With great weather comes great responsibility – to get outside and walk to cool events! Spring is in full bloom, and it’s also @MSNewEngland‘s busiest season for events. So we will break it down for you weekly.
Here are three events not to miss this week:
1) Agile Games 2014 Conference
Monday, June 2 – Wednesday, June 4
Twitter: @AgileNewEngland #agilegames
The Agile Games Conference is an annual event hosted by Agile New England that provides an immersive exploration of some of the more interesting, playful, and fun concepts behind Agile Software Development. We all acknowledge that work is important, but shouldn’t we be able to have fun while doing it?
Agile Games conferences feature activities like Innovation Games to help hear a customer’s voice, learning games, coding katas, improve concepts for coaching, and even the use of Legos for facilitating and problem solving. Our goal this year is to further broaden participants’ horizons with other powerful and novel concepts that everyone can put into practice.
Featured Presenters:
- Chris Sims, Founder and Agile Coach, Agile Learning Labs
- Derek W. Wade, President, Kumido Adaptive Strategies
- Doc (Steven) List, Vice President, Santeon Learning at Santeon
- Llewellyn Falco, Founder and Owner, Spun Laboratories Inc.
- Dr. Roger Greenaway, Training & Coaching Specialist – Owner, Reviewing Skills Training
- Woody Zuill, Application Development Manager/Agile Coach at Hunter Industries
2) Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center Presents: A Conversation on Civic Technology & Transportation
Tuesday, June 3, 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Twitter: @MSNewEngland, #CivicTechBOS | @DistrictHall | Panelists: @bostonfdn, @MassDOT, @Masabi_com, @Cosmonautin
Boston is home to one of the oldest public transportation systems in the United States. Because of this, the historic streets and systems are consistently undergoing upgrades and rebuilds, causing unwanted traffic and delays.
But with the rise of new technologies, solutions are being developed.
District Hall recently hosted the 37 Billion Mile Data Challenge highlighting the vast array of data available related to driving in Massachusetts. More data is available from the Open MBTA initiative providing improved information to citizens and better analysis to the MBTA.
As Bostonians demand more from our public transit systems, let’s put our expertise in technology and innovation to work to create new ways to address the transportation challenges in our city.
Please join us at District Hall, in Boston’s thriving Innovation District, for a discussion on technology and transportation. We want to expand the conversation to address the harder and broader problems that public groups are facing. A distinguished panel will discuss how technology relates to local transportation in today’s world and how the solutions can help the city of Boston.
Panelists include:
- Moderator: Travis McCready, Vice President for Programs, The Boston Foundation
- Secretary Richard Davey, Massachusetts Department of Transportation
- Josh Robin, Vice President for Strategy and Development, Masabi
- Sandra Richter, MIT Media Lab
In coordination with the Venture Café Foundation, the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center will convene this conversation on Civic Tech on June 3, 2014, 5:30PM – 7:30PM at District Hall in Boston’s Innovation District.
A reception will follow from 7:30pm-8:30 PM.
3) Lean Startup Machine
Friday, June 6 – Sunday, June 8
Twitter: @Lean
Lean Startup Machine is NOT a hackathon.
It’s an intensive three-day workshop which teaches entrepreneurs and innovators how to build disruptive products.
How It Works:
The workshop kicks off with a series of product pitches that help attendees organize into teams. Everyone works on a NEW idea. Each team then develops its problem hypothesis, solution hypothesis and a series of assumptions which are core to the success of the business.
Next, each team creates an MVP, or “Minimum Viable Product.” The goal of the MVP test is to “Get Out Of the Building,” speak with real customers and to collect cash or non-cash currency which serves as validation.
The process promotes a problem-centric approach to business ideation. By continuously validating and invalidating assumptions, teams are forced to pivot their solution (and even problem) toward a true customer pain; rather than creating a solution and after-the-fact seeking customers with a problem.
The event culminates with each team pitching its new solutions and its experience using the process. In this competition the winning team is not selected based on who has the best idea, but instead on which team honors the process and gains the most insights through its pivots.