake (Beagle: In het kielzog van Darwin), Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband
Pieter van den Hoogenband
Pieter Cornelis Ruud Martijn van den Hoogenband is a Dutch former swimmer and a triple Olympic champion.-Personal life:...
, and also Jeroen van der Veer
Jeroen van der Veer
Jeroen van der Veer was the CEO of the petroleum corporation Royal Dutch Shell until 30 June 2009....
(chairman of Platform Bèta Techniek and former Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
CEO) and Maxime Verhagen
Maxime Verhagen
Maxime Jacques Marcel Verhagen is a Dutch politician in the Christian Democratic Appeal party. He is the Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and Deputy Prime Minister since October 14, 2010 in the Cabinet Rutte.He previously served as a Member of the European Parliament for...
(Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands is the official Deputy of the Head of Government of the Netherlands. In the absence of the Prime Minister the deputy prime minister takes over his functions, such as chairing the Cabinet of the Netherlands...
), who was presented with the results of the Deltaplan Bèta Techniek, which lists measures to increase the participation of students in technical studies.
Criticism
There was criticism by science journalist Hidde Boersma that the summit painted a too rosy picture of the efforts by the Platform Bèta Techniek to interest young people to take up a technical education.Although he also noted that many schools used the Summit as a study day for their students and thus the summit could still help to achieve the PBT's goals of increasing the participation in technical studies by inspiring students.
External links
Summit 2010 (official site)- Platform Bèta Techniek (official site)
- Impression of the event. Youtube.com. 2010-11-18. Retrieved 2011-03-20