So You Have A Good Idea...

Great Slideshow on Social Media

Darren — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:49:09 +0000

Stumbled across a great slideshow on social media and it’s importance. http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-social-media

I think it’s worth a look.

Scientists as business people

Darren — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:53:42 +0000

Finished reading Craig Venters book, “A Life Decoded” the other day. What a great read. I heard Dr. Venter speak at the BIO 2008 meeting and was very inspired. I was very impressed with the passion and intensity that he found driving his life. It would be amazing if more people were able to discover something that they could be so passionate about.

What struck me though was his continued involvement in for profit companies as a CEO. While an obviously brilliant scientist and exceptional leader, Dr. Venter appears to be at heart a scientist intent on saving the world (which is an incredibly noble task). I’m curious why the money folks don’t partner him with experienced management, people who know how to lead and build companies as the pattern in his life is essentially do great research, form company, get fired from company, do more great research and repeat. I know that to be a great scientist requires a healthy ego and self-confidence and being a leader of a company developing cutting edge products and services does too. So maybe it’s possible to have them in the same person, but I just think what might be possible in terms of actually bringing innovative technology to the market if scientist and business people could find effective means of working together.

Comments on the site

Darren — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:55:55 +0000

In order to enable more discussion, I’ve loosened the comment procedure for the blog. Hopefully, this will encourage some discussion. Comments will still be moderated, but I expect to allow everything but the spam through.

BIO on the Road Posting

Darren — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:32:01 +0000

I put up a post on the BIO on the Road blog that had some thoughts on the opportunity that is inherent in social networking. I encourage you to check it out and leave some comments.

In a related posting, I was reading an interesting ebook on word of mouth marketing. I’d encourage you to check it out at: http://tinyurl.com/694ldv.

Manitoba Marathon

Darren — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:49:03 +0000

Ran my first half-marathon this morning. My official time was 2:04:51 which was significantly better than I’d hoped.

What a fabulous experience!! I’ve been training for a long time and this was the opportunity to prove that I could actually do it.

I’ve was very impressed with the whole event, but most impressed by the hundreds of people lining the course, cheering everyone on! These people who’s streets have been blocked off and their lives inconvenienced, cheering everyone on as they ran past. There is a lot to be said for people cheering each other on, even if we don’t know them. Seems to make the world a better place!

Twitter

Darren — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:17:40 +0000

I just joined twitter as yet another experiment in social networking. I’ve also joined the BIO2008 group in twitter.

You can see my twitter posts at twitter.com/solalta and the BIO2008 posts at twitter.com/BIO2008. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post on a number of key happenings at BIO this year.

BIO on the Road

Darren — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:45:43 +0000

I’ve been asked to contribute some posts to the BIO on the Road Blog regarding this years BIO conference. I’ll create a link to the posts here:

The first one is “Preparing for BIO”: Which can be found at the BIO on the Road Blog.

Conference meetings and business plans

Darren — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:35:36 +0000

If you are going to BIO or any other large conference as an early stage company, you might be thinking about meeting up with investors or partners as part of your dream scenario. While this is definitely possible and does happen, on thing I noticed when I was at conferences as an investor, was that companies that had just introduced themselves at a conference wanted to leave me with their full business plans. My preference would have been to hear their elevator pitch, and if there was interest, get their business card and make a follow-up appointment to get more information. At most, I would like an executive summary to remind me of your business. You could always email or courier the full plan later if there is interest.

One thing most investors (and likely the rest of us too) don’t need is more information than we can deal with. Paper particularly is bad when you receive it at a conference. There is too much, it’s heavy and since we’ve been away from our offices for a few days, often don’t look at it when we get back home. Therefore, I think that it is best that when we are at conferences that when we meet people who are interested in our businesses, that we get their contact information and follow up within a week or so to further the discussion.

Obviously, if you pre-planned a meeting with someone at a conference, you can leave them with some information, but they probably need less paper than you think and that glossy brochure you spent so much time and money preparing may just not make it off the conference room floor if it given out to those who aren’t fully engaged in pursuing further discussions.

BIO 2008

Darren — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:48:13 +0000

Once again, I’m going to be attending BIO this year. My focus this year is to expand my network of contacts in the early stage product development space. As I have done in previous years, I’m going to spend some time in the BIO business forum where I can see some of the early stage companies who are looking for financing. I’ve found this to be a good way to stay up to date on some of the up and coming players in the industry. I suspect that I will try to attend a few sessions, although past history has told me that it is harder than it looks to actually get to the session due to all the contacts that you make in the hallways on the way to the sessions. I’ll also definitely attend the receptions as these are a great way to meet new people and deepen existing relationships in an informal way (which often leads to business relationships down the road). I hope to see you there and I’d be happy to set up a meeting if you would like to chat.

Conferences and reasons to attend

Darren — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:52:06 +0000

I’ve been thinking about which conferences to attend this year. Obviously in my industry, BIO is the big one. There are also a number of small conferences that are more specific. It did get me thinking about what makes the most sense and my underlying reasons for going. I’ve distilled it down to the only real reason that I attend conferences (not training seminars, which are very different) is to network with others in the industry. I’m almost convinced that the content doesn’t really matter as long as the right people are there. Obviously, the right people come because of the content, but it might be much more efficient to set up conferences solely for the purpose of networking and have one or two keynotes to provide some fodder for discussion.

I’m not suggesting eliminating the concept of conferences, because there is value in the sessions if you attend, but for me, the best conferences that I have attended are those where I’m too busy chatting in the halls to attend any sessions.