Incredibly, this is the seventh year of the D: All Things Digital conference.

We feel very lucky to get here, especially in the midst of what our own site’s Digital Daily scribe, John Paczkowski, has so perfectly dubbed the “econalypse.”

Ironically, Walt Mossberg and I planned to launch the very first conference in the middle of the last major downturn for tech, in 2001. But, in the carnage of the Web 1.0 meltdown, we actually held off for two years, with our first D gathering taking place in 2003.

It’s been a real winning streak since then for D, due in large part to our great speakers–such as Microsoft (MSFT) icon Bill Gates and Apple (AAPL) legend Steve Jobs.

Both have been onstage many times over the years, including a historic interview the pair of tech titans did together in 2007 at D5.

Other amazing speakers have included: Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE), Barry Diller of InterActiveCorp (IACI), legendary director George Lucas, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes, Jeff Bezos of Amazon (AMZN), former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, News Corp. (NWS) head Rupert Murdoch, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer, Walt Disney (DIS) honcho Bob Iger, Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), CBS (CBS) CEO Les Moonves, Democratic and Republican pols like former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John McCain, all the leadership of Google (GOOG) and many, many more.

We have had a lot of great moments onstage with all these tech and media players over the years, to be sure, with interviews ranging from the funny to the sublime to the truly disastrous.

But, like the digital industry and the innovation our conference focuses on, we also like to lean forward to try to figure out what the Next Big Thing is around the corner, whether it comes from Silicon Valley or not.

That’s why we’re kicking off our conference on May 26 with two of the founders of Twitter–Biz Stone and Evan Williams–who are riding high on tech’s latest hot thing, which might turn out to be either a rocket ship or a shooting star.

They’ll be followed up over the next two days by a plethora of interesting players, from the leaders of several major mobile companies to content execs hit hard by fast-moving digital forces to a new Internet leader like Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz, who is trying to turn around one of the Web’s great icons from its more recent lackluster path.

And, as we always do, we will be featuring a spate of demos too, trying to see if we can unearth that next next thing.

In the past, the D stage has seen the debut of start-up products like Sling Media’s Slingbox, Aliph’s Jawbone and Pure Digital’s Flip, all of which have gone onto glory. And also some, like Palm’s Foleo, which did not.

While not everyone can attend D, our crack staff is committed to bringing all the action from this year’s conference to readers of the All Things Digital site via up-to-the-minute blogs, photos, videos, tweets, digs and more. We’ll also, as soon as we can, post the videos of each of the onstage sessions, in their entirety.

Until it all kicks off, here is the list of speakers, below, in alphabetical order, who will be appearing at 2009’s D7 conference:

Irving Azoff | CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM)

Mitchell Baker | Chairman of Mozilla

Steve Ballmer | CEO of Microsoft

Carol Bartz | CEO of Yahoo

Mark Cuban | Chairman of HDNet and Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theaters and Magnolia Pictures

Eve Ensler | Playwright and Founder of V-Day

Arianna Huffington | Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo | CEO of Nokia (NOK)

Mike Lazaridis | Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIMM)

John Lilly | CEO of Mozilla

John Malone | Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation (LCAPA)

Roger McNamee | Partner, Elevation Partners

Jon Miller | Chief Digital Officer of News Corp.

Jon Rubinstein | Executive Chairman, Palm (PALM)

Randall Stephenson | CEO of AT&T (T)

Biz Stone | Co-founder of Twitter

Owen Van Natta | CEO of MySpace

Katharine Weymouth | Publisher of the Washington Post (WPO)

Evan Williams | Co-founder and CEO of Twitter

Jeff Zucker | CEO of NBC Universal (GE)

I chatted with both Rosensweig and Activision (ATVI) president and CEO Bobby Kotick yesterday about the move and where the gaming company is going in the year ahead.

“I love music and I love big brands,” said Rosensweig (pictured here), whose enthusiasm for music, especially for Bruce Springsteen, is well known in Silicon Valley. “I wanted to do something different, something fun and something that was going to be the next big space online.”

And, indeed, the online music gaming space is stronger than most other Internet businesses these days, with a lot of potential, having just started to tap into social networking, mobile and other interactive possibilities.

So far, as a retail and home phenom, Guitar Hero has been a huge success since its release in 2005, followed by several new versions. And the company will be releasing a hip-hop-themed DJ Hero–complete with a turntable–soon, for example.

But, to keep up the pace, it will now be Rosensweig’s job to feed the consumer beast as never before.

Kotick said he had spent a lot of time looking for the right exec to turbocharge the company’s online Guitar Hero network. Already, for example, he pointed out that 200,000 original, user-generated songs had been uploaded to its Web site, with many millions downloaded back.

He noted that the concept of the “release your inner rock star” fantasy that Guitar Hero taps into at home had still not gone online as much as it could, and added that the brand would be moving into more and more music genres.

“We already have a big online business, but we have not even reached into five percent of the installed base of gamers,” said Kotick (pictured here). “I wanted someone who could focus on this with a passion and who gets how to leverage what we have already built.”

Kotick said he initially had asked Rosensweig for suggestions about who would be good for the job, having gotten to know him when Rosensweig was COO of Yahoo (YHOO) and Kotick was on its board.

“It was funny, but as I started talking to him, I thought he was the perfect person for it,” he said.

And it was perfect timing too, with all the turbulence on Wall Street and in the private equity business. Rosensweig had already been thinking about getting back into operations, after his post-Yahoo stint at Quadrangle.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the market, but what I really wanted to do was be part of developing a whole new space for an already hugely successful brand,” he said. “The growth opportunity and the ability to scale here is enormous.”

Rosensweig, who will start April 20, does have his work cut out for him, overseeing Guitar Hero’s game development, marketing and distribution.

(The division’s former head and the co-creator of Guitar Hero, Kai Huang, will report to him, while Rosensweig will report to Activision President Mike Griffith.)

Besides dealing with the weak economy, which the company signaled in its most recent quarter could bring trouble, the Guitar Hero behemoth must keep innovating.

Rosensweig is also facing competition when competitor Rock Band releases a Beatles-focused music offering in September. It is likely to be very popular, even though Guitar Hero has typically outsold Rock Band.

More significantly, some think the entire online music gaming trend has played out, with sales down year over year.

Not Rosensweig. “It is just the beginning of what it could be online in this business,” he said.

And, for those interested, here is the full press release:

Activision Publishing Names Media Veteran and Former Yahoo! COO Dan Rosensweig President and CEO of Guitar Hero(R) Business Unit

–Appointment Further Strengthens Company’s Senior Management Team

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 23, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/–Further strengthening its senior management team, Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today that Dan Rosensweig has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of RedOctane, the business unit which develops the blockbuster Guitar Hero(R) franchise and soon to be released DJ Hero(TM).

Mr. Rosensweig will oversee Guitar Hero’s global operations including game development, hardware manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and marketing. He will report directly to Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing. Kai Huang, former President and CEO of RedOctane, who along with his brother Charles Huang created Guitar Hero, will continue working at RedOctane reporting to Mr. Rosensweig.

Mr. Rosensweig brings significant experience to Activision having served as Chief Operating Officer of Yahoo! from 2002 through 2006, where he oversaw the company’s worldwide operations including its product development, marketing, and advertising sales and the development and introduction of inventive new Internet advertising formats.

Additionally, he spent 18 years at Ziff Davis, most recently serving as President where he was responsible for the global operations of the company and the successful merger of ZDNet and CNET. He held several senior positions during his tenure at Ziff-Davis, including President and Chief Executive Officer of ZDNet, which he built from a standalone Ziff-Davis company to a publicly traded, highly trafficked Internet network, President of Ziff-Davis Internet Publishing Group and Vice-President and Publisher of PC Magazine.

Prior to joining Activision, from 2007-2009, Mr. Rosensweig served as an operating principal at Quadrangle Group, a private investment firm, where he focused on the firm’s media and communications private equity business.

“Under the leadership of Kai and Charles, Guitar Hero established the music gaming genre and became a global phenomenon,” said Mike Griffith. “With the addition of Dan’s proven operational expertise and leadership, we will continue expanding the franchise’s global footprint in new and innovative ways. Dan’s deep understanding of how consumers can be entertained online will be invaluable as we continue to build Guitar Hero’s complementary growth channels, further establish the franchise as an innovative music platform and develop relationships with new business partners.”

Robert Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard noted, “I had the great pleasure of working with Dan during his tenure at Yahoo!. Dan has a rare combination of deep business expertise, entrepreneurial instincts and an incredible passion for music. We are looking forward to leveraging his proven online experience to build upon the billions of hours of entertainment we deliver each year in the Guitar Hero network.”

“I am extremely excited for this opportunity to work with the talented Guitar Hero team, which has transformed the interactive entertainment landscape,” said Mr. Rosensweig. “With a platform and content that universally engages a wide range of audiences, Guitar Hero has incredible growth potential. I look forward to continuing to develop Guitar Hero into an even more successful enterprise.”

Former Yahoo COO and current Quadrangle Group partner Dan Rosensweig (pictured here) will take over as CEO and president of Activision Blizzard’s powerful Guitar Hero franchise, according to sources close to the situation.

Rosensweig will run the hot gaming company’s division, which is located in Silicon Valley, the result of its purchase of RedOctane in 2006, source said.

He is well known to Activision (ATVI) Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick, who served on the Yahoo board for many years when Rosensweig was a key exec there. Both Rosensweig and Kotick have since left Yahoo.

It’s an interesting move for Rosensweig, who has been working in private equity since his departure from Yahoo (YHOO) in late 2006.

His name has been bandied about for several high-profile Web positions of late, and many thought he might take a political job, given that he was one of many digital execs involved in helping elect President Barack Obama.

But the weak market for investments and Rosensweig’s longtime experience and interest in eventually returning to operations–along with his well-known passion for music–are the likeliest motivators for the move to Guitar Hero.

Sources said Rosensweig will start his new job at Guitar Hero–which Activision could announce as early as tomorrow–in several weeks.

Running a major consumer brand like Guitar Hero seems tailor-made for Rosensweig, who worked at CNET Networks and Ziff-Davis before Yahoo. In addition, the jovial exec is well-respected in Silicon Valley, giving Activision a much more prominent presence here.

And the energetic Kotick (pictured below with me and, yes, Paula Abdul of “American Idol”–don’t ask) has long talked about turbocharging the largely retail Guitar Hero business online, as a way to further grow the music phenom.

User-generated music, as well as a plethora of online transactions and social networking, have been promising new revenue opportunities, Kotick has said.

(See video highlights of my interview with Kotick below on that topic and more at last year’s D: All Things Digital conference.)

Overall, despite the weak economy and a cautious forecast going forward, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision is growing, with revenues up in the last quarter, due in large part to the popularity of its Guitar Hero and Call of Duty videogames.

Its fast pace, in contrast to rival Electronic Arts (ERTS), has been helped by its merger with Vivendi SA’s Blizzard Entertainment last summer. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft online game is also one of the most popular multiplayer games in the world.

Here’s a highlights video from my interview with Kotick at D6:

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business.

The video of the interview is in three parts.

It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry since Electronic Arts (ERTS) abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) over the weekend.

EA’s effort was motivated, in part, by Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft,” one the most popular multi-player games.

The merger has made Activision (ATVI), with its own well-known franchises–especially the hugely popular “Guitar Hero,” which debuted version IV at D6–one of the gaming industry’s largest companies.

In this third video, Kotick publicly demos “Guitar Hero IV” for the first time, with the help of special guest stars Paula Abdul of “American Idol” and skateboarding star Tony Hawk.

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business.

The video of the interview is in three parts.

It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry since Electronic Arts (ERTS) abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) over the weekend.

EA’s effort was motivated, in part, by Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft,” one the most popular multi-player games.

The merger has made Activision (AVTI), with its own well-known franchises–especially the hugely popular “Guitar Hero,” which debuted version IV at D6–one of the gaming industry’s largest companies.

In this second video, Kotick talks about virtual goods and in-game advertising, the international market, set-top boxes, violence and “Grand Theft Auto,” the competitiveness of the gaming business, the situation at Yahoo (he was, until recently, a board member), and takes a question from the audience about social gaming.

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business.

The video of the interview is in three parts.

It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry since Electronic Arts (ERTS) abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) over the weekend.

EA’s effort was motivated, in part, by Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft,” one the most popular multi-player games.

The merger has made Activision (AVTI), with its own well-known franchises–especially the hugely popular “Guitar Hero,” which debuted version IV at D6–one of the gaming industry’s largest companies.

In this first video, Kotick talks about the merger with Vivendi–which aims to inject social gaming DNA into Activision–the popularity of Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox; better graphical, storytelling and character development in games; gaming on social networks; business models in the industry; and the EA attempt to acquire Take-Two.

Okay, a show of hands of those who don’t want to hear another word about how incompetent the other side is in the now-settled proxy fight between activist investor Carl Icahn and Yahoo.

Icahn, whom Yahoo insisted last week was unfit to even turn on a computer, now appears to be perfectly capable of leading the troubled Internet company as a board member, along with two cronies of his choosing (with Yahoo’s consent).

What’s not clear–except for removing uncertainty and noise–is exactly what this means for shareholders or how it gets Yahoo (YHOO) back on track or even how a possible deal with Microsoft is now struck.

BoomTown honestly does not know what to think of this development, given that Yang seemed to have the upper hand in the fight after Icahn started looking too greedy in a power grab with Microsoft (MSFT) for Yahoo assets in recent weeks.

Why then give in to Icahn now? I guess to stop the annual meeting on Aug. 1 from being a three-ring circus and to take the focus off of the battle right before Yahoo announces its second-quarter earnings tomorrow against a strong economic headwind that already knocked over both Google (GOOG) and Microsoft.

(And, by the way, Yahoo’s proxyfacts.yahoo.com attack on Icahn is now miraculously gone!)

From a let’s-be-safe perspective, it’s the right move, shutting up Icahn a little bit. He’s still going on about doing some sort of Microsoft deal, of course, in order to recoup his losses on the shares he bought in Yahoo.

But unless the newly constituted board is now jetting up to Redmond en masse with a magic potion that will convince Microsoft to fork over $33 a share (remember, the old board members will get sued if they accept less), Icahn might have to cool his heels a while before Yahoo excels again.

In fact, with the old board in place–minus Activision (ACTI) CEO Bobby Kotick, who has got to be breathing a deep sigh of relief, since he does a lot of business with Microsoft–and the Icahn trio, it feels more than a little unwieldy, block-prone and probably deeply confusing.

Kind of like the United Nations, but not as well organized.

So, you get the picture of how an 11-member board works, right? The lugubrious quicksand of Yahoo prevails!

One hopes Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang–who kind of played BoomTown and the rest of us with his genuinely fake emotional expressions of horror about Icahn and distaste for Microsoft for joining with him–is now prepping another Oscar-winning performance to convince Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that he likes him, he really likes him.

Still, it’s nice to see former AOL head Jon Miller added to the list of possible choices for the Icahn seats.

At least the definitely competent Miller is someone who knows a thing or two about reviving an iconic Web brand in turmoil, from his stint taking over the Time Warner (TWX) unit just after the merger with AOL failed and everyone at AOL bugged out carrying sacks of money.

Speaking of sacks of money, Icahn does not get one here and neither does any other shareholder in this scenario. It seems that now the real work will begin for Yahoo.

My prediction, given the amount of bile Yang has been throwing at Microsoft: A delegation is already knocking at the door of Microsoft HQ talking about a new search deal it is willing to entertain now that Icahn taking over Yahoo is not the sticking point.

Because, for better or worse, Icahn has been bought and paid for by Yahoo.

Now, perhaps it is Yahoo’s turn to get the same treatment from Microsoft. Unless, of course, Yang has another big idea for turning Yahoo around.

In that case, Jerry, we’re all ears.

The Wall Street Journal published a special tab (click the image to make it larger) about our sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place live two weeks ago.

The Journal editors selected about half of the interviews done there by Walt Mossberg and me, either separately or together, and edited the longer transcripts down to the parts they thought readers would like best.

Those interviews include: Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer; Yahoo’s (YHOO) Sue Decker and Jerry Yang; Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos; Activision’s (ATVI) Bobby Kotick; the Gates Foundation’s Melinda Gates; TiVo’s (TIVO) Tom Rogers; and Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. (NWS) (owner of this site and the conference).

We hope you’ll enjoy the tab, which is both in print and also online. And you can always read all about it in our D6 highlights here, including super-duper live-blogging from the conference by Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski.

There is also a podcast about the conference with Walt and me, conducted by The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Totty.

During an interview yesterday, he even got a few good ones off about the funny foibles of Activision, the gaming company he runs, even though it has suddenly become a much more serious business after a recent merger with Vivendi Universal’s gaming division.

Here’s a video chat with Kotick, who also serves on the board of Yahoo, which I made after we had lunch at–like I said, he’s funny–Google’s cafeteria (and, of course, he also gets a good one in about Electronic Arts’ competitive Rock Band game at the end):

Activision, which makes the popular Guitar Hero video game series (its Guitar Hero III is expected to be one of the best-selling this holiday season), has vaunted itself to be about equal in size to EA, the longtime dominant video game company.

Perhaps most importantly for Activision, the move puts the business squarely into the Web space. Vivendi’s Blizzard Entertainment unit makes the hugely popular World of Warcraft multiplayer game, where users compete on the Internet.

Kotick will be CEO of the merged company, even though Vivendi will get a 52% stake. It will be called Activision Blizzard with combined revenues of $3.7 billion.

But even together, the pair face the challenge of churning out more hits and keeping their franchises fresh.