Alexis Gerard and Bob Goldstein have been speaking, writing and acting on the concepts presented in their book Going Visual, for many years. They work very well as a team and are a dynamic duo when doing presentations.

Alexis Gerard occupies a unique and highly visible place in the modern history of imaging. For the past 10 years, his visionary thinking about the convergence of photography and information technology has had a major influence on business leaders both inside and outside the industry.

A passionate photographer himself since his twenties, Gerard founded his technology think-tank, Future Image Inc. in 1991, after holding executive positions in new technologies marketing with Apple Computer during the company’s heyday of innovation which included the development of the Macintosh.

Today Future Image is the acknowledged leading independent center of expertise on the convergence of imaging, technology and business. Executives, entrepreneurs and investors worldwide rely for their decision-making on its continuous information services, its research studies, and the advice of its consultants. The company is the official information and research partner of the international Imaging Industry Association (I3A).

Mr. Gerard’s influence is not limited to the imaging industry. He is widely known in business circles as the leading independent authority on the future of imaging, and his opinions have been quoted at various times in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Financial Times, Newsweek, Business Week, and many others. He has garnered broad visibility for the Visual Communication thesis he evolved jointly with his colleague Bob Goldstein, by focusing two multi-page sections of mainstream business magazines on that theme in recent years – The Red Herring in 2001, and Forbes Magazine in 2002.

His role as spokesperson has also included numerous public speaking engagements. He has addressed executive gatherings of associations such as the Society for Information Science and Technology, and corporations including Agfa, Apple, Conexant, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Minolta, Polaroid, Procter and Gamble and others, speaking both in the United States (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Boston, New York, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Orlando, and Portland.) and internationally (Bruxelles Belgium, Munich and Cologne Germany, Geneva Switzerland, Shanghai China, Whistler Canada). Among the highlights of these appearances are his delivering one of two keynotes (the other being Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab) at the inaugural conference of the Digital Imaging Marketing Association; his participation in panels of CEOs of international imaging companies in2002 and 2004 at Photokina (the world’s largest imaging exposition, held every two years in Cologne, Germany). In recent years Mr. Gerard has chaired a series of executive conferences on the future of digital imaging, including the Future Image/Forbes Visual Communication Executive Summit in October 02, and the phenomenally successful “Mobile Imaging Summit” conferences in 2003 and 2004.

Among his other distinctions Mr. Gerard is a member of the International Advisory Council of the George Eastman House. From 1997 to 1998, he held the positions of President and Executive Director of the Digital Imaging Group (DIG), an open non-profit industry consortium founded by Adobe, Canon, Eastman Kodak, Fuji, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Live Picture and Microsoft to promote the growth of digital imaging into mainstream markets. The DIG is now merged into the I3A (International Imaging Industry Association).

Bob Goldstein is well known in the digital imaging industry as both an executive and a featured speaker on the subject of Visual Communication. He was president and founder of ZZYZX Visual Systems in Los Angeles, California, where he pioneered businesses in high volume image scanning, digital retouching, stock photo databases and digital archives and distribution networks, fine art digital printing, interactive media projects, web site design, and digital photo studios. He then became president of the Altamira Group, which produced the Genuine Fractals line of digital imaging software. In these executive positions he worked closely with other industry leaders to help determine the future of digital imaging for the Information Age. He helped create and served on the board of the PMA organization, APCDI, which evolved into DIMA, The Digital Imaging Marketing Association, which has become largest trade association of its kind in the US.

Through his public speaking engagements and one-on-one sessions he has inspired thousands of photographers and hundreds of businesses to “go digital” and make the transition from traditional, film based photography, to digital imaging. He has given lectures and workshops on the subjects covered in Going Visual across the US and Canada, appearing in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, Houston, Washington DC, Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Philadelphia, Orlando, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. His corporate clients have included: Eastman Kodak, Apple Computer, Oracle Corp, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. He is a senior analyst for The Future Image Report, for whom he authored an industry study of Internet visual search engines. He has appeared at many conferences including: Seybold, PMA, DIMA, MacWorld, Siggraph, PhotoEast, i3 Forum, the Lyra Summit, and has appeared on CNNfn. Mr. Goldstein has a business degree from the University of Southern California.