To arrange an interview with David-Michel Davies, contact:

Contact: Gita Chandra (gita@pkpr.com)

Jenny Chang (jenny@pkpr.com)

PKPR, 212.627.8098

WEBBY AWARDS FORECAST
TOP FIVE TECH TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2009

To give your audience a sneak preview of the top five Web trends to watch in 2009, you’ll want to arrange an interview with David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards.

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile Websites. The deadline for entering The 13th Annual Webby Awards is January 30, 2008. To enter work in more than 100 categories, visit www.webbyawards.com.

Passionate about the intersection of technology and culture, David-Michel has appeared on Good Morning America, Fox News Channel, ABC News, Reuters, and NPR. He can give your audience the inside scoop on the surprising ways technology will change the way we work and live in 2009 and beyond, including:

• The Internet President — Just as his campaign leveraged new media to forever alter politics, President Barack Obama will fundamentally change government by becoming the first president to embrace the Internet’s full potential. From simulcasting his weekly radio address on YouTube to appointing the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer to promoting net neutrality, Obama’s ambitious agenda promises a new era of more efficient, open, and transparent government.
• Big Brother is Watching (Kind Of) — Remember the “smart” electronic billboards in the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report? They’re coming to a shopping mall near you in 2009. Digital screens with video cameras that gather real-time metrics about shoppers will be able to personalize ads based on a product you just picked off a shelf or even based on your age, gender, and body type.
• Networked Economy Drives Recovery — The Internet and technology will be critical to beating the recession and driving the transition from an industrial to an information economy. Major investments in technology infrastructure — universal broadband, electronic medical records, and a smarter energy grid — will be a sign that a networked economy is essential to economic growth.
• Cable Stumbles — Failing to learn lessons from the music industry’s own missteps in the Internet era, cable subscriptions will continue to decline as the Internet offers better, higher-quality programming, and a richer viewing experience that enables viewers to connect with other fans, track what friends are watching, and more.
• Mobile Media Power — A billion new users — most in the developing world — will come to the Web through mobile devices over the next decade. Just as blogging revitalized news gathering in the developed world, mobile-based services like twitter are poised to give unprecedented power to billions of people. Case in point: the major role that twitter played in first-hand reporting of the Mumbai attacks.

###