The Dizzying Convergence Of
Electronic Devices And Services -
What Are The Opportunities For Entrepreneurs?
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Convergence of electronic devices and services - on the person or in the home - continues to be a hot topic in recent months. Apple announces the iPhone and changes its name to Apple Inc. Microsoft announces software for telephones and promises to work with current cellphone manufactures. Microsoft and Apple battle for both the desktop and the brief case, belt clip and purse. RIM (Blackberry), Palm, Treo, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and others try to keep up. Each battles the other. (What a great show!) Microsoft enjoys dominance on the desk top, and seeks to assimilate all good ideas. Apple and other competitors battle fiercely with brilliant new technologies.
Where do entrepreneurs fit in this cyberscape?
- Are big companies like Microsoft, Apple and the cell phone manufacturers capable of truly delivering the innovations required to realize the great promises of convergence?
- Will the large players rely on the entrepreneur to deliver the innovative designs and new concepts to ultimately succeed?
- Is the industry too mature to allow emerging companies to succeed and find funding?
- In this converging world, how do the large market leaders interact with entrepreneurs?
- Where may entrepreneurs find the greatest opportunities for commercializing their own technologies and designs?
- What technologies should the entrepreneur pursue?
- What software platforms will succeed?
- What niches offer investors the most appealing promise of success?
Keynote Speaker
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Dr. Rajit Gadh
Professor
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
UCLA
Founder and Director
Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium (WINMEC) |
Dr. Rajit Gadh is a Professor at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA, and he is the Founder and Director of the Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium (WINMEC) of which major companies including Hewlett Packard, Hughes Network Systems, Intel, Intelleflex, ISBM-Italy, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Mobio, Motorola, Qualcomm, Raytheon, Satayam, Siemens, TCS, Verizon Wireless and others are supporting members.
Dr. Gadh is also Founder and Director of the Wireless Media Lab at UCLA. Dr. Gadh works in the areas of Mobile/Wireless Internet, Wireless Multimedia, RFID edge-of-the-network technology, RFID Middleware (WinRFID), RFID-sensor interfaces (ReWINS), wireless enterprise security, within the Wireless Media Lab. He has over 125 papers in journals, conferences and technical magazines, 3 patents granted and 3 patents in application.
Dr. Gadh has a strong background in creating technology partnerships with industry. His industrial background started prior to his academic career, when he worked as an engineer and a technology lead for two software startup companies over a period of four years (Formtek Inc. and Carnegie Group Inc. Currently, he serves as advisor to a handful of startups and venture capitalists. In partnership with his students and researchers, he has co-founded two technology startups in wireless/rfid.
He has a Doctorate degree from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a Masters from Cornell University and a Bachelors degree from IIT Kanpur. He has taught as a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley, has been an Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and did his sabbatical as a visiting researcher at Stanford University for a year. He has won several awards from NSF (CAREER award, Research Initiation Award, NSF-Lucent Industry Ecology Award, GOAL-I award), SAE (Ralph Teetor award), IEEE (second best paper, WTS), ASME (Kodak Best Technical Paper award), AT&T (Industrial ecology fellow award), Engineering Education Foundation (Research Initiation Award), and other accolades in his career. He is on the Editorial board of ACM Computers in Entertainment Publication and the CAD Journal. He has lectured and given keynote addresses worldwide in countries such as England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Taiwan, India, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Mexico.
Presenters
Frank Chindamo
President / Chief Creative Officer
Fun Little Movies
"FLM's 'Fun Funny Phone Films' are original comedies for mobile and internet channels worldwide on Sprint, Revver, ROOTV, Veoh, Microsoft, Smart Video, Hungama, Speedcast, PhoneStarz, etc. FLM has been a cover story or featured in Forbes Magazine, the L.A. Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, CBS, Wired Magazine, etc. (see http://FunLittleMovies.com/media.htm and the Ericson Telecom Report). In 2006 Frank was named one of the Top 50 people in IPTV (see http://www.iptvevangelist.com/top50/ ). This year he has been nominated by Ernst & Young for Entrepreneur of the Year, and is co-leading the Mobile Entertainment Forum's Educational Initiative (see www.m-e-f.org ).
FLM films have appeared on HBO, Showtime, CBS, PBS, A&E, Playboy, MTV and Comedy Central, etc. They've won 20 awards including 2 American Cine Golden Eagles, a Finalist's Place for Best Short at the Cannes Film Festival, CTIA's "World's Smallest Film Festival" and a runner-up to MTV for Best Video Channel at the 2006 Mobile Entertainment Awards. Frank is also an Adjunct Professor at USC, teaching "Mobile/Internet Viral Screenwriting and Production."
Mr. Anil T. Kripalani
Senior Vice President, Global Technology Affairs
Qualcomm Incorporated
Mr. Anil T. Kripalani, Senior Vice President, Global Technology Affairs, Qualcomm Incorporated joined QUALCOMM in 1994 as Vice President of Strategic Business Development for QUALCOMM's CDMA Division and focused on supporting the adoption of CDMA technology by major operators. His extensive background includes more than 23 years of technology development, product implementation and communications industry standards planning. Prior to joining QUALCOMM, Kripalani spent more than 18 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories, AT&T Network Wireless Systems and AT&T Information Systems, where he held several management positions and, at various times, was responsible for the development of wireless infrastructure for all the major technologies as well as an earlier value-added data network offering. Kripalani served as department head in the Chief Architects Division of AT&T Bell Laboratories prior to his departure from the company.
Kripalani has been integral to the promotion of the global adoption of cdmaOne™ systems. He has been an active member of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and was the first Chairman of the U.S. PCS Standards Committee (TIA TR-46) from 1993 to 1996. As Chairman, he was responsible for overseeing the standardization of leading technologies for deployment in the PCS band. He currently serves on the TIA Board of Directors as Vice Chair of the Technical Committee and the Technical Standards Subcommittee.
Panelists
William Quigley
Managing Director
Clearstone Venture Partners
Kevin Jacques
Partner
Palomar Ventures
Program Producer and Moderator
Russell M. Frandsen
Partner
Reed Smith LLP
Date
Saturday morning, May 12, 2007
Location
Registration and Continental Breakfast: 8:00 a.m. at Baxter Hall, Caltech
Program: 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Networking: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon at Baxter Hall, Caltech
Cost
Early Registration - $40 (before Monday, May 7th)
Late Registration and at the door: $50; ($10 for students
with full-time student ID; free to Caltech students)
PROGRAM SPONSOR
FOUNDING SPONSORS
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conjunction with Entretech
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