Eileen Rudden & Thomas Ketchell: EdTech as an Emerging Economic Cluster in MA

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Eileen Rudden

Co-founder of LearnLaunch

Thomas Ketchell

CEO of Hstry

 

EdTech as an Emerging Economic Cluster in MA

Tuesday, Nov 11, 2014 at 6:30pm

Scholastic Inc, 100 Talcott Ave, Watertown, MA

Please register. It helps us and our hosts plan the logistics. Our meetings are free and open to the public.

Abstract

Massachusetts has a unique combination of leading universities, nation-leading K-12 schools, curriculum creators, and a dynamic software industry. Our innovation economy, mixing the talent and technology from these sectors, is creating a rapidly growing education technology industry. Rudden will provide an overview of the EdTech industry and the activity and design opportunity in Greater Boston. She recently wrote an op ed in the Globe about the possibilities: Will education technology be the next growth sector?

Rudden will be joined by Thomas Ketchell, CEO of HSTRY, an EdTech entrepreneur and LearnLaunch Accelerator alum who has created a fast-growing interactive timeline for social studies.

Bio, Eileen Rudden

Rudden is co-founder of LearnLaunch, Boston’s Edtech Community, and Campus & Accelerator. Rudden served as Chief Officer, College and Career Preparation at Chicago Public Schools, where she led the efforts of the third largest public school system in the US to ensure that its 400,000 students are college and career ready. She was a 2009 Broad Fellow and graduate of the Broad Superintendent’s Academy. Rudden received her MBA from Harvard Business School, and her BA from Brown University, where she served as a Trustee and is currently Chair of the Advisory Committee on Computing and Information Technology.

She also serves on the boards of the Achievement Network, Education Pioneers, and the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education.

Rudden led the Unified Communications Division of Avaya, a Fortune 500 global business communications leader and was SVP and GM of IBM Lotus Software’s Lotus Notes and Domino. Under her leadership more than 50 million began using the software and she was named to serve on IBM’s Technical Leadership Council. She previously served on the boards of John H Harland Co (NYSE: JH), Agilysys (NASDAQ:AGYS) and SoundBite Communications (NASDAQ:SDBT), where she was Board Chair. She is an active angel investor and a member of the Launchpad Venture Group.

Bio, Thomas Ketchell

Thomas Ketchell is the CEO & Co-Founder of Hstry, which relives historical events through a first-person perspective to bring history to life. He holds a BA in History & Chinese Studies as well as a postgraduate degree in Business & Development. Prior to founding Hstry, he worked in various development roles, including East Africa in 2010 where he built biogas systems. Whilst living in Beijing, he experienced the dreadful quality of the air on a daily basis. Wanting to alert people back home what it was like to breathe in this dirty air, he decided with his colleague Steven Chiu – to re-enact on social media the 1952 Great Smog of London. The success of this re-enactment led to worldwide coverage, which encouraged both Steven and Thomas to co-found Hstry. Hstry is now providing interactive timelines of historical events for both elementary and secondary schools across the globe in line with their vision to become the leading digital learning platform for history. Thomas has given talks across Europe and the US and has recently given a TedX Talk in Belgium on “Teaching History in the 21st Century”.

Evening Schedule

  • 6:30 – 7:00 Networking over pizza and beverages
  • 7:00 – 8:30 Meeting
  • 8:30 – 9:00 CHI Dessert and more networking!

Monthly Sponsors

Thank you to our generous sponsors. If you’re interested in sponsoring BostonCHI, please let us know.

Scholastic, Inc is hosting us and providing pizza.
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Vitamin T is sponsoring dessert

Vitamin T

Juhan Sonin: Design for Life

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Juhan Sonin, Involution Studios

Creative Director

Tuesday, Oct 14, 2014 at 6:30pm

Abstract

Remember doctor’s visits when you were growing up? The wooden tongue depressor. The well-worn stethoscope. That weird thing they jammed in your ears. And now, my young children are getting about that same treatment. But that is going to change.

As design harnesses digital, materials and networking technologies, a very new health experience is just over the horizon. Proactive, lifestyle design. Tracking real-time health data. Non-invasive tools. Custom “just for you” treatments based on your actual genome. These are all real technologies, being used by ordinary people. Together they are leading us to “stage zero” detection and treatment which has the potential to double or better the lifespan of every first-world citizen. Not science fiction, the children of the 2020’s will only know this reality. Tongue depressors will be limited to school craft projects and popsicles. And it is all the product of technology and design.

Design for Life introduces participants to the macro factors shaping these realities, along with an in-depth exploration of the various impacts of and opportunities for design.
Continue reading Juhan Sonin: Design for Life

Sam Stern: How the Rise of CX Will Elevate UX

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Sam Stern, Forrester Research

Senior Analyst serving Customer Experience Professionals

How the Rise of CX Will Elevate UX

Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at 6:30pm

 

Abstract

We have entered The Age Of The Customer, where the only sustainable competitive advantage is knowledge of and engagement with customers. The successful companies will be customer-obsessed. Corporate leaders who understand this new reality have raised customer experience to one of their top strategic priorities. These newly formed customer experience teams tend to be small, and focus more on collaboration and influence rather than performing the work of improving the customer experience. It is the intersection of their limited resources and elevated status in the organization that provides opportunities for UX teams. Companies are awakening to the power of qualitative research, the importance of design to their business, and the value of deep understanding of how customers perceive their interactions – expertise that UX teams are uniquely qualified to deliver.

Continue reading Sam Stern: How the Rise of CX Will Elevate UX

The Human Side of Tech