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Friday, October 2, 2009
MassTLC Unconference builds success with innovators, entrepreneurs
By Galen Moore
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The MassTLC Innovation unConference has grown fast, with 437 people attending the second annual installment of the open-ended conference organized by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council — up from 285 at the first conference last October.
Session topics — which are proposed ad-hoc and posted at the beginning of the day — ranged from a demo of the flying car made by Woburn-based Terrafugia Inc. , to a discussion titled, “All the bad things VCs want to do to you,” led by Richard Dale of Sigma Partners.
Paul Maeder of Highland Capital led a discussion on noncompete agreements in advance of a public hearing to be held next Wednesday (he’s against them), and Hub Angels Investment Group’s David Verrill and Pixability Inc. CEO Bettina Hein talked about how to raise money from angel investors.
Hein said the unconference format makes it much easier to meet interesting people. “Usually you have this podium syndrome,” she said. “If you’re on the podium, everybody stands in line to talk to you after the session. If you’re not, you’re waiting in line. Here the connection is more many-to-many.”
In a session on boosting New England’s innovation culture, led by Cambridge Innovation Center’s Tim Rowe, TechStars Boston’s Shawn Broderick, and blogger and event coordinator Scott Kirsner, a standing-room-only crowd brainstormed a 60-strong list of active networking groups that are promoting innovation in Massachusetts.
Several groups from Providence, R.I., including the new incubator Betaspring and the Business Innovation Factory, a sort of innovation think tank.
Twitter entrepreneur Laura Fitton, who founded Cambridge-based OneForty Inc., suggested more region-wide collaboration across city limits. “I hear people saying, ‘We’re Providence, and we’re going up against Silicon Valley,’ or, ‘We’re Boston, and we’re going up against Silicon Valley,’” she said. “What they may not realize is, Silicon Valley is a big place.”
Microsoft Cambridge’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) Gus Weber said professional groups need to collaborate more with universities. “This is an amazing list, but I don’t know that I’ve seen any more than four or five students at any of these events,” he said.
MassTLC vice president Heather Johnson said this year’s event improved on last year’s because more of the participants knew what to expect. The organization held an unrelated conference on the future of software and the Internet, also on the unconference model in the spring, which about 320 people attended.
“Last year, they were saying, ‘What the hell is an unconference?’” she said. “What does that mean, how does it work, can I really learn from a 24-year-old?”
Unconferences are “facilitated, participant-driven, face-to-face” conferences, according to the Unconference Blog written by Kaliya Hamlin, who has facilitated MassTLC’s two annual events. They do not allow pre-set agendas or speakers. Participants themselves propose an agenda, and each time slot becomes populated with several separate presentations and discussions — some in packed conference rooms, others around a table with as few as five people.
The model is more widely recognized on the West Coast, said Bill Warner, the angel investor and Avid Technology founder. MassTLC’s event, which he helped organize, differentiates itself by recruiting ‘experts’ who volunteer to coach entrepreneurs. Conference sponsors pay part of the price of admission for entrepreneurs at cash-strapped startups to attend. “The goal is, how do you turn the ego off and turn the helping on,” said Warner.
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