Every month, a small group of industry experts donates their time to helping out at Mass Innovation Nights.  You’ll find them in the Cafe, with a seat just for you.  Stop by and get your business questions answered!  Here’s who is joining us this month!

Janet Morgenstern Passani, MBA, has 20 years of marketing management experience specializing in consumer food and lifestyle brands. She has worked with major U.S. and international brands including Smartfoods (now part of PepsiCo), Stride Rite, and Nelsons Bach (based in UK), and was part of the management team for a national natural foods company. Janet is a strategic marketer with a creative twist and expertise in new product launches, marketing communications, and consumer outreach.   As founder of Jute Marketing, Janet launches and grows brands and initiatives committed to healthy, natural living. With two decades of natural products industry experience, she knows the eco-living marketplace – the trends, key players, and challenges. Janet Morgenstern Passani is also founder of BostonEco, a networking community and event series focused on furthering local, sustainable, and environmental ideas in Boston and beyond.

Rama Nandiwada, Founder & President if IT Shore, holds an M.B.A. from Babson and an Masters in Computer Applications from a top Indian technical university (R.E.C, Warangal). Rama has over a decade of experience managing outsourcing projects for major companies, including Wipro, Satyam and Virtusa, both from a consultant and client perspective. She has managed global teams from the U.S., India, and Europe, and possesses extensive experience in application development, quality assurance, strategic business consulting, and human resources management. Her work spans many industries, including but not limited to finance, education, food-oriented companies and retailing; many technologies from e-commerce to storage and CRM to mobile technology.  Rama launched IT Shore in order to bring a more personal, hands-on approach to the global sourcing market. Her vision is to provide services that go well beyond traditional outsourcing; IT Shore’s personnel can form a true partnership with clients to meet and exceed business goals.

Jessica Manganello, New Leaf Legal, is a corporate attorney and legal structuring guru.  She excels at designing initial corporate structuring and expansion plans as well as developing exit strategies and preparing entrepreneurs for their next venture.

Catharine Arnston, AKA “The Naughty Nutritionist” holds an MBA from The Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada, a BA from Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario and an Arts Management Certificate from the Banff School of Fine Arts, Banff Alberta. She is also a Reiki Master. Catharine attended The Institute for Integrative Nutrition/SUNY in New York City and graduated in July 2009 with a certificate in Holistic Health Coaching. During Catharine’s twenty years experience in strategic partnerships, branding, marketing, product launches, and online-retail she has been a Commercial Attache for the Canadian Government and British Government, a Fund Raiser for Vancouver Playhouse and Toronto Free Theatre (now Center Stage),   the Publisher of Design Times, an upscale national interior design magazine, and a founder of three companies including Hoteluxury, YourInteriors and Stealthealth.   Catharine was born in Toronto, Canada and lives in Boston MA. She is having a blast with her new life as The Naughty Nutritionist and is ready to share her fun and vitality with everyone she meets. Are you ready? If so, let’s get naughty and healthy together!

Jay Burstein, CPA, Accounting Management Solutions, Inc. (AMS), is an executive with over 25 years of financial and operating experience in a variety of industries. He has an extensive background in building corporate infrastructures covering all aspects of finance, accounting, IT and administration. In addition, his experience includes M&A, risk management, strategic planning, and system conversions.

While at AMS, Jay has performed and managed Sarbanes-Oxley compliance projects, has overseen CFO and Controller service engagements and performed and managed special projects for clients in varying industries ranging from several million dollars to over $1 billion in revenues, including a local wholesale bakery specializing in artisan breads. In addition, Jay has taken a lead role in developing and training staff on the AMS Rapid Diagnostic(TM), a comprehensive tool designed to assess the health of an organization’s finance and accounting systems.  He has managed and performed many such engagements for both nonprofit and for-profit clients.

Before joining AMS, Jay served as an independent financial consultant, assisting clients with Sarbanes-Oxley implementation and a variety of other needs including private equity accounting, financial analysis, and interim CFO services. Prior to consulting, Jay served in Controller, CFO and COO capacities for businesses including an $8 million venture backed services and technology startup, a $150 million financial services  subsidiary of State Street Bank and a  $220 million mutual fund and bank services operating unit of First Data Corporation.  Jay received his BA degree in English Literature from Brandeis University and an MBA in accounting and finance from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a CPA in Massachusetts.

As always, we have a great team of experts ready to support our entrepreneurs and innovators.  Our Experts Corner team is there for you during the entire evening.  Now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to sit down with a leading consultant in marketing, photography, a business coach or maybe you are looking for a place to work for your entire company.  Sit down for a chat, bring your tough questions.  Here are the July experts!

Lisa Glennon, Yankee Barn’s Principal Designer, as well as an Executive Director of the company,  will be available to talk about how to design and build a home to optimize passive solar gain.  She has a background in environmental engineering (Northwestern University) and  an MBA from the University of Southern Maine.

T3 Advisors is the leading commercial real estate advisor to the Emerging Technology Sector in New England. We specialize in advising VC-backed, high-growth companies on finding creative solutions to their real estate needs. Our goal is to help clients scale their businesses and create cutting edge workplaces, all within careful financial planning and budgeting parameters.

Jodi-Tatiana Charles, La Capoise Galerie, an “anthropological approach to commercial photography.”  A professional photographer for more than two decades, with over 16 years of successful marketing and branding experience.  Jodi-Tatiana now uses her passion for photography and her love of marketing to advise start ups and small businesses on how to effectively brand their companies and products using an anthropological approach to imagery. Most small businesses and start ups have limited funds, leading them to use “stock photographs” to attract their customers and investors. But how many times have you seen the same image used for numerous products? Confusing consumers is a sure way of losing potential customers. Jodi-Tatiana transforms your ideas and products into unique and natural images that will express your story to your target audience, because pictures are worth a thousand words!

Ed Evarts, Practice Leader, Evarts Coaching.  Through an interactive and inspiring coaching process, Ed Evarts works one-on-one with small business owners, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and corporate professionals, and their teams, to strengthen influence, drive change and experience greater success.  Common areas of focus for clients include building confidence, navigating conflict, gaining clarity, and improving communication.  With over twenty-five years of leadership and management experience, Ed possesses the ability to effectively partner with individuals and teams in business environments to create action and deliver results.  Known for his business acumen, his ability to resolve complex human relations issues, and his enthusiastic, genuine, accessible, and responsive style, Ed has guided many individuals from objectives to outcomes.

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!

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.

Our April event will once again feature a number of experts who have donated their time to the Innovation cause.  Check out the services they offer.  You’ll have a chance to speak with them one-on-one at #MIN13.  Bring your tough questions and your curiosity!

The Suntaug Group specializes in providing sales and marketing consulting services for software and service companies targeting the Insurance industry.  Founder and President David G. Bourque has 26 years of experience selling into the Insurance industry and has held the position of Vice President of Sales and Marketing for several early stage companies.  As a result, The Suntaug Group has extensive experience in developing go-to-market strategies for many different solutions targeting the Insurance industry.

VC Ready Law Group helps Boston-area entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses by providing legal and organizational guidance during the formative early stages of a company’s existence. We draw upon our experience working with dozens of start-up companies and venture capitalists to advise our clients on how to avoid many of the pitfalls start-ups face on their path from formation to obtaining venture capital financing.

Margery Stegman is a partner at Schenkel/Stegman Communications Design, a full-service graphic design firm in business since 1988. Margery helps companies create clear, consistent visual tools such as web sites and landing pages, company identities, marketing and sales materials,  investor and product presentations, and trade show display graphics that:
•    increase competitive differentiation,
•    communicate complex information in an easy-to-understand format, and
•    increase market penetration and generate leads.

Margery brings her understanding of business objectives and creativity to her work with technology-driven companies and entrepreneurs who have a passion for what they do.  Bring examples of your existing communications materials to MIN#13 and Margery will make recommendations on how to integrate your online and offline visual tools to achieve the greatest impact.

See that great video on our home page?  That’s a product of our next expert — Black Screen Studios.  Black Screen will be available to talk with #MIN13 attendees about what they can do with corporate video.  Located in the heart of downtown Boston, Black Screen Studios is a 24×7, full service animation, video and post-production facility. The studio caters to broadcast television, film production, education, CPG, automotive, bio-tech, pharmaceutical, non-profit, and media research companies. Black Screen Studios prices its services competitively on a project-to-project basis.

Creating partnerships with our clients, we develop a product from concept design straight through delivery with a process and talent pool that ensures quality and creativity every step of the way. We pride ourselves on our ability to create original content and bring it to life with creative script writing, innovative character development, and clean, efficient technical execution.

We’re going to be changing things up at the March Mass Innovation Nights a little bit. Here are our featured experts for the evening. We’re doing away with the sign-ups — just stop in to say “hello” and get your questions answered.

Tom Valle, Senior Vice President, Jackowitz & Company, is responsible for leading Retained Executive Search assignments for growth-oriented businesses in the Technology, Life Sciences, and Financial Services industries. Tom has also managed senior level searches for many Not-for-Profit clients. He has completed successful recruitments in all major business functions including general management and Chief Executive Officers. In addition to managing search assignment and client relationships, Tom’s search experience includes hiring, training, and directing an in-house research team for a search firm owned by Fidelity Investments. Tom is a graduate of Bowdoin College (with Honors in Philosophy) and received his M.B.A in Finance (with High Honors) from Boston University. He serves on the Career Advisory Networks of both of these schools as well as on the Boards of Directors of two Not-for-Profit organizations. Tom has lectured at Boston University on a variety of topics including Salary Negotiations. He is the author of an Executive Report on Employment Negotiations which was published by Aspatore Books. Tom can speak with Mass Innovation Nights attendees about a variety of issues in their businesses such as the evaluation of internal and external talent, recruitment challenges, and employment negotiations. He is also able to review resumes and offer interview coaching.

Matt Harvey, Vice President, CresaPartners works in the Greater Boston area as a commercial real estate adviser to institutions, companies and organizations. The CresaPartners team helps space users solve business problems by ensuring that their real estate plans align with and support their strategic business goals. His experience includes tenant representation for healthcare, technology, life sciences, insurance, financial services and industrial space users throughout Greater Boston.Bill Moore, B2BCFO, has 20 years of business experience, including 10 years as CFO or CEO for privately held companies. He also was an officer in the US Army and California National Guard for 8 years.

Bill Moore, B2BCFO, has 20 years of business experience, including 10 years as CFO or CEO for privately held companies. He also was an officer in the US Army and California National Guard for 8 years.  After the military, Bill began his financial career at a Big 6 accounting firm, performing audits and preparing tax returns for a variety of manufacturing and service companies in Southern California. After obtaining his CPA certification, he moved to another Big 6 firm’s consulting practice and worked on large SAP installations for Fortune 500 companies, where he optimized the financial reporting his clients received from the IT system to best support running their businesses. He spent the next 10 years working in privately owned manufacturing and service businesses, which included 8 acquisitions or sales of companies. Bill’s unique experience makes him an ideal strategic financial partner for entrepreneurs that want to grow their companies with the proper controls and financing in place.

And, rounding out the Experts Corner crew this month is our own Dan Englander of High Rock Media.  Dan is our website developer and the co-founder of Mass Innovation Nights.  His biography reads like alphabet soup: HTML / XHTML, CSS, RSS, XML, SEO, social network & media applications, Web Standards.  He’s also familiar with working with existing PHP, JavaScript / AJAX code.  Dan will be available to talk with entrepreneurs specifically about website development and content management systems and why they are a great option for cost-effectively getting your company online.

Another terrific night with totally cool Massachusetts Innovators, albeit a bit delayed by the snowstorm that wasn’t.  (A few of the companies and experts had to reschedule due to the date change but they will be added to the March and April events.)  A slightly reduced group met at the Waltham IBM Innovation Center to check out the February “class” of new products, do some networking and ask the experts some questions — darn that reschedule.  But we were able to stream the event for the first time — thanks, Steve  Andrada from Andrada Productions!!!

We had some great special guests — absolutely thrilled to have Steve Garfield hanging in the Experts Corner, signing copies of his book Get Seen.  Before MassInno, he had included us in a roundup for local tweetups and promoted the event on his Get Seen website.  (Greenhorn Connect and Bostontweetup.com also helped promote the event!)  Steve even took some pictures and posted them to his more than ample Flickr account.  Larry Begley from .406 Ventures was  a particularly popular Expert conversation.  Check out the video from the Expert introductions in “The Big Room.” Also big thanks to Conversion Associates who came with their new Lytiks tool — it makes Web analytics easy.  They were signing up betas over the course of the evening and we hope to have them back as a full scale presenter when they are ready to launch.

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The Twitterstream was lively as usual — check out the tweets using the hash #min11.  And, once again, our friends at BostInnovation were first out of the box with a #MIN11 recap.   We did get a view to what people did AFTER MassInno with Paul Harvey’s “What I’m Drinking Tonight” blog post.  (Yes, we’re still hoping to get one of the innovative local breweries to join us for a future Mass Innovation Nights.  What do you think, guys?)

Check out our video montage!

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Our January Experts Corner offers all kinds of great resources!  What questions do you need answered? What didn’t you find under your tree in December? (More coming too.)

Paul D. Sorkin, Weingarten, Schurgin, Gagnebin & Lebovici LLP, has been a practicing patent attorney for over 16 years and was an electrical engineer for 8 years before that.  He can talk, generally, regarding plans for protecting ideas with patents, copyright, trade secret, trademark, etc., as well as issues regarding licensing and ownership.

Bill Scher 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 comes to Sandler from the technology sector, where for the last 10 years, he held Regional Sales and Channel Account management positions with some of the nation’s leading enterprise IT systems and security software vendors and  partners such as Software Spectrum, NAI Solutions, Symantec, and Open Channel Solutions. His clients included Fortune 500 companies in verticals of finance, healthcare, software, bio tech, education, state and local government. Bill has been utilizing Sandler Sales methodology his entire career. During that time, Bill has attained, Business Dev Rep of the Year, President’s Club, has been awarded Sales Star of the Year, and the Symantec Extra Mile Award. Early in his career, Bill held executive sales and finance management positions with leading automotive retailers in New England including Toyota, and Volvo.

Andy Komack is founder and President of KoMarketing Associates, LLC, an online marketing agency focused on providing the B2B community with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC), & Social Media Marketing services.  Andy has been building online marketing strategies for clients since 1999. He has worked with many well-known brands including Hallmark, HP, & John Deere, as well as many established and growing technology and manufacturing companies.  Working in the disciplines of Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Advertising, and Social Media Marketing, Andy’s approach is to combine business strategy, creative energy, and a focus on defining & measuring the ROI of online marketing initiatives.

Inbound Marketing Content-where to start? Confused about inbound marketing content?  Meet with Kelley Kassa of Midnight Oil Writing to discuss what you currently have and what you really need.  Inbound marketing content is not just for large companies; the key is to determine what will make a difference while meeting budget requirements.

About Kelley:  Kelley Lynn Kassa’s foray into professional writing began as a 12-year old, when she won a statewide contest and cash prize for her non-fiction work. Since then, she has gone on to a successful career as a corporate writer, marketer and public relations executive, working with many high-profile companies, including IBM, eHarmony and others. In addition to her ghost-written work for her clients, which have appeared in numerous business and trade magazines, Kelley has been profiled in the Boston Globe, Complete Woman magazine, Boston Irish Reporter, and the Irish Emigrant.

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.

As an expert on internal control and process improvement, including Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and SAS 115, Wright also leads the firm’s mergers, acquisition and IPO practice, having helped develop the AMS Rapid Diagnostic(TM), versions of which are used to prepare organizations for exit. Since she has worked on both the buy and sell side, Wright is able to help deliver an organization that is better prepared for a transaction, allowing deals to close faster and more efficiently.

Wright joined AMS in 2004 from The Resources Connection (Nasdaq: RECN), a professional services firm she was instrumental in establishing while at Deloitte & Touche. She also opened the firm’s Boston office where she served as the managing director and built its New England practice to more than $10 million in annual sales. Previously, Wright held various positions at Deloitte & Touche, including, senior manager of the company’s audit practice, working with clients in both the United States and Germany.

Wright is also an in-demand speaker, addressing various groups with insightful discussions on topics such as:

• Internal controls for small and medium-sized businesses
• Mergers, acquisitions and IPOs
• Finance process improvement

When you attend Mass Innovation Nights, we also make sure you have access to a variety of business experts who will sit down with you to discuss your business, innovation or career needs.  Take a few moments to meet just a few of them (we have a few more folks to confirm and will add them to the list over the next few days).

• Jim Connolly, managing editor of Mass High Tech, will be joining us in the December Expert’s Corner.    MHT specializes in covering the region’s incubation of next generation technologies and the people and companies behind our innovation economy.  New England’s technology and life sciences executives and engineers rely on MHT to track the pulse of local market forces, to identify new trends, detect emerging competition and uncover new opportunities.  As an information resources company serving the needs of influencers working throughout New England’s innovation economy, MHT is responsible for a bi-weekly print product on alternating Wednesdays,  a website, daily and weekly e-mail newsletters,  online and print technology company directories and several networking/educational events, including the quarterly Forum Series, the MHT All-Stars and Women to Watch.

• Edward Melia is managing director of Revolve Inc., the first of its kind combination of venture capital, business law, business design/execution, and investment banking services specialized in accelerating the revolution of early stage companies from start-up to exit event.  Revolve’s unique combination of professional services provides high-growth, fast track companies with the resources, services, support, leadership and mentoringthey require at all phases of development – from start-up to exit.  Clients include the best and brightest entrepreneurs and business leaders of the day who are poised to revolutionize industries and create the sector leaders of tomorrow.

• Laura Glynn, partner at Gennari Aronson, LLP, has been advising clients on business and financial strategy and transactions for over 25 years.  Laura Glynn has worked with clients in all stages of growth, from angel-funded and venture-backed early stage companies to multimillion-dollar global enterprises.  She has a particular interest in energy and clean tech.  Laura Glynn has represented investors in multiple wind plants, worked on the project finance and development of natural gas liquefaction plants, spearheaded joint venture agreements among three global energy giants, and coordinated sponsor, equity investments and senior and subordinated debt for iron carbide facilities and steel mills.  In addition, Laura Glynn recently represented a manufacturer in the solar thin film panel industry.  Prior to joining Gennari Aronson, Laura Glynn was a partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP in Boston.  Laura Glynn is an active member and former trustee of the American College of Investment Counsel as well as the Center for Women & Enterprise.  She earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude, as well as a B.A. from Brown University, magna cum laude.  Gennari Aronson, LLP, a newly formed law firm, serves innovative companies, entrepreneurs and the investors and venture capital firms that finance them.  Founded by veterans of Boston’s largest law firms, the firm exemplifies the same entrepreneurial spirit that guides many of its clients.  The firm has established a strong network and commitment to the technology, innovation and emerging growth sectors.

• Haven Tyler, vice president program development, Altitude Inc., has twenty years of experience in building successful product innovation programs for clients ranging from fortune 100 companies to regional start ups.  In her twenty year career, she has worked across every marketplace, including consumer electronics, medical, and industrial. Her strengths lie in developing a deep understanding of her clients’ business needs, and compiling appropriate teams for her clients that address their specific challenges. Haven is currently the VP of Program Development at Altitude, an innovation firm based in Somerville. She has held similar positions at IDEO, Design Continuum, and Fitch RS.

• Jim Bourdon, founder, president and CEO of Accounting Management Solutions, Inc. (Waltham, MA) will be available to talk to Mass Innovation Nights guests about founding their own companies and any finance issues they may have.  Bourdon founded AMS in 1998 to provide public, private, emerging and non-profit organizations with part-time and interim access to experienced, knowledgeable finance and accounting professionals.

• Rick Hutton is an expert in strategic business development, tactical sales management and new market/product strategy, in B-B and B-C internet businesses, enterprise software/SaaS businesses.  Rick comes to the Experts Corner from MetaCarta, VideoLink, Lycos, (where  he produced the Lycos’ first live audio concert webcast featuring the Dave Matthews Band),  Eprise Corporation (acquired by Divine), a VC funded start-up software company providing web content management solutions, where he developed and implemented the initial channel sales strategy and InfoCellular, Inc. (acquired by LHS Communications), a start-up software company providing customer acquisition systems to wireless carriers, where he was responsible for the company’s operations and revenue streams. Under his leadership, InfoCellular became the leading provider of sales automation solutions to U.S. wireless carriers with revenue and profit growth for 18 consecutive quarters. Rick also founded two small businesses, in manufacturing and distribution, and holds a BS in Engineering Technology from Wentworth Institute of Technology.

How do you get to be a Massachusetts Innovator?  Or, how do you end up at the Experts Corner? Let’s find out!

The Experts Corner

The original idea for Experts Corner stemmed from the fact that we spend a lot of our MassInno evenings introducing entrepreneurs to someone who can help them solve a specific problem.  “I don’t know the answer to that question.  Here, talk to this lawyer.  Gosh, I have no idea how to get a company funded.  Here, ask this finance person or this VC. I’m not a technology person, maybe one of the engineers here can answer that question for you.  Or, yes, I could personally help you write a press release, or get up and running on Twitter but frankly, there are only so many hours in my days so let me introduce you to this PR or marketing person.”

You get the idea.

As for how you get to be an expert, that’s a bigger question.  Experience and lots of it.  Oh, you probably mean, how do you get to be one of the Expert Corner experts?  The first batch of Experts was assembled via a group effort.  For example, Ben and Michael at VC Ready Law offered to coordinate some of the experts.  They brought some of their contacts.  Others were people we personally knew.

When we first kicked off the idea, we mentioned in the newsletter that we were looking for experts and asked people to submit their experts through the “Submit a product” form on the website, and add in “expert” to their name.  Expertise is a product too.  (We’ve always been open to products that weren’t physical products — a product can be a service — this is taking it to new heights.)

Becoming a Mass Innovation Nights Exhibitor

First, you need a new innovative product.   You think you’ve got what it takes?  Tell us about it!  Go ahead.  Use the Submit a Product form to throw your hat in the ring.   We suggest that people attend an event before they “exhibit.” Exhibit is a high-faluting word for what we do — think 6th grade science fair — a table top set-up with your product and people wandering around, stopping at all of the ten tables to visit with the product owner/manager/CEO/Founder/Chief Idea Person.

We do have product demonstrations in a small amphitheater starting at 6:30.  Only 4 out of the 10 companies give 5 minute presentations there — the four are chosen by vote on the website when we announce the products.  (You can see the current Innovators list now, and the voting mechanism too.)

When you are at the table, you’ll be talking to people for 2 hours straight — so far, everyone has been very busy all night.

As for the time line, once you submit through the website form, we have a rolling list that you have been added to — we try to give everyone an idea when they sign up which month they will end up in but the truth is we just don’t know.  (Yes, we can count on fingers and sort of figure it out but often people aren’t ready to go when their turn comes.  Or, at least their product isn’t.)  Right now the waiting list for products is about 2 months deep and we’re booking experts out up to several months for some professions.  We notify the companies in the queue for the next month as soon as the previous event is completed.  As fast as we can, we try to get the new month’s blog post, company list, RSVP list, and poll up.

Innovators, Experts, and Social Media too

As for the social networking aspect of Mass Innovation Nights — we start off by using that to get people to attend the event — we run a zero budget event and social media tools are free.

We encourage our guests to use social media to help support the Innovators by making some noise on their behalf.  See something you like, blog about it, tweet about, Facebook, Flickr, whatever.

Obviously this audience is social media savvy or they might never have heard about the event.  (There are a good number of people who aren’t on things like Twitter or Facebook or Linkedin.  They found out about the event some other way.  Maybe a friend told them.  You don’t need social media to enjoy the event BUT it could help you follow up afterward — many people use their Twitter handle on their name tag!)

Hope this helps!