Economic Forum - thoughts

In my opinion, the most innovative products awarded at the World Economic Forum were from InSightec and Skysails. InSightec's ExAblate 2000 takes already incredible technology within the MRI to a new level. At the exact point when issues are visible within the human body, they can be dealt with under closer supervision that a surgeons' eye. It was just fascinating that they are able to combine the diagnosics and treament into one single visit. The addressing of uterine fibroids, for example, is not a sequential treament process, where there are pictures taken, and then action taken after-the-fact. With ExAblate 2000, these two seperate processes are combined into one concurrent treatment. The other product that most impressed me was Skysails' wind propulsion system. What a simple concept, yet so advanced and engenius. A simple sail could potentially set the standard for cross-ocean travel, as oil becomes more expensive and carbon emissions become more regulated. Over two centuries ago, the Mayflower came to America using wind energy, and this new-age approach proces that some form of power truly are ageless. The one company that impressed me the least from the Forum was Kayak. As a faithful Priceline user, I checked out Kayak.com to see if it had any benefits that would make me leave Priceline. The look and feel of it was no different than Expedia, Travelocity, or Priceline, so I decided to test it. On Priceline I could not book a tripto Hawaii as far out as December, 2008. It was simply not available. So i went to Kayak.com, and it allowed me attempt to book the same trip to Hawaii in that December 2008 time frame that Priceline would not. When Kayak.com was attempting to find my trip for me, it got locked in a processing loop that it did not error out on, return a message for me, or simply exit. It just sat there processing. Even though it was a simple test, it left me with no faith in kayak.com, and thus I will continue to use Priceline. Not very innovative, in my opinion.
A sweet emerging technology not discussed in the forum was Hybrid cars. I think they are making more of a statement and impact to the overall global economy than many of the ideas that were awarded. Regardless as to whether they are feasible replacements to our dependance on oil in the future, they are substancial to advertising the impact that our relaince on oil has become. They have become an avenue of new thinking and developing renewable energy sources in an arena that touches every aspect of human nature: transportation. Personally, I will not drive a hybrid right now because I think they are ugly, but I think the technology is pointing society in the right direction, and I think this emerging technology will change the transportation world significantly going into the future.