Wired Magazine's Chris Anderson Featured at Modular Construction Industry's Premier Event: World of Modular

Online, November 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The Modular Building Institute (MBI) is pleased to announce that the featured keynote speaker at its 2011 World of Modular convention and trade show is Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine. The event will be March 12-14, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the new Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas hotel.

Anderson is one of the most knowledgeable and articulate voices at the center of a new economy. In a series of groundbreaking books and articles, he has identified important new economic trends and business models. The insight of his bestselling book The Long Tail is that our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from mainstream products and markets toward a huge number of niches. As cost of production and distribution fall, narrowly targeting goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare. Many established business models ignore these small markets that together rival traditional markets in economic potential.

In his other bestselling book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Anderson explains how what was once a marketing gimmick has emerged as a full-fledged economy. By giving away razors that were useless by themselves, King Gillette created demand for disposable razor blades. A few billion blades later, this business model is now the foundation of entire industries - give away the cell phone, but sell the monthly plan. While the opportunities to adopt a free model of some kind or another have never been greater, do they work? Anderson makes a compelling case that in many instances businesses can succeed best by giving away more.

Anderson has been named one of the Time 100 by Time Magazine, worked at The Economist Magazine, served as an editor at Science and Nature magazines, and conducted research at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

World of Modular is the commercial modular construction industry's largest event. The event will provide educational opportunities, gather industry leaders for information-sharing, and foster industry connections. It also includes the premier awards program for the industry, the Awards of Distinction Contest.

MBI is the only international, non-profit trade association serving the commercial modular industry. Most attendees at World of Modular are wholesale manufacturers, direct manufacturers, and dealers of commercial modular buildings, while suppliers of building products, services, and financing attend and exhibit.

For more information on World of Modular or to register, visit www.modular.org.