We are entering a new world – just two decades after the Internet turned the old world upside down and inside out. Are you ready for another game change?

Think for a moment: 4K TVs that make HD look dull. 3-D printers at home cranking out the next wave in “selfies.” Virtually instantaneous movie downloads. True work-from-home capabilities through conference tools and VPNs where latency is no longer an issue. The smallest business able to access the world’s most powerful computers (think “Watson”) at remarkable speeds. Wi-Fi networks supporting more users at faster speeds. How about virtual doctors and remove doctor visits in HD quality? Holodecks next?

How much better will online gaming be?

How exciting would an Internet world be virtually WITHOUT latency?

Are you excited yet?

But let’s lot get ahead of ourselves. We still need infrastructure. (Be sure to read our exclusive story today about how Google Fiber is already transforming Kansas City.)

And if you are following the power and money in this growing Internet of Everything world as described by Cisco’s John Chambers, then you know that fiber is the highway on which it will run.

Gigabit Internet is going to change the way we live.

And that’s why a lot of powerful people, including investors, will be at WRAL TechWire’s “Fiber Transforms the Triangle” conference today at SAS. (Unfortunately, ticket sales have closed.)

The “Game Changer”

Gigabit Internet, in the words of wiz angel investor Dave Gardner, “a game-changer.”

We are getting gigabit Internet in RTP with or without Google Fiber because of the N.C. Next Generation Network and AT&T with its GigaPower offering. So come meet the players who are transforming our local universe.

Entrepreneurs and investors as well as businesses are lining up to capitalize on what 100-times faster than cable Internet means.

So the first person I asked to participate as a panelist when the bosses at WRAL.com OK’d this event was Steve Vanderwoude, an investor and a long-time telecommunications executive. Unfortunately, he had to cancel due to a personal issue.

In seeking someone to fill in, I spoke with Gardner. This guy has got to be the hottest angel investor around with 15 deals made and a lot of success coming on the horizon. Unfortunately, he’s going to be on the West Coast on business. But he summed up gigabit Internet succinctly and accurately:

“It’s a game changer.”

I then approached another local angel: Mark Easley.

He plans to attend but begged off as a speaker. But he is a big believer in what gigabit Internet means.

“My own take on the subject is that bandwidth will continue to increase exponentially for the foreseeable future because of a vast increase in the number of devices for mobile use and the Internet of Things worldwide,” he explained.

“There will be plenty of opportunities for companies that can either help enable that higher bandwidth, or take advantage of the new infrastructure that it provides. IoT is a particular interest of mine right now.”

I wanted to make sure investors were represented at the conference and Jim Roberts, who heads up the new and fast-growing entrepreneurship program at UNC-Wilmington agreed. Now here’s a guy who knows the players on both sides of entrepreneurs and the investors. He’ll have plenty of insight to offer.

Joanne Rohde, the former Red Hat executive who turned her own health issues into a business (Axial Exchange), is on the panel, too.

If you want to see real healthcare reform, let’s see what gigabit Internet does to medical records, over-the-net diagnosis, and much more.

More Than Startups

However, the conference is not just about startups.

We’ve brought together a lineup of speakers who are going to talk about how gigabit Internet is transforming their own companies, from city governments to private enterprises.

We have senior executives from MCNC, AT&T, Frontier, Sentinel Data Centers and more to talk about these new fiber highways.

And of course our host, SAS, looks to ratchet up its own analytics capabilities as more and more businesses get access to bandwidth that almost makes number crunching obstacles a thing of the past.

Our attendee list is packed with decision-makers and those who hope to be.

Yes, there will be investors in the crowd, too.

Providing the vision of what’s ahead is Blair Levin, who really deserves the “Godfather of broadband” title when it comes to setting and implementing broadband policy over the past 20 years.

Capping the event will be former Gov. Bev Perdue, who helped MCNC realize its statewide fiber network, the North Carolina Research and Education Network.

Now, gigabit Internet is almost here. That’s exciting stuff.