In about two weeks or so hundreds of entrepreneurs, VCs, startuppers, etc. will descend on the Westin Waterfront for the second annual State of Innovation forum (BSOI for short). This will be the second year that we’ve held BSOI and have already improved programming about 15x since last year.
If you’re an avid reader of the site, you’ve most likely seen us touting the incredible speaker list. But again let’s look at it – Naval Ravikant, Gov. Deval Patrick, Mayor Walsh, Jonathan Kraft, Jennifer Lum, Julian Edelman, MassDOT CEO Richard Davey, Jeff Fagnan, Brent Grinna, Greg Selkoe, Rob Go, Sarah Hodges and so on and so on. Oh and the billi club panel, where the biggest companies in town will be speaking about their incredible journeys – Actifio, Netezza, iRobot, TripAdvisor, Wayfair and Akamai.
As you can see it’s a who’s who of people that are driving innovation in our community. But that’s beside the point, because what if you just don’t like listening to people talk all day? Not an issue. There’s more for you at BSOI than any other networking event this year, but you’re going to have to work for it.
At no point in history has this group of people been in the same room together. You need to take advantage of that. Say you are hoping to drive change here in Massachusetts. Perfect, most of Massachusetts political leaders will be in the room. Maybe you’re hoping to launch a startup, great, the best VC’s in town will be there. Get advice from other CEOs, awesome, the biggest and best CEOs will be there. Maybe tryout for the Pats, well I can’t promise anything here, but Edelman might offer tips and Jonathan Kraft will be there.
What I’m trying to bring home is that this will be a once in a lifetime networking opportunity for you, if you’re prepared for it. If you want to get the most out of BSOI, don’t just sit and listen to the incredible speakers, get up and talk to them. Study them. Make a plan of attack at the event. Take a look at the attendee list, set a goal of people to talk to. We are doing our best to hand this to you on a silver platter, but you’re going to have to work at it, too.
The connections that you make in the room at BSOI could change your life forever. Either way, it will be an action packed event with some incredible talks.
