Innovation Nights - Boston is the home of the original Innovation Nights events. It all started in April 2009 as Mass Innovation Nights (MIN) with a website and a monthly event designed to help local innovators increase the buzz around new products and companies.

Every month ten companies bring new products to the event and the social media community turns out to blog, tweet, post pictures and video, add product mentions to LinkedIn and Facebook statuses, and otherwise help spread the word. In the last two years, the events have helped to:

-- launch more than 375 products
-- Connect dozens of job seekers and hiring managers
-- Profile dozens of local experts
-- Launch a wave of Innovation Nights events around the world (coming soon)

Held once a month (usually the second Wednesday of the month, registration and networking at 6:00 p.m., presentations start showing at 7:00 p.m., the live events allow companies to show off Massachusetts-based innovation. The Experts Corner team has one-on-one conversations with start-ups and entrepreneurs. Innovation Nights are held on site at various venues who donate their space to further the cause of local innovation. (We’ve held events at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, the IBM Innovation Center, the Microsoft NERD Center, the Mass Challenge incubator, the offices of Continuum and VideoLink, CCR LLP, and Clock Tower Place in Maynard, MA, the Woburn TradeCenter 128, Space with a Soul.)

We call an Innovation Nights event a "stone soup" event. Remember the folk story of Stone Soup? A stranger or small group of travelers come upon a poor village. The travelers are hungry but everyone claims to have nothing to share. So the travelers create a fire, hang a pot of water over it and place a stone inside, telling one and all that they are creating "stone soup." Of course, it will taste better with a little something for flavoring, a carrot, a potato, maybe even a little piece of meat. Soon everyone in the village has contributed "just a little something" and everyone sits down to enjoy the wonderful feast.

Innovation Nights are like stone soup. Someone has a space where we can hold an event, with tables and wireless. Other companies have new products to promote Others are social media mavens who can create buzz. Still others donate a few hours of their time and expertise. Soon, everyone is benefiting from the wonderful event we create together..

Look for your city in the list above and sign up for a local Innovation Nights event now!

Attendees and exhibitors help out by using the power of social media to help spread the word about cool new products they see at the events.

Innovation Nights LLC is a partnership comprised of Bobbie Carlton, Carlton PR & Marketing, and Dan Englander, High Rock Media.