Thanks all for coming out to our 38th Mass Innovation Nights event!  Thanks also to Microsoft New England Research and Development for hosting us!  Thanks to our experts, our innovators and especially to YOU for helping to create some buzz for new local products.  We had a nice variety!

New location.  New friends. And a whole bunch of cool new products!  (And cake.)  Our third anniversary was stellar, a beautiful night courtesy of the Merrimack Valley Sandbox and the City of Lowell, hosted by the gorgeous Appleton Mills with wifi courtesy of Comcast -- talk about a collaboration made in...Lowell! (So much thanks due to Theresa Park -- extraordinary partner.)

Event showcasing new, innovative products from Massachusetts-based companies

Lowell, MA and Woburn, MA (March  26, 2012) - Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 from 6:00-8:30 p.m., Appleton Mills in Lowell will be hosting Mass Innovation Nights, one of a series of grassroots events designed to leverage the local social media community.  Every month the event showcases a wide range of new and innovative products from local companies.  Mass Innovation Nights is marking its third anniversary and the first event in the Merrimack Valley.

The Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation is having their annual fundraiser on Thursday, April 26, 2012, and celebrating their 33rd Anniversary by honoring Thomas M. Menino, Marty Jones, President and CEO of MassDevelopment, and the Bornstein Family.

It's not every Mass Innovation Nights that has its own disco ball...but there's a first time for everything and our first time (Stas, please say, not the last!) at Space with a Soul, came complete with a disco ball and its own red light district.  (You had to be there.) 

Guest blogger:  David Park is the Project Leader for Allied MindStorm.

What would you do with paper-thin plastic batteries or silver ink pens that conduct electricity?

The formula is well understood: Invention plus capital can equal high-value innovation. Yet most advances at research institutions never attract the venture support needed to make it beyond the campus.

Over the last few years, we've been a major supporter and proponent of MassChallenge, the global startup accelerator and competition based in Boston's Innovation District -- it attracts startups and entrepreneurs from all over the world.  The MassChallenge team has set up shop at several of our events to help spread the word. We spend our summer mentoring.  We've held events at their waterfront location (oh, the views of the harbor from the 14th floor) and we see dozens of "Friends o' MIN"  (some of whom have done very well!) among the participants.

If there's one thing all innovators instinctively know, it is how to make use of any offered aid and assistance.  Sometimes, that aid comes in the form of young, energetic types.  Students are looking for experience to round out their resumes and entrepreneurs could certainly use an extra pair of hands around the office -- even if it is a virtual office.  The most precious commodity for most people these days is time and if a young person can buy you some time, why wouldn't you take advantage of that offer?

At first people thought we were going to be like Web Innovators group, then they came to our first event and saw the Practical Solar heliostats and the Wiblocks.  Our roster of “NOT just Web, software and high tech” products came to include such “real products” as Popkin ice pop drip catchers, gourmet dog food (and people food), books, a back stretcher, lampshade levelers, mouse cushions and even post vasectomy testing kits.  (Cue the giggles.) Yes, we showcase an abundance of technology innovation but we’re the only Innovation Showcase in the area that regularly mixes industries and welcomes innovation from all industries.

While Mass Innovation Nights is often chock full of startups launching new products, our mission is not exclusively startup focused.  IBM has launched six products with us, Intuit launched a product with us, Acquia, Brainshark, Continuum, LogMeIn, Percussion, VideoLink, and the Company formerly known as Novell launched two products with us.  These companies are far from startups.