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

Audio: Convergence Forum West

Last Friday, we held the second Convergence Forum West event at the Hotel Vitale on the San Francisco waterfront. We were joined by an impressive bunch of participants and speakers from the worlds of biotech, medical devices, venture capital, pharma, and e-healthcare.

Just wanted to share some audio from a few of the sessions, all in MP3 format so you can download them and listen on your device of choice. Just click the title of each session to listen.

- Funding & Advancing Truly Innovative Medicines: Surmounting the Challenges

Speakers:
Paul Hastings, CEO, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals

David Perry, CEO, Anacor Pharmaceuticals
Bryan Roberts PhD, Partner, Venrock

Moderator:
John Mendlein PhD, Executive Chairman, Fate Therapeutics and aTyr

- What Does It Mean for Drug Developers and the Health Care System When Patients Start Networking Online?

Speaker:
James Heywood, Co-Founder, PatientsLikeMe

Interviewer:
Steven Dickman, CEO, CBT Advisors

- Fireside Chat: Rethinking the Production of Practically Everything Via Industrial Biology

Speaker: Nathaniel David, Venture Partner, Arch Venture Partners; Co-Founder, Sapphire Energy, Kilimanjaro Energy, Achaogen, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals

Interviewer:
David Ewing Duncan, Director, Center for Life Science Policy, UC/Berkeley; Author, "Experimental Man"

- Fireside Chat: The Implications of Next-Wave Innovation in Sequencing and Computation

Speakers:
Iya Khalil PhD, Co-Founder, Gene Network Sciences
Eric Schadt PhD, CSO, Pacific Biosciences

Interviewer:
David Ewing Duncan, Director, Center for Life Science Policy, UC/Berkeley; Author, "Experimental Man"

- Opportunities and Challenges in Diagnostics: Implications for Health and Healthcare Innovations

Speakers:
Bhairavi Parikh PhD, CEO, Cellscape Corporation
Una Ryan PhD, CEO, Diagnostics for All
Sal Salamone PhD, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Saladax Biomedical, Inc.
Mickey Urdea PhD, CEO and Chairman, Tethys Bioscience, Inc.

Moderator:
Stacy Feld, Director, Physic Ventures

Here's Luke Timmerman's Xconomy write-up of the day's first panel. And here are the Twitter messages related to Convergence Forum West.

Audio from Future Forward 10

Just wanted to share the audio from four of our sessions at Future Forward 10, held last week at the Wellesley College Club.

- Rich Miner of Google Ventures and Emily Green of The Yankee Group talk about "Opportunities in a World of Anywhere Connectivity." (Miner and Green are pictured here.) Moderated by Antonio Rodriguez of Matrix Partners. [ MP3 ]

- Bob Davis of Highland Capital Partners interviews CSN Stores co-founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine about building a successful post-dot-com e-commerce company (with no venture funding.) [ MP3 ]

- "Changes in the World of Seed-Stage Investing." Performable founder David Cancel talks with Rob Go of NextView Ventures, Roy Rodenstein of Hacker Angels, David Frankel of Founder Collective, and Jo Tango of Kepha Partners. [ MP3 ]

- "Teens on Technology: What They Use and How They Use It," moderated by Nabeel Hyatt of Zynga Boston, with a mix of high school and college students. (Pictured above.) [ MP3 ]

- Christopher Meyer of Monitor Group interviews Stephen Wolfram, CEO of Wolfram Research and Author of "A New Kind of Science." [ MP3 ]

You can get a sense for what else happened at the event from the event's Twitter stream.

Future Forward: The Complete List of Demo Companies

Here's the list of all of the New England companies that have presented demos at Future Forward over its first decade...

2001:

- Actuality Systems
- SpeechWorks (acquired by ScanSoft)
- Ambient Devices
- iRobot (IPO)

2002:

- Ember Corp
- E Ink (acquired by Prime View Int'l)
- Segway LLC

2003:

- ThingMagic (acquired by Trimble)
- Mok3 (now EveryScape)
- Z Corp. (acquired by Contex)
- Holosonics

2004:

- Konarka Technologies
- PanGo Networks (acquired by InnerWireless)
- Serendipity (MIT project)
- Color Kinetics (IPO, acquired by Philips)
- Accentus

2005:

- Gather
- ECI Biotech
- Nantero
- Sensicast Systems

2006:

- Calenova
- Thinking Phones
- Adozu
- LocaModa

2007:

- Vertica
- Skyhook Wireless
- Vlingo
- Radiospire
- AirPrint Networks

2008:

- Terrafugia
- OnLatte
- Canditto
- Siftables
- FluidVoice

2009:

- Hangout Industries
- Robonica
- Oneforty
- MooBella
- Zeo

2010:

- Recorded Future
- Affectiva
- DPL Health Games
- Osmopure
- EqualApp

Future Forward 10: Sponsored Passes for Students

In recognition of the 10th year of Future Forward, Microsoft partnered with us to underwrite ten passes so that students may attend this year's program. Every year, we've made room for students to be part of Future Forward — but this is the largest group we've had thus far.

Students were asked:

Do you see yourself changing the world with new technology, impacting society with your ideas and making the world a better place?

From many responses, the ten students selected to participate at this year's program are:

- Myles Leighton, Harvard College
- Steven Zhang, Olin School of Engineering
- Mi Li, Northeastern University
- Yi Nan Wang, Northeastern University
- Evan Morikawa, Olin School of Engineering
- Tim Chae, Babson College
- Eric Santagada, Northeastern University
- Greg Skoot, Northeastern University
- Qi Lu, Northeastern University
- Praful Mathur, Northeastern University