A couple of years ago, I saw Tom Friedman talk in Minneapolis. It was around the 3rd edition of World is Flat, so he did a brief talk on that and then launched into what became his focus on green which he has been writing on for the last few years. It was a great talk and afterwards I remember asking the people who put it on if they did another series they should consider bringing in Tom Barnett.
Well I had to wait a couple of years, and its a different organization, but Tom Barnett is speaking in MN in January and it should be great. I think if you want to understand globalization, how people and businesses are connected and what the security implications of this are (hint - its about federation and distribution not centralization), then Friedman and Barnett are two of the best people at articulating what's going on now and looking out to the horizon of what's coming next.
Too bad with all the colleges in the Twin Cities, that we have to go all the way to Mankato, but props to Minnesota State for making this happen!
