Given such polymathic activities, it is a wonder that he managed to compose so much and so well, achieving success in the concert hall and contributing "Samson et Dalila" to the standard opera repertoire.

WSJ: Saint-Sa?ns and His World | Bard Music Festival | A Rich and Fertile Legacy Too Long Misunderstood | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer

Other conference goers, many of whom are Gadgetoff regulars, also shone: including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, TED conference founder Richard Saul Wurman, computer engineer Danny Hillis, polymathic inventor Dean Kamen, sly literary agent John Brockman and Creative Good's Mark Hurst.

FORBES: Radical Ideas