| Group Name | Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, MA |
| Event Name | Innovation Series October 2009 |
| Event Description | Networking and Registration: 5:30 - 6:15 p.m. Program: 6:15 - 8:00 p.m. Post-Event Reception: 8:00-9:00 p.m. |
| Event Contact | Trish Fleming |
| Contact Phone | 6172538240 |
| Contact Email | trishf@mit.edu |
| Date | Wednesday, October 14, 2009 |
| Time | 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM |
| Address | MIT Stata Center Kirsch Auditorium, 32-123 32 Vassar Street Cambridge MA |
Non-Members: $40
MIT Staff (with valid ID): $25
Students from all universities are FREE with valid ID. Pre-registration encouraged.
REGISTER
Keynote presentation by one of the most prolific and diverse technology innovators followed by a deep conversation led by Sim Simeonov of FastIgnite
Impervious to the roller-coaster ride of the financial markets, the past decade has brought about an unprecedented acceleration in technology development and adoption combined with a rapid decline in the cost of anything touched by IT. Open-source, software-as-a-service, cloud computing, user-generated content, freemium and viral distribution models share one thing in common: they lower the cost of experimentation and make it cheaper and easier to create new things while at the same time destroying existing business models.
The democratization of innovation is a turbulent process. Rapid creation and violent destruction. Many winners and many losers, both big and small. Are there patterns of success in the chaos? Ray Kurzweil definitely thinks so. He has been on the bleeding edge of innovation for decades and his track record is something to admire. Ray was the principal developer of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition.
Following Ray’s keynote presentation, we will go deep with Ray on topics ranging from forecasting technology shifts and timing markets to practical techniques for fostering market-focused innovation to understanding the different roles of the individual entrepreneur vs. the team in venture creation. Iconic entrepreneur and angel investor Bill Warner, founder of Avid Technology, Wildfire Communications, and Warner Research will join the conversation.
Keynote:
Ray Kurzweil, prolific inventor, entrepreneur, author and futurist
Conversation with:
Bill Warner, serial entrepreneur and investor
Moderator:
Simeon Simeonov, serial entrepreneur and investor
Program Organizers: David E. Brook, Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C., Kristen Collins, KMC Partners, Pearl Freier, Cambridge BioPartners, Simeon Simeonov, FastIgnite, Inc
The election of an African-American president in November 2008 has been hailed as a transforming event. But has Obama's ascension transformed anything? Many people’s answer to that question changed this summer when a famous Harvard professor was arrested at his home in Cambridge. Are the harsh realities of race and class in the U.S. clearer now or murkier, following the media tsunami of Gatesgate? And has this polarizing event given greater visibility to racial minorities in the media's coverage of politics? How are race issues and racial politics covered in our national media, and what are the implications of the demise of major city newspapers for the coverage of race and politics?