Living and working in the Bay Area is extraordinary and full of contradictions. On one hand, many of our friends and the people we interact with day-to-day are largely defining society's primary technology systems. They work at Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, Amazon, Zynga and nearly every technology and service we regularly use. And, by way of serendipity or coincidence, we are also surrounded by some of the world's most renown teachers in mindfulfuness, yoga and spiritual practice. On any given day you can practice at more than a hundred local yoga studios or from an endless number of workshops and classes.

Yet, despite all this, by in large most people I speak to feel that their lives are out of balance -- heavily weighted towards too much of the day in front of the keyboard, and not enough time sitting on the meditation cushion.

This week, teachers including Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth), Jon Kabat-Zinn (Full Catastrophe Living) and Jack Kornfield (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) will come together with world's leading technologists at the Wisdom 2.0 conference in Redwood City to explore the question of how we can live mindfully and wisely while we engage the great tools of our age. This two day conference will be followed by an additional two day unconference at the Google campus, allowing attendees plenty of time to further deepen the exploration with interactive sessions.

Wisdom 2.0 speakers include:

• Arturo Bejar - Director of Engineering, Facebook
• Beth Kanter - Beth's Blog 
• Cherie Gardiner - Learning and Development, Zynga
• Cordell Ratzlaff - Director of User Experience, Cisco
• Dustin Moskovitz - Co-Founder, Facebook and Asana
• Gopi Kallayil - Product Marketing Manager, Google
• Irene Au - Head of User Experience, Google
• Jack Kornfield - Spirit Rock Meditation Center
• Jane McGonigal - Co-founder, SuperBetter
• Jim Doty - Director & Founder, Project Compassion
• Joe Hyrkin - President and CEO, Wordnik
• Jon Kabat-Zinn - University of Massachusetts Medical School / Mindfulness Teacher
• Justin Rosenstein - Co-founder, Asana
• Karen May - VP, Leadership & Talent, Google
• Kelly McGonigal - Author, Stanford Health Psychologist
• Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen - Giving 2.0
• Leah Pearlman - CoCreator, The Happiness Institute
• Lee Rainie - Director, Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
• Luke Nosek - Founder's Fund, Co-founder PayPal
• Michelle Gale - Leadership & Development, Twitter
• Pierre Omidyar - Founder, eBay
• Rich Fernandez - Director of Executive Development, Google
• Roshi Joan Halifax -Upaya Zen Center
• Scott Kriens - Director, 1440 Foundation
• Seane Corn - Yoga Teacher, Spiritual Activist
• Soren Gordhamer - Founder & Host, Wisdom 2.0
• Stuart Crabb - Head of Learning, Facebook
• Thupten Jinpa - Buddhist Scholar, CCARE
• Tim Ryan - United States Congressman

Additionally, in preparation for the event, we built some Twitter lists for both the Wisdom 2.0 speakers and conference attendees. These lists and the #wisdom2conf hashtag will be useful for those watching the livestream or unable to attend the event in person, but who are still curious and wanting to stay connected in this meaningful conversation.

From a personal perspective, I very much see this intersection of Wisdom and Technology as the key to a more balanced future. As more of us come together to explore how to find balance in our lives, it can only help in our desire to build technology to benefit us, our society, and our world.