We’ve finalized the floor plan for Blur (the agenda will be updated shortly; it’s finalized as well), and it is DAMN exciting. Without further delay, the things that you’ll see at Blur:

Orbotix: the robotic ball you control from your smartphone or tablet (and it just keeps getting better).

Shapeways: a 3D printing marketplace and community.

Flomio: NFC for your iPhone or iPad.

Organic Motion: marker-less motion capture.

Ideum: a 55″ LED/LCD multi-touch table.

Makerbot: 3D printing with the Replicator 2.

InteraXon: thought-controlled computing.

QFO Labs: high-tech, gaming quadcopters.

Printrbot: 3D printing with Printrbot Plus.

Sensus by Canopy: the first touch sensitive case for your iPHone.

Zugara: augmented reality software.

Just click through and check those things out. Now imagine all of it in one room, throw in some drinks and appetizers, and have at it.

side note: a big thanks to our non-physical presence sponsors Occipital and the Kauffman Foundation.

If you’re not coming to Blur yet, and you’d like to join us, use the code “bifr12″ to get in for $318 bucks (that includes all sessions, meals, open bar reception AND access to all of this *cool* stuff).

The agenda is locked and final, and I’ll be getting that posted in the next day. Needless to say, I think it’s the kind of agenda that will leave you stunned, spinning and happy.

A couple of other notes:

1. You can still grab a discounted hotel room rate, even though the block has expired. Trust me, you want to stay at the Omni if you’re attending Defrag.

2. I’ve still got Student Scholarships left for Defrag — please pass the word to a student that you know.

3. You can still grab your seat for Defrag and use “ejnvip” to take 25% off of your registration.

4. We still have student tickets available for Blur — it’s a screaming deal that students should take advantage (just today I added QFO labs, Printrbot and Canopy to the Blur slate).

First up, is Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired Magazine, and one of my personal early inspirations in technology. Kevin’s work has been the underpinnings for movies like The Matrix, and if you haven’t indulged in his books, you’re in for a treat. Kevin will be joining us to talk about the emergence of a technology super organism, and if you go check out his blog, you’ll find that – as often as not – reading and hearing Kevin is as much like being in Blade Runner, as at a tech conference.

Next up, we have a discussion (I hate to call it a panel) on the current cycle in enterprise IT innovation. Two notes on this: 1) it isn’t your typical “panel” – where we get 10 minutes of “buy my product” followed by 1 minute of interesting observation; 2) I don’t think anyone debates that we’re in some kind of innovation cycle in the enterprise, the questions to be answered are ones of what, why, how long? I’ve proposed that we’re in the very early stages of a 20 year cycle.

Third, “Kingmakers and the New Developer Ecosystem” — the natural extension of the second session is this presentation by Lauren Cooney and a soon to be named co-presenter (it should be good!). There’s a growing consensus that developers are the key to this whole equation.

Next, the ever-entertaining and informative mind of Paul Kedrosky. Anyone that’s seen Paul present in the past knows they’re in for a treat. Now if I can just manage to wrestle a session title out of him…

Fifth on the day, is Abhinav Keswani. I was introduced to Abhinav by Ben Kepes, and he and I had a fascinating phone conversation several months back about this phrase “the ethic of delivery” — the idea that iteration and delivery carries with it some sort of ethical framework for satisfying and fulfilling customer needs. I know I’m not phrasing this right, but that’s why I asked Abhinav to come explain it. I can’t wait.

Last up before lunch is Kim Cameron. Kim is the author of the now famous “laws of identity” – and one of the deepest technology thinkers that I know. There is no “active directory” without Kim (he sold his company to Microsoft), and he has advanced the thinking around digital identity in quantum leaps over the last decade. Kim will be joining us to think through some observations about how the cloud is changing all of that.

One last note: our mid-afternoon keynote is a conversation with Peter Levine of Andreesen Horowitz. Peter’s been actively engaging around and investing in “enterprise” deals for A16Z, and has some great thoughts around the renaissance of the enterprise developer. Ian Glazer of Gartner will be interviewing him, and it caps off the part 1 of the keynotes.

That’s just the first part. Part 1 of 4. I hope you’re as excited by the chunkiness and heft of these talks as I am. And I hope you’ll choose to join us (it’s not too late).

If you’re an enrolled student, and you’d like to come interact with folks like Kevin Kelly, Laura Merling, Paul Kedrosky, Lauren Cooney, Dion Hinchcliffe, R Ray Wang, Kim Cameron, Ian Glazer, Jeff Ma, Bre Pettis and many, many other amazing thinkers and doers, then apply! Send an email to me (enorlin AT mac.com) with:

1. your name

2. the school you’re attending

3. a paragraph deciding why you’d like to attend/what you’ll add to the conversation

…and then stand-by with your fingers crossed!

Lately, for whatever reason, I seem to be using LinkedIn more. As such, I’m setting up the Defrag LinkedIn Group. This is meant to be a place where we can discuss what’s happening at this year’s show, and also being to collectively re-imagine what the next five years of Defrag will look like (yep, we’re here for the duration). It’s an open group, so you don’t need to be registered, or even know me, to join.

I hope you’ll take the chance to join us in this discussion — and to join us at Defrag (which, if you haven’t been, is unlike any other conference that you’ve been to).

And standby – we have a BUNCH of surprises coming in the next few days to take Defrag from “awesome” to “holy crap.”

Over the next few weeks, we’ll lock down our few remaining speakers, sign our last one or two sponsors, announce a few surprises, and get ready to give every attendee a copy of Brad Feld’s and Kevin Kelly’s new books. Speakers will include:

Kevin Kelly (founding editor, Wired Magazine)

Adam Seligman (VP, Developer Evangelism, Salesforce.com)

Paul Kedrosky (Senior Research Fellow, Kauffman Foundation)

Ian Glazer (VP and Research Director, Gartner)

Laura Merling

Jeff Ma (inspiration for the movie, “21″)

Rachel Happe (The Community Roundtable)

Dion Hinchcliffe (The Dachis Group)

R Ray Wang (Constellation Research)

Peter Vanderauwera (SWIFT)

Bre Pettis (CEO, Makerbot)

Kwin Kramer (CEO, Oblong)

Jer Miller (Singly)

….and many, many more…

There will be robots and social and cloud and big data and APIs…in short, everything you’ll need to refresh, reboot and re-orient yourself toward what’s ahead.

If you haven’t made plans yet to join us, I hope you’ll choose to do so today.

If you’re not familiar with the scholarship program, these are full passes to the Blur conference (November 15-16th) that include meals, the reception, all sessions, etc. The passes do not include travel or hotel expenses for the event. And the passes do not encompass Defrag.

That said, the scholarship passes are a tremendous opportunity for students. At Blur, we’ll be discussing everything from 3D printing to robots to the internet of things to thought-controlled computing to the next generation of interfaces. Blur showcases companies like Oblong, Orbotix, Organic Motion, InteraXon, Shapeways, Flomio, ModRobotics and Makerbot.

If you’d like to be considered for the Blur scholarship, please email me directly (enorlin AT mac.com) with the following information:

1. Name.

2. Name of School you’re attending (a valid student ID will be required to claim your scholarship).

3. One paragraph as to why you’d like to attend Blur, and what you think you can contribute to the conversation.

We’ll pick our scholarship winners within the next week, so don’t delay!

Our opening keynote this year is Kevin Kelly. Kevin’s, quite simply, a superstar. He’s the founding editor of Wired Magazine, one of the creators of the WELL (youngins – look it up), and – oh by the way – he wrote a book that was *required* reading for the cast members of The Matrix. Kevin will be kicking us off by talking about the “emerging technology super-organism,” and every defrag attendee will be getting a copy of Kevin’s new book. You simply do not want to miss this, and if you live in Colorado, this is your chance to see Kevin speak without having to travel to it.

Post-Kevin, insert 2 full days of mind-blowing goodness.

And then, at the end of those two days, turn to Bre Pettis. Bre is the CEO of Makerbot, and on the cover of the current issue of Wired Magazine. Bre’s coming to address the revolution in manufacturing that is 3D printing. I. cannot. wait.

Open with the guy that helped inspire the Matrix, close with the guy that’s leading one of the biggest technology revolutions of our lifetime. Where else are you going to get this but Defrag? Short answer: nowhere.

Take, for instance, this Gartner chart. If you look at the things that are 5 to 10 years and more than 10 years out, you’ll see things like volumetric displays, 3D bio printing, human augmentation, mobile robots, internet of things, augmented reality, 3D printing, NFC payments — namely, the kind of stuff we talk about and showcase at Blur.

Defrag focuses on the 18-24 month time horizon of technology. Blur focuses on the 5-10 YEAR time horizon. Blur is much harder to pull off and bring together because so much of it is still in labs and R&D. I can tell you that I’ve talked with people that have done 3D bio-printing (and food printing), and I know of people doing human augmentation, printing firearms, creating massive “thing” networks, and pushing the edge of blended realities and NFC. In short, this stuff *is* happening in corners and labs and research centers. It’s just *barely* starting to happen in startup land.

In short, if you wanna get a jump on the future, come to Defrag and stay for Blur. Nothing out there can give you that perspective. Bonus: early bird prices are still available!

But I’m not gonna do that. Instead, I’d like to talk, just briefly, about the single most important reason you should come to Defrag: the community. Somewhere along the way over the last 6 years, a community formed at Defrag. It’s really kind of a magical thing. It’s not something I can create or control or direct. It exists independent of any efforts that I put into the agenda or sponsorships or whatever. It is because it wants to be. And it’s awesome.

For whatever reason, we now have a group of people that come to Defrag every year. It’s their “brain clearing” week — they sweep out the day to day of their work world, and use the conversation at Defrag as a reboot. Defrag gives them things to think about, but more importantly, it gives them a depth of interaction. That depth of interaction is the reason that you’ll see people on Twitter saying that Dreamforce is a “warm-up” for Defrag. It’s a special thing, and I have zero idea how you replicate it.

Defrag doesn’t scale. It can’t be duplicated. It isn’t a product, or a free expo pass, or a venue that you attend for one keynote before heading back to the office. Defrag’s a retreat, a reboot, a reason to lift your head up above the day to day.

If you’ve never been, I hope you’ll take a look at the agenda, ask around a bit, and then choose to join us. But don’t delay, because early bird registration ends Friday.