This panel introduces and explains the "future directions" and "broadening" discussions at the VLDB Endowment. Panelists are Michael Brodie, Stefano Ceri, Umesh Dayal, John Mylopoulos, and Hans Schek. We report on the steps that are being implemented at the upcoming VLDB Conferences (Mylopoulos). The main objective of the future direction and broadening discussions is to ensure that database technology remains vital. It should keep its pivotal role as infrastructure for application development for data-intensive, central and distributed applications. In a first part we explain the announcement that has been published through DBWorld (Schek). In a second part we report on statistics taken over the last conferences and on first experiences in the implementation of the broadening strategy this year (Brodie). We continue with steps that are undertaken for the upcoming Rome Conference (Ceri) and we conclude with further perspectives on future directions and broadening (...