bees and innovative cities

Last Tuesday night I attended a combination book event for The Pollinator's Corridor and film screening of Bees in the Key of A. You might ask "What's this got to do with innovation?" There's a heck of a lot of innovation going on in the economic, physical, and social development of small- to mid-sized cities (in fact Lowell hosted the Innovative Cities Conference a couple of years ago). 

The event was at the Spalding House, a Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust property with lots of historic New England atmosphere.

Even just hearing Aaron Birk chatting with Suzz Cromwell before the presentation about Philadelphia and how he likes that there's lots of activism, yoga studios on every corner  --- no mention of bars, late night partying, burritos, or venture capital -- told me I was in for a treat.

Aaron and Suzz before the talk

It was a packed house, filled to the 50 person capacity.  I enjoyed the fresh delicious food from the gardens of MillCityGrows, prepared by the teens from UTEC's FRESH Roots program: beets with goat cheese and basil leaves, mushrooms with pesto, mint water, iced tea with mint ... and that's not even counting the dessert.

Delicious Food from UTEC's FreshRoots Program

Mint water must be a big thing in Lowell. I remember them serving it at the Lowell Folk Festival the same year they were handing out mint and oregano seedlings grown in compost from the festival food booths.

Cities, the environment, bees, vultures, Buddhism, locally grown vegetables, and indie film. Oh my! All kinds of intersections with my interests!

Spalding House Entrance

Spalding house has a great view of the Merrimack River's Pawtucket Falls too. I checked out the Spalding House-Pawtucket Falls Overlook Park before the event.

Pawtucket Falls Overlook

Aaron is a lively and engaging presenter and the book speaks to issues that are dear to me. I kept nodding and wanting to shout "Yes, yes, yes, biodiversity has everything to do with urban life and keeping your brother out of jail! Relevant! Relevant! Relevant!" If there is one thing I'd like to communicate to urban dwellers and environmentalists alike it's that nature is not out there somewhere in the wilderness -- we're in it, surrounded by it, part of it.  The story is set in the Bronx in the 1970s and addresses exactly those issues brilliantly.

Aaron Passed around Copies of the Book while He Talked

His presentation also included lots of images that aren't in the book yet and amazing slides of traditional Nepali bee hunters.  One of the images he showed that's not in this installment of the novel was a beautiful drawing of a Himalayan griffon vulture flying over the city. The desolate city and the griffon vulture were just so evocative of decay and renewal!  Not only did he talk about vultures, but he also spoke a little about Buddhism.  I had to tell him my story about seeing my life Himalayan griffon circling over a cliff side monastery high on the Tibetan plateau.

Signing Books in Front of Old Clock

After the presentation we watched the wonderful short film Bees in the Key of A. The bees and the beekeepers were fantastic. By the end of The Pollinator's Corridor presentation and Bees in the Key of A  if you weren't already interested in bees you would be for sure.

I got plenty of time to talk with Aaron about vultures and tell him my story of seeing my first ever griffon vulture when I was in Tibet.  When he signed my copy of the book, he inscribed the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum.

Back home that night, I dreamed of bees and of beautiful soaring vultures.

#MIN40

Mass Innovation Night was back at the IBM Innovation Center in Waltham for its 40th event. 40. Wow.

IBM Lab Looking Awesome

The four chosen presenters for the night were:

• AnniesBid.com -- an online auction site that raises money for national and international charities in a game-like auction format.

  

  AnniesBid.com Presenting

  
  

• Azigo -- turns dealing with hundreds of emails and maintaining account relationships with your favorite companies into a fast, visual, enjoyable experience.

• Honest Discounts -- a mobile app that tells you not only where the nearest pharmacy is but also which pharmacy has the best price for your prescription.



Honest Discounts Ready to Take on High Prescription Prices

• Klypper -- a mobile app that makes it easy to create and combine video, text, drawings and emoticons for capturing those multimedia, multidimensional moments of your life.

Klypper CEO Presenting

All of the presenters were excellent and finished within 5 minutes. It was a great crowd.

Joszef wanted to know if I was photographing for the New York Times. I wish.

I caught up with some of the other participating companies after the presentations. Njabini Apparel was introducing a new scarf but also had lots of other beautiful stuff made by handicapped mothers in central Kenya. I love how local is global these days.

Njabini Apparel

Apptegic is a cloud-based analytics service that tells you how engaged each of your customers is with your business. I almost gave them Best Costume because the white board was wearing one of their t-shirts.

Apptegic T-shirt

I enjoyed talking with the folks from Orbeus about  computer vision and about the great Chicago fire. Their goal is to help computers see like human beings. Their visual recognition engine combines facial, product, scene and text recognition. I asked them if they could identify trees by species by viewing a forest from overhead (one of my fantasies for computer vision), but they don't have enough data about trees/forests to do that. What they do is take visual media content (video and images) as input and put  metadata around that content. Very cool and definitely useful for social networks and advertisers even if it's not the answer to my particular fantasy.

Team Orbeus

I think this is the first time I have ever watched a chemical reaction that didn't involve cooking at a Mass Innovation Nights event. The folks from Family Safe System were demonstrating a solution for a problem I never knew existed.  They sell devices and services to help chemotherapy patients protect their families, homes and everyone's water from the dangerous drugs that pass through their bodies intact in the 2-5 days after infusions.

Family Safe System Doing Chemistry

As usual, I tried to check out as many of the participating companies as possible. I missed a few this time. The ones I missed sounded interesting too:

• FairSetup -- provides a web-based performance management suite that allows companies to connect impact to compensation. Compensation according to one's impact, that defines fair compensation.
• CoachUp -- an online platform that connects people with private coaches in sports.
•  Boston Landlord Reviews--a free Internet site that allows prospective tenants to rate and review properties. Prospective tenants will be able to view valuable landlord information from current and previous tenants. That should come in handy during the upcoming student migration season.

Many of the usual suspects were there and there were lots of new people too. There was also a new wrinkle, lightning job postings. Folks who are hiring had a minute to pitch their job openings.

Pitching a Job

 

Entrepreneurs

Usual Suspects

Didn't get any photos of experts looking expert this time, but you're all experts and innovators anyway.

On the way back to the garage, I met the same people I had met when I arrived. It was their first time at MIN and they had a great time. They'll definitely be back.

Epic #MIN39 on the North Shore

Mass Innovation Nights visited the North Shore for the epic MIN39 event. OK, all MIN events are epic, but meeting in a giant former shoe factory/historic landmark is pretty darn epic . The Cummings Center in Beverly welcomed us with a well-appointed conference room, speedy wi-fi, and pizza. Hosts who provide pizza are awesome!

With the humid weather and the hot conference room, the APURE Air Purifier and Fan from Gulls Nest was attracting lots of traffic to their table. Cool in every sense of the word.

High-tech Fans from Gull's Nest Selling Like Hot Cakes

The four presenters showed us textiles, toys, video sharing, and good health. That's quite a range of products.

Crowd Tweeting the Presentations

The guys from Ministry of Supply looked cool and comfortable in their high performance business clothing despite the humidity. This is the kind of startup that wouldn't get off the ground in Silicon Valley because nobody wears business attire, but judging from the MIN39 attendees there's a definite niche for comfortable and practical dress shirts in Massachusetts. I hereby award the official MIN39 best costume award to Ministry of Supply.

Ministry of Supply -- Best Costume

I loved TheO™ from Physical Apps, a foam ball that combines your smart device with custom apps for fun physical games and activities. A smart ball for your smart device. Imagine bowling with your friends around the web with a real ball. 

TheO Ball

Bonfire Health is a multi-media health education company that changes lives by changing lifestyles. In case that sounds boring, the lemon flavored fish oil samples they were handing out were pretty exciting and didn't taste half bad.

Bonfire is Enthusiastic about Your Health

 Burst did a demo of their Mobile Video Solution designed for families. I was amazed at how fast and how simple it is. Way easier than and more private than Facebook.

The Burst Team

Theresa gave me a demo of  Strappy the Holder,  a polypropylene belt attached to a stretchy ring. It's extraordinarily well-designed.  The belt is worn as a bottle carrier and by adjusting the size of the ring a person can attach various size water bottles. Your water bottle moves with you instead of banging against your leg. Ingenious. You can add some decorative  "Bling for your Bottle" too.

Theresa Demonstrating Strappy

Bling for Your Bottle
And Theresa Got Her Parents to Watch the Table for Her

Why hasn't somebody invented such a massively useful thing as Zipboard before? It's a portable, retractable whiteboard that becomes a rigid whiteboard when you extend it. It even comes with a dry erase marker and eraser that store right inside the unit. Work in an open plan office? Teaching a class on the beach? Imagine having an easy to carry whiteboard right where you need it. Want to diagram plays for your soccer team right there on the sidelines? It comes in comes in 8 different sport specific versions.

Zipboard

Analytics is one of today's major buzzwords and a good source Social Media Analytics is much sought after. Klurig Analytics offers services to help social media marketers and social media agencies to calculate the Social Media ROI of their campaigns.

Klurig Analytics

By the time I got to the Demand Limiting Controller (DLC) from Save Energy Systems I was pretty tired and sweaty but anything having to do with HVAC always piques my interest, so I listened to the pitch for their simple, networked system to optimize HVAC units and reduce peak demand as well as energy costs with interest. So much interest, I forgot to take a photo of them.

This month's Experts Corner was up on a platform at the far end of the room behind the presentation screen. It was kind of fun to see the experts elevated. For the traditional Expert Looking Expert shot, I caught  Christina coaching on Ed using Pinterest for marketing.

Expert Looking Expert

epic search for batteries

Insights into the Massachusetts startup scene, urban density and design of cities, bicycle safety, entrepreneurship and batteries all lurk between two stops on the Red Line.

Boston in the Rain -- As Seen from Cambridge

I'm always excited to attend Mass Innovation Nights wherever it is in a given month. This month we met at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge, known for, among other things, its spectacular views of Boston. Surrounded by photo-ops before I even entered the building, I whipped out my trusty Nikon L110 to capture the scenic clouds and rain over the Boston skyline. One of the features of the L110 that I don't like, is that it gives no visual indication of battery life until it's so low that it's only good for one or two shots. Oops. Thus began what turned out to be an epic quest for AA lithium batteries.

I figured I'd just walk up to the Coop, grab some new batteries, and maybe photograph the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame before heading to #MIN38. The Coop has only alkaline batteries. The Marriott lobby shop has only alkaline batteries. "The 7-11 four blocks away has them," they assure me. OK, it's only 4 blocks, can't be that bad.

Thomas Edison's Star on the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame

Several intersections later, still not at 7-11. What's a block anyway? Cyclists who are not wearing helmets are all over the place, not stopping for walk lights.  So many MIT-educated noggins at risk! Two helmet-less people on bikes pass me on the sidewalk as I trudge on toward 7-11.

Steve Jobs' Star

7-11 has only alkaline batteries. They suggest CVS, 4 blocks away. Someone else there suggests Micro Center "if you're really in need." Micro Center? All I need is 4 AA lithium batteries, not a PC. Several intersections later and well past the giant hole of the future of biotech, I am still nowhere near CVS, but am in Central Square.

Economy Hardware is open again. Surely a hardware store has lithium batteries. Nope. Alkaline batteries only. Economy sends me to Radio Shack, which, oddly enough, is not 4 blocks away. Radio Shack seems to have batteries, but they're behind the counter and a customer ahead of me is buying a new phone and signing up for a new plan. Much personal data is being exchanged. I wait.

Bill Gates' Star

Waiting gives me time to contemplate Central Square vs. Kendall Square. Kendall Square has taller buildings. Central Square has more restaurants, shops, and street life. There aren't really any visual cues to tell you that Kendall Square supposedly "hosts nearly five times more startups per square mile than any other place on the planet." Both areas seem to offer plenty of burritos and coffee, both things that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs claim are missing in the Boston startup scene. Cambridge isn't Boston, I know, but from Silicon Valley you can't see the Charles River. Anyway, right now, my startup scene would be well-served by more availability of AA lithium batteries.

At last, the Radio Shack guy gets a break from the complicated phone purchase while the phone customer makes decisions.  Yes! We have lithium batteries! O frabjous day!

On the walk back, the same two helmet-less sidewalk cyclists pass me, then circle around and pass me again. They circle pedestrians for some time without colliding with any of us. A group of teenage girls line up on the steam vent in the sidewalk and do some kind of line dance as they revel in the steam. I stop to photograph a few of the stars on the walk of fame and ponder how on earth MIT could honor tech entrepreneurs and not include Ken Olsen, without whom neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates would have been able to earn that honor. A rabbit emerges from a flower bed onto the sidewalk.

I think the Red Line is under there somewhere.

Just as I arrive at NERD, an MBTA bus pulls over and the driver asks me for directions. Yeah, I know this place. I have known it for a very long time.

Me on Memorial Drive a Way Wicked Long Time Ago in a Tech Scene Far Away

#MIN38 at NERD in the rain

Whoa, #MIN38 already? Weren't we just at #MIN37? A little rain couldn't dampen the entrepreneurial spirits of the presenters and attendees. Besides that, Boston looks great from the Cambridge side even in rain and fog.

Rain and Fog and Citgo Sign -- Ah, Boston, You're My Home

I didn't get to talk to all of the companies because I was busy having an epic adventure trying to buy camera batteries. Maybe I'll make that a separate blog post :-) Anyway, I did get to talk to some cool people about some cool products.

Aimed at college students, of which there are an awful lot in Boston, Jebbit shows you websites and products you like, and pays you to explore them. "Discover, Answer and Get Paid" is their motto.  It's a new take on online advertising, much more engaged, that benefits consumers as well as the advertisers. Yup, you can really earn money by answering questions. Open to all college students, all you have to do is go to jebbit.com, login with Facebook, and answer a few questions.

Jebbit Team -- Best Costume of #MIN38

The Jebbit team were friendly and engaging to talk to and easily recognizable with their matching t-shirts.

Want to sign up for a Hip-Hop class, organize a laser tag session, or find something new to do with your friends? Savique helps you discover fun things to do in Boston and environs, and seamlessly make plans to go with the people you care about. Raoul gave an enthusiastic pitch and he's definitely onto something with Savique. It needs to become a mobile app too, though.

Raoul Pitching Savique to Suzanne and Susan, both from Lowell

I enjoyed talking with Michael from Massinvestor about the VC News Daily app for Android and iPhone. It's the only mobile app providing round the clock access to news about venture capital and private equity financing. It's the source for updates on the latest transactions and industry news in the startup world.

VC Daily News Team

The VCs who fund startups and scientists who invent new technologies sometimes need a little something else to come up with a product that serves a real world need. Crowd sourcing is a brilliant way to come up with those insights.  That's where Allied Mindstorm comes in. It's an open innovation website that invites the public to brainstorm new commercial applications around exciting university technologies in order to advance research and form new companies.

David from AlliedMindstorm

It's not just a good idea for the investors, it pays you for your insight too. If your specific application of the technology results in a new startup you will receive $25,000. There are also smaller prizes for best in class suggestions. Everybody wins.

GaggleAMP, old friends dating back to at least #MIN26, were there too showing off their latest enhancements and posing with MIN's fastest and most prolific tweeter, Eric Andersen.

Eric with the GaggleAMP Guys

Alas, I didn't get much chance to talk to  Photo Oral about their BlueLight mouth sanitizing innovation, to High Impact Designer  about their Email Design Builder, or to Dailyfeats about their goal setting iPhone app. I did get a nice action shot of DailyFeats.

DailyFeats

Things were buzzing in the Experts Corner as always. Conversations seemed to be going on nonstop. Great to see folks taking advantage of all that expertise.

Experts Looking Expert

Conifers Around the World Slideshow

Here's one of the things I've been working on for IDRI: a slideshow of photos from Conifers Around the World to put on YouTube.

#MIN37 in Lowell

The Fashion Truck on Jackson Street

Mass Innovation Nights celebrated its third birthday in Lowell at Appleton Mills. #MIN37 showcased local innovation out here in the Merrimack Valley, the edge of the universe to many Bostonians and Cantabrigians but home to many of us. It was great to have only a 10 minute drive to the event!

One of the four chosen presenters was parked outside on Jackson Street next to the Hamilton Canal, the Fashion Truck. Emily Benson was just opening up her boutique on wheels and was already attracting fashion lovers.

The Fashion Truck Ready for Business

Fashionistas Inside the Truck

I managed to tear myself away from the Fashion Truck and head on into the Appleton Mills to check out the other products.

The space looked great with lots of light and art on the walls. Last time I was at Appleton Mills was for the book launch of Young Angel Midnight. This was a different but equally creative and enthusiastic crowd.

Christine Sierra was ably handling the sign-in table while Bobbie and Tim rounded up the innovators.

Christine Sierra

The sponsors for the evening were:

• The City of Lowell -- great hosts
• The Deshpande Foundation -- awesome support for innovation
• The Merrimack Valley Sandbox -- who also provided business development, marketing, and strategy expertise in the Experts Corner
• The Appleton Mills -- a great space
• Comcast -- who generously provided free Wi-Fi and expertise in the Experts Corner

I was thrilled to meet Desh Deshpande, a force for good in the Merrimack Valley and an inspiring entrepreneur.

Our Sponsors from the Deshpande Foundation and the City of Lowell

The crowd started to build shortly after 6:00PM with a mix of people from the local area and Mass Innovation regulars who hadn't visited Lowell before.

The Crowd

I particularly wanted to talk to the guys from TourLawrence.org who were presenting their award-winning interactive tour about Lawrence: The Path. It uses cool beehive shape signs and online videos to tell the tale of two sisters who were caught in the largest industrial disaster in Massachusetts history - the fall of the Pemberton Mill. I've done the tour 3 times now and have added it to the Lawrence attractions in our New England Day Trips At-Hand app. I enjoyed being able to tell Nick how much I enjoyed the tour.

Nick from TourLawrence.org

The team from Bizulu made a big impression with their different take on the online auction and with their matching T-shirts. I awarded them best costume of MIN37. Their Competitive Entertainment Shopping lightning fast auction technology is definitely innovative. I got to chat with them some more at the after party -- great team and cool product.

Team Bizulu

Jenne Rayburn is a Boston based handcrafted jewelry and apparel design company. Her jewelry is gorgeous and her philosophy is inspiring.

Jenne Rayburn

Just Scentsational!  offers innovative organic products designed to rid your yard and garden of unwanted pests the natural way. He assured me this would keep the skunks out of my yard without irritating me. If I'm plagued with skunks again this year, I may well give Just Scentsational! a call.

Just Scentsational!

Encapsulator is a disposable web browser. It's a cool way to protect against malware attacks. Instead of leaving behind a trail of login information and stuff that could be copied from your browser, you visit Encapsulator.com, surf the web the way you do now, and throw away your web browser when you're done. Jay walked us through a demo that showed what kind of information could be snarfed up by malware when we're browsing unprotected. He showed the same session using Encapsulator and none of the information was stored. Cool techie stuff is always my favorite part of MIN and this was definitely cool and techie.

Jay Demoing Encapsulator for Fiona

Akken showed off their web-based business software suite for staffing and recruiting companies.

Akken

The student entrepreneurs from Five Senses have an intriguing concept and loads of enthusiasm. Their electronic system simulates relaxing environments that appeal to all five senses. Imagine being able to bring a full sensory experience of the beach or the forest to folks in nursing homes who need the stimulation but can't necessarily get out into their desired environment. It was a pleasure to talk with these guys.

Five Senses Team

Turkey Shore Distilleries introduced their Old Ipswich Tavern Rum aged in oak barrels. They get the best prop award for the oak barrel and the cool copper tubing. The after party at Garcia Brogan's featured a rum tasting with small shots of straight rum and rumenade, which is rum mixed with lemonade.

Rum

Rum Tasting at Garcia Brogan's

I had a lot of fun with the experts from the Merrimack Valley Sandbox, trying for just the right "Experts Looking Expert" shot. I also got to meet Sovanna Pouv, whose name I see all the time and who seems to have his hand in all things Lowell. Oh, and there was indeed birthday cake for MIN's 3rd birthday. What a great night for innovation and for Lowell. I look forward to more involvement with the local innovation scene.

Merrimack Valley Sandbox Experts Looking Expert

Looking Expert and Entrepreneurial and Having Fun!