The 47th ICFA Beam Dynamics workshop, also endorsed by the ICFA sub-panel on Advanced and Novel Accelerators, entitled “The Physics and Applications of High Brightness Electron Beams”, was held November 16-19, 2009. It was the latest in a series of such topical workshops, with a traditional emphasis on light sources, new acceleration techniques, and fundamental beam physics.  In this talk, we review the highlights of the workshop. The cutting edge radiation production methods discussed include variations on the new generation light sources such, the free-electron laser, as well as inverse Compton scattering of intense lasers. These diverse approaches are able to create high peak and high average power light sources, with applications in ultrafast sciences and the Å level, as well as in nuclear and high-energy physics. Likewise, high brightness beams are at the center of many future accelerator schemes, e.g. based on high gradient electron and laser wakefields.  Indeed, laser wakefield accelerators are now entering the proof-of-application phase, where unique light sources based on advanced acceleration schemes are enabled. The workshop provided a context for a comparative study of the generation, manipulating, modeling and measuring of high brightness electron beams, and the multitude of underlying, interdisciplinary methods linking the physics of these beam systems to the physics of advanced applications.