First Mass Innovation Night of 2013 #MIN46

The first MIN of 2013 drew crowds to the IBM Innovation Center in Waltham to check out an eclectic mix of products from gorgeous head wear to wearable social networking hardware. A theme emerged with multiple products doing cool things with video.  Plus we got to see Bobbie C's new megaphone!

The Megaphone -- Best Prop of #MIN46

I tried to go counterclockwise around the Hall of Innovation systematically checking out each product. That kind of sort of worked for a bit, but the room was jam-packed so I just went with the flow.

Hall of Innovation Jam-packed

 Arsenal Recon showed off an extremely useful new tool, Registry Recon, which searches for Microsoft Windows Registry data,  even deleted data, and shows investigators how registries from current and previous installations of Windows have changed over time. They developed it because they needed such a tool in their computer forensics work.

Registry Recon

Amico, one of the night's chosen presenters, showed off the coolest product of the night -- a bracelet that brings social networks to real life in the real world. We're talking a combination of bling and hardware that helps you match interests with people in the room or at the event with you based on your social media profile. Say I want to find UNIX geeks at the Moby-Dick Marathon reading or I want to find Moby-Dick readers at Mass Innovation Nights. All I have to do is make sure that info is in my profile downloaded into the bracelet and the bracelet does all the work for me. It lights up when a matching profile is in proximity. 
I'm imagining this as a big thing for large events like SXSW.

Amico

The team from viaNetwork told me about their service that helps make start-ups visible to investors, prospective talent, and mentors. With their visibility enhancing software, the relevant people will definitely see your viaResume. Dan put on his beanie hat for the photo. Best hat? Well maybe. After all, he's competing with Veronica from My Crowning Jewel. :-)

viaNetwork

The head wraps from My Crowning Jewel are amazingly gorgeous. Their philosophy says it all:

"Whether we wrap our hair to protect our hair from breakage, to adorn our crowns following hair loss, or just to mask a bad hair day,we still can look fabulous!"

I have to say that Veronica (CEO) and her Aunt Louisa (chief designer) both did indeed look fabulous. I hereby award Best Hat of #MIN46 to Veronica's head wrap, though it was a close race with Dan's beanie.

Veronica from My Crowning Jewel

Awesome Jewels

Over in the Cape Cod room, yet more innovators were drawing a good crowd.

Cape Cod Room

Cleverhood makes the best-looking and best-performing rain capes ever. The hounds-tooth one even reflects headlights in a grid pattern for a dramatic effect. Check it out in this photo, reflecting my flash. Cleverhood wins Best Costume of #MIN46 with the awesome "Electric Hounds-tooth" pattern rain cape.

Electric Hounds-tooth Rain Cape from Cleverhood

ViralGains is a marketing platform that maximizes sharing and conversation for online video. They're the ones to talk to if you want your brand's video to go viral. They were so popular I couldn't get a good photo of their demo table.

Also using video to solve a real problem was the team from Urvideoprofile. Their platform makes it easier and more convenient for people to find the perfect caregiver for their aging parents or their children, helping match experiences, skills, and personalities.

Florence from Urvideoprofile Presenting

Klurig Analytics analyzes Twitter streams for both real-time and long term trends in keywords and user sentiment. That's real-time market research!

Klurig Analytics

It was a great crowd, especially since there's a flu epidemic going on in Boston. There were lots of folks attending their first MIN. Lots and lots of networking went on throughout the evening.

Networking

Newcomers Raising Hands

More Networking

And yes folks, Bobbie C's new megaphone does have a siren but she declined to demonstrate it for us :)

Bobbie Wielding the New Megaphone

The Experts Corner was a little quiet, but innovators were definitely consulting the experts. Nate is our "Expert Looking Expert" for #MIN46.

Expert Looking Expert: Nate Therrien

a buzzing #MIN45

Festive Boston Globe

The Hive at the Boston Globe was buzzing last Wednesday night. Who could resist that pun? Not me. Seriously though, #MIN45 was one of the busiest Mass Innovation Nights I've been to. The place was packed and there was tremendous energy.

Best Hat!

The bee theme was everywhere, with jars of honey and a guy from The Hive in a beekeeper outfit welcoming us at the check-in desk. I immediately awarded him Best Hat of #MIN45, figuring nobody could top that.

The Crowd

So many products to see, so many people to meet! The food and demo tables were already busy non-stop by about 6:15. Conversation and networking was so fast and furious that getting people upstairs to hear the presentations on the dot of 7:00PM was challenging. The four chosen presenters were Mariwear,  ProfitBricks, Landing Page Builder, and SnapHop. All were excellent choices.

Mariwear

The women from Mariwear have a brilliant product: a top comfortable enough to lounge and sleep in but with enough shape and support so you still look dressed.  A team of models changed into their Mariwear tops for the presentation. Going bra-less never looked so good!

ProfitBricks

The one photo opp I missed was  the bra-less Mariwear models with the guys from ProfitBricks in T-shirts personifying Performance, Flexibility, and Price all lined up in the bra-free zone at the front of the presentation room. Oh well.

Showing Off Carbonite Labs' T-Shirt

What with the bee-keeper suit, the Mariwear models, the ProfitBricks t-shirts, and the Carbonite t-shirts, I had a hard time choosing Best Costume. Since I already declared the beekeeper Best Hat, I think I have to give Best Costume to Mariwear.

The Crowd with Smartphones Ready to Tweet

Landing Page Builder presented a genuinely  intuitive approach to custom landing pages for small businesses.  You don't have to be a designer or hire a designer to create a landing page with embedded forms and videos and other design elements. And it's completely web-based.

Landing Page Builder

I enjoyed tasting a peanut butter cup from Unreal Candy -- great taste without all the junk that goes into most treats.

Unreal!

One of the coolest things I saw was Tote-a-Tree, a reusable and easy to carry Christmas tree disposal and carry bag, very relevant at this time of year. Nifty to be able to move that big tree into and out of your house without dislodging needles and getting pine sap all over.

tote a tree

The folks from Carbonite added to the fun with a photo booth. This brought out people's playful side, with folks posing in all sorts of amusing combinations.

Carbonite

Demo

One of the secrets to networking:  knowing how to talk about football. Water Cooler Football offers workshops on networking and on how to use gridiron language to connect in the current competitive economy. They were also handing out a useful card diagramming how to work a room at a networking event.

Watercooler Football

One of the best things about Mass Innovation Nights is that you are almost guaranteed to encounter something you've never thought of. The DogsAtWork Canine Underwater Treadmill from Trailblazers Aquatic was one of those for me. Genius idea for dog rehab.

Talking About DogsAtWork Canine Underwater Treadmill

Jewelry is another category that shows up regularly at Mass Innovation Nights and #MIN45 was no exception with cute charms from Samantha Faye.

Pendants

Go Pro Workouts showcased revolutionary workout programs at their demo table.

GoPro

In the analytics realm, we had 42 Stats from Servalytics serving up a SaaS solution to integrate employee feedback with enterprise data.

42Stats

The biggest hit of the presentations was definitely RecruitingHop from our SnapHop friends. The consensus of the crowd was that it's downright shocking in this day and age that you can't easily apply for a job from a mobile device. Think about it. Shouldn't you be able to apply for a job at Apple with your iPhone? RecruitingHop fixes that. Adam applied for a job from his phone live during the presentation. The crowd was impressed.

Recruiting Hop

After the presentations, the demo tables were crowded once again. Everywhere you looked, small groups of people engaged in intense conversation. The energy was still so strong that some people were actually running from demo to demo.

Still Buzzing After the Presentations

The Experts Corner was indeed full of experts offering their expertise to the entrepreneurs. So, as has become traditional, I'll close with an "Expert Looking Expert" pic.

Expert Looking Expert

fun, fortunes, and big news at #MIN 44

View of Boston from 10th Floor

With everything from hailing a taxi cab to telling your fortune on the agenda, a Big News announcement, and a cool venue high above Kendall Square, #MIN44 set the bar high. Once again an innovative good time was had by all. Diversity of products and people, great views of Boston across the river, and fun hosts established a great vibe from the start.

Darth Potato Head

VMWare proved gracious hosts with free food, beverages, and Star Wars themed Mr. Potato Head toys decorating the lobby. The Experts were set up in conference rooms along the outer wall -- more of an Experts Row than an Experts Corner. The demo tables occupied hallways surrounding the main presentation area.

USpin

This month's presenters were:

• Prospective Plus -- a Common Job Application for recruiting entry level employees. Developed by a Northeastern student entrepreneur, it's similar to the Common App used for college admissions.
• SmartBooks -- your Virtual Finance Department. Bookkeeping and finance services in the cloud for startups and small businesses. 
• Hailo -- a free smartphone app that lets you  hail a safe and reliable Boston cab from wherever you are.
• Justellus -- replaces all those customer surveys with a cool way to submit feedback to companies in seconds, earn rewards, and support great causes.
• USpin -- a way to find, plan, and reserve awesome activities for your diverse group of friends.

Yes, you counted right, there were five. All of them were good. Hailo had an impressive video. Prospective Plus represented well for Northeastern (alma mater of one of my girl scientist nieces :-)) and had great energy

I had even more fun that usual checking out the demo tables because the placement of Jibunu next to Tell a Fortune tickled my geeky sense of humor. Jibunu answers questions using custom data collection and analysis. Tell a Fortune answers questions using a card reading/astrological app. Both invited me to ask questions. I figured "what is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything" was too easy so I tried to formulate a question about the future of technical communication. I got a good laugh from the Jibunu representative and a prediction about my strength and determination from the fortune telling app.

Jibunu

Both enjoyed posing for photos. Oh by the way, 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything for the 2 or 3 readers unfamiliar with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  And while we're on big data and predicting the future, how is it that not one big data startup has named themselves Seldon Foundation? OK, enough geekery for now. :-)

Fortune Telling

Justellus has the answer for getting feedback from "fans to brands". No navigating company web sites to find out how to give feedback, no endless surveys (if certain brands survey me one more time, they're going to lose me), no sitting on hold to talk to an offshore call center, just enter your feedback and it goes to the brand's employee who is encouraged to listen or to take action. It's that easy. 

Justellus

Living out here off the edge of the universe, I don't often have to hail cabs in Boston. If I did, I would definitely want Hailo on my smartphone. No flailing around in the rain trying to catch the driver's attention, no futzing around with payment, no worries. Just; two taps on your smartphone and pay by card, with no charges above the meter. That's it. Team Hailo had the best matching T-shirts so I awarded them Best Costume of MIN44.

Best Costume

SmartBooks had the greatest number of clouds on their slides. Their virtual bookkeeping and accounting services leverage cloud technology and integration with QuickBooks to make it easy for startups and small businesses to access their information and reports from any computer anytime and submit expenses and pay bills from their mobile phones. It's like having a finance department in your pocket.

SmartBooks

Best Hat of MIN44 goes to Osmium Apparel. They were there to launch the Mobius Belt, which is very cool -- the buckle is separate from the belt, very customizable. As cool as the belt was, I found I had to try on a hat. Mark from Osmium assured me I looked very Left Bank-- just like in my high school fantasy of hanging out at Les Deux Magots with Simone deBeauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Best Hat

BRIGHTdriver, creator of  interactive audio games, had the best table location right next to the door of the presentation area. They describe the intent of their product as a way for drivers to be able use their smartphone to have all the fun of social gaming without the dangers of texting. Personally, I think I would find audio gaming distracting too.

BRIGHTdriver

Yes, there was indeed big news.

Big News

Big News: Mass Innovation Nights has a new sponsor, American Airlines. This is an awesome partnership. Paul from American described the awesome MIN perks: All exhibtors can participate, 5000 Business ExtrAA points for the first place winner, and 2000 Business ExtrAA points for the next three. So all four presenters end up with some air travel -- very useful for startups.

Paul from American Airlines

I had some great conversations with folks in the Experts Corner -- or Experts Row -- about what people are looking for when they come to Mass Innovation Nights, how to tap into innovative ideas, and a little about what current innovators might be able to learn from those of us who were working at startups when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Is that a potato masher in his hand?

The crowd was an excellent mix of regulars and newcomers and I saw lots of connections being made. That's what people come to MIN for -- connection.

As is traditional, I'll close with an Expert looking expert, in this case Mike the Sharepoint expert doing his best "expert look" and kind of reminiscent of NBC's Chuck Todd on election night.

Expert Looking Expert

(Updated to correct the number of Business ExtrAA points for the 3 runners up)