Obama advisor Aneesh Chopra, the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer, outlined the President’s vision for innovation and how technology could be put to work around the world during his keynote address at the Emerging Technologies/Emerging Economies conference in Washington, DC.

“This is a chance to elevate our performance,” Chopra told conference participants, media and other guests from around the world at a luncheon at the National Press Club on November 4.

Chopra urged his audience to focus on the users of technology, whether they’re farmers in a third-world country, pregnant women wanting the best for their children, or members of a community that needs a sustainable source of energy.

“How do we listen to those people who don’t know nanotechnology from a hole in the wall, but know their own challenges and concerns?” Chopra asked the audience during his speech at the National Press Club. In attendance were dozens of participants from the Emerging Technologies/Emerging Economies conference, organized by the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, as well as media, and representatives of non-profit groups, federal agencies, foreign governments, and others interested in the promise of technology in solving global problems.

Although Chopra said the Obama administration intends to double the funding for basic research over the next decade, he urged those working on new technology not to be reliant on government grants, but instead to find innovative ways of developing promising technologies and getting them to places where they can make the most difference.

“A great deal of this is going to be borne out by entrepreneurs,” Chopra said.

He emphasized the need for openness, partnerships and collaboration across borders, saying, “We have to tap into the collective expertise that is all over the world, in tackling these common problems.”

For more information on the Emerging Technologies/Emerging Economies conference, visit the conference website.