We’ve written several times about the Web Innovators Group meetings put on by Venrock vice president David Beisel, including this interview with Beisel himself. The monthly Web Inno get-togethers include three or four “main dish” talks by local entrepreneurs launching new Web services, coupled with three to five “side dish” presentations by firms manning tables around the room. Lately, the meetings have included cell phone voting so the audience can convey their favorites among the main dish presenters.
Given the popularity of the events, and the startup fervor here in general, I thought it might be informative to point out an article we posted on our Seattle site this morning—about LivePitch, a two-minute pitch competition there for startups. LivePitch is a bit more involved than Web Inno, with a judges’ panel as well as audience voting—and some 14 companies making their 120-second presentations.
You’ll find the article, by our Seattle editor Greg Huang, here.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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