MassInno Going to the Dogs

At last night’s event, we got to hear about a lot of dogs.  What kind of dog do you have?  That’s because Proportions Dog Food was giving out samples of their gourmet dog food and the audience at #MIN12 was eating it up…err…taking it home to their puppies! 

We changed up the format, using the entire museum (except the amphitheater) last night.  By scattering the tables everywhere — downstairs, on the mezzanine and in the big room, things weren’t as noisy and bunched up and people were able to hold conversations easier.  Putting the demonstrations upstairs meant that anyone who wanted to see, could!  No more crowding into the too-small amphitheater!  (Although I think we will start the presentations at 7:00 next time to give everyone a chance to arrive.  And we have to find a better way to showcase our experts who ended up hidden in the back.)  The new set-up was much more conducive to networking too!  We even changed up our after-party venue, heading over to Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse for BBQ afterward.  (Thank, Jake’s!  We’ll be back!)

Our MINi-theme shows within a show– Life Sciences/Bio Tech and Mobile (part of Mass Mobile Month) also went well.  While our group of regulars is light on Life Science experience (with a few notable exceptions) we were all intrigued with the work Tomophase is doing (especially those of us with asthma) and impressed with the testimonials from the big name athletes who use NormaTec to recuperate. Zoiray — a thumbs up for your work as well!  (Couldn’t part the crowd to get to you but heard people liked seeing the device humming!)

On the mobile end, it was great to see so many pictures coming out of the Tweetworks demo — liking the new app!  And RaizLabs’ content platform showed off some sweet nursery rhymes.  Say it “sweeeet” and that last sentence takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?)

And, if you want to create more themes, we can do that!  How about a textiles theme?  Appropriate for what was a textiles mill.  Bite’s beautiful reusable bags help do away with those plastic bags you used to have to use at the grocery store.  You know, the little flimsy ones that you feel guilty about using to bring home apples when you have nice reusable canvas totes instead of grocery bags?  We evidently use them up at a rate of a million a minute!  And, also on the textiles front, ThredUp for Kids (OK, it’s a website but there’s clothing involved) looked so easy to use.  (Ask @BobbieC about how fast her boys outgrow stuff!  Trading it in sounds pretty darn good!)

And our final presentation of the evening, by Searchandize, sounded like a boon for people with physical products to sell!  Always like to see the data showing that a product or service really really works.  Impressive stuff.

And we can’t say enough about special guest Dan Hermes’ fine digital art collection.  (Maybe a little competition for the Museum’s upcoming steampunk festival!  Speaking of exhibits — did everyone notice the museum’s new exhibit on patents?  We know we want to spend more time there!)

Videos are below, and remember, if you blog about the event — let us know so we can link to it!