#MIN70 Recap

The latest Mass Innovation Night (#MIN70) featured the usual diversity of products, a wonderful host, longtime MIN attendees and first time MIN attendees, and some very expert experts in the Experts Corner. Big thanks go to IBM Cambridge for hosting -- nice food spread too.

The common threads running through the diverse products seemed to be social, location, and health.

The Crowd Builds

I enjoyed talking with Bob from  NuPlanit  which tackles nutrition and eating habits in a much more complete and connected way than "calories in - calories out" and "eat this - don't eat that." NuPlanit connects you to all the benefits of nutrition counseling in one spot. It's a virtual nutrition adviser for when that's all you need and a connection to a network of real nutritionists for when you need more support.

NuPlanit

Speaking of healthy eating, ever notice how little actual nutritious food you find in convenience stores?  Green Leaf Convenience is reinventing the convenience store experience. Healthy food, simple and identifiable ingredients, environmentally aware and responsible practices, and employees who are paid a living wage and convenience? Yup.  They'll be opening the first location this spring. Locations being considered are the Leather District, Cleveland Circle, the Seaport Innovation District and Cambridge's Innovation District.

Golden Girl Granola -- Just One of the Healthy Foods from GreenLeaf

Loved the simple and practical design of the Lilypad Wheelchair Scale. I never thought about the difficulty that wheelchair users have in monitoring weight gain/loss until I heard Lilypad's pitch. The Lilypad Scale  makes it easy for manual wheelchair users to weigh themselves at home.

LilyPad Scale

Light, Portable, Easy to Use

Hoppinin does the location-based-social thing with a mobile app that targets casual events and “happenings”.  Rather than concerts, performances, and that sort of thing, they're about the busker on the corner, the food truck passing through,  pickup games ...  Someday I will get around to organizing a snowshoe flash mob at Harold Parker or something. The Hoppinin team had cool matching shirts and made the best pun during their presentation.  By the way, I didn't know "happening" was still a thing. I thought that usage went out of style when hippies went out of style. :-) Kudos to Hoppinin for best pun and best costume of MIN70.

Hoppinin - Best Costume

BeActiveTogether had cool T-shirts and a location-based social app too. It connects its users with other people in their network wanting to do the same exercise at the same time and place. Hm, another opportunity for me to organize my snowshoe flash mob.

BeActiveTogether Had Cool Shirts Too

I do wonder how we ever organized pickup hockey games in the days before smart phones. Come to think of it, how did we ever do anything before smart phones?

In the "making plans for tonight" department,  Trill  helps you find something to do in Boston's cultural scene right now.  Find a live local show right now from Trill's listings curated by in-the-know locals of the Boston/Cambridge cultural scene.

Trill Placard

LearnBolt  is a mobile learning solution for small businesses. LearnBolt helps you create a Just-In-Time training program from anywhere at anytime.

LearnBolt - Teach Anywhere!

One Good Act helps you set up a challenge to support a cause. Basically, it lets you challenge your friends to compete in any kind of contest to support any cause. They make "social" actually social! Check them out.

One Good Act Team

Once again, I did not get to talk to every single participating product team. I missed Connections and Rejjee. On the plus side, I got both of this month's experts to pose for the Expert Looking Expert photo.  Jamie Bradley of Sophwell offered his expertise in developing ideas and marketing programs. Nelson deWitt, author of A Kickstarter's Guide to Kickstarter, offered his expertise in crowdfunding.

Experts Looking Expert

Mark your calendars for the next Mass Innovation Night, MINFoodie 8, on  February 11 at Nutter McLennen & Fish LLP. The foodie innovations are looking delightful.