Niall Kennedy and Om Malik introduce the first ever conference on the emerging widget economy - Widgets Live!. Typically a widget is a generic term that people use to replace another "fill in the blank" term but in this case widgets consist of all the new little components and tools within the desktop, personal homepages, blog sidebars, social networking sites, mobile, and even dedicated hardware.

Niall gives some examples of widgets - "Feed your Chia Pet on your desktop. Let your blog visitors play Hangman using popular words of the day. Consult your calendar from your homepage. Check the weather from your coffee maker. There is so much activity in the customizable web powered by widgets we felt it was time to bring together the major players for a one-day industry overview and tutorial. We hope you can join us."

Conference participants will learn about the current state of the widget industry, how to connect your business to the widget web, and get a sneak peek into the next wave of tools before they ship. The date is Monday, November 6, 2006 in San Francisco, California (one of my favorite places). Cost is only $100. If you are a widgets geek and are in the area at that time, you might want to register for what will probably be the first of many such conferences to come.