The sun finally came out and heated up the day a bit yesterday—and at our XSITE 2011 conference at Babson College, things were smoking. We had a great crowd of close to 400 speakers and attendees, among them nearly 100 startups, for this year’s event, themed The Entrepreneurship Era. We had inspiring keynotes, insightful chats, and lively debates—all followed by a reception in the Babson pub where we continued to congratulate each other on the Bruins’ victory.
We will soon be posting some recaps from the day—including the audience selections from our XSITE Xpo startup competition and highlights from Sound Off, where five esteemed members of the innovation community ranted about what needs to change here in New England, and how to bring that change about. And we will be posting photos, videos, and more next week. But right now I wanted to take a little time to thank our speakers and all the great supporters who made XSITE 2011 such a success.
First, our speakers, several of whom journey from across the country, or up from New York (which is like another country) to take part. In approximate order of appearance, they were: Rick Miller, Len Schlesinger, Desh Deshpande, Stephen Friend, Phil Sharp, Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Edward Jung, Pattie Maes, Stephen Kaufer, Drew Hession-Kunz, Jason Evanish, Chris Palatucci, Josh Bob, Martin LaMonica, Paul Sellew, Brian Chemel, Frank van Mierlo, Aaron Mandell, Troy Campione, Bob Fabbio, Veer Gidwaney, Michael Martino, Norm Wu, Joe Chung, Ellen Rubin, Jules Pieri, John Landry, Jason Jacobs, Sean Creeley, Charlotte Hubbert, Ziad Sultan, Daniel Isenberg, Todd Dagres, Jamie Goldstein, Lee Hower, Jeanne Sullivan, Katie Rae, Pedro Santos, Jordy Leiser, Timo Platt, Seph Skerritt, Michael Raybman, Karan Singh, Heather Keith, Alain Goubau, Jennifer Fremont-Smith, William Sanchez, Justin Shaka, and Shanker Sahai.
Great thanks as well to our wonderful event hosts, Babson College and Olin College—to their two presidents, Len Schlesinger and Rick Miller, respectively, and to their great staffs. You guys rock!
Another round of heartfelt thanks goes to our event sponsors, starting with Gold Sponsor Microsoft; Cleantech Track Sponsor, Latham & Watkins; Healthtech Track Sponsors AT&T and MFA—Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico; and our IT Track Sponsors, Invest Northern Ireland; Next Stage Solutions; Turnstone; and Windstream Hosted Solutions.
I’d also like to thank our event partners, Dog Patch Labs; MassBio; MassChallenge; The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council; MITX; New England Venture Capital Association; and TIE Boston.
Thanks, too, to our Event Supporter Nutter McLennan & Fish; our Lanyard Sponsor, Carbonite; and our Startup Supporters, Flybridge Capital Partners; Redstar; and Spark Capital.
Our elegant, beautiful stage furniture was provided once again by Turnstone.
We’d also like to thank the underwriters and venture members who support us throughout the year. Without you, Xconomy would not be possible. First, our charter underwriters, who have supported us since our launch in mid-2007: Alexandria Real Estate Equities; Biogen Idec; Science and Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and WilmerHale.
Our other great underwriters are: Aderly/Only Lyon; AT&T; BNY Mellon Wealth Management ; Goodwin Procter; Invest Northern Ireland; J. Robert Scott Executive Search; the Kauffman Foundation; Latham & Watkins; MFA—Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico; Next Stage Solutions; NYSE Euronext; SRI International ; Turnstone; UK Trade & Investment; and Windstream Hosted Solutions.
Our venture capital members include: Advanced Technology Ventures; Arch Venture Partners; Atlas Venture; Avalon Ventures; Bain Capital Ventures; Boston Millennia Partners; Excel Venture Management; Flagship Ventures; HLM Venture Partners; LaunchCapital; North Bridge Venture Partners; and Polaris Venture Partners.
And, last but certainly not least, thanks to you, our fantastic audience.
