Wow, wow, wow.  What a great event!  You should all be congratulated on the work you did to make the night a raging success!  We had great products and a great supporting network of folks who came about to make a difference for Massachusetts-based innovators.  Let’s hear what you all had to say.

Let’s start off the pre-event coverage!  Thanks to Dave Atkins for profiling Pietzo and Drupal Gardens before the event actually happened.  Dave looked at our website, checked out the company websites and picked his favorites.  Of course we also saw mentions from various innovators and experts, helping to promote the event as a whole.  We’re all about the crowd sourcing promotion, huh?

Tech writer Janet was among the first to file a detailed report from the event – gotta love those professional writers.  She gave us a nice write up of Pietzo, Episend, Real Cool TV, and Drupal Gardens.  Christine Sierra was hard on her heels, writing up Clean Journey, Episend, Pietzo, and Drupal Gardens.  Janet from Neuron Robotics also came through with a nice post showing what a great networking event it was.    And, not everyone writes about every event.  Doug Haslam (or @DougH on Twitter) posted a picture on Flickr showing the standing room only crowd (OK, maybe 1/2 the room).  BostInnovation sent a team out to cover the event too!  Pictures and a story!

Check out these videos of the event:

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It’s going to be a fun Mass Innovation Nights.  We’re back at the Waltham IBM Innovation Center and, in addition to our usual assortment of new and innovate products, we’re hosting a cluster of green and/or clean products.

1. Check them out — visit their websites, see what are they talking about on Twitter, on Facebook, etc.
2. RSVP and we’ll see you on Wednesday, July 14 so you can check out the companies in person.

Acquia Drupal Gardens – SaaS version of Drupal, site + community management tool
BuySellAds.com – Private label ad network software.
CleanJourney -  Clean Tech Business Networking Platform
Difra, Inc. – Residential architectural design technology
Episend -  Rich Media Messaging and Sharing
Leslie Reichert, The Cleaning Coach – Coaching people to Green their Cleaning
Miss Pinup Power 2011 — Renewable Energy Pinup Calendar (Website coming soon!) (POSTPONED)
Real Cool TV – Marketing content dev & video & web technology
Pietzo Hybrid Electric Bike – Sustainable transport to speed your commute  
Yankee Barn Homes – Energy Efficient Timber Frame Homes

Plus, in keeping with our green theme, special guests Rate it Green from last month.

Voting has closed and our presenters will be: Pietzo, Acquia Drupal Gardens, Episend, and Real Cool TV!  Check out the final tally on the results below!

It may have been a Thursday night, but it was still Mass Innovation Nights in Waltham at the IBM Innovation Center.  Once again ably hosted by our friends at IBM, we gathered to check out what’s new in Massachusetts innovation and blogged, tweeted, videoed and networked! We also welcomed the Boston-area finalists from SmartCamp and heard from the  winner.  (Helpful hint:  you can still enter SmartCamp in other locations!)  It was also part of New England Innovation Month — go #NEInno.

Huge thanks to the SmartCamp finalists for jumping in like the pros they are to man the tables and explain their products after a full, exhausting day at SmartCamp! Thanks, SkyMeter, Sendsor, ProxPro, Sproxil and GISCloud.

Our goal, as always, is to help local companies make some noise, get some visibility, and make connections.  Over the past 15 months, we’ve hosted more than 150 companies, generated thousands of tweets, LinkedIn status posts, Facebook posts, blog posts, video, pictures and links.  Here are a few from this month:

Joe Cronin from Rewatchable gave us a nice roundup of the presenters.  Our friends from BostInnovation also did a roundup of the presenters and visited a few of the tables too!  Our friend Janet brought her new friends from Neuron Robotics (congrats on the new job, Janet!) and did a nice blog post on the presenters, tables, experts and gave out kudos for the networking opportunities.  We also got a nice post from MIN first-timer, Janet Egan,  “a darn good tech writer for hire” who gives Experts Corner participant Bill Scher props for helping her with her tech writing pitch.

Here are some quick snapshots from the evening — check out JumperSearch’s slides.  What to hear what Tony_Artuso was talking about with Proxpro?  Or find out how VC Ready really gets new clients?  Or find out how far away we had people coming from for the event?  Or some of the silly questions that got asked?

Don’t forget to let us know if you blog about the event, or one of the companies.  We’d love to link to you.  Also looking for video from the evening, @bobbiec was too busy getting pitched by MassChallenge companies — we’re an “endorser” — to get out the Sony HandyCam HD.  (The MIN-ion is thankful, a well-earned break from video-editing.  You can still check out our previous videos, or post your own on YouTube.  The most recent video is from our most recent Innovation Breakfast presentation by Bill Warner.  Note that we’ve transitioned Innovation Breakfast to a Friday morning drop-in, 8:30 to 10:00 am at the Cafe on the Common, Main Street, Waltham.  See you there.

Check out the great experts we have lined up for the Experts Corner this month!  (Plus, we are hoping to see lots of the mentors from the IBM SmartCamp sticking around!)  These experts (and many others) attend Mass Innovation Nights and are available to answer your questions and help you!

Miguel Danielson and Randall Morin are intellectual property attorneys with the Cambridge law firm of Danielson Legal LLC.  Miguel has worked with hundreds of companies over the last nine years on all aspects of intellectual property law with a focus on technology licensing, trademark, copyright, and Internet law.  While he concentrates on the software and high technology sectors, he has also worked with innovators in many different industries such as publishing, consumer goods, and professional services. Randy’s experience includes the management and prosecution of hundreds of patent applications in the U.S. and over a dozen international jurisdictions. He has significant experience in patent drafting and prosecution, searching and clearance, and appeal proceedings.  Randall’s clients  have had business interests in a wide variety of fields including life sciences, medical devices, nanotechnology, software, and mechanical devices.

Kai Rostcheck – Free Marketing Made Easy — A serial entrepreneur with deep roots in business development, Kai has more than 15 years of experience in Sales and Marketing. He has learned the retail, technology, media and wellness industries, worked in direct sales at national and local levels, built reseller and distributor relationships and brought several new product categories to market. An avid online and offline small business networker, he recently developed *Free Marketing Made Easy*, an Internet Marketing program for traditional businesses owners and early stage entrepreneurs who need to get online, don’t have a lot to spend and aren’t sure where to start.

Bill Scher is back with us!  Bill is with Adventus/Sandler, a global sales training and professional development consulting firm.  He has spent over 25 years in sales and sales management. Bill’s areas of expertise are training around helping emerging companies with new business development; shortening sales cycles, relationship building and defining sales process.  Bill told us about his one day course “Presenting Yourself with Impact” currently scheduled for July 22.  Learn how to:  Organize presentations that meet audience needs; Control anxiety while public speaking; Harness the power of non-verbal communication; Control nervous habits like “aahs & uhms”;  Increase your “personal presence; Manage your audience.

Stacie Andrews will be on hand as well.  Stacie is our partner to the North — Provado Marketing Solutions. She provides multi-channel development for high-growth companies and is organizing an Innovation Nights event in Maine!

Image courtesy of Metropolis Creative

Last year Scott Kirsner gathered together a group of folks to declare June Innovation Month in New England.   It was nice to see the attention being paid to local innovation and maybe Scott’s columns, the mentions in numerous blogs and the consolidated calendar helped to encourage a few more people to get out and see what others were doing.

Based on the success of that effort, it was a no-brainer to make it happen again – Scott called together a group of folks and we discussed ideas for how we could make Innovation Month 2.0 better, faster, stronger…

Today we’re kicking off the second New England Innovation month – look for events and blog posts marked with #NEInno.  (MassInno expects to see even more blogs contributing to the effort this year and we will do our level best to Tweet about them, link to them and other help promote them as they promote New England Innovation.  Drop us a line if we’re slow to link.)

We’re excited to be involved in New England Innovation Month.  We’ll do anything we can to encourage people to leave their desk, get out of the office and do something a little out of the ordinary.   You never know when inspiration may hit.  You never know what may inspire you.

And here’s where we depart from the usual Mass Innovation Nights script.  (BTW, if you didn’t already know this, we’ll lay it out for you.  Mass Innovation Nights is a super-friendly networking event – we encourage all and try to make sure we have something good to say about everyone.  We’re the nicey-nice event in town.)

Forget inspiration.  Forget networking.  Forget about “working together because when one of us wins we all win”.  Do this for you.  When was the last time you looked at what the competition was doing?  Maybe with an eye toward one-upping them? When did you last sit in on a demo from one of those super-hot startups who will be competing with you for investor dollars?  How long has it been since you really took a look at what is going on in your own back yard?  And looked at what your own firm is doing with a critical eye?

How long have you been working on your current project?  For your current company?  Is your knowledge about the rest of the industry really up-to-date? Competitors.  Potential partners.  Parallel industries.  What do you really know about them?

You need to get out more.  Seriously.  You owe it to yourself.  You owe it to your company.  If you are an entrepreneur, you owe it to your investors or potential investors. Get serious about educating yourself about what else is happening in the marketplace.  And the best way to do that is not by sitting at your desk.

Consider your ass kicked…

But in a loving supportive manner.

Some of the blog posts already out there:

Computer Science Teacher thoughts

Jay’s Custom Computers

5 Ideas

The Daily Grommet Blog

Greenhorn Top 10 Events in June

Eric Paley

Digital Lumens

We’re changing things up in the Innovation Nights world again — our June event will be on a THURSDAY! Thursday, June 3 to be exact.  This special Mass Innovation Nights (#MIN15 if you keep count) will coincide with the IBM Smartcamp being held that day.

We’re also going to be showcasing some of the state’s “Smartest” start-ups from SmartCamp.  SmartCamp is a global program bringing together entrepreneurs, investors and experienced mentors who want to build a Smarter Planet. SmartCamp provides access to world-class advisers plus a direct route to seed and venture capital. In each location, five companies will be selected to spend one day networking with 25 world-class entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts. (Note: the Boston deadline is May 21 — you still have time to enter your company!)   Some of the SmartCamp finalists will stick around and show off their products!

In addition, we have our usual assortment of cool companies.  VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. We’re saving room to get a look at the SmartCamp winner too!  Our three presenters will be Jumper Networks, Rate it Green and thebuyersNET.com.  BUT these great companies will ALL have a table AND we’ll get to see the SmartCamp companies too!

Founder Institute — 4-month apprenticeship and training program for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs
Jumper Networks, Jumper 2.0 –  enterprise bookmarking engine
Porticus Technology, Inc. VoiceKeyID — Wireless Voice Biometric Security
Rate it Green — Green building peer-review directory/community
thebuyersNET.com from Stellar Netcom, Inc. — Group buying, buyers get together and negotiate volume discounts
Laxy – Footwear and apparel for lacrosse players

Thanks to everyone who came out to #MIN14, and a very special thanks to Scott Kirsner for mentioning us in his blog.  It was great to see such a wide variety of new products – everything from innovative software to low-maintenance grass seed! Let us know when you blog about the event and we’ll connect to it.

Here are some video highlights of the evening:

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We also have some video taken by one of our attendees:

And, we are starting to see blog posts roll in…and here.

Don’t forget, next month’s Mass Innovation Nights is on a special date: THURSDAY June 3rd.  Mark your calendars now!

Every month, a number of service providers and industry experts donate their time to help our entrepreneurs and innovators.  Stop by and ask your tough questions.  They can help you.  Our May Experts Corner team covers off  business development and strategic alliances, market research, product launches, finance and funding, and IT development strategies. 

The May Experts Corner team includes:

• Tom Coyle: Tom’s career focus has been on delivering wireless technology solutions for the supply chain, transportation, government and retail customers. As Vice President at Mark IV Industries Tom led business development efforts for new initiatives. Mark IV is a leading provider of RFID systems and is the largest toll tag manufacturer today, the maker of EZ-Pass transponders and readers. Tom led Sales & Marketing efforts for Matrics, Inc., a leading RFID hardware provider which was acquired by Symbol (now Motorola) in 2004. At Savi Technology (now Lockheed Martin), Tom was the Director of Strategic Alliances. Savi is a leading provider of active RFID hardware and software solutions. As director of business development at Texas Instruments, Tom led efforts for RFID and GPS-based tracking solutions. Tom held consulting and management positions at EG&G (Cambridge, MA) supporting efforts at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. He was a supply chain analyst for General Electric. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He began his career as a test pilot and maintenance manager with an air cavalry unit in the U.S. Army. Tom was a founder and past President of the Kendall Square Learning Project, an adult literacy program based in Cambridge, MA.
• Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar,  has a special interest in how organizations acquire, manage, and apply market research. Over the past 20 years, she has personally directed over 600 primary market research projects and published over 100 bylined articles in trade magazines. Kathryn is also the author of the book, “How to Hire & Manage Market Research Agencies,” available on Amazon.  Currently, Kathryn spends her time assisting companies as they create market research departments, develop market research strategies, or otherwise optimize their use of market research. She is also the founder and president of Research Rockstar, a company that delivers online and in-person training to managers seeking to get the most from their market research investments. Prior to Research Rockstar, Kathryn completed the transition of Sage Research—an agency that she founded and led for 13 years—to its new parent company.
• David Knies from launch control. launch control’s entire focus is launching new brands and businesses, with brand strategy, brand experience design and brand launch.
• Connie Wright is Managing Director, Business Solutions for Accounting Management Solutions, Inc. This group focuses on public, private and emerging businesses, with a concentration in the technology and life sciences arena. Connie and AMS are hosting a free breakfast called “Funding for all Stages” later this month.
• Rama Nandiwada, Founder & President, IT Shore LLC, scalable software solutions.

Here they are, our May team of Innovators and their new products for the May Mass Innovation Night event –  Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at the Waltham IBM Innovation Center, 404 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA.  Doors open at 6:00, presentations start at 7:00, plus a lot of networking and fun in between! Use #MIN14 when you tweet about this event!

Check out the websites and don’t forget to RSVP — our RSVP list makes networking a cinch.

Boomerang — email follow-up made easy
BiddingforGood, AIRS — online charity donation request system
Buckts – Firefox add on for Facebook and News Feeds
JitterJam – Social, Email & Mobile Marketing
MysteryMeet – Boston Foodies discovering new restaurants
Pearl’s Premium Ultra Low Maintenance Grass Seed
ReInforced Care™ – Hospital Re-admissions Reduction Services
Software Horizons Inc – InstantHMI, Human Machine Interface for Industrial Automation
Wow Mobile, Walking Hotspot – wirelessly connect to the Internet at broadband speed
WebinarListings — Online seminars at your fingertips

Voting for the four presenters is now over – the following companies earned a 5 minute presentation slot: BiddingforGood, Boomerang, JitterJam and WebinarListings.  See you soon!

Happy Birthday!

That’s right, it’s been a full year since Bobbie Carlton and Dan Englander started bringing together the Boston-based innovation community to meet, network, and celebrate the launch of new products ranging from web software, to alternative energy, to healthcare, to . . . popsicles.  We celebrated Mass Innovation Night’s first anniversary at the IBM Innovation Center in Waltham due to the flooding at the Charles River Museum of Industry (our regular location).  Thanks to the folks at IBM for hosting the event at short notice, and thanks to EditMe for providing the delicious cake.  (And when you get that tax refund check, consider donating some of it towards the Museum’s cleanup expenses; you did remember to file your taxes, right?)

For those of you who missed it, Paul Geffen has a quick recap of the action. We also got a nice mention in Captain Ed’s blog from the Navigator Club.  (We love our non-tech Innovators — isn’t the Navigator Club just like Zipcar for boats?)

Best quote of the night from Michael Grover “Everywhere I looked, people were networking at a fever pitch.”  (That wasn’t a fever pitch, Michael, that was a sugar high!  Did you get cake?)

We were very pleased with the turnout; especially with the fact that we can attract the next generation of innovators, like these students from Boston University…really like the recognition of Mass Innovation Nights as a friendly event!

And of course, we had a great lineup of presentations:

Nine Technology

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EditMe

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Appstella

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WineHug

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Be sure to keep checking our website for upcoming events!