Applied Brilliance, a thought-leadership advisory group that promotes creativity and innovation, has announced this year’s roster of speakers for its two-day conference. The event has earned a reputation for providing ahead-of-the-curve information and inspiration to the architectural and design community through an original interdisciplinary approach that reveals critical shifts in global cultural trends.  Influential thought leaders, architects and designers will meet October 14-16 at the Sagamore Hotel in Bolton Landing, New York, to identify the most important emerging trends and issues that impact the design profession.   

The conference will feature presentations by 19 speakers.  Among them are:

•    Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, saves Hispanic youth gangs from the streets of Los Angeles and reveals how he does it and why it's a paradigm change for our times
•    Thomas Cahill, author, the Hinge Points of History Series redefines turning points in history
•    Dr. Noel Brown, an environmental diplomat reveals the most important turning points affecting sustainability and the health of our planet
•    Douglas Rushcroff, social & media theorist, author, professor of communications, New York University, is one of the brightest minds and most provocative thinkers on the pop culture scene
•    Susan Jacoby, author, The Age of American Unreason, program director of the Center for Inquiry, NYC, talks about the dumbing-down of America, what's happened to critical thinking and the flight from reason in our culture
•    Dr. Kent Moors, executive managing partner, Risk Management Associates, International, professor and director of the energy policy research group, Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy, Duquesne University looks at the world though the filter of oil and how today's oil crisis is going to change all aspects of our lives forever
•    Rives, poet and performance artist riffs on applied brilliance in unexpected and provocative ways
•    Dr. William Schmidt, university distinguished professor, co-principal investigator PROM/SE - NSF-funded Math Science Partnership, School of Education, Michigan State University is an authority on the future of education and why America needs to catch up to the rest of the world
•    Catherine Stellin, youth trends expert, Creative Artists Agency, explains why the next generation is already changing all the rules we live by
•    Dr. Greg Stock, CEO, Signum Biosciences - director, UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology and Society speaks on reinventing humanity with insights on why today's children will live to be over 100 years old and what's the new middle age
•    Dr. Jim Taylor, futurist and vice chairman, The Harrison Group with cautionary tales about the 10 macro trends that are world-changing
•    Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies in the department of religion at Columbia University, president of the Tibet House US will reveal the essential nature of applied brilliance and why that matters

Deborah Patton, creator and executive director of Applied Brilliance says, "When you're prepared for the future, disruptive times become an opportunity.  Clearly what the world could use right now is some applied brilliance. We're tackling some of the biggest questions of the times that will define our future with a dialogue about what they mean and why they matter. From the 'power of me,' the population bomb, and the branded economy, to the rise of discontinuity anxiety, we will navigate through all of these trends. Plus, we’ll explore how the Next Gen changing the paradigms of how the world lives, works and plays.  What's happening to our ability to use critical reasoning? How will the future of oil change every aspect of our lives, from how we design our communities to food production and our international relations? Do we really have free will? What are the latest bio-tech breakthroughs that will re-define our humanity?  And what are the chances for a sustainable future operating in an unpredictable global economy? Our mission is to inform, provoke, and inspire so that architects and designers are better prepared and equipped to deal with our turbulent times, today and tomorrow."

For more information, visit www.appliedbrilliance.com