Image for Life Science Innovation Day 2014

On Tuesday, June 3, the Massachusetts Life Science Center (MLSC) will host  its 7th Mass Life Sciences Innovation  Day at the Harvard Club on Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston. Billed on its Website as “the biggest day for life sciences startups and innovation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Mass Life Science Innovation Day is  “a high-energy, hands-on event” at which scientific leaders and business experts mingle with scientists, post-docs, professors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and venture capitalists.  

“This is one of the best opportunities to hear about trends affecting life sciences start-ups and to learn about new technologies that are ready for commercialization, ”  according to Abigail Barrow, Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center and the conference chair,  

A central question to be addressed at the event involves creativity, according to Barrow. That is, can researchers still be creative with the organizational and financial demands that are placed on research environments?  Do corporations and academics still have the courage to allow their teams to be really creative? If you want to do interesting and exciting science can you still get the funding? How does business and finance leadership view creativity?

“Our speakers and panelists will discuss the current battle to create innovation friendly environments and its impact on entrepreneurs and young researchers finding jobs.”

The morning session will feature a keynote address by Mark Levin, who will speak about how Third Rock, the  venture capital firm he founded,  invests in new companies.

 Brock Reeve, Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, will be the luncheon speaker.
Morning and afternoon breakout sessions featuring more than 40 speakers will cover scientific topics such as indication selection, experiment design and managing research programs as well as entrepreneurial topics including  “how to join the venture capital club,”  how to pitch your new idea, and “where to find money to fund your start-up.”

Some 30 early-stage companies and major research institutions will present posters and compete for prizes to be awarded at the close of the day by State Senator Karen Spilka.  The award-winners will be chosen by 20 Life Science CEOS and biotech leaders who will also attend a closing reception. The reception will include an Innovators Marketplace offering resources needed to commercialize an invention.

 More information on the program and registration is available on  the MLSC website at  –http://www.mattcenter.org/malsi-day-2014/home.html .

Here’s a link to the agenda and a complete list of speakers.
Conference fees range from $60 for students  to $550 for two marketplace exhibitors.

Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day was  developed by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Start-up Initiative (MALSI)–a platform organization that brings together all major public and private entities in the State that are committed to building the next generation of Massachusetts companies. MALSI’s mission is to ensure that Massachusetts maintains its lead as the #1 region in the world to start, nurture and grow life sciences companies.  MALSI partners include: Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, MassBio, Mass Medical Angels, TiE Boston, and several major universities and research hospitals.

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is an author, photographer  and communications consultant based ib Cambridge, MA. 

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA. 

Kendall Square 4-17-13

Despite a historically strong anti-development bias in Cambridge, the City Council last week approved a new zoning law that will allow further transformation of the already growing Kendall Square. The new law, passed on April 8, approves plans for a new gateway to MIT facing the Kendall Square MBTA Station, the construction of some 1.1M square feet of new commercial space around the T stop, and hundreds of new housing units. (More details at  HarrisCom Blog:   http://wp.me/p1Hocg-Wy            ).

According to Tim Rowe, president of the Kendall Square Association and a founder of the Cambridge Innovation Center,  while, at last week’s meeting,  many Cantabridgians questioned the desirability of new buildings that could create traffic noise, “construction hassle and the like”, others emphasized the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship

“They spoke about how these endeavors are critical to our prosperity in these days of intense competition with other regions, how they bring jobs to residents all across the state, and how the fruits of the labors of our innovators and entrepreneurs are solutions to important problems facing the planet,” Rowe said. “What is super exciting to me is that our political leaders, by their vote, accepted these arguments.  This is a major win for innovation.”

In a blog posted to clients of the Cambridge Innovation Center–including me–Rowe emphasized that the Kendall Square community concerned about sustainability–as evidenced that  “despite millions of square feet of new buildings being built here” during the past decade, traffic in Kendall Square has actually dropped.

Rowe emphasized the need for additional state funding to ensure that the Red Line can keep up with demand in Kendall Square and urged his readers to tell their state senators and representatives to support Governor Deval Patrick’s proposal to invest  heavily in updating the Commonwealth’s transportation infrastructure.

Having worked in the Cambridge Innovation Center for nearly three years, I can attest to the vibrancy and vitality of this growing area.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and digital marketing agency located in Kendall Square.

Mary Landrieu Speaks at Cambridge Innovation Center Venture Cafe

Tim Rowe, CEO, Cambridge Innovation Center and US Senator Mary Landrieu, at Venture Cafe, April 4, 2013. In her remarks, Landrieu emphasized the importance of the CIC–now the largest organization of its type in the world.
Photo by Bill Lichtenstein,  Lichtenstein Creative Media

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Newspapers have long kept tabs on the changing world–but have themselves been slow to modernize. To  flourish these days,
when anyone with a computer can be a publisher,  news organizations must develop a “culture of innovation. ”

So said Richard Gingras, the head of News Products at Google,  on May 11, 2012 in a talk at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation.

Gingras, a founder of Salon.com and long-term media technologist , said “I push people to rethink every aspect of what they’re doing”–including their mission, ethical guidelines, how they interact with their audiences, transparency regarding sources,  and even whether reporters divulge their personal political positions. In light of today’s powerful new technologies and human interactions,  “innovation  must be part of an organization’s DNA,”  at the core of newspapers’ culture, and  incorporated into “the role of every member of the team.”

Gingras pointed out that this by no means the first “disruption” time for the media.  With the advent of television,  for example, newspaper advertising declined and in some cities, the number of newspapers went from five to one or two.   This was not great for the newspapers that went out of business and  led to monopolitistic control by the  survivors. But it also led to    “40  golden years of profitability” for those survivors.

Today, the Internet has “disaggregated” the advertising economy., he said.  No longer do consumers look to their local newspapers for car ads, for example: rather, they search the Internet for information and deals.  “In the past, you could have an ad in the New York Times for Tiffany’s near an article on starvation in Darfur… or articles for garden centers in  the Lifestyles section,” Gingras said.   But on the Internet, such “vertical models” for advertising  are not effective.  ” Might news organizations’ Web sites do better as “a stable of focused brands with independent business models?” he asked.

Gingras also suggested that news organizations:

• Optimize news Web sites for multiple entry points,  because individual story pages are, today, more valuable than first or home pages. These individual pages should be updated so that urls remain constant–thus optimizing search engine results.

• Include more “computational journalism”–in which reporters post interactive information tables that would allow readers to answer their own, individualized questions.  For example, in a story on the state of education, provide tables showing student progress in school districts across the city–so that parents could assess statistics on their own children’s schools

•  Leverage the assistance of  “the trusted crowd”  (interact with readers and keep them involved)

•  Make reporters responsible for updating their own stories–with “constant” urls  to encourage multiple visits to their pages

Gingras also said that  in a culture of bulletpoints, updates and posts,  there  is low return on investment for long articles–and advised keeping articles  under 500 words.

So  I’ll quit here–at 494.

A video of the complete talk  is posted at: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/newsitem.aspx?id=100198

–Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris, a former national journalist and Nieman Fellow,  is president of the Harris Communications Group, a marketing and communications firm located in Cambridge, MA.

c. AMH 2011

At 1PM, on Friday, September 18, collaborators from MIT, CIC, the Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship, several venture funds, the City of Cambridge, Ernst & Young and others will inaugurate the world’s first “Walk of Fame” for entrepreneurs, according to an email from  Tim Rowe, president of  the Kendall Square Association.

The event, open to the public, will be held at the Kendall Square T stop in front of the Marriott Hotel’s  newly redesigned plaza.

Seven of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time will be honored with granite stars unveiled in the public way, according to Rowe.

While many of these individuals have passed away, one of these seven will be on hand for the ceremony (the identities of the honorees are secret until the event).

In future years, additional stars will be placed, building a kind of
“freedom trail” of innovation through Kendall Square.

“The Entrepreneur Walk of Fame has a mission to inspire young people to
consider careers as entrepreneurs,” Rowe wrote.  “While there are public efforts to
honor great athletes and actors, nowhere today is there a public place
where entrepreneurs are honored for their contributions to society.
Those contributions are significant. Entrepreneurs bring new
innovations to market in ways that improve the human condition, and
entrepreneurs help millions of people become productively employed,
thereby building healthy economies.”

-Anita Harris

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New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and marketing communications firm located in Kendall Square. Cambridge.