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!

It’s late night here at Innovation Central and we just finished out our Blitztime phone networking chat.  Got some great feedback on what was essentially business speed-dating on the phone!

Before that we did our level best to bring Twitter to its knees with our August Virtual Mass Innovation Night event — and I think we succeeded.  Those last 15 minutes or so we were seeing huge delays in the Twitter conversation.

A Virtual Mass Innovation Night doesn’t give the same rush as the several-hundred-people- in-a-room “real life” Mass Innovation Night but there are some up-sides.

• No parking hassles; no one got lost, or towed…
• No bruises.  (Rolling out those tables in the ballroom at CRMI should qualify you for hazard pay.  Oh, wait, we don’t get paid, at all. Darn.)
• No unflattering photos — why does everyone take our pictures after we have been rolling tables around and are sweating and look like we have been run over by a herd of turkeys.
• Anyone can join in (we had some left-coasters join in the fun and even our Farthest Flung Fan, from Germany)

We had a couple hundred tweets generated for #MIN5 in less than an hour — even with the Twitter Hassles.  (It’s been suggested that Twitter slowed us down “for our own safety.”)  I’m hoping to see some blog love for our Innovators.  I did see some connections taking place.

We had some great questions from the peanut gallery that came in before the event –

Q1) “What does Innovation mean to you?”

• Getting stuff done –> Success at *delivering* innovation. Delivery is not in and of itself innovation.
• @MichaelGrover: Innovation has a lot to do with just getting something done

Q2) @corum wanted to know “who’s  hiring?”  (This question was on a lot of minds.)  On a more serious note, “What selection criteria do you use when screening?”

• @dlane: #1 hiring crit is entrepreneurial mind-set. Startups are a different animal, & you need to have the “fire in your belly.”
• @tsummit: simple & powerful job screening can be accomplished by evaluating work history/what companies the candidate has worked
• @NovellMBAJobs Hard work isn’t enough. Skillz count.

Q3) Do you agree that 21st century innovation remains 99% perspiration?

• At the end of the day, if you don’t have a great idea, all of the perspiration in the world is not going to get you over the hump.
• perspiration = execution of innovation. But even process can be innovative.
• perspiration could have negative connotation but it also could mean hard work

Q4) From @kfl007.  How do you continuously foster innovation in your organization? And balance it with getting daily work done?

• Chip away waste and innovation emerges
• Whatever you are doing (marketing, writing SW, etc), don’t just settle for doing it the way it’s always been done.

Innovator Break: We also asked each of our Innovators what made their product innovative:

• The genealogical database of companies and our “affinity matching” using the professional graph, makes Genotrope.com unique
• SharedSchool creates a discovery engine for lesson plans
• Validize — Our innovation is that we allow individuals and businesses to share their true identity anywhere online – a safer internet.
• Virtual Computer uses transformational technology to make it as easy for IT to manage thousands of PCs as it is to manage 1.
• Virtual Computer — We also do some neat tricks for the end-user, like personal OS and corporate OS on the same PC – fully isolated.

And, thanks a ton, Mike from Blitztime.  It truly was a hassle-free way to network on the phone and brought an element of fun and surprise into the mix.

Phew — what a week!  Obviously everyone is busy as we’re continuing to see #MIN4 articles roll in, and more tweets back and forth.  I love that two days later, there are still lots of good conversations being had.

People are still getting the blog on about Wednesday night’s event.  (See our First Responders’ blog post for the faster writers, or maybe they are just the “night writers”, “Yes, Michael?“)

Check out Red Ember’s “Marketing Barbecue” — totally loving the exchange of ideas that are obviously taking place at Mass Inno events.  We need to bottle that enthusiasm and degree of helpfulness to help our Massachusetts innovators get even more visibility for their new products.  Lots of good discussion about the great companies and products Red Ember met and how they fit into the Red Ember business.

Elli St. George Godfrey gave nods to ViralSkool, Jittergram, KaOoga, SpaceMax & Drync in her blog, Three Keys to Better Business Skills.  It sounds like Elli and Chuck Tanowitz had a great discussion on entrepreneurs and how they make the shift from idea to reality.  Chuck also profiled Drync, WebNotes and SpaceMax.

Also noticed some tweets about people who actually “bought” products from #MIN4 — check out this tweet from Seth and this one from TechPRGuy.

Tell us about the connections you’ve made at Mass Innovation Nights.  Did you get a new client?  Did you discover a product that is the solution to a problem you’ve been wrestling with? Do you have a product that would fit into the virtual August event?  Let us know!

Another awesome night in Waltham, with awesome new products, awesome connections and person-to-person networking happening all around.  Did I mention it was awesome?  (Now if we can just get that promised “big pipe” into the museum before our next live event…once again we overwhelmed the network.  But promises have been made — Comcast, your reputation is on the line here.)

Remember, the objective of Mass Innovation Nights is to support our local innovation community.  So blog, tweet, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, just tell someone, whatever, about the cool companies and products you saw last night.  (Then tell us about it and we’ll link to you so everyone can see.)

So, first up — the #min4 tweets. Special thanks, as always, to TechPRGuy (our first sponsor, who knew a good thing when he heard about it over lunch) who always manages to get to every exhibitor and tweet about them!

On to the early responders — or more accurately, those who stay up late and write — thanks to David & David for being first in!  (Hey, wasn’t that a band in the ’80s? Welcome to the Boomtown?  How appropriate!)

David Holliday has been one of our “regulars” covering the MIN companies from his “Totally Incorrect” blog.  Great feedback for several of our Innovators (and really cool B&W pictures too, in keeping with the vibe from the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation. Our thanks once again to our hosts and to Elln for all her set-up help — note, if you are on our mailing list, last issue you received a 2-for-1 coupon for entrance to the museum.  I’ll be using mine when the patent exhibit opens in August!)

The “other” David, from Boston.com/waltham also chimed in with a quick story on the people of Mass Innovation Nights.  We’re always thrilled to hear about the connections being made at Mass Innovation Nights.  (And while you are at it, have you checked out what’s going on in your town?  (There’s a drop-down list at the top of the page or see if your town is listed here.)

Doug Banks, editor at Mass High Tech, is also speedy on the keyboard, here’s his write up from last night with kudos to our older brother-at-arms, Web Innovators Group.  (Next week in Cambridge – will we see you there?)

Chuck Tanowitz, Boston Solo PR Coffee Guy, also managed to get his Mass Innovation Nights post up before lunch-time — loving the focus on networking!

I also need to thank some folks for helping us to spread the word beforehand — of course, all the Twitterati who mention @massinno and use the #MIN4 hashtag.  (And a special thanks to our demo pit boss from last night, Jeff Cutler who has been a big support/promoter all along!) Plus there’s the NE Games Sig — thanks, guys.  Totally wish someone would get with the cloning so I could have gotten to your event too, just down the street at the Skellig — I hear there was hiring going on!

Meanwhile, as was mentioned last night — August will be a virtual event.  Product people and local innovations, start your videos!

1) Create a short video demo or blog introduction of your product.  Post video on your site or on YouTube with “Innovation Nights” and “#MIN5″ tags.

2) Tell us you are “entering” — use the Submit a Product tab on this site.  Please mark the submission “#MIN5.”  (Note, we are currently full of products for September and October is filling up quickly.  This is the way to jump the line.  Plus, we won’t stop you from showing at one of our live events too — it’s just going to be awhile.)  If you are submitting for August and a live event, please submit twice.

3) We’ll get back to you with next steps.

More soon!

Almost 500 votes cast for the Innovators YOU would most like to see at our July 8 Mass Innovation Night event!  Way to get out the vote, folks!

These are the companies who will be presenting in the small amphitheater on the main floor.

First up is StudioShare!  Then ViralSkool.  Then we’ll hear from Antloc, and WebNotes will round out the evening!

All of the companies will have their own tables upstairs in the ballroom and we’ll also be introducing our special guests — Arts Boston and Wendy Gelberg!

So, we’ll expect to see you all Wednesday night –entrance to the Museum is under the smokestack, by the river!

See you soon!  (And don’t forget, after-party at Biagio’s.)

Do you find yourself having second thoughts after you do something?  I do.  It would have been better if … (fill in the blank.)

Now that the first Mass Innovation Nights is behind us, I’m reviewing my list of “it would have been better if’s.”

I’ll forgo the trekking all over Waltham and Lexington to bring in additional rectangular tables, make do with the circular tables the museum has already and spend my time instead depositing a trail of breadcrumbs (signs) for people to follow to the hidden parking lots.  (I have a huge amount of sympathy on this as I spent one Boston Media Makers Sunday wandering all over Boston and JP looking for Doyle’s.  The next time I caught a ride with Rich Sands and his GPS unit and I doubt I could make it back there on my own.)

For the second Mass Innovation Nights event I think we are going to move all the innovators into the ballroom so they will be all together (no upstairs/downstairs — all upstairs, thru the door.) I think we’ll have more than the 160 attendees we had this time.  We’ll open the ballroom doors at 6:30 and have registration, name tags and mingling among the exhibits starting at 6:00.  Also means no hold up at the door.

One reason for the shift into the ballroom is that the amphitheater is going to contain the Cyber Arts Festival starting on April 24, through May 1 (but tear down might make the amphitheater unusuable for us — just not sure.)  BTW, if you are interested in such things, I highly recommend the Boston CyberArts Festival — looks very cool.  The ballroom has a big screen on a wall that we can use for demos but I want to do a survey to see what people thought about the demo portion.  I got very strong reactions both ways.  People seemed to love or hate it.  Tell me what you think.

Other ideas I should add to the list?

Just days (hours) after we announced Mass Innovation Nights, we had innovators ready to give it a try.   We expected to get a wide range of company sizes with interesting and innovation products but no one was prepared for the breadth and depth of the MIN crew.

The companies range in size from the “one or two guys/gals in a garage” model to some of the world’s largest IT companies.  Right now the schedule is full (for products only, still collecting RSVPs for attendees) for both April and May (although, based on how April goes, we may allow more companies in May.  We’re limiting it right now to 10 companies.)  If we get more than 300 RSVPs, we’ll move the event to the ballroom.  Right now we’re planning on putting the tables out on the main floor.

The industries represented range from consumer products (one company signed up for May creates innovation kitchen tools for cooks) to high tech.  We have IBM/Lotus signed up to launch two new products over the coming months.  We have a company that actually makes innovation software.  We have a bio-tech company.  We have a green tech company.  We have a couple of Twitter-focused companies who make tools for social networking.  There’s a software program for musicians.  Eclectic is the watch word.  Something for everyone.

The format will be casual — tabletop demos (although some of the companies are planning to use the amphitheater to do a short demo on the big screen.)  Think science fair for grown-ups.  And, of course, lots of networking — I’ve been connecting with recruiters at several companies.  And, we’ll be doing everything we can to make a lot of noise in the online universe for the products themselves.  Afterward, we’ll be walking across Moody Street for an after-party upstairs at Biagio Ristorante & Bar.  They have a great place set aside for us in the Plush Lounge.

I’m also reluctant to do more than give you all a peek at the fun stuff we have in store for the first Mass Innovation Nights.  Don’t want to preempt anyone’s big news.  So, don’t assume you know what each company is going to show, just because you know what products they currently have.  They might surprise you!

Drum roll please — here they are, The Charter Members of Mass Innovation Nights:

1. IBM/Lotus
2. Invention Machine
3. Lexalytics
4. LuckyCal
5. Mass High Tech
6. Noteflight
7. Practical Solar
8. Tweetworks
9. WiBlocks
10. Xelago