More than 500 senior business executives have gathered today at the 14th annual Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) Executive Strategy Forum to hear how to survive and thrive in the X Internet age. Forrester’s Forum, “The X Internet: The Next Voyage,” is being held at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, and it ends on November 9.

As the Internet expands, two new waves of innovation, constituting what Forrester calls the X Internet, are already eclipsing the Web: an executable Net that greatly improves the online experience and an extended Net that connects users to the real world. An executable Net that supplants today’s Web will move code to users’ PCs to captivate consumers in ways that static pages never could. The extended Internet is reshaping businesses through Internet devices and applications that sense, analyze, and control what is going on in the real world.

“Today, the X Internet is all about doing more with what you have,” said Carl D. Howe, principal analyst at Forrester. “Companies have invested millions in PCs, devices, and bandwidth to support today’s inefficient Web. Executable and extended Internet applications let you exploit the power of that existing equipment, satisfy the customer better, and reduce bandwidth costs in the bargain.”

During this two-day Event, industry leaders and Forrester analysts will help companies understand how the X Internet will change their business. Richard Belluzzo, president and COO of Microsoft will discuss .NET and how Microsoft fits into the new X Internet landscape. Dr. Jim Mitchell, VP and director of Sun Laboratories, will talk about Sun’s X Internet ambitions. Additionally, OnStar President Chet Huber will discuss the lessons he has learned creating an early instance of the X Internet.

“The ability to leverage the automobile as a platform to deliver extended Internet services will play a vital role in the next generation of the Internet,” says Huber. “Americans spend more than 500 million hours per week in vehicles, and they want to be able to use that time productively.”

Also at the Forum, Forrester Research Director Charles Rutstein will highlight his top five executable and top five extended X Internet vendors. The executable vendors in order are Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, AppStream, Altio, and Curl. The extended vendors are GE/Cisco Industrial Networks, IBM, Opto 22, WhereNet, and eMation.