Gathering innovators and investors in London, on October 11th

We're convening a small group of entrepreneurs and investors for an afternoon event followed by cocktails on October 11th. We're calling it the Innovators Salon London, and the primary goal is to make new connections among the city's most promising entrepreneurs and most active investors. We'll also be discussing topics such as:

- The factors that move deals from "exploratory mode" to "done."
- The new dynamics of online customer acquisition.

If you'd like to suggest speakers, please e-mail scott at futureforward dot com; participant suggestions and sponsor inquiries should go to sgilbert - at - silverweave dot com.

The Innovators Salon takes place in advance of the British Venture Capital Association's annual summit, and will be held at Home House, a private club built in 1773.

We're grateful to BDC and Invest Northern Ireland for their support of Innovators Salon London.

Some text clouds for Nantucket 2011, from Infomous

One of the companies participating in the 2011 Nantucket Conference, Cambridge-based Infomous, has created some nifty text clouds that allow you to click on different words (and hover with your mouse) to explore information related to the conference and its speakers. Well worth checking out...

- An Infomous cloud collecting tweets related to the conference (using the hash tag #ack2011). Also embedded below.

- An Infomous cloud for Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm.

- An Infomous cloud for Geoffrey Moore.

- And Infomous cloud for Akamai.

- The Infomous cloud for Nantucket island itself.

Next-Gen Entrepreneurs Who Earned Passes to Nantucket 2011

We're thrilled that a group of young entrepreneurs will be part of the 2011 Nantucket Conference, thanks to a number of individuals and groups that are underwriting their passes. This "Next-Gen Entrepreneurs" program was suggested at Nantucket 2010 by Brad Feld of Foundry Group and TechStars. At the event, the Nantucket community will seek ways to help these entrepreneurs on challenges they're currently facing.

Next-Gen Entrepreneurs Who'll Be Attending the 2011 Nantucket Conference:

Andre Arzumanyan, OmniLync

Ariel Diaz, Boundless Learning

Colby Jordan, FindYourTrees

Jeremy Levine, StarStreet Sports

Jay Meattle, Shareaholic, Inc.

Leon Noel, SocialSci

Michael Raybman, WaySavvy Travel

Ziad Sultan, Marginize

People, firms, companies, and groups who selected and sponsored the next-gen entrepreneurs:

Brad Feld, Foundry Group

Lee Hower, NextView Ventures

Paul Schaut, Modiv Media

Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot

Harry West, Continuum

The Entrepreneurs Foundation of New Hampshire

We're giving away a free pass to the Momentum Summit @ MIT

Here's how you can nab a free pass to the Momentum Summit @ MIT's Sloan School of Management, being held March 23rd, 2011...

Just share via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or your blog the link to the event (http://www.momentumsummit.com), and use the hash tag "#mosum." If you've got space, feel free to mention the event's focus ("How Innovative Start-Ups Get Big") or some of the speakers.

On March 7th at 5 PM, we'll select a winner from everyone who has helped spread the word about the event.

It's that easy...

(Thanks to AisleBuyer, Fresh Tilled Soil, High Start Group, and the MIT Sloan School of Management for their support of this event.)

Convergence Forum 2011: Speakers so far

We're still interested in hearing your ideas for speakers and topics that we ought to include in the agenda for the 2011 Convergence Forum (May 19-21st at the Chatham Bars Inn).

We're especially looking for demonstrations of newly-launched (or prototype) consumer devices, software, or technologies of interest to participants in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and medical device industries... so ping me at scott@nantucketconference.com if you've seen anything especially cool lately.

Here's who's on the agenda thus far:

- Katrine Bosley, CEO, Avila Therapeutics
- Michael Cima, PhD, Professor, MIT; Co-Founder, T2 Biosystems
- Michelle Dipp, MD, PhD, Senior Vice President, GSK & Partner, Longwood Founders Fund
- Sandy Fenwick, President, Children’s Hospital Boston
- Patrick Gilligan, SVP, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass.
- Tillman Gerngross, PhD, Founder, Adimab and GlycoFi
- Tuan Ha-Ngoc, CEO, AVEO Pharmaceuticals
- Tom Hughes, PhD, CEO, Zafgen
- Kenneth Kaitin, PhD, Director, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development

- Devorah Klein, Principal, Continuum
- John Maraganore, PhD, CEO, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
- John Mendlein, PhD, Chairman, Fate Therapeutics and aTyr Pharma
- Tom McCourt, Chief Commercial Officer and Brian Cali, PhD, VP/Program Management, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
- Greg Perry, CFO, ImmunoGen
- Todd Zion, PhD, CEO, SmartCells
- Daphne Zohar, Founder, PureTech Ventures