The MIT Venture Capital Conference

Never a dull day in cambridge:  now that we are all recovered from the unexpected blackout (Deer on subway track?), the organizing team is hard at work putting the finishing touches on the conference. 

Due to schedule changes, Rob Tosti (Brown Rudnick LLP) will be taking the place of Tom Meyers on our IP Panel. 

Robert Tosti is experienced in all areas of IP law including patent and trademark counseling, opinions, and prosecution, IP portfolio strategy and development, licensing, litigation, and the assessment and enforcement of IP rights. He is a registered patent attorney with a background in electrical engineering and represents clients across a variety of technologies including software, business methods, electronics, computer-related technologies, semiconductors, and medical devices.

Rob has served as an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk University Law School. Before beginning his law practice, Rob worked as an electrical engineer doing software development and hardware design at General Electric, Mitre, and IBM.

It’s almost December! Do you have your ticket? 

The VC Conference App is here!!

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Don’t miss a thing! Stay updated on everything VC throughout the day. Scheduling, Maps, Speakers, Sponsors, Social Media.. Free Download!

We are extremely excited about the high-caliber panel we have assembled to discuss the current state of the invention economy.  In particular, we have four panelists with varying backgrounds, each with deep knowledge of the intellectual property landscape.  In addition to the four panelists, we have a moderator who is one of the leading academics on innovation & entrepreneurship, MIT Professor Scott Stern.  This compelling panel will review recent changes in the IP landscape which have impacted policies, incentives, and best-practices for startups and technologists.  Here is a brief intro to the panel:

Scott Stern (Moderator):  Scott Stern is the School of Management Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management.  Scott explores how innovation—the production and distribution of “ideas”—differs from more traditional economic goods, and the implications of these differences for entrepreneurship, business strategy, and public policy.  He is the director of the Innovation Policy Working Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2005, he was awarded the Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship.

Keith Bergelt (Panelist):  Keith has had a number of leading roles in business, government, and industry organizations.  He is a former US diplomat with who is a pioneer in intellectual property consulting and finance.  He has served as CEO of Paradox Capital and currently serves as CEO of Open Invention Network, an organization that acquires patents and licenses them royalty free to entities which, in turn, agree not to assert their own patents against Linux and Linux-related systems and applications.

Rod Forter (Panelist):  Rod serves as General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Skyhook Wireless, a Boston-based company that developed Wi-Fi positioning technology.  The company is a pioneer in location-based services for use in mobile phones and has extensive experience generating, defending, and licensing its IP assets.  Mr. Forter is responsible for Skyhook’s legal affairs, including litigation, technology licensing and contract negotiation, management of Skyhook’s intellectual property portfolio and various other matters. 

Cameron Kerry (Panelist):  Cameron serves as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce.  He is the principal legal advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and third ranking secretarial officer.  During his tenure as General Counsel, Kerry has been engaged in the wide range of issues facing the Department of Commerce as it seeks to lay a new foundation for economic growth. In particular, he has been a leader on work across the US government on patent reform and intellectual property issues.

Tom Myers (Panelist):  Tom is a Partner at Brown Rudnick, a law firm with a portfolio of practices, including a premier Intellectual Property group. Tom has over 20 years of experience representing pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.  He advises companies and investors on creating and implementing patent strategies to promote commercial and business goals. He also has experience in industry as a Vice President and General Counsel of Helicos BioSciences Corporation, where he directed and implemented patent and legal strategies and played a significant role in that company’s successful IPO.

18 days to go till the conference! We’ve assembled an all-star team of mobile panelists who are buzzing with excitement to share their unique perspectives as the leading investors, entrepreneurs, advisors, and academics in the mobile sector. We’ll be discussing how mobile commerce environment has been affected by the latest developments in mobile payments, point-of-sale, and big data. Tying it all together we’ll close by discussing how these trends have affected VC investment in the mobile enterprise sector.

Stay tuned for updates on other panels, and have a great thanksgiving!

We are incredibly happy to host this year’s conference at the MIT Media Lab. For those unfamiliar with the building, it has been the breeding ground for changing the way human beings interact with their surroundings since its opening in 1985. Its unique inhabitants are unconstrained by traditional disciplines and use this freedom to “invent the future.”

The Wiesner Building, or Building E15 to MIT students, was the original home to the Media Lab and was designed by MIT alumnus I. M. Pei. After breaking ground in 2007, the six story extension was opened for occupancy in 2009. Building E14 was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki and features an open, atelier-style, adaptable architecture specifically designed to provide the flexibility to respond to emerging research priorities. Moreover, high levels of transparency throughout the building’s interior make ongoing research visible, encouraging connections and collaboration among researchers. In addition to the Media Lab, the complex houses the List Visual Arts Center, the School of Architecture + Planning’s Program in Art, Culture and Technology, and MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies. It is also home to the Okawa Center for Future Children, focused on children, learning, and developing nations, established through a $27-million donation from Isao Okawa, the late chairman of CSK Corp. and SEGA Enterprises, Ltd

Much of the exciting research at the Media Lab has led to famous spin-offs such as Harmonix, the company responsible for Guitar Hero and Rock Band, E Ink, the electronic paper displays that power the Kindle and the Nook, and One Laptop per Child’s XO Laptop. For a full list of spin-offs, check out the list here on their website.

We hope to see you on December 8^th at the Media Lab—truly a center for unparalleled innovation. For more on the Media Lab, visit their full website here, check out this GigaOM article for “5 Cool Things at MIT Media Lab” or watch the short film below by award-winning filmmaker Jesse Dylan.

We are excited to share with you that Douglas Leone will be joining us this year as a Keynote Speaker.

Douglas Leone is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on internet, software and communication investments. Doug currently sits on the boards of Aruba Networks, Aster Data Systems, Alion, Birst, CafePress, Color, Hayneedle, MedExpress, Meraki, RingCentral, Service-Now and Zirmed.

Doug’s previous investments at Sequoia include Agitar Software and SourceForge Inc. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 1988, he held sales and sales management positions at Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Prime Computer.

Doug is a true powerhouse in the world of venture capital, with a critical mind and engaging personality. He holds an MS in Management from MIT Sloan.

You do not want to miss this event. Get your tickets now!

http://www.mitvcconference.com/2012/registration.html

It is our pleasure to announce that Tom Stemberg will be speaking in this year’s venture capital conference.  

Tom Stemberg pioneered the office superstore industry when he opened the first Staples store in 1986. Under Tom’s tenure as CEO, Staples grew to become the world’s second largest retailer and now has more than $25 Billion in sales. It is a Fortune 200 company.

Eager to share his entrepreneurial experiences Tom joined Highland Capital Partners in 2005 as a Venture Partner. In 2007, Tom launched the $300 million Highland Consumer Fund as its Managing General Partner to focus exclusively on consumer products, services and retail investment opportunities. Tom currently represents Highland on the boards of City Sports, Guitar Center, J. McLaughlin, Pharmaca, David’s Tea and StriVectin.

Dedicated to providing advice and guidance to entrepreneurs, Tom is a member of the Board of Directors at CarMax (NYSE: KMX), lululemon athletica (Nasdaq: LULU) and PetSmart (Nasdaq: PETM).

Tom has twice been recognized by Worth magazine as one of the most accomplished CEOs and by Boston magazine as the city’s best CEO. Additionally, he has been named to Babson College’s Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.

Tom is a trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and maintains close ties to his alma mater, Harvard University, where he serves on the Overseers Committee to Visit Harvard College and is a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Financial Aid Task Force.

We are honored to announce that Rory O’Driscoll will be participating in this year’s venture capital conference.  

Rory has been an investor at Scale or its predecessor funds since 1993. He has invested across the board in software and internet companies, but with a particular focus on software companies benefiting from the move to software as a service and the wider transition of enterprise computing to the cloud. Currently he sits on the boards of Arena Solutions, Axcient, Boundary, Box, DocuSign, ExactTarget, Hubspan, Livescribe, Lumension Security, and Vantage Media.

Prior successful investments include IPOs such as Omniture (subsequently acquired by Adobe for $1.8 billion), Connect and NetGenesis (subsequently acquired by SPSS). Acquisitions include ScanSafe (Acq: Cisco), Frontbridge (Acq: Microsoft), Zone Labs (Acq: Checkpoint), Placeware (Acq: Microsoft), OuterBay (Acq: HP) among others. The automation of marketing in the internet era has been a theme of his investments from NetGenesis in the 1990′s, to Omniture in 2005, and ExactTarget today.

Rory holds a BSc from the London School of Economics. He was named to the Forbes Midas List in 2012 and was also named one of the “power players” of venture capital by AlwaysOn in 2011 and 2012. Prior to Scale he was the CEO of a manufacturing company in the UK. Rory blogs at ScaleVP.

Stay tuned, we have more great speakers in the pipeline!