Business Forum IX UPDATE

Check out the program and speakers for the CVG Business Forum IX, coming on November 9 and 10, 2006, and follow the Business Forum IX blog.

Keep up with BGN Chapter events like this at


Technorati Tags: business forum IX, Collaborate to Accelerate, entrepreneur

Business Forum IX

Follow the annual Business Forum on Business Forum IX, a blog focused on event preparations, interviews with presenters and participants, and sneak previews of this 9th annual event.


Technorati Tags: business forum, entrepreneur, CVG

Center for High End Computing Systems (CHECS)

Virginia Tech has announced the creation of CHECS, lead by professors Srinidhi Varadarajan, the primary architect of System X, and Cal Ribbens.

“Our aim is to build a world-class computer systems research group in the service of high-end computing,” Varadarajan said.

CHECS faculty serve as PI on over $8.35 million in current funding, with support from NSF, DOE, NIH, USDA and AFOSR. Fifteen PhD students and twelve MS students participate in these research projects.

Technorati Tags: computing innovation, CHECS, high-end Computing

Innovation in Virginia Government

Virginia's Secretary of Technology, Aneesh Chopra, announced the Governor's Technology Award winners at the recent COVITS (Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium). These innovators included the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, Prince William County, the Online Academy, Blue Ridge Community College, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, and the nonprofit healthcare system, Centra Health in Lynchburg. George Mason University, which also partnered with the award-winning Online Academy, won the Trusted Environment award.

An important aspect of accelerating innovation involves public recognition of innovative projects and programs. Congratulations to all the winners, and especially to George Mason University, for their collaboration with innovators across the state.


Technorati Tags: accelerating innovation, Virginia, GMU, COVITS

Accelerating Innovation, Montgomery Blair HS

(About one minute)

Tony Burnetti, student at Montgomery Blair High School, talks about the poster display associated with the conference. Posters presented by aspiring scientists at Montgomery Blair.

UPDATE: Tony Burnetti's winning poster brought him a cash award. Congratulations, Tony!

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the Robins School of Business.

Technorati Tags: accelerating innovation, Montgomery County

Accelerating Innovation, Penn State

(About 2 minutes)

Dr. Rebecca Peterson, of Penn State, discusses bringing young people into the sciences, after her panel presentation earlier today.

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the Robins School of Business.

Technorati Tags: accelerating innovation, education

JMU Accelerating Innovation

(About 4 minutes, final few seconds missing)

Dr. John Noftsinger, of James Madison University summarizes several presentations, including the panel discussion on innovation in education. He also discusses the JMU empasis in technology transfer, focusing on the development and retention of talent, and regional economic development.

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the Robins School of Business.

Technorati Tags: technology innovation, Shenandoah Valley

GMU - Accelerating Innovation

George Mason University President Alan Merten presented the history of transforming the GMU computer science program, integrating education in utliziation of emerging technologies, Technology Across the Curricula (TAC), into other fields of study, and a richly integrated program in information technology.

He also spoke about the program for digitizing cultural and community memories, at the Center for History and New Media, as well as the Early Indentification Porgram (K-12) Education Program for promising youngsters from area public school systems.


Technorati Tags: Educational innovation, Virginia

Accelerating Innovation '06 Update

(about 2 minutes)
Dr. Robert Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, who will be speaking today on the global innovation economy.

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the Robins School of Business.

Technorati Tags: innovation strategies, accelerating innovation

Accelerating Innovation 2006 Update

(About a minute)

Dr. Kent Murphy, President of the Accelerating Innovation Foundation.

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the Robins School of Business.

Technorati Tags: accelerating innovation, economic development

Accelerating Innovation 2006 Agenda

The agenda has been finalized for for Accelerating Innovation 2006 Accelerating Innovation 2006.

Dr. Kent Murphy, President of the Accelerating Innovation Foundation, will open the event at 8:00AM.

Virginia's Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Trade, Vivek Kundra, will participate in the panel discussion of Intergovernmental Dimensions of Innovation Policy.

Dr. Robert Atkinson, President of Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, will deliver the midday keynote address.

Technorati Tags: innovation, technology, Virginia

Virginia Capital Day

The Virginia Capital Day in Richmond will be held on November 2, 2006 at the The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, VA. This event regularly attracts over 150 sources of financing and over 300 attendees. The Central Virginia’s Companies to Meet enables selected companies to meet these financing sources in a trade show-like setting.

The Venture Forums’ Greater Richmond’s Companies to Watch highlights selected companies with great growth potential. (Of 12 companies selected last year, 6 raised capital and 2 additional sold for a combined $84 million.)

The application is free, and should take no more than 15 minutes.
Nominations: Nominate yourself or your client/customer
Nomnation deadline is October 4.
Cost to apply:$0
Estimated time to apply: 15 minutes

Technorati Tags: venture capital, companies to watch, entrepreneurs

One Web, One World Update

Versions of the world as a village: If one could reduce the world's population to a village of 100 (or 1,000) inhabitants, with all the ratios remaining the same, it would look like . . .

UPDATE Miniature Earth

In 2004 Natalia J. Garland of Total Surfer published a short history of related publications, including notes on the Fast Company update in 2001, and the original attribution to Dr. Phillip M. Harter, of the Standford University School of Medical.

This undated animation from a Russian site at Gazinter urges "Let us not be stopped by that which divides us but look for that which unites us."[from The Global Manifesto], and "Hasten to do good works"

The 2005 version at Family Care Foundation points back to a 1990 publication by Donella Meadows of the University of New Hampshire, and to the UNH Sustainability Institute for the 2005 update.

In 2003, Natacha Quester-Séméon posted an update on Pax Humana, also atributing this work to Dr. Harter.

Technorati Tags: onewebday, global village

BGN Entrepreneur's Minute, Sept 21, 2006

(About 2 and a half minutes)

Accelerating Innovation 2006 will be held at the National Academies in Washington DC on September 26.

From Lab to Market, sponsored by the Hampton Roads Technology Council at Old Dominion University on September 28.

Northern Virginia Tech Council Mid-Atlantic Bio reception, October 11.

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) sponsors University Start-ups on October 22 at George Washington University.

The Venture Forum's Greater Richmond Companies to Watch in cooperation with Virginia Capital Day on November 2.

The Charlottesville Venture Group sponsors the Business Forum IX on November 9 and 10 in Charlottesville.

Capital Formation Institute audioblog (Entrepreneurship: Myth and Reality)

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the Robins School of Business.

Technorati Tags: entrepreneurs, tech transfer, accelerating innovation, Virginia

Accelerating Innovation 2006

BGN is pleased to announce its support for the Accelerating Innovation Foundation’s 2006 conference on September 26 at the National Academies in Washington, DC.

This event will provide a mid-Atlantic regional perspective on national innovation policy:

• exploring the landscape of technology development and commerce in a “flattening” world
• discussing how local and regional capabilities can spur innovation and improve competitiveness
•providing a unique opportunity to network and to explore new networking models.

Accelerating Innovation 2006 will be structured around several 75-minute panels focused on key macro-topics. In addition, several speeches by leaders and subject matter experts will address integrative and specialized topics.

Agenda and registration

Technorati Tags: accelerating innovation, technology innovation, entrepreneurship

From Lab to Market

The Hampton Roads Technology Council is sponsoring a half-day seminar on bridging the gap between universities and their research and high tech companies and their businesses.

Next Tuesday, September 26, at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Presenters include Aneesh Chopra, Secretary of Technology, State Senator J. Davis and Delegate J. Cosgrove as well as representatives from the university and business communities.

Technorati Tags: tech transfer, IP, Norfolk, HRTC

Network Maps

Guy Kawasaki posted a venture capital map last week, with a pointer to the source.

GroupScope. It is a visual network analysis tool that explores relationships between management teams, outside board members, investors, and companies. It is the first application of the GroupScope network analysis engine (the result of research at Cornell University and the current work of the company).

The LinksViewer CapitalBlog took this map a step further. They also have a map of the relationship between Apple and Google.

See VC is Also Visual Complexity for links to more business and social networks maps.


Technorati Tags: venture capital, network map, entrepreneurs

Science Challenges and X Prizes

The Good Magazine article on the X-Man, Peter Diamandis, illuminates the reasoning behind the X Prize Foundation.
Current X-Prizes: the Genome X Prize and the Automotive X Prize.

A similar perspective underlies the Innocentive Challenges in chemistry and biology.

The X Prize Space Exposition and Competition for $2.5 M in prizes will be held in New Mexico this fall. Watch the X Prize Cup on the web October 20 -21, 2006. Closer to home, there's the International Association of Space Entrepreneurs in northern Virginia.

Technorati Tags: X Prizes, space entrepreneurs, incentive challenges

Web Entrepreneurs Take Note

The WSJ StartUp Journal had an interesting piece recently on search engine results by Alan S. Horowitz.

He begins with "Today, getting your company listed in the first page of a search on Yahoo or Google can transform an also-ran into a front-runner."

And ends with

Higher rankings do not come immediately, no matter what you do. There may be weeks between visits by spiders to your Web site. Also, the algorithms used by the search engines are constantly changing, and that may call for some tweaking to a Web site. Experts say it may take as long as six to nine months to move near the top of a search.

A quick look at sites such as High Beam Research or EZineArticles or EVenturing will turn up a wealth of information about on-line marketing.


Technorati Tags: search engine results, on-line marketing, web entrepreneurs

Luna Wins Tibbetts Award

Luna Innovations Inc. has received a Tibbetts Award from the Small Business Technology Council in September.

This award recognizes small businesses and individuals working in research, development and commercialization of high-tech products. The recipients are judged to best exemplify the philosophy and doctrine of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, a highly competitive program intended to stimulate innovation by encouraging small business to explore and commercialize new technologies.

Luna Innovations has been recognized with a Tibbetts Award three times since 1998.

"To date, Luna and its subsidiaries have created more than 250 jobs, including positions at universities funded by Luna", according to Dr. Kent Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Luna Innovations Inc.


Technorati Tags: Tibbetts Award, SBIR, Luna Innovations, entrepreneur

A Few Wikis

Wikipedia is "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit".

The Election for the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation
is now open to voting until 23:59 UTC Thursday, 20 September, 2006.

Thank you to Wiki.org for this historical note:

The first ever wiki site was created for the Portland Pattern Repository in 1995. That site now hosts tens of thousands of pages.

Wiki CPA about "all things CPA" began in May 2006, and is up to 326 articles, including glosseries and summaries such as the Hybrid vehicle tax credit.

Strategy Tree is described as follows:

This StrategyTree is an effort, sponsored by FundingUniverse.com which is a network for angel investors and entrepreneurs, to extract thousands of successful ideas and business tactics used by actual entrepreneurs, and to place them in a decision tree.

Yi-Tan is a series of Conversations About Change, "focused on the interactions between technology, business and society."

The Speakers Wiki includes " A listing of speakers, their websites and affiliation, contact information, past speaking engagements and other important information to help conference organizers choose speakers to talk on important topics."

Technorati Tags: wikis, wikicpa, Yi-Tan, entrepreneurs

Adrenaline junkies

From Slow Leadership, a slightly different perspective on how smart people run dumb companies.

It’s easy to become an “adrenaline junkie,” constantly looking for the next high. Most organizations have quite a few such addicts. They try to turn every problem into a crisis, since only crises give them the fix they need. Then, like any other source of sudden excitement, the effect steadily becomes less intense, so that the person needs more and more of whatever it is to reproduce the burst of ecstatic stimulation they got the first time. So each crisis must be a little more pressing and potentially terrible than the last to call up the same jolt of adrenalin.

Technorati Tags: crises, management, dumb companies

Why Smart Companies Do Dumb

From Guy Kawasaki we have the simple explanation for this. "A sweeping answer is that companies are run by smart people, and smart people do dumb things as we’ve learned." Why smart people do Dumb.

Nine factors that cause corporate dumb, nine ways to minimize them, one wish for a way to squash arrogance and greed.

How smart people can behave as dumb companies:

Conviction. Consensus rears its ugly head during the decision-making process. The situation can get worse once implementation occurs because the organization marches along with a firm belief in what it’s doing. At that point, a decision takes on a sacred life of its own, and a company cannot see flaws.

And how to fix:

Spell things out. It’s not enough to say, "Plug this leak in our company" and assume that it will be done legally. You should say, "Plug this leak in our company by using only legal, ethical, and reasonable methods." That’s when you’re done.

Don’t shoot the messenger who brings the bad news unless he caused it.

Don’t reward the messenger who brings good news unless he caused it

Technorati Tags: Kawasaki, dumb companies

Protecting Intellectual Property Update

The Richmond Venture Forum presents Protecting Your Intellectual Property Rights, on September 13.
Dean Madison will moderate.

This promises to be an informative panel discussion on the importance of and challenges in protecting a company’s intellectual property. While many business assets are more visible, few are more valuable; yet protecting intellectual property rights is a critical step that can be easily overlooked.

Features CEOs Chuck McCabe, Neal G. Koller, and CFO John Kauslarich. From different industries and organization sizes, they will discuss their first-hand experience with trademarks, trade secrets, and patents as well as the proactive steps they have taken to safeguard competitive edges.

See for a map, and TVF for registration

Technorati Tags: intellectual property, entrepreneur, management

CVG Messaging Update

Suzanne Henry, of Four Leaf Public Relations, brings her message to CVG on September 19.

"Who are You? No, Really ... Messaging for Marketing Power"
The three essential elements of a powerful message ~ The single biggest mistake made in messaging - and how to fix it
This event is sponsored by Bridgewater Innovations

Information at and registration at CVG.


Technorati Tags: messaging, listing, Zvents

Virginian Among the TR35

Technology Review has announced the 2006 TR35 winners:

Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have honored the young innovators whose inventions and research we find most exciting; today that collection is the TR35, a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35. Their work--spanning medicine, computing, communications, electronics, nanotechnology, and more--is changing our world.

Stefan Duma, Director of the Center for Injury Biomechanics at Virginia Tech, was recognized for his work on virtual crash test dummies. He also developed a sensor-rigged football helmet that has been commercialized to help doctors understand impacts to the head.

Technorati Tags: technology innovation, Stefan Duma, Virginia Tech

Podcasts and Vlogs

Several sites have podcast interviews with successful entreprenurs. The Andy Forbes Files includes spring interviews with Konstantin Guericke, co-founder of LinkedIn, and Peter Ashley of Paypal. Many of Tom Evlsin's blog posts are also available as podcasts on Fractals of Change.

Technology Review has several Vlogs (short video posts) from successful entrepreneurs, such as this one from Stewart Butterfield, founder of Flickr.
And then there is Tudetorial.com (videos on web-based business).


From O'Reilly Radar:

Denise Kalos, ... recently sent ... a fabulous quote from Richard Pascale's book Delivering Results: "People are much more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking, than think their way into a new way of acting."

Technorati Tags: podcasts, vlogs

Virginians with a Purpose

This week, three Virginians have been recognized as Purpose Prize Fellows.


Martha Rollins of Richmond, who founded Boaz and Ruth.






"Dene" Peterson of Abingdon, who founded Elder Spirit














Marguerite (Sallee) Kondracke, founded America's Promise

These Americans over 60 have been named Purpose Prize Fellows and are leaders in a new age of social innovation. All are inventing new ways to solve society's toughest challenges.

The Purpose Prize was developed by Civic Ventures, and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation.

Technorati Tags: purpose prize, elder spirit, boaz and ruth, america's promise, social entrepreneur

Early Stage Investing

Our partner, the Capital Formation Institute, has a new audioblog post, The Metrics of Public Seed-Stage Investment by Matt Harbaugh, of the state-sponsored Innovation Works in Pittsburgh. This is the short version of a half-hour discussion, also available at CFI.

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) is sponsoring The University Start-up Conference 2006 on Oct 23 - 25 at George Washington University. Speakers include John May, of the Angel Capital Association. Note that CFI listeners receive a registration discount for this event.

Technorati Tags: early-stage, public seed-stage investment, CFI

BGN Entrepreneur's Minute September 6, 2006

(About 4 minutes)

Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Trade Vivek Kundra discusses Virginia initiatives with potential for emerging companies. The Conference, Seeding Virginia's Future (agenda, pdf), was held at James Madison University.

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the Robins School of Business.

Technorati Tags: Virginia, JMU, Vivek Kundra, financing for emerging companies, entrepreneur

Business Models

Most everything you wanted to know about business models, from Wikipedia and Particletree, at Anthony Cerminaro's blog.

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur

A 99 Cent Inquiry

University of Virginia law professor Christopher Sprigman has posted a series of short pieces on intellectual property, and posed this question on Public Knowledge:

Here’s a puzzle: Most music downloads are priced the same — around $0.99. I have a paper coming out — The 99-cent Question — that offers an explanation. But before the paper hits the street I’d be interested in hearing yours. Why do we see hits and non-hits priced at the same $0.99 standard?

Public Knowledge is a group of lawyers, technologists, lobbyists, academics, volunteers and activists dedicated to fortifying and defending a vibrant information commons.

Technorati Tags: intellectual property

Widgify

The folks at Widgify are presenting a three part series on widgets, beginning with Widgets are the New Web Pages.

A Web Widget is a portable software application, or module, that can be installed and executed within one, or more separate browser-based application platforms by an End User without requiring additional compilation. Snippet fromWidgify

Technorati Tags: widgets