Women Rule #MIN79

Women entrepreneurs invaded the Innovation District for Women Entrepreneurs Week and Mass Innovation Nights MIN79. District Hall was jam-packed. Boston Harbor was looking a lot less icy than the last time I was in the district (must get there more often :-)).  I parked a short distance away from the hall so I could get in a bit of a walk, enjoy the weather, and take in the view from Marina Park.

Welcome to the Seaport Innovation District

On my waterfront walk, I reached the conclusion that Babson, one of the MIN79 sponsors,  is amazing before I even got to the event when I saw this ingenious advertisement:

Babson Must Have the Best PR Folks Ever

This MIN Women Founders event is part of Women Entrepreneurs Week in Boston. WEBOS is the City of Boston's program to support its women entrepreneurs and they were there in full force (and obviously got the color coordination memo for their outfits :-)). It was a delight to talk with them, and you should check out their programs.

Team WEBOS

The crowd was huge. The table display area was practically already full before the doors even officially opened.

This Crowded and the Event Hasn't Even Started Yet

It was great to see Sherry Handel of  Energy Harvesters again and follow how things are going with the Walking Charger™ , one of the coolest hardware inventions ever.  Imagine being your own power source.  Charge your mobile device batteries just by walking.  At first the Walking Charger will be integrated within footwear by companies like Wolverine and Timberland. The next step after that is a version that's swappable among footwear. I've been imagining putting one of these on my hiking boots since the first time I heard Sherry speak.  Energy Harvesters deservedly won the grand prize in the voting.

Sherry Handel of Energy Harvesters Talking Entrepreneurship with Amanda from Babson CWEL

Second place went to JumpSmart with their super fun way of helping kids ages 8-12 learn programming and creativity. Their interactive mat full of lights and sensors reminded me of the musical stairs at the Museum of Science. Kids interact with it by jumping on it and use a programming language on a tablet to create interactive games that use the mat. Engaging mind and body in teaching coding takes learning to a new level.

JumpSmart

Beam impressed me with its simplicity and usefulness. It's an app that lets two people share their current locations in real time for an hour,  privately - just between the two of you. This beats the heck out of texting and calling repeatedly when trying to rendezvous for lunch with someone.  They definitely deserved their prize too.

Beam

You and Me as Map Pins

The other prize winner was  Cintell, a cloud-based "customer intelligence" platform that uses data  analytics to help companies to better understand their customers. It makes personas more dynamic and more detailed for way better insight into things like buying habits, preferences, and so on.

Cintell

My personal favorite was Cabbige, an online business management tool specifically designed for small-scale agriculture.  It makes figuring out the best price for a crop, tracking inventory, and keeping records easy and centralized all in one tool. Anything that helps small farmers become more profitable gets my vote. Plus they had the most beautiful butternut squash on display.  Judging by what I've seen at the local farms around me out here in "rural vibe with mills" this has been a great year for butternut squash.

Cabbige

Beautiful Butternut Squash

MIN regular Susan Ahern introduced me to Canadian entrepreneurs Janine Kwoh and Lily Zou.  Janine designs/makes wonderful little cards that celebrate all kinds of sentiments for our absurd and diverse lives.  Boston and Bale includes Janine's Kwohtations cards in their bales.  Lily's company, NutraEx Food, makes a line of alternative natural sweeteners called Sugarlike to help you reduce sugar and calories but keep the taste.

Janine, Susan, Lily - Women Entrepreneurs

Janine's Kwohtations on the Boston and Bale Table

Boston and Bale delivers monthly or one time curated packages full of handcrafted products. What a great way to discover new local products. They donate a portion of their proceeds each month to a Boston-based charity/organization.

Boston and Bale

I liked the concept of Design SySTEM from Teaching Garage.  It's an online engineering curriculum for elementary schools. Here's hoping it inspires a new generation of innovators that's more inclusive of girls. (BTW, girl scientists rock, especially those related to me.)

Teaching Garage

It's about time somebody came up with a service like Date My Wardrobe, an online marketplace to rent high end fashion pieces available near you. Plus, they had the best prop - a really stylish high-heeled shoe. I hereby award it Best Prop of MIN79.

Best Prop of MIN79

Digaboom is a new collaboration platform and community for digital marketing, design and technology experts. It brings together all the talent for a particular project. Tracey, the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder,  gave an energetic presentation. The Digaboom team's matching t-shirts, edged out all the other matching t-shirt teams for Best Costume of MIN79 too.

Digaboom

The Babson WIN Lab featured entrepreneurs this month were Green Pinata Toys and Lusterity. I enjoyed talking with both of them.  Green Pinata is basically a toy-sharing service. Kids lose interest in their toys so quickly, it's great to be able to rent them. You can subscribe by the month or every 2 months and get a box of non-toxic toys delivered. Lusterity is a one stop event planning shop for socially conscious celebrations. They've got a pop-up "Make It Matter" marketplace coming up on November 15, which should be festive and fun and get your holiday celebration preparation off to a good start.

Green Pinata

Lusterity

For the traditional closing shot of Experts Looking Expert, I give you the women of Silicon Valley Bank, generous sponsor of MIN79.

Experts Looking Expert - Silicon Valley Bank

big crowd for #MINFoodie9

This is the Place for #MINFoodie9

Wednesday's Mass Innovation Nights Foodie event was huge: record number of products, enormous crowd, and vast space at Lord Hobo Brewing Co. The actual brewing area was roped off, but open for us to view and photograph. All that gleaming stainless steel made for some bright and shiny photos!

Gleaming Brewing Tanks

The food innovations were diverse as always from juices to prepackaged Indian meals to spices for kids and beyond. The crowd favorite was Makomas Juices.  Samples were going fast, and once I tasted the hibiscus, I could see why. It tasted a little bit like Red Zinger (my favorite hippie dippy herbal tea back in the 1970s) but fruitier.  All the flavors are based on West African family traditions. They're available at many Whole Foods stores (alas, not my local one) and other natural foods stores.

Makomas Juice

I loved meeting the folks behind Natural Food Exchange. Their food is not only organic but also GMO free. Hey, they stock my favorite kale chips -- the ones from Revitalive in Newburyport -- and they are conveniently located in Reading (here in the north country of Massachusetts).

Me Chatting with Natural Food Exchange (photo by Maureen Mansfield)

And guess who was finally spotted at a Mass Innovation Night after nearly a year? That's right, Eric Andersen! It was great to reconnect with Eric. Lots of other regulars were happy to see him too. And his prolific tweeting inspired me to up my Twitter game :-)

Everybody is Glad to See Eric!

TippiTopper seasonings are made especially for kids. They're organic and made from fruit. Kids can sprinkle them on plain foods to enhance the flavor. Sounds like a cool thing for picky eaters. I tried the Banana Bread and the PB and J sprinkled on plain yogurt. The Banana Bread really perked up the yogurt.

TippiToppers

Purple Carrot delivers vegan meal kits -- all pre-measured ingredients and the recipes. They seemed to be getting an enthusiastic response from people.

Purple Carrot

India in a Box supplies delicious Indian meals, yes, in a box. Pour, heat, eat. 

India in a Box

Glenwood Garden was there to introduce a new Artisan Food Gift Box. Each sale triggers a donation to one of their participating nonprofits. Great food, sustainability, and charitable giving. What more could you want?

Glenwood Garden

Glenwood Garden Gift Box

The Coffee Bar from New Grounds Food was delicious. It's organic, vegan, and gluten free and is infused with a full cup of fair trade coffee. This gives new meaning to the term "energy bar."

Coffee Bar

Vegetable bouquets from Crudite Creations are the prettiest food I saw all evening. They're also the perfect gift for when you have no idea what to give.  And who knew vegetables came in so many bright colors?

Pretty Food from Crudite Creations

Smoked Maple Syrup. Smoked Maple Syrup. Smoked Maple Syrup. Did I say that enough? Sugar Bob's Smoked Maple Syrup  is just that, rich, dark maple syrup infused with wood smoke. The sample tasted delicious. The syrup is intended for cooking with, not for pouring on your pancakes. The idea is to use it in sauces, marinades, and glazes to give big flavor to things like barbecue. And even though they didn't have matching T-shirts, I hereby award them Best Costume of MINFoodie9 because of their father and son name tags: Sugar Bob and Sugar Dad.

Sugar Dad and Sugar Bob

Community Brew was getting raves for the samples of Downeast Cider, but Community Brew is actually software (a SAAS application) for craft breweries from East Coast Product. Their aim is to make it easier for craft brewers to communicate with their customers.

Community Brew

The Adey Foods table was drawing big crowds with their samples of delicious Ethiopian cuisine. Who wouldn't want fresh, locally produced, high quality Ethiopian foods? Now imagine finding them in your local grocery store instead of searching for an Ethiopian specialty store.

A Glimpse of Adey Foods thru the Crowd

As I said in the first paragraph, this event was huge with a record number of products.  It was impossible for me to sample everything and talk to everybody. The spirit of the crowd was very upbeat and everybody seemed to be having lots of fun. There was even a corn hole game set up and some people were getting to be quite expert at it, so I will close with a photo of some corn hole players/experts.

Getting Serious about Playing Corn Hole

6 reasons to come to Lowell this weekend

Lowell is the place to be this weekend July 24-25-26 with 5 stages of traditional music, amazing ethnic foods, art, and all manner of amazing things. The Lowell Folk Festival is celebrating its 29th year as the longest running free Folk Festival in the country. Need more reasons to join in the fun?

Crowd in JFK Plaza for San Francisco Taiko Dojo -- LFF 2014

Here are 6 reasons to come to Lowell during Folk Festival weekend:

1. Food! Food booths at Boardinghouse Park, JFK Plaza, and Dutton Street offer a culinary tour of the world without leaving downtown. This foodie extravaganza is put on by local churches and nonprofits to showcase their ethnic food traditions and raise money for their community programs. It is totally worth the drive from Boston or Portland or even Albany for the lumpia and the turon from Iskwelahang Pilipino. My personal favorite is the loobie & rooz from St. George Antiochian Church. They make green beans sing.

Pilipino Food! Lumpia and Turon

2. Learn to make pickles! This year's foodways theme is "Pickling Traditions".  See how folks make refrigerator pickles, Jamaican pickled pepper sauce and other yummy things. Hey, the refrigerator pickles demo is by Mill City Grows' own Lydia Sisson -- urban farming entrepreneur and one of Lowell's amazing people named Lydia (Lowell is just full of amazing Lydias for some reason).

Loobie & Rooz

3. Selfies with the Geico Gecko!  Geico is one of the Folk Festival's sponsors and this year they plan to have the Gecko at their booth for your photographing pleasure.

4. Downtown Lowell! Folk Festival is the perfect time to check out the Mill City's many attractions, from public art to three, count them three, vinyl record stores.  Red brick mills, canals, the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Mill No. 5 (you have to experience it to understand), art galleries, art in the park, and did I mention record stores?

Boott Mill

Vinyl Records!

5. Coffee! Brew'd Awakening Coffeehaus is celebrating its 10th anniversary during Folk Festival, so be sure to stop in for the famed cold brewed ice coffee. Need some coffee beans to brew at home? Check out Brew'd's two locally roasted blends -- The Poet and The Painter And you know what? Brew'd is just part of the amazing Lowell coffee scene. Be sure to swing by Rosie's for more locally roasted coffee. Just need a quick pick me up? Try the Coffee Mill. Need atmosphere and antlers? Try Coffee and Cotton in Mill No. 5.

Coffee!

6. Free Music! Free Music! Free Music! Just look at this list of amazing musicians playing at this year's festival. And that's not even mentioning street performers at Busk Stops and local favorites playing at clubs and coffee shops, and the amazing hip hop dancing in the streets.

Dancing in the Streets

MIN to the max at #MIN76

MITRE hosted MIN (how alliterative) for the first time on Wednesday 7/8. The space was beautiful and spacious, even including an indoor rock garden. It's a good thing the space was big, because the crowd was big. MITRE was a great host, providing not only a good space but also delicious food, including edamame dumplings. Who can resist edamame dumplings? Thank you, MITRE.

Spacious Space

It's always amazing to me how diverse the products are at MIN, even when there's a theme, or in this case two themes: HealthIT and Cybersecurity.  It was mainly the health products that made an impression on me.

MyMedicalShopper attracted a lot of attention with a health care transparency platform. Think of being able to make your health care choices based on price, quality, and convenience data! MyMedicalShopper makes comparison easy, so your choices are clearer. Needless to say, they got loads of votes and won the grand prize, a flight on Tailwind.

My Medical Shopper

My personal favorite was Sunu a wearable "flashlight" for the blind and visually impaired. It's a wristband that uses ultrasound technology to scan your path and give feedback using vibration. This allows a person with low vision to move safely and smoothly. A branch hanging over the sidewalk? Furniture in your path? Sunu lets you know. 

Sunu Demo Table

Fernando Albertorio gave a great presentation. I chatted with him afterwards about my partner's needs in detecting and responding to uneven surfaces (remind me to blog about the obstacle course that the East Side of Providence has become with the endless water pipe project). Sunu won't really help with detecting when the sidewalk changes from pavement to gravel and slopes up and down quickly, but the potential is there for that. Sunu won a MITRE swag bag in the fan voting.

Fernando Wearing Sunu

Revvo is a smart exercise bike - wicked smaht as we might say in Boston - that not only tracks how much exercise you do, but also measures your aerobic capacity and helps you cycle at just the right intensity to get maximum fitness improvement. They offered free fitness tests at their demo table and generated lots of enthusiasm for their presentation. And yes, they were one of the fan voting winners.

Revvo Presentation

MIN regular (since practically the beginning), Mory Bahar, presented his Choose This Not That series of apps from Personal Remedies  that guide you through nutritional solutions to common health conditions and issues like gout, high triglycerides, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, Vitamin D deficiency, and even some types of cancer. You name it and there's an app to help you decide what to eat/not eat based on whatever your issue is. I noticed a lot of people downloading the apps while Mory was presenting. Another well-deserved fan favorite winner of a MITRE swag bag.

Mory Bahar

The READcase attracted my attention because it provides a stable platform for image capture, which is very useful to blind and low vision folks who use mobile apps that do text to speech based on image scanning. It's handy for lots of other scanning applications too. It's certainly less bulky than the huge scanning device my partner has for reading her mail. The READcase works with existing technology for text recognition, so it doesn't solve many of the problems people experience with the big expensive standalone solutions either, like reading glossy postcards or other glossy material or reading watermarks and the gray background text (how do you tell if that's a bill from Blue Cross or it's telling you that you paid -- the key info is in the gray watermark.) Anyway, beyond uses for low vision apps, this could be really useful for scanning business cards and other items.

READCase

DARTDrones Flight School had a table full of drones to attract the crowd. I mean, who can resist drones? Not sure whether drones are cybersecurity or health care, but they're cool (despite their use as wildlife harassment devices -- please don't fly your drone on National Wildlife Refuges, it's illegal and not a good idea).

DARTDrones Flight School

Admetsys tackles the problem of measuring and managing insulin and glucose in surgical and hospital care of diabetic patients. This is an innovation that doesn't necessarily wow the crowds because it's not a consumer product, but it is brilliant and deserves attention. It's basically an artificial pancreas. Do check it out.

Admetsys

Have you ever wanted to throw the microphone to that person in the back row who has a question? I have. So have MIN presenters. That's why Catchbox was a big hit. Yes, BobbieC threw the Catchbox to an audience member and audience members threw it to other audience members. It sure beats running around trying to hand off the microphone. I hereby award Catchbox "Best Prop of MIN76"! Yes, they beat out the drones :-) Maybe I should give it "Best Costume" too, because it's so cleverly disguised that it doesn't even look like a microphone.

Best Prop of MIN76 - Catchbox

For our Experts Looking Expert photo we have two of MITRE's cadre of experts, who provided loads of info about MITRE and technology transfer, and were just all around fun to talk with.

Experts Looking Expert