Gearing Up for 5×5 on Dec. 8 (Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas): Here’s the Agenda

Activity in the Boston-area innovation community seems to be picking up steam as we head into the holiday season. We’re getting excited as we gear up for our next Xconomy Forum in Boston on Dec. 8, which is called “5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas.” This is a chance to see, up close and in person, how some of the most exciting companies in our national network of cities are plotting to change the world. We’ve just posted the detailed agenda here, together with registration info.

Bill Warner, the angel investor, entrepreneur, and startup evangelist, will set the table with a keynote about “how to build your startup from the heart.” I’m looking forward to some personal inspiration here, and I’m sure it’ll be delivered in Warner’s usual thoughtful and understated manner.

Then we’ll have detailed talks on specific ideas and companies from Joaquin Silva, CEO of On-Ramp Wireless (San Diego); Mick Mountz, CEO of Kiva Systems (Boston); Craig Labovitz, chief scientist of Arbor Networks (Detroit); John Gilleland, CEO of TerraPower (Seattle); and Tommy McClung, CEO of CarWoo (San Francisco).

Interspersed with these talks (and plenty of networking time), we’ll have three-minute startup “bursts” from some of the most promising tech startups in our networks—ones that haven’t gotten tons of exposure yet: Sarah McIlroy, CEO of FashionPlaytes; Dug Song, CEO of Scio Security; Bettina Hein, CEO of Pixability; Iker Marcaide, CEO of peerTransfer; and Amit Jain, CEO of Prysm. We’ll also have a demo area set up where you can check out some of the companies’ technologies and products up close.

It should be a really fun and inspiring afternoon—we hope to see you there, at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology in Boston, on Dec. 8.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.