Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, will serve as the guest speaker at the opening ceremony of the 31st IASP World Conference, which will take place in Doha in October, organizers have announced.
The theme of this year’s conference, which will be held in the Middle East for the first time, is “Science Parks; Where Technology Goes to Work.”
Hurley is expected to inspire the hundreds of government, business and entrepreneurs who attend the three-day event from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22 by sharing his expertise from working on the world’s largest video sharing site.
In a statement, Head of the IASP 2014 Doha Organizing Committee and QSTP Managing Director Hamad Al-Kuwari said:
“Chad Hurley is one of the most visionary and influential technology entrepreneurs in the last 20 years and to have him join, speak and contribute to the success of IASP 2014 Doha is a real privilege to our event and to the region.
This year’s event is already hitting new milestones and proving extremely popular, receiving its highest participation numbers in the past four years, and attracting 138 abstract submissions and 33 key speakers.”
According to the official conference website, this year’s event will focus on the role of science and technology parks as catalysts.
Topics will include fostering models of cooperation between universities and companies and the role that STPs can or should play, as well as their relationship with their resident companies.
Registration
The 2014 World Conference on Science and Technology Parks has been two years in the making, after the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) was awarded hosting rights in 2012.
It appears to be open to all, but registration is expensive, starting at QR2,400/person. However, students can attend for free, and group discount rates are available. More information about registration fees can be found on the conference website here.
Qatar is no stranger to big-name tech entrepreneurs. Earlier this year, the Qatar Computing and Research Institute, which is under the Qatar Foundation umbrella, as is QSTP, hosted inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
Berners-Lee, dubbed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 greatest minds of the 20th century, spoke to a packed crowed in March at the Qatar National Convention Center about where technology will take the world in the next quarter-century.
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