Arlington, Va.
– The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has set its speaker lineup for its
annual Greener Gadgets conference, to take place on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, at
the McGraw-Hill Conference
Center in New York City.
Karen Chupka, senior VP of CEA, organizers of the Greener Gadgets
conference, said, “Our goal with this conference is to showcase the
advancements made by the consumer electronics industry, and to keep pushing the
envelope in terms of sustainable product design and development. We believe
that the all-star lineup of speakers at Greener Gadgets 2010 will engage and
inspire all attendees.”
The 2010 event will include a keynote address from Yves Behar,
founder of the San Francisco
design studio, Fuseproject. Behar is focused on humanistic design and the
“giving” element of his profession, with the goal of creating
projects that are deeply in-tune with the needs of a sustainable future, connected
with human emotions and enable self-expression. His design studio was
responsible for the design of the world’s first $100 XO laptop for One Laptop
Per Child, a project aimed at bringing education and technology to the world’s
poorest children. Behar received the Index: Design to Improve Life,
“Community” award for his role in creating the XO laptop and is
widely considered a visionary of industrial design.
Robert Fabricant, creative VP for Frog Design, will deliver the
afternoon keynote. In addition to his work to extend the global innovation
firm’s capabilities into new markets, Fabricant leads Frog’s Design for Impact
initiatives, which focus on transformative opportunities to use mobile
technologies to increase access to information and accelerate positive behavior
change. His work has been recognized by the AIGA, the professional association
for design; the Industrial Designers of America (IDSA); ID Magazine; Fast
Company; and the Index Awards.
Greener Gadgets 2010 will also include a panel session entitled,
Green Living Begins at Home, featuring expert discussion of sustainable design
strategies for urban and rural locations, as well as a Green Spotlight: 30
Minutes with Jeff Omelchuck, founder and director of the Green Electronics
Council, the organization that manages EPEAT, the global green certification
program for electronics. Omelchuck will discuss the expansion of the successful
program, now used by the U.S. federal
government and purchasers from Brazil to Thailand to specify green electronics.
Greener Gadgets 2010 also welcomes the voices of leading
environmental journalists as moderators: Jaymi Heimbuch of TreeHugger; Joe
Hutsko, author of “Green Gadgets for Dummies”; and Sarah Rich, senior editor at
Dwell magazine.
The Greener Gadgets Design Competition is currently underway.
Entries will be accepted until Dec. 31, 2010. This year’s competition will
highlight a new class of standout sustainable products, from those that create
their own energy to those that minimize the need for any electricity at all.
Finalists will be judged in front of a live audience at the Greener Gadgets
Conference in New York City on February 25,
2010, for a chance at $5,000 in prizes.
For more information about
Greener Gadgets 2010, or to register, go to
