A panel of experts representing the stair steps of capital -- from angels, venture capitalists, corporate strategic investors, to big investment banks -- talk about the information industry's outlook in the financial marketplace. Will a recovering stock market revive the paralyzed venture capital industry? Will the burst Internet bubble continue to taint information technology investments? Where is the smart money investing and what does it mean for your company?

Moderator: Ed Paisley, Managing Editor, The Daily Deal

Panelists: Michael Mandel, Chief Economist, Business Week
Paul Noglows, Industry Analyst, JP Morgan
Pat Kenealy, Managing General Partner, IDG Ventures
Howard Tullman, Serial entrepreneur and investor

Information companies now face the challenge of maintaining profitability in the current slower economy. Ingredients for change may include reducing headcount, changing organizational structure and process, implementing new technologies, and selling off businesses. At the same time, information companies must achieve higher sales productivity to increase revenues. Sales forces accustomed to being "order takers" will need to become more proactive and, in many cases, more consultative. CEOs will need to re-think how they organize and use their direct field sales forces, inside/telesales sales forces, and third party channels to be more efficient and to increase opportunities for cross-selling products to the same customer base. This panel of CEOs will discuss how they are facing the challenge of reducing cost without sacrificing longer-term growth opportunities.

Moderator: Lee Greenhouse, President, Greenhouse Associates

Panelists: Dan Schimmel, President & CEO, OneSource Information Services
Jack Lynch, CEO, BigChalk
Martin Nisenholtz, CEO, New York Times Digital
Bill Pardue, President & CEO, Corporate & Federal Markets LexisNexis
John Wickersham, Chairman, Northstar Travel Media, LLC (formerly Reed Travel)

As the smoke clears from the dotcom battleground, how has the information industry changed? "New" and "old" economy companies alike are converging with Internet technology, but face collapsed advertising markets and consumers who remain resistant to paying for information. What new business models will evolve in this Darwinian environment? And where are the next breakthrough products likely to emerge?

Moderator: James Kollegger, CEO, Genesys Partners

Panelists: Bill Day, CEO, About.com (a unit of Primedia)
Saul Hansell, Technology and E-Commerce Reporter, The New York Times
John R. Patrick, President, Attitude LLC (formerly Vice President, Internet Technology, IBM)
James Rutt, former CEO, Network Solutions, and CTO, Thomson Corp.

Increasingly content is becoming "liberated" from its initial package and solid in smaller discrete chunks through different delivery media. In parallel, information companies are using a variety of subscriptions and pay-per-view pricing approaches. Such content e-commerce is growing, but faces a number of challenges, including packaging and promoting such content, maintaining defensible pricing, and protecting content from unauthorized use. New technologies, such as digital rights management software and digital object identifiers (DOIs), are emerging as important parts of the required infrastructure for content e-commerce, but information companies have yet to fully embrace them.

Moderator: Scott Edwards, Vice President, Anti-Piracy and Content Programs,
Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)

Panelists: Robert Bolick, Vice President and Director, New Business Development, McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Thomas R. Díaz, Senior Engineering Manager, eBook Development Group, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Brad Gandee, XrML Standards Evangelist, ContentGuard, Inc.
David Sidman, CEO, Content Directions, Inc.

A series of company presentations will highlight technology solutions that address information industry challenges, enable new business models, and/or create new markets. Selected based on their potential impact on information content businesses across the value chain, these solutions represent a cross-section of capabilities and trends likely to help shape the industry's future.

Moderator: Steve Sieck, Consultant