This post is the third in a series in which we are introducing keynote speakers who will be contributing to the conversation at the upcoming FASTforward 2008 conference at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Fl, February 18-20, 2008. Check here for more detail and registration info and here for a special discount for readers of this blog.

We have introduced so far Don Tapscott and Andrew McAfee from the lineup of keynote speakers at the conference. We are particularly pleased to announce here that Safa Rashtchy will be with us at the conference on Wednesday 2/20. Safa has been a star financial analyst for over a decade and a true thought leader in the emergence of Internet investment plays and the globalization of online opportunities, particularly those involving China. He’s a man who’s made a living predicting who will make money in the new world.

While Managing Director at investment bank Piper Jaffray, Safa was responsible for the seminal 2007 report: The User Revolution: The New Advertising Ecosystem and the Rise of the Internet as a Mass Medium.

In this influential and comprehensive study (the report features 217 Exhibits - we’ll let you guess the number of pages), Safa and his team lay out a cogent story about the shift of “attention” to the web, the rise of “2.0” phenomena, the increasing diversity of channels and sources, the explosion of rich media - especially video, and how all this and more is working together to create a new world for audiences, consumers, producers, and marketers online. Needless to say, one of the key findings is that search is a key business enabler in many of these developments. [Click here to see that it’s not just FAST who thinks so.]

At the conference, Safa will be giving us all a glimpse of how he sees the “user revolution” moving on from here, and the ways it will create fundamental changes in the way that companies from all industries – especially media, entertainment, retail, and communications companies – engage with their customers to drive value. Since leaving Piper in mid-2007, Safa has been traveling extensively and updating his sense of the emergent business opportunities that the trends he and the team documented in the report are creating around the world. He’s also been a featured presenter at such gatherings as the Web 2.0 Summit.

If track records are any indication, Safa’s views here will be well worth paying attention to. As a leading financial analyst for over a decade, Safa earned top rankings in The Wall Street Journal’s ” Best on the Street” analyst survey for 2002 (not a stellar year for investors, need I remind you). He was also a winner in Institutional Investor magazine’s “Home Run Hitters of 2001″ top stock pickers list.

Don’t miss the chance to learn about Safa’s top trend picks for 2008 - on view Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008 at FASTforward, Orlando.