Cyberposium | November 5, 2011 | Harvard Business School

Thanks Cyberposium Staff!

2011-11-14T19:53:00.009-05:00

A huge thanks to everyone who worked on this year's conference.

Co-Chairs

Genevieve Sheehan, Co-Chair

Elizabeth Trongone, Co-Chair

Matt Thurmond, Co-Chair

Keynotes

Frida Polli, VP of Keynotes

Gaurav Jain, Dir. of Keynotes

Melody Koh, Dir. of Keynotes

Ruth Wang, Dir. of Keynotes

Marketing

Jason Lorentzen, VP of Marketing

Yilin Lou, VP of Marketing

Chip Peinado, VP of Marketing

Saket Agrawal, Dir. of Marketing

Lilly Deng, Dir. of Marketing

Stephanie Frias, Dir. of Marketing

Feifei Hu, Dir. of Marketing

Mary Knudson, Dir. of Marketing

Dina Mehrez, Dir. of Marketing

Operations

Erin McCann, VP of Operations

Shereen Khanuja, Dir. of Operations

Glenn Thrope, Dir. of Operations

Wendi Zhang, Dir. of Operations

Adelyn Zhou, Dir. of Operations

Sponsorships

Juliet Grabowski, VP of Sponsorships

Jeanne Hwang, VP of Sponsorships

Jason Donahue, Dir. of Sponsorships

Chris McNett, Dir. of Sponsorships

Morgan Kruger, Dir. of Sponsorships

Neil Chheda, CFO

Panels

Mark Lockwood, VP of Panels

Ishan Sachdev, Director of Panels

Angela Wise, Director of Panels

William Wu, Director of Panels

Mukul Bafana, VP of Panels

Stacie Chang, Director of Panels

Julia DeIuliis, Director of Panels

Karen Robinson, Director of Panels

Cass Gilmore, Director of Panels

Kelvin Low, Director of Panels

Jocelyn Whittenburg, VP of Panels

Anthony D'Souza, Director of Panels

Jeremy Schreiber, Director of Panels

Jeffery Buening, VP of Panels

Matt Guilford, Director of Panels

Amol Shah, Director of Panels

Peter Vu, Director of Panels

Thanks!

2011-11-07T17:14:00.000-05:00

A huge thanks to EVERYONE who participated in this year's conference. We couldn't have dreamed it a bigger success, and thank you all for being a part of it and helping to make it special and memorable.

Morning Keynote Slideshow Available

2011-11-05T17:26:00.003-04:00

Thanks Intuit for making a copy of CEO Brad Smith's presentation available.

Check out his great remarks at: http://www.slideshare.net/IntuitInc/cyberposium-leading-innovation-and-growth-in-a-changing-world

Special Thanks to Conference Co-Chairs!

2011-11-05T16:29:00.001-04:00

On behalf of all Cyberposium staff, a big thanks to Genevieve Sheehan, Elizabeth Trongone, and Matt Thurmond for leading Cyberposium 17: Sky's the Limit?

Amazing job!

Left to right: Matt Thurmond (HBS '12),
Genevieve Sheehan (HBS '12), and Elizabeth Trongone (HBS '12)

Final Keynote: Jack Tretton, CEO, Sony Entertainment

2011-11-05T15:54:00.035-04:00

Welcome back Jack Tretton to Boston!

We hope you have a love weekend in New England, with lots of seafood and a great Patriots game :)

Heard @Cyberposium:

PlayStation name origin: power of a workstation for play
Looked at a 10 year product development cycle (instead of 5) - much easier to amortize development costs over 10 years than over 5. Also better for retailers, so retailers wouldn't be reliant on selling new releases as loss leaders.
Sony had a very strong hardware legacy, but no software credibility. But now, Sony Worldwide Studios has 2,700 employees and 16 studios worldwide
Originally launched in 1995, 120M sold in 10 years.
PlayStation 2 - true entertainment system with more mainstream adoption and online gaming. Revolutionary because 2 generations co-existed.
1 in 3 US Homes used PS2 as their primary DVD player. US DVD sales went from $1B to $10B in the 2 years following PS2 release. PS2 had a huge impact on a non-gaming industry (movies) following its release.
They could have done PS2.5, but opted for PS3 instead to swing harder and go bigger.
PS3 built in HD, Blu-ray, HD, WiFi, HDMI...they built these in mind in 2006 that were not relevant then, but were building in mind. Since 2006, 55M units sold since inception.
PS3 accounts for 46% of Blu-Ray Player sales. Before PS3, there was a Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD struggle...PS3 defined the category by adopting Blu-Ray
Over 1.6B pieces of content downloaded through PS3 system
PS3 is #1 device for Netflix

Where are things headed?

PlayStation actively part of the social economy: 17.6M facebook likes, 1.1M twitter followers, 113M YouTube views
Demand for blockbuster titles increases (Uncharted 3, Call of Duty, et al)
Many consumers saying that they don't have as much time for gaming, so people are shifting to some shorter games like Angry Birds. But once someone is a gamer, they're hooked on gaming, and they're
PS Vita - debuts February 2, 2012 - new way to play on a handheld device
PlayStation - 3M YouTube views in 24 hours after launch, 10M views in first month.

The PlayStation Path

Having a long-term vision
Taking smart risks and having the agility to adapt
Listenint to others, but not letting the detractors sway our vision
Staying 100% focused on innovation

Want to continue the conversation? Tweet @cyberposium and @Jack_Tretton and @PlayStation.

Join and Follow Us!

2011-11-05T14:55:00.000-04:00

Howdy! If you've been enjoying our blogging and tweeting, please Join Us through Google Friend Connect (look at the right hand side of the page) and Follow Us on twitter @ http://twitter.com/#!/cyberposium

Panel: Bridging the Online/Offline Disconnect

2011-11-05T14:46:00.027-04:00

Bridging the Online/Offline Disconnect Panelists

Sponsored by:

Groupon

Moderator:

Matt Witheiler, Principal, Flybridge Capital Partners

Panelists:

Peter Boyce II, Community and Business Director, Skillshare

Rob Eroh, Head of Product, eBay Local

Vipin Goyal, Company Co-Founder & CEO, SideTour

Alex Leichtman, Groupon

Heard @Cyberposium:

Tickemaster has been doing online/offline for 15 years. But the events have changed themselves. So now EventBrite has allowed smaller venues and individuals to find a market for themselves. Airbnb is a good example of that.
Unlocking a new inventory of skills
Tracking online behavior with offline transaction
TaskRabbit - marketplace for tasks - microtransactions on your phone for $6, $7, $8.
PayPal will be rolling out into stores
Challenge of creating a reputation system across platforms as a buyer and seller across eBay, Etsy, and others. How do we make this scalable?
The depth of local business is much greater than we expect. We all go to the 10 places we always go to, but it's hard for us to discover new places. Things like Groupon allow for the small business discovery process today that doesn't exist anywhere else.
There are a lot of things besides just bring a customer into the door. We can do buy and shopping in a lot of ways. One of the hopes is that we can let the shopowner who loves framing art to spend more time framing art, and we as online/offline businesses can take care of the rest.
In any commerce site, there is a user funnel. We pay attention to the velocity of new users we bring onto a platform. We try to move inventory faster online than it can do offline.
Many businesses set up a facebook page for the first time when they run a Groupon because it's a new way to introduce themselves to customers.
Unlocking customer recommendation value. You may be spending half your money on things you don't love - but bridging the disconnect will help you spend 100% of your money on things you love.

Want to continue the conversation? Tweet @cyberposium and the panelists: @flybridgecap, @badboyboyce, @roberteroh, @vipingoyal, @groupon

Panel: Mobile Gaming

2011-11-05T14:00:00.019-04:00

Mobile Gaming Panel

Mobile Track sponsored by:

Windows Phone

Panel sponsored by:

Zynga

Moderator:

Rob Go, Partner and Co-Founder, NextView Ventures

Panelists:

Samir El Agili, VP of Production in US & Latin America, Gameloft

Justin Cinicolo, GM of Mobility, Zynga

Harlan Crystal, CTO and Co-Founder, Pocket Gems

Jennifer Lu, Director, Business Development, TinyCo

Chris Gibbs, Executive Producer, EA Mobile

Jim Cox, Director of Produce Planning, Microsoft

Selected conversation topics:

Many games are derivative of other games because there are big, universal themes. We've all seen animals, we've all seen cities. We know how to interact with animals and cities. We could make a game about airports, but people don't related as well to an airport as they do to a city.
Twitter has been integrated with the newest iOS. Worth looking into.
TinyCo has a tiny fund - $5M - to support developers who don't have the distribution or marketing dollars to get their product out
Apple is the winner at the moment. The iPhone opened up gaming, because before gamers had to get partnerships with Verizon et al, which was much more difficult. Now it's much easier.
Freemium is modern day shareware. Freemium works depending on who your audience is. If you're going niche, you probably do want a paid model and get your money upfront. On the flip side, many games that do well are freemium because you get mass market + upside.
Many markets are just acquiring smartphones. Understanding mobile payments models and how they evolved will impact mobile gaming. For example, 90% of Apple iPhones in China are jailbreaked. We shouldn't fall into the trap of looking at US/Western Europe and thinking that's a model we can take to the rest of the world.
Games are competitive, and our consumers are passionate, so this is an industry it really matters to say ahead.

What role do MBAs have in mobile gaming?

"Gaming economies are pieces of mathematical genius, and HBS grads are geniuses at this"
MBAs are great at managing creative types
Freemium space has made MBAs even more relevant, because now you need people who really understand capitalizing on growth. Games are more considered as business units - it's finished, but not really because it can be updated every month - so you need really intelligent people who can run these businesses on a dynamic, ever-changing basis
If you want to get in, be passionate. Anyone can code or run a SQL query. We need people who love using games to be social. Blow us away.

Want to continue the conversation? Tweet @cyberposium and the panelists: @robgo, @selagili, @cinicolo, @harlancrystal, @jenlufer

Afternoon Keynote from Katie Mitic, Director, Facebook

2011-11-05T12:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks Katie for joining us from facebook. Katie is an HBS alum and now Director of Plaform and Mobile Marketing at facebook. Welcome back to HBS!

Selected topics from her speech today.

Part of the facebook mantra is taking risks.

What would you do if you're weren't afraid?
Move very fast and break things
Hackathons still happen at facebook, and a lot of good ideas come out of these hackathons

Social aspect of facebook

A lot of people have more fans on facebook than on their websites, because it's a place where they are social and it's natural
We've look at getting people to the magic number of friends, at which point it's worth it to them to keep logging back on the site. It was important enough that Mark put people on this to just focus on this problem - how do we get people to have at least the magic number of friends

Competitive Landscape

The companies that have been most successful in the Valley have strong product focus and dedicated company mission
Companies live and die by product. You can have a great product and nothing else, and still be okay. The inverse isn't true. You can have great monetization, but without a great product, you're nowhere.

Other Thoughts

facebook doesn't editorialize on apps, it lets the people get the word out about apps
facebook is successful, in part, because everyone at the company is so social and so dedicated to the mission
Something to think about is, "If I was starting a product in a garage today, without the assets of facebook, how would I build it?"

Come check out Sony Entertainment in Spangler Hall

2011-11-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

Panel: Emerging eCommerce

2011-11-05T11:36:00.000-04:00

Emerging eCommerce Panelists

Moderator:

Tom Eisenmann, Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration, Chair, MBA Elective Curriculum, Harvard Business School

Panelists:

Haley Barna, Co-Founder, Birchbox

Scott Friend, Managing Director, Bain Capital Ventures

Chris Morton, CEO, Lyst

Tim Riley, Director of Online Experience, Warby Parker

John Volturo, CMO Beachmint

Cyberposium Audience

Selected topics from this panel:

Copycats - you can outsmart copycats by focusing on vendor relationships, capturing and leveraging customer data, and offering brand partners the best ROI possible
Outsourcing - there's value to getting your hands dirty in the beginning and understanding that it makes a difference how you fold tissue paper and what length the ribbon should be, so you can share those learnings with an outsourced provider later
Unfair Advantage - make sure you have some unfair advantage that you really believe in, whether it be IP or something else niche

Advice for Entrepreneurs

Just do it, try it, test it. You may think you need $1M before you do anything, but you don't. In fact, you may not even need technology to just prove the concept. It may not scale, but you prove that customers want it, and that's really important to investors.
Find a great co-founder.
Find people who are geeking out to what you are interested in. You need something that you're going to love from the moment you wake up to the minute you go to sleep.
Just because you can create a company today for really cheaply doesn't mean you should. There's a lot of value in spending a year in a startup before you do your startup.

On a side note, this panel had participants overflowing out of the door - keep the awesome energy of the conference up!

Want to continue the conversation? Tweet @cyberposium and the panelists:
@birchbox, @baincapvc, @chrismorton, @warbyparker, @volturo

Panel: Cloud Wars

2011-11-05T11:06:00.000-04:00

Cloud Wars Panelists

Panel sponsored by:

Globespan Capital Partners

Moderated by:

David Fachetti, Managing Director, Globespan Capital Partners

Panelists:

Alex Chriss, Director - Intuit Partner Platform, Intuit

Peter Coffee, VP/Head of Platform Research, Salesforce.com

John McEleney, CEO, CloudSwitch

Cyberposium Audience

Key ideas from today's panels:

You don't want seatbelts on your servers. It doesn't matter what color it is, it doesn't work.
Why should people ever have to enter in data? So now we're thinking about big data, data for delight. $3 trillion dollars of data running around that we can now bring into the cloud.
The conversation about cloud for the last 10 years has been IT replacement. The future is about working closer to where the data is originating. It's a really important perception change for classical IT. It's about where your customers live and where your business processes are happening.

Want to continue the conversation? Tweet @cyberposium and the panelists:
@GlobespanCap, @acce, @petercoffee, @cloudswitchcorp, @john_mceleney

Panel: The Evolution of Social

2011-11-05T09:55:00.002-04:00

Evolution of Social Panelists

Moderator:

Alex Taussig, Principal, Highland Capital Partners

Panelists:

Steve Cheney, Head of Business Development, GroupMe

Julie Farago, Engineering Manager, Google

Brett Martin, Co-Founder & CEO, Sonar

Brad Mauney, Sr. Product Manager - Search & Social Graph, Linked In

Steve Spurgat, Founder/CEO, VYou

Ari Shahdadi, General Counsel and Assisant Secretary, Tumblr

Cyberposium Panel Audience

Topics from this morning's conversation included:

Verified Identity - how do advertisers think about this? When is anonymity good? Tension between quick signup / less info vs. longer signup / more info
Facebook - how has facebook pushed users beyond their users beyond their comfort level?
Privacy - Look under the rocks and see what's there - 10 years ago it would have been crazy to enter your credit card number on the internet.
Gaining Traction for Small Networks - You need to iterate. Read Eric Ries' The Lean Startup.
Monetization - "Cash rules everything around me". How much is a "like" worth? What is the lifetime value of a "like"? EventBrite did a great study on the value of a "share" and tying sharing a post to driving a ticket sale.
Post-PC World - More connections with strangers - currently leveraging existing communities, but in the future we'll be creating new communities. Contrarian view: when all you have is a screen, you only want to see the three most relevant updates, and you want to be able to get cross-platform data to get relevancy, which is based on your existing communities. LinkedIn, for example, has an app that overlays information with your social network to tell you what the most important topics are for you to be reading that day

Want to continue the conversation? Tweet @cyberposium and the panelists:
@stevecheney, @ataussig, @brett1211, @bradmauney, @spurgat, @arishahdadi

Social Media @ Cyberposium

2011-11-05T09:46:00.000-04:00

Morning Keynote from Intuit CEO Brad Smith

2011-11-05T09:29:00.001-04:00

A very warm welcome to Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit, market leader for financial software for small businesses and individuals.

Phenomenal speaker, innovative leader, and clear visionary for the future.

Brad Smith, CEO, Intuit

Highlights, paraphrased here, from Brad's speech:

When first becoming CEO, the advice given to Brad was resoundingly similar. First, listen. Second, get an outside in view.
Intuit didn't have first mover advantage. But it was 47th mover. But it understood easy of use and understood the customer and what was important for them to improve their financial lives.
"Social, mobile, global" didn't become popular because it rhymed. It became popular because it was a vision that was so inspiring that people knew what to do, even if we were not yet there. It was a soccer net at the end of a field where everyone could clearly see the goal.
No team should be bigger than one that 2 pizzas can feed
It took only 3 people to build the TurboTax app (1 pizza could feed them). It was so popular that it displaced Angry Birds during the tax season!

Brad also shared a few pieces of wisdom from others as key takeaways, paraphrased here:

Mark Twain once said that a wise man learns from his own mistakes but a genius learns from the mistakes of others.
JFK was better than a great communicator. He was a translator of dreams.
Warren Buffet invests in great companies that even monkeys can run, because if you wait long enough, a monkey will run it.
Peter Drucker: The bottleneck is always at the top of the bottle. Brad Smith: As a leader, ask who is getting in the way.
Steve Jobs: My favorite products are the ones we didn't build, because that's what made the ones we built even more special and impactful. Brad Smith: First lesson we have to learn - put our wood behind fewer arrows.

Finally, a joke from the Valley to leave y'all with.

Q: Why was it so easy for God to create heaven and earth in seven days?

A: Because it didn't have to deal with an installed base and legacy technology

Big smiles from the Cyberposium team - we hope the rest of the day is as great as Brad's speech this morning!

Audience looks on during Brad Smith's speech

Taxes can be innovative!!

2011-11-05T09:13:00.004-04:00

So impressed with Intuit's huge leaps in mobile and digital innovation.

You can do taxes through your mobile app - the app pulls out data from a photo that you take of a W2, helping you do your taxes in 10 minutes. "It was so popular it displaced Angry Birds in the app marketplace during tax season." They made taxes sexy.

Just one of so many examples. Thanks for leading innovation, Intuit.

Ask and vote for questions!

2011-11-05T08:50:00.002-04:00

Ask and vote for keynote questions for Cyberposium through http://live.pigeonhole.sg on your mobile, laptop, or tablet! password: CYBERPOSIUM

And they're off!

2011-11-05T08:37:00.000-04:00

Spangler Hall was buzzing this morning with leaders, entrepreneurs, students, and community members interested in the Tech/Media space. We'll be on the blog all day covering the highlights.

Below are the first pictures of the day from registration. See y'all at the conference!

Which Panel Are You Most Interested In Seeing?

2011-11-05T08:31:00.000-04:00

Cyberposium staff wants to know what panel YOU are most interested in seeing today! Please leave your reply below.

Happy Birthday Cyberposium Staffer Saket Agrawal

2011-11-05T08:24:00.000-04:00

A very special birthday shout out to Saket Agrawal, Director of Marketing, whose birthday is during Cyberposium. If you see him, do be sure to say a birthday hello!

Sponsor Spotlight: Sony Entertainment

2011-11-04T17:02:00.000-04:00

A special thanks to our sponsor Sony Entertainment!

Sony Entertainment will be giving away two PlayStation 3s, a large screen Sony 3D TV, and more! Check out a sneak preview of the prizes Sony Entertainment gave us, complete with HBS insignia. Thanks Sony!

Live Blogging @ Cyberposium

2011-11-04T12:41:00.000-04:00

The Cyberposium staff will be live blogging throughout the conference tomorrow, and also tweeting at our twitter account @cyberposium. Please follow the blog and twitter if you haven't done so already for all live updates!

Also, if you're a speaker, panelist, or participant, feel free to send me a blog post to publish as a guest blogger. Email me directly at Lilly Deng, ldeng@mba2013.hbs.edu.

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow for an amazing conference!

FLASH SALE! Reduced Ticket Prices Ends 11:59PM Tonight

2011-11-02T20:32:00.001-04:00

For a limited time until 11:59pm tonight, Cyberposium will be offering reduced ticket prices.

If you haven't purchased your ticket yet, get your ticket here while the sale lasts!

5 Reasons to Attend Cyberposium

2011-11-01T22:31:00.000-04:00

1. The hottest companies

3 keynotes, ~60 panelists, ~40 companies represented
Facebook, Google, Groupon, Dropbox, Microsoft, Zynga, many more

2. The scrappiest startups

Chegg, TinyCo, Birchbox, Warby Parker, Boxee, Ustream, Pocket Gems, etc.

3. Top VCs, Service professionals

Bain, Bain Capital, Globespan, NEA, Highland Capital, Lightbank, Digitas, etc.

4. Multi-industry focus

Retail, media, business operations, outsourcing, publishing, payments, advertising
Panels: Emerging Content Models, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, eBooks, Emerging eCommerce, Cloud Wars, Future of Web Advertising

5. Explore the biggest trends in society today!

Mobile, social, local
Device acceleration & penetration, offline – online convergence, consumer sharing
The cloud, SMB web services

Meet A Featured Startup: Sonar

2011-11-01T17:36:00.000-04:00

Every year Cyberposium consistently unites some of the brightest in the tech, media, VC, finance and startup communities. Who will YOU meet?

One of our featured startups, Sonar, an app for iPhone, aims to add a new layer of technology to your networking by revealing connections you share with attendees that you’d perhaps have otherwise missed. Sonar can tell you that the gentleman at the next table during lunch is a VC looking to fund a startup just like yours, or that the CTO of the company at which you’re interviewing is three rows back, or that the startup founder on stage right now shares fourteen of your Facebook friends and also loves LCD Soundsystem.

If you’re attending Cyberposium in hopes of meeting a particular type of new contact or friend, and you appreciate the boost a little extra social context lends to conference small talk and between-panel banter, download Sonar before you get to Cyberposium. You won’t have to leave it to chance that you’ll meet the right person just by virtue of proximity to the peanuts.

To get started learning about how you’re connected to other people at Cyberposium on Sonar:

Download the app from the iTunes Store: http://bit.ly/m7A2qO
Sign in with your Foursquare account (you can create one within the app, if you do not already have one – don’t worry, your location is safe unless you share it!)
Add your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to see the most about the connections you share with other attendees
When you arrive at Cyberposium, pop open Sonar and find the Cyberposium venue – you’ll see a list of folks there, in order of their relevance to you, based on shared Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, and interests on Twitter.
If you see someone you’re interested in meeting, you can send them a message via Twitter with a couple clicks.

Let us know about who you meet by posting on our Facebook wall or on Twitter.

Announcing Exciting Panels

2011-11-01T16:49:00.000-04:00

We are excited to announce our panel line-up for Cyberposium. For full list of speakers, please visit the website.

Topic: Consumer Web

Panel 1: Emerging E-Commerce

New models of ecommerce are taking the market by storm. Web-based sharing, collaborative consumption, professional curation and new subscription offers are growing users and attracting VC funding. Which new models will make it to critical mass and which are simply fads? Will larger incumbents respond with their own offers?

Companies: Lyst, Birchbox, Beachmint, Bain Capital Ventures, Warby Parker

Panel 2: Bridging the Online/Offline Disconnect

New business models and mobile proliferation are unlocking powerful new services that connect online and offline behaviors. Consumers are increasingly integrating the internet into their everyday lives and receiving real-time services and information. How are “online” tools evolving to impact, enhance and disrupt our “offline” lives? How are business able to capture this value? Are these services too complex to benefit mass-market consumers?

Companies: Groupon, Skillshare, eBay, Side Tour, Flybridge Capital Partners

Panel 3: Evolution of Social

Social networking continues to change as user engagement increases and the number of friendships and ancillary web applications explodes. New models such as micro-networks and enterprise-networks are already gaining traction. How will we interact differently with social networks going forward? Which players are best positioned to benefit?

Companies: GroupMe, Highland Capital Partners, Google, Sonar

Topic: Digital Media

Panel 1: The Future of Online Advertising

New and powerful online advertising models are opening up. Social advertising is competing with search, web video ads are competing for TV spend and browser tracking is becoming the norm for enhanced targeting. How are advertiser’s mindsets changing and what are the largest near-term opportunities in this ecosystem? What threats will slow future growth?

Companies: Lightbank, Greystripe, Google, Digitas, AOL

Panel 2: Emerging Content Business Models

Digital content is now ubiquitous and, for every type of media, new models are emerging. How will access to news, magazines, music and video evolve? Which business models are working and which aren’t? How are tablets and other emerging devices being leveraged? How should content owners adjust their distribution strategies going forward?

Companies: Sugar Inc., Cisco, Bravo, Activate

Panel 3: Online Video

Web video is becoming mainstream and the trend of cord-cutting has already started. How will traditional studios and cable networks survive the shift without sacrificing revenue? Will cable operators or emerging digital content aggregators ultimately dominate web video distribution? How will web-enabled televisions impact the ecosystem?

Companies: Boxee, Ustream Inc., Sony Network Entertainment, Entreprenuers Roundtable Accelerator, NBC Universal

Panel 4: eBooks - From Print to Digital

Traditional “print” materials are increasingly being consumed via digital devices. How will e-content be published and licensed in the future? Which devices will the mass-market adopt for their e-reading needs? Will paper-based books and traditional retail models interact with e-books going forward? Who wins and loses as ereading gains critical mass?

Companies: Chegg, Random House Publishing Group, Byliner Inc., HBS, BarnesandNoble.com

Topic: Enterprise

Panel 1: Cloud Wars

Large platform and application providers are battling for dominance in the cloud. Software players, datacenter providers, web companies and new entrants are all competing for contracts with large enterprise customers. How are customer preferences evolving around pricing, scalability and interoperability? What will it take for successful cloud players to dominate and achieve scale?

Companies: Globespan, Dropbox, Intuit Inc., Cloudswitch, salesforce.com

Panel 2: Cloud Apps for the SMB

Cloud services are radically transforming how small businesses operate. Web-based services like filesharing, video conferencing, CRM and social networking are being adopted at lower costs and with no training requirements. Which new entrants and emerging opportunities have the greatest distruption potential? How will revenue models evolve?

Companies: Intuit Inc, oDesk Corp, Polycom

Topic: Mobile

Panel 1: Mobile Payments

Mobile payments are making the leap from E-Commerce into physical retail. Services like virtual wallets, shopping assistants, mobile self-checkout and dynamic couponing are gaining traction. Which competitors are moving toward critical mass and which aren’t? How will partnerships contribute to a platform’s success and who will extract the most value?

Companies: Intuit Inc., LevelUp, AisleBuyer, Where, MoreMagic

Panel 2: Mobile Advertising

The next phase of mobile advertising has already begun. Location-targeted offers, in-app interactivity and rich media are increasing user engagement and boosting ad prices. Which new ad types and practices are gaining the most traction? How will privacy concerns or device and platform fragmentation slow future growth?

Companies: Ogilvy & Mather, AisleBuyer, New Enterprise Associates, Razorfish, Localytics, Microsoft

Panel 3: Mobile Gaming

The mobile device is on its way to becoming a mass-market gaming platform. Multi-player and social features, freemium games and tablet versions are increasingly populating the market. How big will this market get and how are gamer demographics changing? Who will own the underlying platforms and will they implement tougher terms for game developers?

Companies: Pocket Gems, TinyCo, Zynga, Gameloft Inc., Nextview Ventures

Hot Startups @Cyberposium

2011-10-31T20:13:00.000-04:00

Speakers from exciting startups speaking at Cyberposium this year.

A few of the panelists include:

Chegg: online textbook rentals for college
TinyCo: maker of beautiful, fun and engaging mobile games
Birchbox: subscription-based luxe beauty samples service
Warby Parker: delivers classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point
Boxee: maker of device to watch online video content from your TV
Ustream: provider of live, interactive broadcast platform
Pocket Gems: maker of free-to-play mobile games

Do be sure to check out their websites to learn more, and speak to the panelists at Cyberposium this Saturday, November 5, at Harvard Business School!

Cyberposium: Less than 1 Week Away!

2011-10-30T21:59:00.000-04:00

Cyberposium is less than one week away. Register now!

A tentative agenda has been posted for the conference. We look forward to seeing you next Saturday!

Keynote Speakers Announced!

2011-10-19T18:06:00.000-04:00

It's our greatest pleasure to announce this year's amazing keynote speakers for Cyberposium!

Brad Smith, President & CEO of Intuit. Intuit is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, financial institutions, consumers and accounting professionals, and is consistently ranked as one of the most-admired software companies and best places to work. Smith joined the company in February 2003 as the vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Accountant Central and Developer Network in Plano, Texas. Previously, he was senior vice president of marketing and business development at ADP. Smith also held various sales, marketing and general management positions with Pepsi, Seven-Up and Advo, Inc. Smith earned his master’s degree in management from Aquinas College in Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Marshall University in West Virginia.

Brad Smith

President & CEO

Intuit

Katie Mitic, Director, Platform and Mobile Marketing, Facebook. Katie leads platform marketing for Facebook, with responsibility for shaping and growing innovative products for millions of developers and businesses that engage with Facebook’s community of over 750 million users. These key offerings include personalization, distribution and payment services that power social experiences in games, media and commerce across the web and mobile devices. Previously Katie held executive positions at Palm, Yahoo! and a number of successful startups. She serves on the board of eBay and Special Olympics International. Katie holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School.

Katie Mitic

Director, Platform and Mobile Marketing

Facebook

Jack Tretton, President & CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. Tretton has been with Sony Computer Entertainment America since its inception, when he joined in 1995 as director of sales. As one of the founding members of the executive team, Tretton has worked vigorously to make all PlayStation® platforms best sellers in North America. Tretton has played a pivotal role in launching groundbreaking platforms in North America, including the PS One®, PlayStation®2, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), PlayStation®3 and the PlayStation®Network. Prior to joining Sony Computer Entertainment America, Tretton worked for JVC Musical Industries, Activision, Majers Corporation and Duracell, U.S.A. Tretton received his Bachelor of Science degree from Providence College.

Jack Tretton

President & CEO

Sony Computer Entertainment America

For full bios, please visit our website.

Early Bird Specials Available Through Friday, October 21, 2011

2011-10-17T18:04:00.000-04:00

For a limited time through this Friday, October 21, 2011, Early Bird tickets are available for a discounted price.

Professional Earlybird ($55)
Student Earlybird ($35) - Limited to purchasers with a confirmed current .edu email address
TechMedia Club Member Earlybird ($25) - Limited to paid members of the HBS TechMedia Club

Early Bird registration is available until this Friday 11:59 pm. Standard ticket pricing will be available thereafter.

Register now!

Cyberposium Preview: Panels and Panelists

2011-10-12T15:02:00.000-04:00

Get excited!

This year's Cyberposium Panels will cover a wide range of topics facing the industry, from rethinking ecommerce to exploring new and powerful ways of online marketing. Examples of this year's panels include:

"eBooks: From Print to Digital": Traditional "print" materials are increasingly being consumed via digital devices. How will e-content be published and licensed in the future? Which devices will the mass-market adopt for their e-reading needs? Will paper-based books and traditional retail models interact with e-books going forward? Who wins and loses as ereading gains critical mass?
"Cloud Apps for the SMB": Cloud services are radically transforming how small businesses operate. Web-based services like filesharing, video conferencing, CRM and social networking are being adopted at lower costs and with no training requirements. Which new entrants and emerging opportunities have the greatest distruption potential? How will revenue models evolve?
"Bridging the Online/Offline Disconnect": New business models and mobile proliferation are unlocking powerful new services that connect online and offline behaviors. Consumers are increasingly integrating the internet into their everyday lives and receiving real-time services and information. How are "online" tools evolving to impact, enhance and disrupt our "offline" lives? How are business able to capture this value? Are these services too complex to benefit mass-market consumers?
"Mobile Gaming": The mobile device is on its way to becoming a mass-market gaming platform. Multi-player and social features, freemium games and tablet versions are increasingly populating the market. How big will this market get and how are gamer demographics changing? Who will own the underlying platforms and will they implement tougher terms for game developers?

Panelists include representatives from hot start-ups including Birchbox to market leaders including Google and Intuit. In addition, this year's participants will have four panel tracks to choose from:

Digital Media
Enterprise
Consumer Web
Mobile

Stay tuned as we announce our speaker and conference lineup!

Registration Now Open for Cyberposium

2011-10-03T17:45:00.000-04:00

Registration is now open for Cyberposium 17: Sky's the Limit?

Cyberposium will be held on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at Harvard Business School campus (Boston, MA).

Held annually for the past 16 years, Cyberposium is the largest MBA technology conference in the world. The conference facilitates an interactive network of current and future business leaders to engage in a provocative dialog about technology and its impact on business and society.

Last year's speakers included:

Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora
Peter Chou, CEO of HTC
Diane Greene, Founder of VMware
Brad Garlinghouse, President of AOL

This year's panels will cover topics related to mobile, enterprise, consumer web, monetizing media, and consuming media.

Stay tuned to this blog for announcements as we confirm our conference speakers and finalize over a dozen panels covering exciting topics in high tech and new media.

Each year Cyberposium unites a community of present and future business leaders who share a common passion to deliver technology’s greatest promises. The conference draws some 1,000 attendees from the tech/media industries as well as the VC and startup communities.

Participants include CEOs, CTOs, founders, entrepreneurs, Wall Street and technology analysts, a broad range of media and press representatives, and students from over 25 leading MBA programs around the world.

Cyberposium is organized entirely by current MBA students at the Harvard Business School and is the primary campus event of the school’s TechMedia Club. Please visit the official Cyberposium website at www.cyberposium.com for more information.

Save the Date: November 5, 2011 | Cyberposium 17: Sky's The Limit?

2011-09-23T13:27:00.000-04:00