Innovation springs from diversity. And bringing together people and ideas from diverse backgrounds, fields, and experience to help explore and drive innovation is core to Xconomy’s mission. We’re trying to do that online, through both our editorial coverage and our Xconomist Forum, which we hope add a fresh, more personal, and insightful dimension to the innovation landscape here in New England. But we also seek to do that person-to-person through our event series, which began last week with our gala launch party.
Now, though, we’re moving into higher gear, announcing our first Xconomy Forum: The Future of Innovation in New England. The forum will be held on December 5, at the MIT Media Lab. Our premise is that New England is home to the world’s greatest concentration of elite universities, large corporations and startups, venture-capital and business leadership, great research hospitals, and science and technology expertise spanning everything from life sciences to energy to robotics and IT. But how well do we collaborate and share ideas? How well do we identify and tackle the challenges that are critical to the region’s future and the planet’s? In short, is our region living up to its full potential—and how can we reach the next level of success?
We’ve put together a fantastic group of leaders from the local innovation community to discuss this critical subject. They are a trio of entrepreneurs who each have created public companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars that are making the world a safer, more efficient, and healthier place: Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairman, iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]]); Frank Moss, director of the MIT Media Lab and co-founder of Infinity Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:INFI]]) and several IT companies; and Christoph Westphal, CEO and co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SIRT]]), who’s also co-founded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) and Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MNTA]]).
Moderating this great group will be IDG Ventures general partner Michael Greeley, president of the New England Venture Capital Association, who has made it part of his NEVCA mission to help spur local entrepreneurs and company leaders to take on bigger challenges and create new, billion-dollar businesses.
It’s bound to be a fun and informative discussion, and we hope you can join us. Registration is free, but limited, so sign up fast. Click here to register.
