2008 NCIIA Annual Conference: Wrap up

3 : Hours in the ER before my DC flight due to Aerovax prototype airborne shrapnel landing in my left eye
7:30 : Scheduled departure from Logan to Dallas on Tuesday
5 : Number of liquid crystal displays on the Airtran Embraer Jet taking me to DC connection
1 : Number of check engine lights that rendered the LCDs useless and grounding the flight
2:30 : Arrival time into Dallas the next afternoonDespite the misadventures of travel, I left the 2008 NCIIA Conference wiser and humbled, having met an oustanding group of individuals and institutions working on fascinating products, educational strategies, and global challenges. I'm going to provide some detailed notes at the expanded Conferences and Lectures version of LTDC.

A quick preview:

• Paul Polack on Design for the Other 90% (it's not just the museum exhibit, it's going to change the face of business and products for folks in emerging markets)
• Sir Ken Robinson on creativity.
• The Small Engines group from the Global Innovation Center in Energy, Health and Environment at Colorado State University (guys I need a link here).
• Baylor University's efforts of transforming coconuts into Home Depot products
  

More after coffee break (Dallas has a severe deficit of Starbucks, though).

NYTimes: The Road to Curitiba

The New Times Magazine has a great set of stories on Green Architecture. The neat thing is that they have some NICE architecture. The issue features Shigeru Ban, Glenn Murcutt, and the city of Curitiba's progressive urban planning. Betcha didn't know I was an architecture junkie did you?

More at the New York Times

Tags: appropriate, design, social responsibility, water, Shigeru Ban, Glenn Murcutt

Tranforming Global Health Recap Recap

The full notes of the TiE Transforming Global Health are now at LTDC Conferences and Lectures. It's much easier to set up a parallel system for lengthy posts than taking up a bunch of space on this one. So here's what you'll see in the expanded version:

• Dr. Gerald Keusch, Associate Provost for Global Health, talking about new perspectives in tackling Global Health using innovation and political will.
• MGH's Thomas Burke, MD sharing the wealth of initiatives housed under MGH's Center for Global Health and Disaster Response. Including a project that repurposes an automobile into an isolette for babies (my favorite).
• Durable and locally manufacturable microfluidic diagnostic devices by the Klapperich Lab at BU.
• Need to catch up on your C-section skills? Try a few dry runs on a mother-baby simulator by the SIM Group at CIMIT thanks to advanced tissue engineering and software.
  
• Zebra Med: An online telemedical consult service that lets doctors volunteer their time and expertise in far away places in as little as 30 minutes at a time
• A handful of microclinic business models to cover urban, periurban, and rural patients
• A global pharma-sponsored set of research and aid programs to combat TB, malaria, and leprosy
• Insightful discussion on the promise of leapfrogging technologies in global health, and attracting young innovators towards to the field.

The full panel included:
Gerald T Keusch, Associate Dean for Global Health, Boston University
Neil Ryder, PhD, Executive Director of Infectious Diseases, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
Thomas Burke, MD, Director, Center for Global Health and Disaster Response, MGH
Alexis Wallace, Executive Director, Medicine in Need
Vikram Sheel Kumar, MD, co-Founder, President and CEO, Dimagi

They were followed by a number of entrepreneurs active in the intersection of health, technology, and BOP opportunities.

Tags: appropriate, drugs, economics, education, diagnostics, telemedicine, rural healthcare, organization, trends, TiE, Klapperich, CIMIT, MGH

Young Inventors International

The tinkerers out there will like this post. Innovators, inventors, scientists, thought leaders, business and social entrepreneurs are part of the network and organization known as Young Inventors International. I am rarely a fan of entrepreneurship centers or conferences because they often hype up what is possible into empty motivational talks.

This group is totally different.

Hype and excitement are replaced by thoughtful observation, intelligent feedback, and constant support and education. Just the kind of support you need to look around, plan a strategy and ramp up your project. It's the only support group of its kind that combines entrepreneurship + invention + social return in everything they do.

I can't say enough good things about this invention powerhouse. They offer an array of resources for those of us who are into product development and entrepreneurship. They have real guidance on starting taking your product from idea, to invention, to product, to business. There's no hidden agenda. The non-profit organization's focus is You, Inventor.

This is not your average entrepreneurship center. Anne Swift, the founder of YII, has a talent for finding and connecting people cutting across a wide array of fields. I've met friends working on collaborative software, solar-powered trash compactors, explosive tracking RFIDs, distributed hybrid transportation systems, and portable ice technology (I know ice is portable...you had to be there). I have gotten help from hand picked veteran medical device designers, international technology transfer experts, business people, attorneys...the list is long.

Coming up this month

March 22, 2007 6 PM - 7 PM EST
Intellectual Property Basics Webinar
Suvashis Bhattacharya, Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner

and you just missed an excellent talk on outsourced manufacturing opportunities.

Tons more info at http://www.younginventorsinternational.com

Tags: Young Inventors International, Anne Swift, social entrepreneur, social responsibility, education, organization, invention

Social Enterprise Conference today at HBS

I totally wanted to go this and I totally forgot to register!

Tough week.

Anyways, I know some of you may be going, so take notes, blog, send me your bootleg tapes podcasts, anything...

The schedule seems to be interesting. Speakers include Victoria Hale and David Gergen.

There's going to be a career fair, a Pitch for Change competition, and 18 different panels.

I'm so bummed.

BusinessWeek features companies that make nice

I meant to write about this earlier. Catch the January 29, 2007 of BusinessWeek. The cover story features socially responsible practices and the companies that embraces them. Among them, Unilever (also featured in in FP here). Their Bangladesh operation sponsors a floating clinic appropriately called the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital.


It's a great article on corporate social responsibility, doing business in the developing world, and making some money to boot. Read the full text here.

Interesting in the floating hospital? Click here and here.

Bonus points for those who've actually used Lifebuoy soap---very popular in Tegucigalpa. Full disclosure: Unilever is not a sponsor of LTDC. The naming rights to the blog is still open for bids.

Tags: appropriate, business, economics, medical, NGO, philanthropy, social responsibility, Lifebuoy Friendship, Unilever