Last May, we engaged in something of an experiment when Joi Ito and I presented Solid, our conference about the intersection between software and the physical world. We drew the program as widely as possible and invited demos from a broad group of large and small companies, academic researchers, and artists. The crowd that came — more than 1,400 people — was similarly broad: a new interdisciplinary community that’s equally comfortable in the real and virtual worlds started to, well, solidify.
I’m delighted to announce that Solid is returning. The next Solid will take place on June 23-25, 2015, at Fort Mason in San Francisco. It’ll be bigger, with more space and a program spread across three days instead of two, but we’re taking care to maintain and nourish the spirit of the original event. That begins with our call for proposals, which opens today. Some of our best presentations in May came from community members we hadn’t yet met who blew away our program committee with intriguing proposals. We’re committed to discovering new luminaries and giving them a chance to speak to the community. If you’re working on interesting things, I hope you’ll submit a proposal.
We’re expecting a full house at this year’s event, so we’ve opened up ticket reservations today as well — you can reserve your ticket here, and we’ll hold your spot for seven days once registration opens early next year.
It’d be an understatement to say that the hardware movement and the Internet of Things (IoT) are hot right now. According to Google, search interest in the IoT has more than doubled in the last 12 months. The race by software companies to reach into the physical world, and the parallel race by manufacturers to develop their software and intelligence offerings, is bringing about all sorts of exciting collisions.
A screen shot of the Google Trends results looking at the interest in “Internet of Things” and “IoT” over time.
I’d like to hear from you about what’s going on in hardware right now: how to design great products, how to build them in socially responsible ways, how to program them so that they’re efficient and delightful. Solid will be rich with these kinds of stories, told by engineers, artists, scholars, and executives from giant enterprises and nascent start-ups.
That said, my greatest pleasure in programming the 2014 edition of Solid was in featuring presentations that framed our conversation in terms of art, craft, societal impact, theoretical depth, and long-term context. Thoughtful, fresh takes on the hardware movement and the Internet of Things are welcome.
If you’d like to speak at Solid 2015, please visit our call for proposals. If you’d like to attend Solid, you can reserve your ticket here. If you’re interested in sponsoring Solid, please contact Sharon Cordesse. We look forward to hearing from you!