Last night I hit up the eleventh installment of Mass Innovation Nights, the free monthly event that gives new and upcoming Boston-based tech companies the opportunity to strut their stuff in front of a relatively small crowd.
For the second consecutive time it was held at the IBM Innovation Center, but we here tell that it will be moving back to the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in March. The IBM center again served a comfortable setting, though attendance was a bit thin compared to last month’s bash. The companies presenting were impressive, however. As always, in case you didn’t make it, Bostinno has you covered with a full recap.
Mass Innovation Nights Presenters
The format was, as it usually is, company presentations in a five minute time limit. There are usually four presenters but tonight there were only three as one had to cancel due to the weather we’re all enjoying. (We were told they will be presenting in March.) An exciting new feature of last night’s event was live streaming video coverage, which you could have seen on Ustream.
Before the main presenters, though, the MIN crew brought out a few experts to provide short consulting sessions. Featured this month were Jay Wilder of Brainshark, a company we wrote about a few months back, and Steve Garfield, author of Get Seen, which we’ve also reviewed.
On with the presenters:
These guys pretty much stole the show with their patented v-OSK, a “portable” virtual presentation machine that allows audiences to interact with product features and specs through a sexy touch screen display. The interactive 3D renderings you could play around with were especially impressive. I put portable in quotes because the thing is actually the size and shape of a mid-sized plasma television, but the presenter did manage to carry it off the podium once he was done.
OnState provides SaaS virtual call centers that allow you to manage contact between your customers and sales staff from a cloud-based platform. Highlights included the ability to match specific sales reps’ skills with customer needs, and integration with existing software technology like Skype and Google.
Hubcast gave their pitch for printing services based in, get this, the cloud. (This cloud computing thing is really catching on, huh?) Hubcast boasts worldwide digital print options so you can upload digital files, locate quality print shops where the prints need to go, and have them printed and delivered wherever you want.
After the presenters, Joe Perry, regional manager of the IBM center gave some inspiring words expressing his approval of the innovative ideas MIN is promoting.
Then came the table demos:
Table Demos
Conversion Associates
Digital analytics service.
Scallop Imaging (my personal favorite)
Multi-sensor video imaging for multi-view online videos.
Visible Gains
Marketing solutions through interactive video.
That wraps up another Mass Innovation Nights. If you were there, have questions, or just want to let it be known what you think about MIN, be sure to throw down in the comments section.
To learn more about Mass Innovation Nights, be sure to check out their site: MassInnovationNights.com. (Or you can just click the link on the right side of BostInnovation’s page.) You can also follow them on Twitter @MassInno. For more insights on the event, be sure to check out the hashtag #MIN11 on Twitter.
