As the global exploration industry confronts the twin megatrends of increasing raw material demand and depletion of near-surface deposits, we need to build a capability to rise to this challenge. Doing this will require the best new science, the best new tools, and the best new ways of pragmatically applying them. It will also need new concepts and technologies from fields that we currently don't even consider as economic geology. Much of this is already happening today. The goal of SEG 2014 is to provide a forum to bring together in one conference the key new work that is contributing to this new capability. The conference will be a meeting where the broadest spectrum of economic geology stakeholders can interact, covering topics that range from advanced academic studies to practical application.