Keynote addresses are a hallmark of Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Emerging Trends and 2008 is no exception. Gartner CEO Gene Hall will officially kick off the event with his opening remarks Tuesday from 9 – 9.15am. Gene will be followed by the Gartner Analyst Opening Keynote at 8:15 AM. This keynote's theme is "Technology-Powered Business Acceleration" and features Peter Sondergaard, Ken McGee, Anthony Bradley, Partha Iyengar, Mary Mesaglio and Darryl Plummer.

Wednesday's keynote at 10.30am is an Innovator Interview with Ilkka Raiskinen, Senior Vice President, Context, Advertising & Emerging Markets from Nokia Corporation. Gartner analysts Nick Jones and Monica Basso will explore how innovation is working for Nokia. How they tap into other people’s innovative technologies and business models. How they involve customers in rapid co-development, and how the CIO's team supports innovation and the difficulties of using their own company as a testing ground.

At our closing keynote on Thursday at 3pm, Gartner Analyst Jennifer Beck will lead a lively panel discussion with three 'Digital Natives,' bringing to the Keynote stage university students and newly qualified professionals for the freshest-of-all perspectives on emerging trends and technologies. The future of IT and business lies largely in the hands of digital natives who have been immersed in technology their entire lives, and so are already – and will continue to be – incredibly influential in how we use technology in the enterprise. So it's only fitting we end the week through their eyes!