"This is going to change our lives," Maner said.

Another speaker, Paul Maritz, president and CEO of VMware, said he's been privileged to live through the entire PC era that spawned still-formidable companies like Apple and Microsoft. "It's somewhat bittersweet to realize now that this era is coming to an end," he said.

The emerging era, Maritz said, "is all about how we sort, comment on, and rearrange" streams of information flowing to and from users. "This era is going to have as big an impact as the PC era," he said.

The technologies receiving this year's awards were focused on shaping the future of the tech industry.

A major theme was controlling energy use.