Entrepreneurs Steven Kane, Tom Gerace, and David Cancel all successfully founded and sold web startups… and now they’re doing it again and again.  Wade Roush of Xconomy will lead a discussion with these serial entrepreneurs sharing their multiple founding stories.  The topics will cover everything from attracting early team members to honing in on the right idea.  Intermixing practical advice and inspirational anecdotes, the discussion will look to uncover the key ingredients to getting a web startup off of the ground from people who have done it multiple times.

WebInno25 will begin with the doors officially opening at 6:30pm in the Cambridge Royal Sonesta Hotel.  At 7pm in the Grand Ballroom we’ll hold our traditional format of self-/angel-funded startups demo’ing to the audience in Main Dish showcases, and select an “Audience Choice” winner of the crowd’s favorite.  After a brief intermission, at 8pm we’ll begin the above strictly-optional special serial entrepreneur’s breakout session.  During the entire evening’s event, Side Dish startup companies will provide informal demonstrations to the networking crowd from the Skyline Suites room.

If your early-stage startup is interested in demo’ing that evening, just reach out to me at david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com.  Please include the name of your company/site/product, a brief overview and description, and a link to a live site or password-protected beta demo site.  I’ll likely begin to make decisions sometime next week.

Remember, everyone who is interested in web and mobile innovation is welcome and encouraged to attend the free event. Please RSVP (and find additional details) on the event page (http://webinno25.eventbrite.com/) if you plan to join us so we are able to print name tags and gauge attendance (especially for this new breakout session).

Happy New Year! I am looking forward to another set of great Web Innovators Group events in this coming 2010. In order to give everyone a heads up and get it on the calendar, I am excited to announce the date for our first event, WebInno25, as March 1st. We’ll most likely have our typical format with Main and Dish Dishes demo (let me know if you’re interested at david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com)… but I am thinking about adding another content session… more details forthcoming. In the meantime, you can register for the event now and begin to spread the word: http://webinno25.eventbrite.com/. See you in two months.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Monday night’s final WebInno for 2009.  We had a great event with great presentations from our Main and Side Dishes alike.  The team over at Main Dish presenter thredUp wrote a strong post about “what it’s like to present at WebInno.” The Bostinnovation blog posted a nice recap of the presenter list, and as usual, GregPC wrote up his detailed preview of all the presenters.  Even WikedLocal / CambridgeChronicle shared some coverage.

At Monday night’s event, we also experimented with “Buzz Groups,” or small impromptu unconference-like meetups around specific topics.  For those who participated, I’d welcome feedback on how they went and specific tactical suggestions on how to improve the process/logistics for the next time we try that format (or if we even should at all).  Feel free to leave a comment on this blog or email me directly at david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com.

Lastly, I know I mentioned it at the event, but we now have a whopping 85 jobs posted on the WebInno job board: http://jobs.webinnovatorsgroup.com/.  This figure is the most we’ve ever had, which points to both the increasing opportunities in the area, as well as the vibrancy of the WebInno job board as a great free central resource.

Glad that we had a successful year…  looking forward to seeing everyone in 2010.

In addition to our usual format of Main Dish presentations (from OnTheSpot Systems, Thredup, and ZoomAtlas) and Side Dish demos, we’re going to experiment with *optional* “buzz groups.”  A consistent feedback theme I hear is that WebInno attendees would like more opportunities to connect with others with similar interests at the large group event.  As a way to foster easier networking, we’re going to try impromptu small group get-togethers around specific topic areas.  At 8pm, we’re going encourage and help organize these unconference-like mini-tweetups.  So if you’re interested in leading or assembling a gathering around a subject, please come with an idea to share.  Or you can join a discussion formed that night.  We’ll have a realtime electronic board for posting topics and locations, and walk through the logistics that evening.

See you in just a few days at WebInno24!

• On The Spot Systems – Geoff Palmer & Ken Kimmel
• Thredup – James Reinhart, Oliver Lubin, & Chris Homer
• ZoomAtlas – Mark Sherman

Following those presentations, each of our “Side Dish” demonstrators will have an opportunity to give a quick 30-second overview of their service to the audience followed by a showcase of their company at tables spread throughout the periphery of the skyline suites room during the unstructured networking portion of the evening:

• Blank Label – Fan Bi
• Dympol – Jay Ziskrout
• Kango Gift – Todd Horton
• KartMe – Phil Michaelson
• Present.ly – Yoshi Maisami
• Sponty – Mahmoud Arram

All of the above companies were selected amongst dozens of applicants looking to participate in the program. Unfortunately there was not space for other qualifying startups; if yours was not chosen, I’d encourage you to reapply for the next event in March.

I am looking forward to this final WebInno garthering for 2009. Everyone who is interested in web and mobile innovation is invited to attend the free event. Please RSVP (and find additional details) on the event page (http://webinno24.eventbrite.com/) if you plan to join us so we are able to print name tags and appropriately size the room.

First of all, the new website has a fresh look and feel, which I think is a nice reflection of the vibe of the community and the WebInno events.  Secondly, the design integrates in all of the external web services so that they’re now directly incorporated onto the site – event registration, the job board, and a main & side dish demo application.  And lastly, there’s modular power underneath, so we can include additional functionality as we develop it.

I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Nat Jabbawy of NeueTuesday, a local digital creative studio, for generously donating his firm’s time to create the new WebInno website.  I really appreciate their help, and their contribution to the Web Innovators Group should be widely recognized.  As a quick plug, working with Nat and his team has been great – I’d highly recommend their services to anyone looking for branding / multimedia / and web design work.

If you have a chance, take a spin around the new site and let me know what you think.  I’d welcome your feedback on twitter @webinno or via email at david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com.

And don’t forget – registration for the December 7th Web Innovators Group meeting is now open.

It’s hard to believe that we only have one more Web Innovators Group meeting here in 2009! We’ll convene again soon after Thanksgiving on December 7th.

WebInno24 will continue with the same format of self-/angel-funded startups presenting to the crowd as “main dishes” in the grand ballroom with “side dishes” demoing informally throughout the night from nearby skyline suites room in the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge. The doors officially open at 6:30pm with presentations starting at 7pm, including the “Audience Choice” award given to the crowd’s favorite company as determined by mobile voting. I’m also exploring an additional break-out session, but more to come on that to be announced later.

If your early stage startup is interested in presenting in either forum that evening, just reach out to me at david at web innovators group dot com. Please include the name of your company/site/product, a brief overview and description, and a link to a live site or password-protected beta demo site.

Please sign up on our registration page so we can print nametags and get a sense of the turnout.

And from the feedback I’ve heard from folks, the special panel session was well received by the entrepreneurs in the audience, offering some practical/tactical advice for those endeavoring on bootstrapping their media relations.  Our all-star participants of Mike Troiano, Scott Kirsner , Wade Roush , Peter Kafka, and Bob Brown certainly engaged the crowd… although not without some vibrant reactions and opinions, especially from the public relations practitioners in the room.  The next couple days the blogosphere was teeming with thoughts about the role of PR.  Lora Kratchounova, Bobbie Carleton, Jason Evanish, John Wall, Chuck Tanowitz, Nathan Burke, and Kellye Crane all weighed in their thoughts, with panel moderator Mike Troiano and panelist Wade Roush responding.  The entire conversation is definitely worth a read, especially if you were in attendance.

Mark you calendars that the next WebInno event is on December 7^th.  I’ll be creating a registration page in the next couple weeks.