Governor Deval Patrick spoke yesterday at the Cambridge Innovation Center–emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurs to the Commonwealth’s economy and crediting them with being instrumental in the advent of late-night MBTA service.  Patrick was introduced by Carlos Martinez-Velam Executive Director of the Venture Cafe Foundation. 

—Anita M. Harris

–New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning pr and marketing firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Cambridge, MA. 

Our friends at 360 Chestnut  and BTW [Behind the Walls Magazine [] present: 

DOES YOUR HOUSE KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU?
What:  Panel presentation: impact of home energy monitoring devices on privacy
When:  April 8^th, 2014
Where: Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway,Cambridge, MA Havana 5^th Floor
With:  Deborah Hurley, Jim Bride, Joseph Kolchisnky, Jason Hanna, and Daniel Hullah. Moderated by Alexandra Hall & Harold Simansky

Google’s recent acquisition of “smart thermostat maker NEST” was met with excitement in the home energy world—Google is finally recognizing the importance of energy efficiency. But now that the excitement has died down, people are realizing that Google will be in their homes more intimately than ever before. What does this mean for Americans’ already compromised privacy?

On April 8^th at the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square, 360Chestnut, Inc., and BTW: Behind the Walls magazine will host a panel discussion titled, “Does Your House Know Too Much About You?” Featuring experts on the home energy industry and “green” home improvement, the panel will address the looming issue of “smart” home monitoring devices: with sales expected to increase by 300% by 2020, are we giving up too much of privacy when embracing them?

The panel will include Deborah Hurley, a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science; Jim Bride, Founder and CEO of Energy Tariff Experts, LLC; Joseph Kolchinsky, Founder and Managing Director of OneVision Resources; Jason Hanna, Founder and CEO of Embue and Daniel Hullah, Partner and COO of Rockport Capital.  The moderators will be Harold Simansky, Founder and CEO of 360Chestnut Inc, and publisher of BTW: Behind The Walls and Alexandra Hall, Executive Producer of 360 Chestnut Inc, and Editor-in-Chief of BTW: Behind the Walls and COUPBoston will be the moderator.

The Panel:

Deborah Hurley is is a Fellow of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University and directed the Harvard University Information Infrastructure Project. At the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in Paris, France, she was responsible for drafting, negotiation and adoption of the OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems. Prior to joining the OECD, she practiced computer and intellectual property law in the United States. Hurley is Chair, Board of Directors, Electronic Privacy Information Center. She carried out a Fulbright study in Korea and is the author of Pole Star: Human Rights in the Information Society, and other publications. Hurley received the Namur Award of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) in recognition of outstanding contributions, with international impact, to awareness of social implications of information technology.

Joseph (Joey) Kolchinsky is the founder and Managing Director of OneVision Resources, a company that merges his curiosity with technology and passion for simplicity. The firm is redefining excellent service for the modern family, providing comprehensive and stress-free support to members across a growing range of needs including personal technology, smart home design, and health management. Joey lives in Boston with his wife Jennifer and daughter Penelope.

Jim Bride has over a decade of experience in the energy and environmental industries. He launched Energy Tariff Experts, LLC to address an unmet need in the marketplace for accurate utility rate and energy cost information to enable more informed energy investment decisions. Prior to Energy Tariff Experts, Jim spent over four years at EnerNOC, a pioneering Smart Grid firm.

Jason Hanna is the CEO & Founder of Embue; a Boston-based company developing connected heating & cooling controls for residential and small commercial application. Jason is also the Founder & Board Chairman of Greentown Labs, a Boston-area incubator for clean energy and hardware companies, now home to over 40 emerging start-ups. Jason previously worked in high technology and was responsible for building an organization that automated over $1B of transactions for EMC Corporation.

Daniel Hullah is a Partner and COO of RockPort Capital a multi-stage venture capital firm that invests in the areas of alternative and traditional energy, mobility, and sustainability.  Daniel is an active member of the screening and diligence team and has worked on multiple transactions in several key cleantech sectors most notably solar energy and green buildings.  One such company is EcoFacto, a leader in home energy management, providing user-friendly active management of residential and small commercial thermostats using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

Harold Simansky (moderator)  is the founder of 360Chestnut.  Before 360Chestnut he was involved in the creation of Green Guild of MA, LLC, a full-service energy audit and home weatherization company that has helped over 1,000 Massachusetts home owners make their homes more energy efficient.  Earlier, Harold was the developer of one of the first green, LEED-certified residential buildings in the Boston-area.  Harold also has experience in the world of finance and as a consultant with Bain & Company. He is a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Brandeis University.

Alexandra Hall (moderator) has more than ten years’ experience as a critic, lifestyle writer and editor of lifestyle topics in Boston and beyond. Alex has covered fashion, travel, entertainment, food, beauty, books, and the arts. She is currently editor-in-chief if COUP Boston, the city’s only luxury digital lifestyle magazine, and a freelance writer for publications including: Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Town & Country, and Elle Decor.

360Chestnut is a multi-platform media company that helps consumers make their homes more sustainable, healthy and energy efficient.  This free-to-the-consumer service provides engaging experiences, expert information and personalized access to the 5000+ rebates that pay homeowners to be more energy efficient, as well as a connection to those who can do the work.  360Chestnut also published BTW: Behind the Walls magazine in partnership with the Wall Street Journal.

BTW: Behind the Walls is a quarterly magazine focused on healthy, sustainable and beautiful homes.  It is created in partnership with the Wall Street Journal and is distributed to more than 50,000 Wall Street Journal subscribers in MA, NH and VT.

COUPBoston is a multi-platform online magazine dedicated to all things innovative and forward thinking in Boston’s lifestyle community.

Info@360 Chestnut.com

–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.
Anita Harris is the author of Broken Patterns, Professional Womenand the Quest for a New Feminine Identity, publisher of New Cambridge Observer, and  managing director of the Harris Communications Group. HarrisCom provided editorial advice on the above writeup and is listed as a co-sponsor of the event.

The event will also honor constructivism pioneer and MIT Professor Seymour Papert for his contributions to education, including his promotion of technology use in classrooms.

Small Solutions (www.smallsolutionsbigideas.org) and OPEN   (www.oneplaneteducationnetwork.com)

Panel Topics & Presenters

–Anita Harris

  Warm welcome to one of the newest (oldest?) clients at the Cambridge Innovation Center…My favorite entrant in the Halloween Competition, so far.  It’s by Mike Burtov, CEO at Cangrade, which offers hiring automation/psychological testing. Back story is that this guy or gal is still waiting for Netscape to load…from 5 1/4 inch floppy disks. Pleased that s/he’s in C3 (shared space on the 5th floor) rather than on another floor, where I often work,  which we’ve dubbed “elderhostel” for reasons you might be able to guess.

–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR, social media and content marketing firm based in the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

Felt very cool in joining 500 of my closest friends at the all-CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center) Party held at Brooklyn Boulder indoor climbing center, in Somerville, on Friday night.  During the day, CIC is a vibrant workplace for 500 companies and 1700 people on nine floors of two high-rise buildings in Kendall Square, Cambridge.  At the party,  all of that energy 

and many of those people were unleashed in one huge horizontal space–literally climbing the walls, doing yoga, taking photos, who knows what else. We were given the choice of drinking or climbing…

Friends Tom, R, Michael, Kathryn….heck, almost everyone I knew–  chose the former, making us, perhaps, a bit less cool?

—Anita Harris

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

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.

The Cambridge Innovation Center, (CIC) where I work,  has signed a new lease for 52,000 square feet of space on the 1st, 14th and 15th floors at 101 Main Street in Cambridge. 101 Main Street is two doors down from CIC’s current home at One Broadway. The new location is owned by RREEF Real Estate, the real estate investment business of Deutsche Asset Management.

CIC has already vastly expanded since I first started working there in the Spring of 2010; currently, some 450 companies and 1700 people rent space on seven floors.

According to a recent communiqué from the CIC, “ We have seen strong continuing interest from the CIC community to grow here in Kendall Square, as well as interest from many others not currently located at CIC. This new space will create increased space options and amenities for our current and future clients and most importantly, the space will create more opportunities for entrepreneurs to collaborate and flourish.

This is a 33% increase in the CIC”s  total space — to a total of 207,000 square feet in Kendall Square. Occupancy of the new space will begin in early March.

With the expansion, I hope that  the  stellar CIC team and residents will be able to maintain the warm,  friendly and stimulating community atmosphere that makes the CIC at 1 Broadway a wonderful place to work.

Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is the founder and CEO of the Harris Communications Group, a collaborative team of experts  in public relations, social media, content and marketing services for health, science, technology and energy, worldwide.

UK-based Alacrita, a global life science consulting firm with consultants worldwide, will soon be opening an office in Cambridge, MA, according to Robert Johnson, who will head the office, here.

The company was co-founded two years ago by Anthony Walker, who had previously served as Executive Director of Global External R&D Europe at Eli Lilly,  and  by Johnson, who had led business development at Onyvax, a biotech company that developed biopharmaceuticals to combat cancer.

Drawing on the capabilities of more than 50 consultants worldwide, Alacrita  provides strategic, operational,  technical  advice or  hands-on project management to organizations of all sizes in  the pharma, biotechnology and life science industries, Johnson said.

According to the Alacrita Web site, clients may be academic institutes, tech transfer experts,  life science investors, startups  or  established companies in need of expertise in:

• Business development and marketing
• Intellectual property
• Product development
• Regulatory affairs

Recent whitepapers available on the  company Website   include:

• Biotech in Israel: A Land of Promise » May 2012 – by Anthony Walker, PhD
• FDA Approvals Provide Reason For Cheer » March 2012 – by Robert Johnson
• Deal Watch Annual Review 2011 » January 2012
• Viewpoint: Pharma Industry Myths » January 2012 – by Anthony Walker, PhD
• Europe’s stellar decade of prostate cancer innovation » September 2011 – by Rob Johnson
• Are we all biotech now? » June 2011 – by Anthony Walker and Rob Johnson
• China: Opportunities for biotech firms » March 2011 – by Rob Johnson and Li Zeng
• Re-Profiling: a Hidden Threat to Originators? » February 2011 – by Dr Jo Davies
• Deal Watch Annual Review 2010 » January 2011 – by Roger Davies and Jill Ogden
• Mitigating Out-sourcing Risk » December 2010 – by Robert Johnson and Anthony Walker
• Deal Watch: a Review of Notable Deals » October 2010 – by Sharon Finch

Alacrita’s US offices will be located in the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square.  The company name comes from the Latin, “alacritas,” or “lively.”  It is meant to convey “a cheerful readiness,” Johnson said.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning strategic public relations,  marketing communications and thought leadership firm in Cambridge, MA.