Picture credits: doctor_bob
keynote speakers
Picture credits:*melkor* Bill Totten Dr. Totten worked on the Apollo program at Rockwell Corporation from 1963 to 1967 and on various projects at System Development Corporation from 1967 to 1971. SDC sent him to Tokyo in August 1969 to research the Japanese computer market, and he has lived here continuously since then. His market research convinced him of the great potential for packaged computer software in Japan. When SDC decided not to enter the software package business in Japan, Dr. Totten resigned and established K.K. Ashisuto in March 1972 to distribute computer software packages to corporations and other large organizations. Dr. Totten has been president of K.K. Ashisuto ever since. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a small staff in Tokyo providing a few localized software packages, to a highly-regarded nationwide enterprise employing 653 persons (as of April 2004) who produce 14.9 billion yen in annual revenue by distributing, supporting and providing consultative services for dozens of software packages to over 2000 leading Japanese corporations. Dr. Totten has written a dozen books, speaks publicly throughout Japan and currently writes a weekly newspaper column addressing economic, social and political issues and the necessity of learning from and preserving traditional culture. Throughout his business career, he has given top priority to customers and employees. He strives to provide an environment where employees can secure themselves lifelong, remunerative, enjoyable jobs that foster their growth as individuals while offering the satisfaction of contributing materially to society. He insists that the main requisite for accomplishing this is to consistently and honestly provide useful products and services to customers and believes that a company doing so will grow to its optimal or natural size. He rejects both growth for growth's sake and mining a business to enrich stockholders or executives. Speech title: From Monopoly to Symbiosis Dr. Brian J. McVeigh (via Skype) Department of East Asian Studies, Arizona University. Author of “Japanese Higher Education as Myth” and numerous books and articles on spirit possession, religion, education, politics, nationalism, and popular culture. A Psychological anthropologist, he has lived and worked in Asia for 17 years. he teaches in the Dept. of E. Asian Studies, University of Arizona. Speech title: Academic Collaboration: Lessons from the Past and Challenges for the Future Dr. Hiroaki Somiya Department of Fish Biology,  Bioagricultural Science, Nagoya University. Dr. Somiya is the head of the fish biology laboratory at Nagoya University. He is a proponent of biodiversity and forestry and wildlife conservation. He is currently working to save a section of woodland in Nagoya city from development and to introduce regulation that might protect other areas. He works to educate people about the many overlooked endemic species of plants and animals in the heart of the city that can easily be lost through development. Speech title: From Fish Physiology to Forest Conservation Jean-Luc Creppy Senior Manager at BearingPoint Consulting with eight years of substantial expertise in leadership, program management, project management, business analysis, and risk management. 
 Software and system engineer with eight years experience in design and development. This includes methods, architecture, infrastructure, coding, testing, security, and user support. Jean-Luc Creppy’s specialties: - Strong skills in researching the cost/benefit of solution, business cases and identification of alternatives; - Professional in all phases of program/project, process re-engineering, to challenge organization's culture and share best practices in multi-cultural environment;
- Successfully demonstrated exceptional leadership, project management and communication skills in all previous assignments with a particular skill in delivering technology solutions that effectively meet business needs.