Capture, Design Print! If you can snap a photo, you can 3D-print. New materials, low-cost printers, simple design tools, and new marketplaces let you make your very own jewelry, toys, shoes, and much more.

With a current market size of $1.3 billion, the 3D printing industry is set to explode to $3.1 billion by 2016, according to industry consulting firm Wohlers Associates.

• How are entrepreneurs using 3D printing to build profitable businesses?
• Will the entrepreneurial opportunities be in designing, printing, materials, or tools?
• Will consumers print at home or use cloud-based services?
• Will 3D printing be a niche market or will it disrupt traditional manufacturing with personalized production?

Come and find out the answers to these and many more questions at the next MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) event moderated by Dale Dougherty, Co-Founder of O’Reilly Media and Editor and Publisher of MAKE Magazine. Click here to register.

When:
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
6:00 – 7:00pm Networking and Refreshments
7:00 – 8:30pm Panel Discussion and Q&A

Peer pressure (social reinforcement) and data tracking have significantly contributed to the success of the $11B self improvement and $55B weight loss markets. Legacy business such as Weight Watchers have relied on snippets of painstakingly input data. Large companies, as well as, garage hackers are leveraging smaller, cheaper sensors and powerful mobile devices are accelerating the virtuous circle of goal setting, data collection, analysis and social motivation necessary to stimulate lasting and steady gains in health, sports performance or other areas of self evolution.

As start ups disrupt the space and incumbents are evolving, numerous questions arise:

• What new opportunities will exist in widespread tracking?
• How do you keep users engaged long enough to make meaningful changes?
• What are the challenges of collecting and applying meaningful data?
• Can a single offering service survive or will those aggregating multiple data streams dominate?
• Can these services grow on an ad based model or is a subscription necessary?
• How are companies using social motivation to encourage consistent engagement and long term participation?

Come and find out the answers to these and many more questions at the next MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) event moderated by Gary Wolf, co-founder of The Quantified Self and editor of Wired Magazine. Click here to register.

When:
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
6:00 – 7:00pm Networking and Refreshments
7:00 – 8:30pm Panel Discussion and Q&A

Essentially, 3D printers allow for the printing of three-dimensional objects by melting and fusing bits of plastic, layer by layer. These printers are still the domain of hobbyist, but soon improvements in the technology mean more complex materials and shapes will soon be possible. In theory, you could download a design file of anything imaginable and the 3D printer could create it.

The site writes in a blog post:

“We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.

The benefit to society is huge. No more shipping huge amount of products around the world. No more shipping the broken products back. No more child labour. We’ll be able to print food for hungry people. We’ll be able to share not only a recipe, but the full meal. We’ll be able to actually copy that floppy, if we needed one.”

It may take some time before this idea becomes feasible, but The Pirate Bay’s move (and that of other filesharing sites) can fuel the development of better and cheaper 3D printers bringing them into peoples homes. If the music industry serves as an indicator, not so long ago iPod’s and MP3 players were a niche market until “free” music from Napster and other P2P sites became available.

Start-ups and giant global companies like Sony Ericsson and Motorola have identified the wrist, or the Smart Watch, as the primary application to launch these new platforms. The Smart Watch is only the starting point, a beachfront for this opportunity.

Can the market for wearable devices expand beyond the wrist. Will a minimal interface, “Glance”, become a break-through, like multi-touch? Will Wearable Devices spawn an ecosystem of entrepreneurs building new Apps and services? What are the challenges of start-ups creating the Wearable Platforms?

Hear about opportunities and implications for entrepreneurs at the next MIT/Stanford Vlab event. Click here to register.

When:
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
6:00 – 7:00pm  Networking and Refreshments
7:00 – 8:30pm  Panel Discussion and Q&A

UPDATE:
CNET’s press coverage: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57360777-76/when-will-wearables-be-wearable/

Technology “fortresses” such as United Health Systems, Google, Sony, Morgan Stanley, NATO, as well as numerous lesser-known corporations, have fallen victim to cyber attacks in the past year. They had firewalls in place, antivirus scanners installed, spam control, automatic updates, and strong password authentication. Yet all of these organizations were hacked and sensitive information was stolen in high profile data breaches.

As the cloud continues to expand its reach from computers to mobile devices today to self driving cars and smart homes in the future, so do the opportunities for hackers to infiltrate even more aspects of our corporate and personal lives. Powerful innovations designed specifically to defend against these new Cyber attacks are quickly emerging. Hear about opportunities and implications for entrepreneurs in this evolving ecosystem. Click here to learn more and register.

Moderator:
Jeffrey Carr, Founder & CEO, Taia Global, Inc.

Panelists:
Mike Eynon, Founder & CTO, Silver Tail Systems
Ali Golshan, Co-founder & Chief Architect, Cyphort Inc.
Marc Goodman, Founder, Future Crimes
Jacques Benkoski, Ph.D., Venture Partner, US Venture Partner

When:
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
6:00pm – 7:00pm: Networking and Refreshments
7:00pm – 8:30pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A

With a market size projected to reach $1.5 billion by 2015, leading brands, entrepreneurs and investors are developing AR applications that meld virtual experiences with everyday consumer lives. But will the mass market embrace augmented reality experiences? How will these developments change the game for retailers, advertisers, teachers, and game and mobile applications — and which monetization models will be most successful?

Click here for more details and to register.

This month’s event will feature a special pre panel demo exhibition reception with the leading augmented reality companies. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience these innovative AR experiences live and meet the founders of these technologies. Demos from Aurasma, Zugara, Total Immersion, SportVision, Qualcomm, GoldRun and Vissee.

Moderator:
William “Whurley” Hurley, GM of Chaotic Moon Labs

Panelists:
Bruno Uzzan, CEO & Co-Founder, Total Immersion
Jay Wright, Senior Director of Business Development, Qualcomm
Vivian Rosenthal, Founder and CEO of GoldRun
Dr. Manu Kumar, Chief Firestarter, K9 Ventures

When:
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
6:00pm – 7:00pm: Networking and Refreshments
7:00pm – 8:30pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A

Entrepreneurs are now exploring opportunities with new rocket launchers, novel uses of affordable small satellites, space tourism, and even space-based power generation and extraterrestrial mining.

How can entrepreneurs successfully launch new ventures in the space industry? Who will fund highly front-loaded capital requirements? What business models are effective? How will technology commercialization mesh with market windows? What about multi-national regulatory incompatibilities and industry incumbents?

Space has always been a petri dish to breed new technologies that later penetrate our everyday life. Discover the latest developments and learn how private investors and businesses are planning to overcome capital intensity and provide new solutions for our problems on Earth.

Moderator:
Amaresh Kollipara, Managing Partner of Earth2Orbit, LLC and Strategic Consultant

Panelists:
William Pomerantz, Vice President, Special Projects, Virgin Galactic
Jeffrey Manber, Managing Director, NanoRacks
Bob Richards, Co-founder and CEO, Moon Express

When:
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshments
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q&A

Register here

The first article in the series is about crowdsourcing, a term coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 article of Wired magazine. The official definition of crowdsourcing from Jeff Howe, is “the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call.”

Web 2.0 technologies provide the infrastructure for crowdsourcing. Their interactivity creates contacts at a lower cost and encourages participation on all levels of an organization. Web 2.0 technologies also bring greater scope and scale to organizations, strengthening bonds with customers and improving communications with suppliers and outside partners. This model of labor has been more and more embraced by all kinds of organizations. 70 percent of the executives recently surveyed by McKinsey said that their companies regularly created value through Web communities.

Wikipedia is one of the best known examples of crowdsourcing at work. Thousands of Wikipedia users have created an encyclopedia that studies have shown is as accurate as traditional volumes like Encyclopedia Britannica. Google is another example, as it organizes websites based on how they link to each other. Google sees links as votes for the relevance of a page. Basically Google is tapping the wisdom of crowds to determine which websites are the most relevant.

Intuit is among somewhat more traditional companies that use crowdsourcing to extend their reach and lower the cost of serving customers. For example, it hosts customer support communities for its financial and tax return products, where more experienced customers give advice and support to those who need help. The most significant contributors become visible to the community by showing the number of questions they have answered and the number of “thanks” they have received from other users. By McKinsey estimates, when customer communities handle an issue, the per-contact cost can be as low as 10 percent of the cost to resolve the issue through traditional call centers. Other companies are extending their reach by using the crowdsourcing for word-of-mouth marketing. P&G’s Vocalpoint network of influential mothers is an example. Mothers share their experiences using P&G’s new products with members of their social circle, typically 20 to 25 moms. In markets where Vocalpoint influencers are active, product revenues have reached twice those without a Vocalpoint network.

Click here for a list of other companies relying on crowdsourcing.

To assure crowdsourcing success follow these rules:

1. Upfront research is necessary. Don’t neglect the up-front research needed to identify potential participants who have the right skill sets and will be motivated to participate over the longer term.
2. Crowds should operate within constraints. To harness the collective intelligence of crowds, there need to be rules in place to maintain order. Not everything can be democratic. Sometimes a decision needs to be made, and having a core team (or single person) make the ultimate decision can provide the guidance necessary to get things done and prevent crazy ideas and groupthink from wreaking havoc on your product.
3. Crowds must retain their individuality. Encourage your group to disagree, and try not to let any members of the group disproportionately influence the rest.
4. Crowds are better at vetting content than creating it. It is important to note that in most cases, the group merely votes on the final product; they do not actually create it.
5. Provide feedback and the right incentives. Give feedback to stimulate continuing participation and commitment. Getting incentives right is important as well: participants value reputation more than money.
6. Gain a high level of trust within a Web community to earn the engagement of top participants.

Recommended reading:

• Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
• Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, Wikinomics
• Joel A. Farrell, Wikis, blogs and other community tools in the enterprise
• More reading here