By Eli Chavez – Inno Reporter, Boston Business Journal
Feb 11, 2026
For 11 years, Massachusetts Innovation Nights hosted an in-person pitch-and-networking event every month—until the pandemic hit.
While Covid kept everyone indoors, that 11-year streak came to an end. Eventually, its online events also came to a halt, and Mass. Innovation Nights went into hibernation.
Now, more than six years after its last event, Mass. Innovation Nights is making its in-person comeback.
Before its hiatus, the series of events was a free, monthly product‑launch showcase where Boston‑area startups and established companies could debut new products, get visibility through social media, and connect with the broader innovation community.
The event series will return to the Museum of Science on April 15, as part of a continued partnership that will run through the rest of the year.
The event’s return follows several years of increasing calls for the event organizer and founder, Bobbie Carlton, to bring the series back.
“I can’t go out in public without somebody stopping me and saying, ‘Hey, so when are you bringing innovation nights back?” said Bobbie Carlton.
Until now, Carlton says she didn’t want to bring back the event series until there was the right partner and the right reason. But she said she found the right partner in the Museum of Science.
The museum had hosted a successful Mass. Innovation Nights event before the pandemic—expecting 300 attendees and exceeding 1000—and had been waiting for the right moment to relaunch the brand.
When Mass. Innovation Nights was ready to come back, Museum of Science director James Monroe and Carlton reconnected, and the museum saw a natural fit with its new “Year of Revolutionary Science” focus—making it “a no-brainer” partnership to showcase local innovators and position the museum as a convening space for new ideas.
To celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, the museum is expanding its programming to focus on “revolutionary science” by highlighting conversations, new perspectives, innovations and approaches to science through a series of programs.
There will be three events this first year, which Monroe and Carlton view as a pilot. They have a shared goal of making the Museum of Science—especially its new Public Science Common—an ongoing home for the series.
The Public Science Common is the new theater space opening at the museum in October 2026, designed to be a world stage for science and the museum’s future.
Before its hiatus, the event series contributed to 1,500 new product launches in its 11 years. At one point, Carlton said, the organization tracked more than $4 billion in funding for those startups.
Mass. Innovation Nights provided a stage for both large and small startups. Companies such as IBM, Intuit and Novell launched products at the event.
“People saw new products from startups, and that was the primary goal,” said Carlton. “But we also had them sitting side-by-side with more established players who happened to be bringing something new to market.”
In addition to the more established companies presenting, Mass. Innovation Nights also provided a platform for smaller startups in Boston. The integration of both sides of the startup ecosystem was critical to building and sustaining it, according to Renee Fry, founder of the digital estate-planning company Gentreo and a frequent attendee.
The event series not only helped build the ecosystem but also helped several founders reach the next stage. The events were open to founders, investors, partners, and potential customers, which, beyond investments and customers, helped provide some of the building blocks needed for early-stage success, said Fry.
“Boston has to compete against New York and San Francisco, so we should be able to really leverage the fact that we can build those close relationships,” said Fry. ”That’s why the Mass. Innovation Nights are so important. To be able to do that, to take those possibilities and turn them into reality.”