About: Gerd Leonhard: Media Futurist, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, CEO Sonific.com
The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd one of the leading media futurists in the world. He is the co-author of the influential book The Future of Music (2005, Berklee Press), as well as the author of Music2.0 (January 2008, self-published), and of "Open is King" (Fall 2008). Gerd's background is in music (he won the Quincy Jones Award in 1986 and is a graduate of Boston's Berkee College of Music) as well in technology and the Internet (former CEO of LicenseMusic Inc, and currently as CEO of Sonific.com). Gerd's work focuses on the convergent sectors of music & content, technology, communications and culture, and he is considered an expert on topics such as Web/Media 2.0, social networking, copyright vs. technology, online content commerce models, media convergence, mobile entertainment, the future of advertising and branding, and future scenarios for digital content, and next generation business models.

Gerd's keynotes, speeches, and think-tanks are renowned for his hard-hitting, provocative yet inspiring and motivational style. With over 50 engagements in the past two years Gerd has addressed global audiences in the sectors of recorded music & music publishing, radio, TV, film/video and broadcasting, online gaming and virtual worlds, telecom & wireless, and advertising and branding. His clients include SonyBMG, RTL, ITV, the BBC, France Telekom, German Telekom, Orange, LebWeb3, Financial Times, TribalDDB, the European Commission, Nokia-Siemens, and many others. Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London), and resides in Basel, Switzerland. www.mediafuturist.com To view Gerd's videos: go to Future Talks: http://mediaconversations.blip.tv/ or go to www.gerdtube.com