John Maeda + "Innovation Afternoon" at Business EXPO Tuesday May 6th

Posted on May 5th, 2008
By JackTemplin

Tomorrow I'm going to be speaking at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce's Business EXPO 2008.

I feel honored to be included in the lineup the Chamber has put together. This year's EXPO has a ton to offer entrepreneurs and innovators, and especially those of us in the info-tech and digital media fields.

Below, I highlight some of the goodness scheduled for tomorrow, and remember - it's all "FREE with a business card". (Note this is just a small selection, check out the full two-day calendar here.)

10:30am Associate Director of MIT's Media Lab and RISD President-Select John Maeda kicks things off with his keynote - "The Future of Technology, Design and Simplicity." This will be Maeda's first public address in Rhode Island since his appointment.

Maeda's keynote alone is reason enough to attend the EXPO, but there's much more on tap - now on to the line-up dubbed "Innovation Afternoon":

Noon Online strategist David Meerman Scott will present, "The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly ." Last year, Scott wrote a best-selling and highly-regarded book of the same title.

1:30pm Management Consultant Jack Derby tackles "Sales Planning in a Tough Economy." Jack leads Derby Management, a top Boston-based consultancy with deep experience, expertise, and relationships in the info-tech and digital media sector. The Chamber has engaged Jack and Derby Management to lead its upcoming Entrepreneur Launch Pad, so this is a great opportunity to check them out.

3:00pm And then at 3pm it's yours truly on "Tapping RI's growing Geek community to win on the Internet." It goes without saying that this is going to rock. ;-)

4:30pm Topping off "Innovation Afternoon," is the announcement of the winners of the 2008 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition. Over $170,000 in cash and services will be awarded. Among the finalists are a couple of very promising info-tech and digital media startups: Digital Wingman and MissingPatient.com.