Oct 8: The State of Wireless Sensor Networks

The continuous size and cost reduction of electronic devices is gradually making the vision of ubiquitous wireless sensors networks a reality. After almost a decade of extensive research, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are in the midst of the transition towards industrial deployment in various application domains such as automotive, environmental monitoring, health care, energy management, and building and industrial automation. BAIA presents a panel of outstanding experts from the academia and the industry who have played an essential role in the history and development of WSNs.

BAIA has organized an outstanding panel that will explore the state of wireless sensor networks on the evening of October 8th at UC Berkeley. Panelists include:

  • Prof. David Culler, UC Berkeley, CTO and Co-Founder Arch Rock
  • Mike Horton, CEO and Co-Founder Crossbow
  • Prof. Raju Pandey, UC Davis, CTO and Co-Founder Synapsense
  • Prof. Kris Pister, UC Berkeley, CTO and Co-Founder Dust Networks
  • Dr. Joe Polastre, CTO and Co-Founder Sentilla
  • Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, UC Berkeley, CTA and Co-Founder Cadence Design Systems

The event is free, but limited to 100 attendees. Learn more and register here.

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Nov 19 – 21: Astia it Conference

There are venture conferences and then there’s it.  Astia, dedicated to accelerating women-founded and and -led IT businesses, brings smart startups to the stage to present their businesses.  Now in its seventh year, the Astia conference has driven real results for these young companies:

  • Over $4868 million raised
  • Funding success rate surpassing 60% of presenting companies
  • Ten successful exits, including two IPOs

The conference has been designed for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs who understand the value of an extraordinary business network.  The conference connects entrepreneurs to investors, industry leaders, advisors, service providers, and other players who can help young companies win.

This year’s keynote speaker is Diane Greene, founder of VMWare, who certainly has lots of great experience to share.

For more information and to register to attend, visit the Astia it Conference page.

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Oct 15: AlphaLab Applications Due

AlphaLab, the Pittsburgh-based startup incubator, is now accepting applications for its Winter/Spring 2009 cycle.  The application deadline is October 15th, 2008.

AlphaLab is a catalyst for launching the next generation of software, entertainment technology and Internet-related companies. Created by Innovation Works, one of the nation’s most active seed-stage investors, AlphaLab provides funding, free office space, expert business advisors and services through an intensive 20-week program in Pittsburgh. AlphaLab helps companies rapidly develop their technology, gain user feedback from early product releases, develop go-to-market strategies, and move toward successful commercial launch.

For more information and to access the application, visit: www.alphalab.org .

If you would like to learn more about the program, you can attend one of the upcoming events at AlphaLab, located at 2325 East Carson Street in Pittsburgh’s South Side.  AlphaLab team members will be at these events to answer any questions you may have about the program and to help you determine whether your business idea is a good fit for the program.  You can also meet others who are interested in the program and a few of the current AlphaLab teams.  We will provide an overview of the program at some point during the event.  The two upcoming events are:

1) The Open Coffee Club (more information on the Open Coffee Club can be found here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/171782/ ): October 1st, 9 am-noon.  The overview presentation will take place at 11 am.

2) DevHouse Pittsburgh (http://devhousepgh.org/index.php ): October 2nd, 5 pm-midnight.

NOTE: Guidewire Group’s Chris Shipley is an adviser to AlphaLab.

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Nov 3-4: Defrag, Accelerating the “Aha” Moment

On the morning of November 3, I’ll be moderating a panel at Defrag, an excellent conference now in its sophomore year.   Organized by Eric Norlin,the conference explores the tools and technologies that accelerate the “aha” moment.  It is a growing community of thought leaders, experimenters, implementers, and innovators.

With an agenda divided between formal sessions, breakouts, and plenty of time for ad hoc learning, Defrag is packed with “aha” potential.  Speakers at this years event include Esther Dyson, Professor William Duggan, Charlene Li, and dozens of entrepreneurs and thinkers pushing the edges of the social computing paradigm.  Defrag is an opportunity to clear your head of the day to day to consider new perspectives on business, technology, and society.

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May 1: What’s Under Your Desk?

GreenPlug, the startup that launched its universal power adapter technology at DEMO 08, is celebrating earth day later this month with the “What’s Under Your Desk?” sweepstakes. The contest asks entrants to take a photo of the wire-y messes that support the computers, phones, printers, and other peripherals of modern technology. Three winners will be randomly drawn from all entries received by May 1.

The objective of the contest is to draw attention to the proliferation of power supplies, and of course, to GreenPlug’s universal power protocol integrated circuit. Given the photo below of the first entry received, we suspect the contest may also draw attention to fire hazards and other code violations.

What's Under Your Desk

First prize in the sweepstakes is a lunch in Beverly Hills with environmental advocates Chris Knight and Adrianne Curry of My Fair Brady. (Yes, that’s Peter Brady to those of us who grew up watching the original Brady Bunch.) Second prize is a $500 Wal-mart gift certificate which you can use, presumably, to purchase environmentally-friendly products. Third prize is a $250 contribution to the “green charity” fo the recipient’s choice.

Further information on the sweepstakes can be found at http://greenplugcontest.typepad.com

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April 15: Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition

In its second year, the Women 2.0 “paper napkin” business plan competition has garnered tremendous attention for the young women you are seeking support for their business plans.   In fact, coverage on ABC 7 Morning News last week generated so much interest that the organization has extended its application deadline until April 15.

Companies with at least 50% female representation are encouraged to submit their plans, and all submissions will receive written feedback from the organizations’ panel of judges (read their bios here).

Top 5 finalists present LIVE to the judges at the Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in Business Conference on May 10, 2008 at Stanford. Winner is announced at the end of the conference and scores a meeting with the iconic Esther Dyson, along with a grab bag of legal and PR goodies.

For more information or to submit a plan, go to http://pitch.women2.org.

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April 22 Deadline: Summer Internship at Highland Capital

We think this is an incredible program and great opportunity for a budding entrepreneurs, so we’re posting the announcement here pretty much as it came to us.

Summer@Highland 2008

 Are you a student (graduate, undergraduate or even recent grad) with a business you’d like to rapidly accelerate this summer?  If so, the Summer@Highland 2008 program may be just what you need!

Following the success of last year’s inaugural Summer@Highland, we are again offering stipends, office space, and experienced advisors to a small number of students with ambitious aspirations for building their businesses.

What we’re looking for

We are especially interested in having you spend the summer with us if:

- You’ve a leadership team with vision, passion, and drive
- Your business has the potential to be highly-disruptive in its area
- Your business initiative is showing momentum. While you may, or may not, have incorporated, you’ve more than a vague concept in mind
- You have real depth of expertise in your technology/market of interest
- You can direct us to some advisers who see your business’s potential as you do

 
Particulars of Summer@Highland 2008

 

- The program is open to current graduate and undergraduate students, as well as recent (December 2007 or later) grads.  At least one member of the team must meet this criterion.

- Teams can comprise 1 to 4 persons.

- A single person team will receive a $7,500 stipend for the summer.

- A multi-person team will receive a $15,000 stipend.

- Teams will reside in office space in Highland’s Lexington, MA or Menlo Park, CA offices (or, an exception basis, in our Geneva or Shanghai offices).

- Teams are required to work full time for 10 weeks.  Start and end dates are flexible and to span the period of June through September 2008. Teams are expected to share our office space with us during this full term.

- Each team will have a Highland sponsor who will be the team’s gateway to advice and counsel from Highland’s investors and industry network.

- In consideration of these benefits, but not to overly constrain the teams, we ask that if a team goes on to raise venture capital within 180 days from the end of the program, then Highland be provided the option to co-invest in up to 50% of the total financing round.

 

How to apply

- Please complete the brief online application (available at www.hcp.com/summer)

- Attach to your application (1) resumes/bios for each team member, and (2) up to two referrals/letters of recommendation (recommended).  The latter may be from faculty & administration, board or advisory group members, or others affiliated with close knowledge of your project and/or team members.

- Deadline for applications is April 22, 2008

- Selected projects will be notified via email no later than May 6, 2008.

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March 25: Half-Day Conference on Social Networking

Business Applications of Social Networking

Next week, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives, the Bay Area’s most active forum for women in leadership roles, will host the half-day conference “Business Applications of Social Networking.” The event will be held Tuesday, March 25th at the Computer History Museum and is being underwritten by Google.

Unlike other events on the topic are designed for social media insiders or that serve as an arena for platform wars, this event is designed to help business leaders better understand and extract value from social networks. This time-efficient conference isn’t about platform or profiles; it’s about leveraging social media and networking tools for your business. Speakers include:

This event is open to anyone, not just women.  If you’ve wondered how to make Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, or any of the dozens of social networking tools more pertinent to your business, I recommend you register for and attend this practical, time-efficient conference.  Use the code SNC325 when you register to get $149 special pricing.

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March 28 & 29: Break Away Marketing Workshop, San Jose

Completely Remake Your Marketing Success.

The seminar promises to give you no less than 10 BIG ways to add new leads to your business. And you won’t just leave with great notes and copies of slides; you will walk away with a written marketing plan that you design for your business, 9 marketing leverages that will move your business fast, key tactics to implement these leverages, as well as a revenue model that will lay out where new revenue available today will come from.

The seminar is valued at $1,347 and seats are selling for $937, but we negotiated a special rate of $837 for Friends of Guidewire Group. The seminar is limited to 60 people. To get the additional discount email martha@marketoutloud.com and be sure to mention GUIDEWIRE in the email.

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March 13: Utilizing Advisory Boards for Company Growth

The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives in partnership with Astia, is pleased to present “Utilizing Advisory Boards for Company Growth – An Executive Discussion.”

Every entrepreneur deals with the question of if, when, and how to build an Advisory Board. And they must address how to evolve the Advisory Board when things change to be a true competitive advantage for the next stage of the company’s growth. Join us for an interactive executive conversation with other company founders and entrepreneurs who’ve formed successful and value creating advisory boards.

The program will be an interactive panel discussion with entrepreneurs who’ve formed successful advisory boards and then small working groups to apply these ideas to your own company situation, with the guidance of the panelists, to plan the strongest advisory board strategy for your company. The panelists will also share perspectives on how they’ve seen advisory board roles impact career plans.

Panelists

  • Larry Augustin, Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, Serial Advisory Board Member, and Board Director
  • Tiffany Bass Bukow, CEO and Founder of www.Msmoney.com
  • Sue Kunz, CEO & Founder of Solidware (serial entrepreneur, graduate of SUN)

Event Details:

Date: Thursday, March 13, 2008
Time: 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Fenwick & West
Address: 801 California Street, Mountain View CA 94041

Registration: Click here to register for this event. Space is limited

Hosted by:

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