Dear Buckaneer,
I spent a very intensive year being educated in Advanced Data Processing - work, work, work night and to get a handle on all this stuff to become capable of leading Military high tech projects. If I can draw any conclusion from my effort, it is that no one can deal with it all and no one is going to explain it to you in a nut shell.
If you were to attend the conference you would have to be in six places at once just to listen to the lectures.
The concerns about why POET not being there is unfounded POET is on its way to the fab.
Dr Taylor invention combines light and electrical signals, I did not spot many talks about that from other labs.