Friday, June 19, 2009
Windy City Social’s Social Media and Online Marketing Summit
Avery Cohen from Metrist Partners will be presenting "Ten Tips for Improving Your Search Engine Optimization" at Windy City Social's Social Media and Online Marketing Summit. The event also includes one-on-one consultations with the speakers, so bring a list of questions!
Guests will connect with other marketers and learn about the latest trends in Social Media and Online Marketing from leaders in the industry. People will leave the event with new, innovative ideas about how to leverage Twitter, Facebook, SEO, E-mail Marketing and Experience Marketing.
Several of the speakers and sponsors will be on hand for 15 minute consultations where they’ll give attendees immediate steps they can take to improve their actual site or campaign! And our speakers are going to pick a few emails and websites submitted by attendees in advance to critique during presentations.
Speaker Highlights
- Creating an Experience They Will Remember (in a good way!): Cereality Founders Rick Bacher and David Roth
- E-mail Makeovers: Reagan Taylor, NCR
- Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Natural Search Rankings: Avery Cohen, Metrist Partners
- Tips on How to Get the Most out of the New Fan Pages: Brad Keown from Facebook
- Panel on Using Twitter to Promote Big Business
Consulting Highlights
- Email Makeovers
- SEO Review of Your Site
- Strategic Blog or Website Review: Strategic Marketing & Blogging Expert Liz Strauss (limited spaces)
- Twitter Tune-up: Register for Twitter and get tips from top tweeters
- Social Media Monitoring Set-up: Learn about free monitoring services and get help signing up for one of them.
Check Out the Full Line-up at Windy City Social
Or REGISTER NOW!
Labels: chicago, chicago networking events, online social networks, social media, windy city, windy city social
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Business Network Chicago Venture Capital Panel
April 7, 2009
Four interesting and innovative companies presented their concept pitches to the monthly Business Networking Chicago Venture Capital meeting. Hosted by Len Bland and David Carmen, the attendees included entrepreneurs, service providers, students and perhaps a half-dozen actual investors.
The companies presenting at BNC Venture Capital are generally early in the cycle of seeking investment, and both participants and audience have an opportunity to learn how to make their business case to potential venture capital investors. Each speaker is given ten minutes to present and fifteen minutes to answer questions from the crowd.
Moderator Bland asks them to make sure they answer three questions: 1) What is your product or service and why will customers buy it? 2) Why is the management team qualified to execute the business plan? 3) How will your investors make money?
Of the four companies that presented at the meeting on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, two were related to education; One was an innovator in sustainable (e.g. "green") transportation options; and one offered to transform the manufacture and distribution of a common retail product.
The first company, Lake Forest based INNOVATE2LRN, branded as QWK2LRN provides "thin client" computers to urban schools, with the objective that each student have a working computer at their desk full time. They provide hardware and infrastructure utilizing on-demand remote (or "cloud") server capacity.
It was interesting that the audience did not have a clear understanding of the Innovate to Learn's business model. That their service is related to providing computers and a "cloud-based" infrastructure to schools. This may be because QWK2LRN CEO Bill Lowe focused much of his presentation on the efficacy of having a dedicated computer workstation for each student in urban schools. He then recommended that the schools use web-based educational programs; the QWK2LRN solution does not provide software or teacher training, though they do have one person available to consult with teachers and administrators on selecting appropriate web-based educational programs.
A key to QWK2LRN 's business plan is that the management team works with school district superintendants to get access to already-allocated federal funds to pay for the hardware. The core team is made up of executives from Xerox, they bring Xerox's top-down approach to sales. The executive team has built strong connections with philanthropists who are active in urban and educational causes. This has given them access to school district superintendents rather than going in through the IT department. We note that, at this writing, their web site is "undergoing site maintenance".
The second education-related company to present at the BNC Venture Capital meeting, School Town, provides tools to help teachers, students, and parents communicate about school assignments and schedules. School Town also provides capabilities for teachers and parents to collaborate and share lesson plans and other educational information. School Town CEO Michael A. Kritzman also stated that School Town provides a platform for teachers to implement "differentiated learning" in the classroom.
Based out of the Chicago suburb of Glenview, they have had successes with their initial installations. The solution helps teachers and parents communicate with students, and helps students develop time management skills. One concern of the audience was whether competition in the education marketplace represented a good opportunity for the company to be acquired for integration or if the company could succeed as a stand-alone SaaS offering. Kritzman indicated that their strategy is to develop the product and be acquired. Another question from the audience was how much time School Town would save teachers versus the complexity it added to their jobs.
Parry Transit is an American subsidy of a British company that developed the hybrid trolly. They offer a sustainable ultralight rail solution. CEO Barry Seifer described ultralight rail as an affordable green transit technology. Light rail has a 10-year sales cycle, but ultralight is less expensive for both the track and cars and can go to market more quickly.
Despite Mayor Daley's repeated tries to build light rail in Chicago, this Chicago audience could not relate to the Trolly concept, asking if they could put tires on the cars. Unfortunately, that would eliminate many of the benefits of the Parry Transit system. Light rail has enjoyed success in other locations, including downtown Portland as an outstanding example.
On one hand, with federal stimulus dollars on the table, Parry's ultralight rail looks like an appealing investment. On the other hand, high-speed rail for the Midwest has been getting the PR buzz lately. A lot of Parry's success rides on managing all aspects of selling to government, including setting public expectations.
Chicago-based Novus Ice proposes to "redefine the distribution chain for bagged ice" in retail locations by placing automated systems in stores. The systems run quietly and have the same footprint of current ice vending systems, with added height.
The manufacture and distribution of ice is typically a local monopoly, with some 2,000 suppliers nationwide. There are two large public companies trying to roll up this market: Reddy Ice and Arctic Glacier. Novus' business model is to finance the placement of the systems and take a percentage of sales from each unit. They will guarantee the retail price of a bag of ice. Eliminating the manufacturing and transportation costs of ice should improve margins on ice to around 20%.
The machines use standard components, assembled for Novus by the hardware suppliers. The makers of the freezer units have an existing nationwide maintenance operation, which Novus says will minimize the exposure of the maintenance risk.
The use of standard components raised the question of competition. Novus said that there is no competition currently in the market and that their projections are to take 4% of the retail ice market, focusing on chains with larger stores. Their business plan showed 64% EBITDA at the end of five years. They are in the planning stages for a pilot with Walmart.
Note, however, that a later Google search for "in-store ice production" yields a February announcement from Arctic Glacier of their in-store ice production system, and another system from Louisiana based Ultra Pure Water Technologies, dating back to November, 2005. (see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5559/is_200102/ai_n22604092/ and http://www.upwt.com/icemakers.html ). It appears that there may be more to the story behind this innovation. If I were Ron May, I'd probably take up the space to also point out that the management team is not listed on the company's web site.
At the end of each presentation Bland polled the audience to vote their confidence in the presentation's investment potential on a scale of one to ten. Novus Ice Systems was the best received of the companies presenting. School Town received the most tepid support from the audience. Parry Transit appeared to have the widest dispersion of low-to-high votes.
The next Business Network Chicago Venture Capital meeting is Tuesday, May 5.
Four interesting and innovative companies presented their concept pitches to the monthly Business Networking Chicago Venture Capital meeting. Hosted by Len Bland and David Carmen, the attendees included entrepreneurs, service providers, students and perhaps a half-dozen actual investors.
The companies presenting at BNC Venture Capital are generally early in the cycle of seeking investment, and both participants and audience have an opportunity to learn how to make their business case to potential venture capital investors. Each speaker is given ten minutes to present and fifteen minutes to answer questions from the crowd.
Moderator Bland asks them to make sure they answer three questions: 1) What is your product or service and why will customers buy it? 2) Why is the management team qualified to execute the business plan? 3) How will your investors make money?
Of the four companies that presented at the meeting on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, two were related to education; One was an innovator in sustainable (e.g. "green") transportation options; and one offered to transform the manufacture and distribution of a common retail product.
INNOVATE2LRN – Dedicated Workstations for Urban Students
The first company, Lake Forest based INNOVATE2LRN, branded as QWK2LRN provides "thin client" computers to urban schools, with the objective that each student have a working computer at their desk full time. They provide hardware and infrastructure utilizing on-demand remote (or "cloud") server capacity.
It was interesting that the audience did not have a clear understanding of the Innovate to Learn's business model. That their service is related to providing computers and a "cloud-based" infrastructure to schools. This may be because QWK2LRN CEO Bill Lowe focused much of his presentation on the efficacy of having a dedicated computer workstation for each student in urban schools. He then recommended that the schools use web-based educational programs; the QWK2LRN solution does not provide software or teacher training, though they do have one person available to consult with teachers and administrators on selecting appropriate web-based educational programs.
A key to QWK2LRN 's business plan is that the management team works with school district superintendants to get access to already-allocated federal funds to pay for the hardware. The core team is made up of executives from Xerox, they bring Xerox's top-down approach to sales. The executive team has built strong connections with philanthropists who are active in urban and educational causes. This has given them access to school district superintendents rather than going in through the IT department. We note that, at this writing, their web site is "undergoing site maintenance".
SCHOOL TOWN – Web-based Teacher-Parent-Student Communication Platform
The second education-related company to present at the BNC Venture Capital meeting, School Town, provides tools to help teachers, students, and parents communicate about school assignments and schedules. School Town also provides capabilities for teachers and parents to collaborate and share lesson plans and other educational information. School Town CEO Michael A. Kritzman also stated that School Town provides a platform for teachers to implement "differentiated learning" in the classroom.
Based out of the Chicago suburb of Glenview, they have had successes with their initial installations. The solution helps teachers and parents communicate with students, and helps students develop time management skills. One concern of the audience was whether competition in the education marketplace represented a good opportunity for the company to be acquired for integration or if the company could succeed as a stand-alone SaaS offering. Kritzman indicated that their strategy is to develop the product and be acquired. Another question from the audience was how much time School Town would save teachers versus the complexity it added to their jobs.
PARRY TRANSIT – Ultralight Rail Using Hybrid Power
Parry Transit is an American subsidy of a British company that developed the hybrid trolly. They offer a sustainable ultralight rail solution. CEO Barry Seifer described ultralight rail as an affordable green transit technology. Light rail has a 10-year sales cycle, but ultralight is less expensive for both the track and cars and can go to market more quickly.
Despite Mayor Daley's repeated tries to build light rail in Chicago, this Chicago audience could not relate to the Trolly concept, asking if they could put tires on the cars. Unfortunately, that would eliminate many of the benefits of the Parry Transit system. Light rail has enjoyed success in other locations, including downtown Portland as an outstanding example.
On one hand, with federal stimulus dollars on the table, Parry's ultralight rail looks like an appealing investment. On the other hand, high-speed rail for the Midwest has been getting the PR buzz lately. A lot of Parry's success rides on managing all aspects of selling to government, including setting public expectations.
NOVUS ICE SYSTEMS – On-site Ice Production for Retail Locations
Chicago-based Novus Ice proposes to "redefine the distribution chain for bagged ice" in retail locations by placing automated systems in stores. The systems run quietly and have the same footprint of current ice vending systems, with added height.
The manufacture and distribution of ice is typically a local monopoly, with some 2,000 suppliers nationwide. There are two large public companies trying to roll up this market: Reddy Ice and Arctic Glacier. Novus' business model is to finance the placement of the systems and take a percentage of sales from each unit. They will guarantee the retail price of a bag of ice. Eliminating the manufacturing and transportation costs of ice should improve margins on ice to around 20%.
The machines use standard components, assembled for Novus by the hardware suppliers. The makers of the freezer units have an existing nationwide maintenance operation, which Novus says will minimize the exposure of the maintenance risk.
The use of standard components raised the question of competition. Novus said that there is no competition currently in the market and that their projections are to take 4% of the retail ice market, focusing on chains with larger stores. Their business plan showed 64% EBITDA at the end of five years. They are in the planning stages for a pilot with Walmart.
Note, however, that a later Google search for "in-store ice production" yields a February announcement from Arctic Glacier of their in-store ice production system, and another system from Louisiana based Ultra Pure Water Technologies, dating back to November, 2005. (see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5559/is_200102/ai_n22604092/ and http://www.upwt.com/icemakers.html ). It appears that there may be more to the story behind this innovation. If I were Ron May, I'd probably take up the space to also point out that the management team is not listed on the company's web site.
FEEDBACK FROM THE CROWD
At the end of each presentation Bland polled the audience to vote their confidence in the presentation's investment potential on a scale of one to ten. Novus Ice Systems was the best received of the companies presenting. School Town received the most tepid support from the audience. Parry Transit appeared to have the widest dispersion of low-to-high votes.
The next Business Network Chicago Venture Capital meeting is Tuesday, May 5.
Labels: BNC, business network chicago, chicago, innovation, venture capital
Thursday, April 02, 2009
The Uses of Social Media in B2B Communications, a panel discussion
Social Media Club Chicago, March 26, 2009
Social Media Club Chicago had a crowd of approximately 225 last week at The Chicago Mercantile Exchange for an evening of The Uses of Social Media in B2B Communications.
The high point of the panel was when Ellis Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media "not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!"
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, most marketers using Social Media are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes 1) an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from an unorganized stream of information, and 2) an extremely cheap publishing platform with occasional flashes of brilliant or break-out success. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way.
The CME group has made a video of the event.
The SMCC is organized by Barb Barbara Rozgonyi. The event panel was assembled by Jeff Willinger. Great food from Rivers, in the CME building.
Len Kendall, Media Manager, Critical Mass, moderated a panel of:
Allan Schoenberg, Director of Corporate Communications, CME Group
Ellis Booker, Editor, BtoB Magazine, Crain Communications
John Fairley, Director of Web Services and Social Media, Walker Sands Communications
My lightly edited "summary" of the panel:
What are the differences between B2B and B2C on Social Media?
Booker says that "B2C is easy." B2B is a longer process. In the time he has been at BtoB magazine, he has seen a change, "the playfulness of campaigns has ramped up... having more fun."
CME Group's Schoenberg pointed that the B2B audience is smaller and that the value proposition needs to be stated more strongly than in B2C. While Fairly said that "more people are involved in the sale and decision." Social media allows you to reach those people at different points in the decision process.
Booker says that corporate Social Media presence is becoming an expected part of doing business. Fairly says that people will move toward companies who are active in Social Media because they will be perceived as being more available and transparent.
What tools are you using to manage Social Media presence?
Fairly likes free tools that track history, suggesting "SM2.com", "Social Mention" and "Blog Tracker". Schoenberg likes tools that track what people say about the commodities market, and uses "Vocus". Fairly suggested using Twitter Search to monitor mentions of your brand and related terms.
Tools like TweetDeck and PeopleFollow let us filter the conversations and focus on relevant content.
What are ways we can drive traffic using Social Media?
Fairly talked about the relationship between Search and Social Media. You need to understand the tools of Social Media. Study the networks and see if your customers are there. Are they on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other niche communities? Listen to your customers on the site. What are their pain points and interests. You have to follow social norms, understand the audience. Then establish key relationships. Later you can tweet to the masses. "Our strategy is to tweet about a pain point to a 'maven' in the community, who re-tweeted our comments."
Booker says you have to focus on why you are doing Social Media. He gave an example of a "sandbox" community site created by a company. They wanted to do a six-month trial, but 18 months later, they had 400 of their best customers actively engaged and had no choice but to keep up that test community, even though it wasn't part of their media strategy.
Later, Booker also said that they are "listening more with Social Media. We use the Social Media infrastructure to listen and decide what to report.
Schoenberg's guideline is "C-squared": Content x Community. Keep driving new content into the community, then engage in conversations. He used LinkedIn, then Facebook and talked about cross-pollinating the venues.
Where is the revenue?
Schoenberg had some anecdotal examples. "We have brought in leads for our brokers, and now they are trading." But he acknowledged that Social Media has been less money and more time. However, he says they have 52K followers on Twitter.
Fairly pointed out that Paid Search has set a standard. It's very measurable, but Social Media doesn't correlate directly to revenue. There is a story to be told: how many influential bloggers linked, some new leads, increases in traffic. Viral media brings traffic from everywhere, so you have to look at cumulative effects.
Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, marketers are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from a disorganized stream of information, and an extremely cheap publishing platform.
What metrics are you using? How do we gauge expectations?
Schoenberg said CME Group's Social Media efforts are part of an overall marketing strategy, "it has to fit into everything else we do. If it's just an island, you are going to fail."
Booker pointed out that E-Marketer magazine forecast on-line advertising would grow by 53% this year. Now, they are saying growth will only be 10%. At least, he concluded, it's going up. Unlike print advertising.
Are there ethical guidelines companies should be following?
Schoenberg brought up Digg as an example that Social Media can be gamed. Their biggest concerns were legal. Let people know you work for the company.
Who is in charge of your Social Media Presence?
Last year, the buzz was "you are no longer in control of your brand." You don't know what people are doing until you listen and hear or see for yourself.
Both Fairly and Schoenberg said you need to manage the message, educate your internal people to get a consistent message. Schoenberg expressed a need to manage the message and to be clear about who is the official voice for the organization.
How do you manage the volume of messages and the 24x7 nature of Social Media?
Booker stated that it is important to get right back to people. Fairley said that they "co-Tweet", having a collaborative Twitter account. Schoenberg uses "TweetLater" to schedule messages to drip out into Twitter. Fairly said that "Social Media is like adding another phone to your office, and you have to answer it."
But Fairly also brought up the most important thing you can do with Social Media: Identify people who are most passionate about your product or topics, engage with them, and activate them to be your advocate.
Social Media Club Chicago had a crowd of approximately 225 last week at The Chicago Mercantile Exchange for an evening of The Uses of Social Media in B2B Communications.
The high point of the panel was when Ellis Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media "not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!"
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, most marketers using Social Media are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes 1) an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from an unorganized stream of information, and 2) an extremely cheap publishing platform with occasional flashes of brilliant or break-out success. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way.
The CME group has made a video of the event.
The SMCC is organized by Barb Barbara Rozgonyi. The event panel was assembled by Jeff Willinger. Great food from Rivers, in the CME building.
Len Kendall, Media Manager, Critical Mass, moderated a panel of:
Allan Schoenberg, Director of Corporate Communications, CME Group
Ellis Booker, Editor, BtoB Magazine, Crain Communications
John Fairley, Director of Web Services and Social Media, Walker Sands Communications
My lightly edited "summary" of the panel:
What are the differences between B2B and B2C on Social Media?
Booker says that "B2C is easy." B2B is a longer process. In the time he has been at BtoB magazine, he has seen a change, "the playfulness of campaigns has ramped up... having more fun."
CME Group's Schoenberg pointed that the B2B audience is smaller and that the value proposition needs to be stated more strongly than in B2C. While Fairly said that "more people are involved in the sale and decision." Social media allows you to reach those people at different points in the decision process.
Booker says that corporate Social Media presence is becoming an expected part of doing business. Fairly says that people will move toward companies who are active in Social Media because they will be perceived as being more available and transparent.
What tools are you using to manage Social Media presence?
Fairly likes free tools that track history, suggesting "SM2.com", "Social Mention" and "Blog Tracker". Schoenberg likes tools that track what people say about the commodities market, and uses "Vocus". Fairly suggested using Twitter Search to monitor mentions of your brand and related terms.
Tools like TweetDeck and PeopleFollow let us filter the conversations and focus on relevant content.
What are ways we can drive traffic using Social Media?
Fairly talked about the relationship between Search and Social Media. You need to understand the tools of Social Media. Study the networks and see if your customers are there. Are they on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other niche communities? Listen to your customers on the site. What are their pain points and interests. You have to follow social norms, understand the audience. Then establish key relationships. Later you can tweet to the masses. "Our strategy is to tweet about a pain point to a 'maven' in the community, who re-tweeted our comments."
Booker says you have to focus on why you are doing Social Media. He gave an example of a "sandbox" community site created by a company. They wanted to do a six-month trial, but 18 months later, they had 400 of their best customers actively engaged and had no choice but to keep up that test community, even though it wasn't part of their media strategy.
Later, Booker also said that they are "listening more with Social Media. We use the Social Media infrastructure to listen and decide what to report.
Schoenberg's guideline is "C-squared": Content x Community. Keep driving new content into the community, then engage in conversations. He used LinkedIn, then Facebook and talked about cross-pollinating the venues.
Where is the revenue?
Schoenberg had some anecdotal examples. "We have brought in leads for our brokers, and now they are trading." But he acknowledged that Social Media has been less money and more time. However, he says they have 52K followers on Twitter.
Fairly pointed out that Paid Search has set a standard. It's very measurable, but Social Media doesn't correlate directly to revenue. There is a story to be told: how many influential bloggers linked, some new leads, increases in traffic. Viral media brings traffic from everywhere, so you have to look at cumulative effects.
Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, marketers are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from a disorganized stream of information, and an extremely cheap publishing platform.
What metrics are you using? How do we gauge expectations?
Schoenberg said CME Group's Social Media efforts are part of an overall marketing strategy, "it has to fit into everything else we do. If it's just an island, you are going to fail."
Booker pointed out that E-Marketer magazine forecast on-line advertising would grow by 53% this year. Now, they are saying growth will only be 10%. At least, he concluded, it's going up. Unlike print advertising.
Are there ethical guidelines companies should be following?
Schoenberg brought up Digg as an example that Social Media can be gamed. Their biggest concerns were legal. Let people know you work for the company.
Who is in charge of your Social Media Presence?
Last year, the buzz was "you are no longer in control of your brand." You don't know what people are doing until you listen and hear or see for yourself.
Both Fairly and Schoenberg said you need to manage the message, educate your internal people to get a consistent message. Schoenberg expressed a need to manage the message and to be clear about who is the official voice for the organization.
How do you manage the volume of messages and the 24x7 nature of Social Media?
Booker stated that it is important to get right back to people. Fairley said that they "co-Tweet", having a collaborative Twitter account. Schoenberg uses "TweetLater" to schedule messages to drip out into Twitter. Fairly said that "Social Media is like adding another phone to your office, and you have to answer it."
But Fairly also brought up the most important thing you can do with Social Media: Identify people who are most passionate about your product or topics, engage with them, and activate them to be your advocate.
Labels: chicago, social media, web analytics
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
2008 Technology Forecast
MIT – Enterprise Forum and Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center
Chicago, January 15, 2008The panelists covered four areas of technology:
Energy and sustainability: Adam Cohen, Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences at Argonne National Laboratory
Medical Technology : Linette Demers, Senior Consultant for Sg2
Mobile Technology : Thomas Lee, Vice President, New Product Development for U.S. Cellular
Information Technology : Armando Pauker, Apex Venture Partners
Moderator : David Weinstein, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center
1. ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Adam Cohen provided a “whirlwind tour” of Energy Technology (with a nod to sustainability). Tech focus will be on “Green Energy” – Energy sources and uses with low impact on the environment.
Energy demand will increase two to three times in the next 25-50 years. 85% of energy use is fossil fuels. We have three strategies available: 1) Generate more energy, 2) Use more from green sources and 3) use less energy (we will move quickly from fluorescent to LED light bulbs).
His forecast: Globally, we will use more electricity and we will move away from fossil fuel.
Energy Sector forecast for the near-term:
- Solar is still ripe for small manufacturers.
- Nuclear will be big, but takes time to get online.
- “Clean” Coal – Carbon capture and sequestration will be future generation low emissions coal plants
- Solid Oxide fuel cells, starting with natural gas and developing toward hydrogen.
Other energy sources are small impact, including wind and water. Real long term: hydrogen power in 50 years, fusion also in 50 years, high temperature superconductors (HTS) a little sooner.
2. MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
Linette Demers, SG2, Healthcare technology strategy consultants, primarily for hospital groups. Her talk was “Emerging Technologies in Healthcare.” The theme was “Smart Growth in Healthcare”.
Primary growth force is the cost of care. Hospitals are focusing on Workflow Productivity. This is a shift from the past, when they focused on “boxes” – expensive imaging equipment. Now that everybody has the “boxes”, the payments from Insurance and Government are going down. On the other hand, proton beam therapy accelerators for cancer treatment are being used more because insurance pays.
Government and Insurance is looking for cost effectiveness. Technology and medical treatment don’t always make a difference. Examples of include use of Stents for heart patients and Back Surgery. They don’t make a difference after a year or two.
Not that technology can’t help; there are some potentially disruptive technologies on the horizon that will displace conventional tools or technicians. In the short term these include:
- Non-invasive diagnostics replacing imaging
- Incisionless surgery, especially for cancer and gastro-intestinal ailments
- Vaccines – new disease models
- Molecular diagnostics and regenerative therapies
- Global workforce and telesurgery
- Mobile technology for monitoring patients
3. MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
Tom Lee from U.S. Cellular Marketing, the sixth largest carrier. He has a constant exposure to new product opportunities – he’s always being pitched. He stands at a nexus of new consumer technology. They are looking for areas of customer need and relevant technology.
How he judges fitness of those pitches:
- The customer experience, willingness to pay for that experience and the potential for new markets.
- Industry Ecosystem to support
- Needs best met other by platforms other than PC’s and Laptops
- Probability to launch in 2 to 5 years.
The customer experience: Will this make my life easier or more convenient. Examples: Phone with bar code, RFID reader. Integrate mobile information with lifestyle; Google wants to be the “broker” of my personal profile. They will make my life easier or better in exchange for profit resulting from facilitating the exchange of my personal profile data.
Ecosystem will support ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet. For example, this could benefit people who require medical monitoring.
Information Discoverability: finding information that is relevant to me “here and now”. To do this successfully, device interfaces need to improve. The interface needs to be seamless with the user context. (I really like this as it echoes what we have learned from SEO/SEM work over the past two years).
Mobile advertising is a frontier. Carriers want dollars from advertising support. Nobody has worked out how to make it relevant and accessible -- the seamless user experience.
4. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Armando Pauker from Apex Venture. He was in Silicon Vally and in 2000 joined Apex. He discussed Information Technology trends.
- The rise of eco-efficient IT. Influence corporate energy and carbon consumption, track and manage consumption for the enterprise.
- Widening of the Wireless World. Protocols are not converging.
- User Generated Content. Social networks to go local, we may finally see micropayment systems for authors and service providers. SOA and AJAX, add value and generate capabilities to create and design customer software and collaborative communities on demand.
- Security continues to be a concern. Privacy has a large dollar exposure, there is more connectivity, and there is a need for collaborative security to fight fraud, phishing, and “day Zero” attacks.
- On-demand computing and Virtualization
- Innovative video conferencing services (I don’t know why this got its own bullet-point beyond collaborative, but I’m just reporting here.)
From the Business Model and Venture Capital side, Pauker identified some interesting trends:
- Globalization of Production and Consumption. Non-US markets are driving global growth and creating a need for global finance.
- M&A will continue. Big companies are lagging global growth. There’s increased commoditization and goods and services become commoditized more rapidly. Customers want to deal with fewer vendors.
- Business Models will continue to develop: Open Source and Outsourcing, Low-cost self-service, Software as a Service (SaaS) and Virtualization will disrupt traditional IT licensing models. Consumer advertising supported business will saturate in a weak economy.
- The Individual will have a profound influence, with many conflicts to be resolved: Privacy concerns vs. Social Networks, Always connected vs. need for personal down time. From the consumer side: technology products for aging boomers, merging cellular, RFID and GPS functionality – monitor your vital signs and transmit to your doctor or hospital.
5. FINANCIAL SERVICES in Chicago
As a bonus, David Weinstein talked about how he is seeing a lot of new IT being applied locally in the Financial Services area. Talk of a new exchange that will be completely automated trading, enhanced tools for investors (OptionCity), Access-based technology with low latency to markets, Back office technology for clearing efficiencies. He described what he sees as a lot of “deal flow”.
6. Q & A after the presentations
The first question had to do with the effects of an overall economic slowdown. Everyone responded and said that any innovation in the short term would have to be focused on payback over investment. Hospitals will focus more on workflow efficiencies and better utilization of current investments. In energy, LED lights, small-scale solar have the possibility of short-term payback. Mobile carriers may focus more on acquisition and retention over risky new technology features.
A diabetic guy with nine toes complained about hospital workflows and asked why the healthcare system doesn’t focus on prevention and preventative medicine. The response was that prevention doesn’t make hospitals money, and insurance companies profit based on managing expenditures, so prevention needs to be a matter of public policy.
As far as IT and Healthcare, healthcare records management and the adoption of electronic health records is critical to efficiency of operations, so it will happen. However, there is resistance to change and the cost of technology is to the doctors so there’s only 10% adoption currently. Healthcare organizations can subsidize the transition. Another issue is that the information isn’t transactional or interactive to the patient.
Where will we see the impact of genetic analysis for the replacement of current tests or drugs? Diagnostics has quick adoption but not high value for reimbursement. However, one example: study showed that a $200 test for breast cancer was so effective and created so much savings that they were able to get approved for a $ 3,500 reimbursement.
In response to energy questions, Argon’s Cohen said that he expects Ethanol to shift away from corn and toward cellulosic ethanol which is more efficient. He also sees nuclear as the inevitable future – 200% increase worldwide, but it takes 4 to 8 years to bring online. Stick around another 50 years to see commercial fusion power.
Labels: chicago, events, MIT-EF, technology forecast
