From an interview with inventor Dean Kamen at the MITX Fireside Chat series in 2003. Photo is courtesy of Dan Bricklin.

That's the question that rattles around my brain as I work on business events in various capacities: host, moderator, and organizer.

I serve as the program chair for two annual conferences in New England that focus on innovation:

The Nantucket Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation, held each May

Convergence: The Life Sciences Leaders Forum, held on Martha's Vineyard every June

Future Forward, held in the fall in various locations

At Innovation Leader, we've designed a series of events that couldn't really be called conferences; they're more like "learning expeditions" that involve visiting different innovation centers, incubators, startup spaces, and R&D labs to learn from the people who run them.

Innovation Leader Field Studies

One of the things I most enjoy doing is moderating lively, insightful panel discussions; here's a compilation of advice for moderators and event organizers about how to run a great panel discussion. (I collected even more advice in a Harvard Business Review piece.)

Recently, I put together a list of 36 pieces of advice for moderating discussions on the Clubhouse app; it's somewhat like running a panel, but with key differences.

Upcoming events I'm involved with:

I have given up keeping this list current... sorry. I always tweet about events I am doing.

Among the multi-media presentations I've been giving lately:

The Innovation Economy in New England: Strengths and Challenges

What Innovators Can Learn from Hollywood

Making Corporate Culture More Open to Innovation

Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience in the Digital Era

The Unpredictable, Unengineerable, Unspoken Truth About Innovation

Retooling Journalism for the Social Age

Covering Startups & Entrepreneurship: A Workshop for Journalists

Reading the Tech Tea Leaves: Ten Trends That Matter

Past events I've been involved with:

January 28, 2016- St. Louis Innovation Roundtable
Spoke about models and approaches for corporate innovation initiatives. St. Louis, MO.

December 9, 2015- Chief Innovation Officer Summit
Emceed Day Two of the conference. New York, NY.

December 1, 2015- MIT Startup Ecosystem Conference
Moderated panel and hosted small group discussions. Cambridge, MA.

October 7, 2015- MITX "FutureM" conference
Moderated panel on corporate innovation programs, with execs from Pepsi, Constant Contact, Fidelity, and IBM. Boston, MA.

September 10, 2015- Inbound
"Getting Ink: Inbound Strategies for Building Relationships with Media and Bloggers." Boston, MA.

June 18, 2015- Brightidea "Birds of a Feather" conference
Moderated panel on corporate innovation programs. Austin, TX.

September 23, 2014- A3E Advanced Audio Applications conference
Moderated panel on "the future of artificial intelligence + musical instruments." Boston, MA.

March 20, 2014- Product Pitch at Fenway Park
Emceed full day event featuring inventor pitches at Fenway Park's EMC Club. Boston, MA.

February 28, 2013- TEC@FoleyHoag
Delivering a talk at the kick-off for a new event series in Boston's Innovation District. Boston, MA.

April 13, 2013- TEDxUMassAmherst
Speaking at the inaugural event, organized by students. Amherst, MA.

July 23, 2013- 2012 High Impact Technology Exchange Conference
Delivering a talk on "The Innovation Economy: New Industries and a New Workforce." Austin, TX.

February 7, 2013- TiE Boston VC Outlook Dinner
Moderated panel of VCs from Spark Capital, Atlas Venture, Amplify Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, and Polaris Partners. Cambridge, MA. (Audio is available here.)

February 1, 2013- MITX E-Commerce Summit
Conducted fireside chat with Karmaloop founder and CEO Greg Selkoe. Cambridge, MA. (Audio here.)

January 26, 2013- Velocity Strategic Forum
Keynote presentation Hollywood's track record of innovation, and what fast-growing companies can learn from it. St. Pete Beach, FL.

January 17, 2013- Hacks/Hackers Boston
Delivered a presentation on "Covering a beat where social media & multimedia collide." Boston, MA.

December 19, 2012- MassTLC Software Development Summit
Conducted fireside chat with CEOs of Wayfair and Dyn on "Aligning Team Development with your Growth Strategy." Cambridge, MA.

November 15, 2012- MIT R&D Conference
Moderated panel on "big data." Cambridge, MA.

November 14, 2012- Architecture Boston Expo
Spoke on panel about "Housing the Innovation Economy." Boston, MA.

October 26, 2012- Connected Health Symposium
Moderated (and helped assemble) panel on "Insights into Building a Connected Health Ecosystem." Boston, MA.

October 13, 2012- Tijuana Innovadora
Keynote presentation on innovation & Hollywood. Tijuana, Mexico.

Moderating at Digimart, October 2006.

September 28, 2012- World Summit on Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Moderated a panel on the future of mobile devices and software. Boston, MA.

June 25, 2012- Patient-Centric Healthcare Dinner
Moderated a dinner conversation about devices and technologies to give consumers more control of and information about their own health. Cambridge, MA.

June 1, 2012- TieCon 2012
Moderated a panel on "Scalable Selling in the New World," with executives from Constant Contact, HubSpot, and VistaPrint. Waltham, MA.

April 19, 2012- How to Run a Successful Kickstarter Campaign
Moderated (and helped to assemble) a panel featuring entrepreneurs, musicians, and filmmakers who'd raised money through crowdfunding. Cambridge, MA. (Audio here.)

March 27, 2012- Global Entrepreneurship Program
Created a half-day workshop on covering startups and entrepreneurs, featuring several "guest star" entrepreneurs from Istanbul. Istanbul, Turkey.

March 5 & 6, 2012- Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise
Hosted, moderated, and introduced sessions at the inaugural conference and trade show. San Francisco, CA.

February 21, 2012- Growing Internationally. Moderated a panel of executives who have set up operations in foreign countries. Cambridge, MA.

January 27, 2012- MITX E-Commerce Summit
Conducted a "fireside chat" interview with Newbury Comics CEO Mike Dreese. Cambridge, MA. (Audio is here.)

January 17, 2012- Looking Forward to 2012. Moderated a panel of venture capitalists from Kepha Partners, GlobeSpan, NextView, Atlas Venture, and Avalon Ventures. Boston, MA. (Audio here.)

March 4-6, 2012- Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise
Hosted and moderated several sessions. San Francisco, CA.

December 8, 2011- Convergence Forum West
Organized and hosted half-day conference for life sciences executives and investors. Moderated session on "Mobile Innovation to Manage Health." San Francisco, CA.

November 15, 2011- MIT Research and Development Conference
Moderated a panel on "Managing the Global Research Enterprise," with senior execs from Nissan, Boeing, Dow Chemical, and Booz Allen. Cambridge, MA.

November 10, 2011- Future Forward 11
Organized and hosted day-long event for entrepreneurs, investors, and tech industry executives. Wellesley, MA.

October 21, 2011- Connected Health Symposium
Spoke on a panel titled "Messages from the Marketplace: Interviews with Two Venture Capitalists and Two Leading Journalists on the State of Innovation in Consumer Health Technology." Boston, MA. (Video available here.)

October 11, 2011- Innovators' Salon London
Organized and hosted half-day event for entrepreneurs and investors, and conducted "fireside chat" with Playfish founder Kristian Segerstrale. London, UK.

October 3, 2011- Direct Marketing Association Annual Conference
Moderated conversation with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and WineLibrary founder Gary Vaynerchuk (following a keynote talk by Stone). Boston, MA. (Video available here.)

September 22, 2011- NEPPA Customer Service Conference
Delivered closing keynote presentation on "The New Frontier of Customer Engagement." Concord, MA.

September 13, 2011- WPI Venture Forum
Delivered presentation on "New England's Innovation Economy." Worcester, MA.

September 8, 2011- Winchester Community Music School
Gave talk to faculty on how musicians can use social media to build an audience and earn a living in the digital age. Winchester, MA.

July 20, 2011- Endeca Company Conference
Conducted on-stage interview with Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick about the state's innovation economy. Boston, MA. (Video available here.)

June 9-11, 2011- Nantucket Conference
Organized and hosted this 2.5 day gathering for tech execs and investors. Moderated sessions on gaming and social media. Nantucket, MA.

June 7, 2011- Cultivating Talent: A Building a Better Commonwealth Forum
Moderated panel on attracting and retaining top talent, with executives from Dancing Deer Bakery, Kayak, CommuniSpace, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Boston, MA.

May 19-21, 2011- Convergence Forum East
Organized and hosted this 2.5 day gathering for life sciences investors, execs, and researchers. Conducted a fireside chat with Gary Borisy, director of the Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole. Chatham, MA.

May 17, 2011- Boston Chamber of Commerce Breakfast
Moderated panel on "The Business of Innovation," with executives from Shire, EMC, and First Wind. Boston, MA.

May 6, 2011- Baruch College Annual Symposium on Communication
Hosted, facilitated, and moderated a panel. New York, NY.

April 6, 2011- ArtsBoston
Delivered afternoon workshop on building an audience in the digital age, for arts organization executives. Boston, MA.

April 1, 2011- Dealmaking for Emerging Growth Companies
Delivered presentation on "Starting a Cultural Revolution in Massachusetts." Boston, MA.

March 23, 2011- Momentum Summit 2011
Organized and emceed a half-day conference on how start-ups get big. Cambrdge, MA.

March 16, 2011- Taunton Chamber of Commerce
Delivered presentation on "New England's Innovation Economy." Taunton, MA.

January 26, 2011- Boston CTO Club
Delivered presentation on "New England's Innovation Economy." Newton, MA.

December 3, 2010- Convergence Forum West
Organized a day-long life sciences gathering, and moderated a panel on "The China Opportunity." San Francisco, CA.

November 13 & 20, 2010- Distribution U. at NYU & UCLA
Organized and hosted, along with Peter Broderick, a day-long workshop on audience-building, digital distribution, and the future of independent filmmaking. New York & Los Angeles.

November 7, 2010- New England Chamber of Commerce Executives Fall Conference
Delivered presentation on "New England's Innovation Economy." New Bedford, MA.

November 4, 2010- Future Forward 2010
Organized the 10th annual edition of this gathering of entrepreneurs, CIOs, CTOs, and investors. Wellesley, MA.

November 2, 2010- New England Human Resources Association
Delivered presentation on "New England's Innovation Economy." Framingham, MA.

October 21, 2010- Connected Health Symposium
Moderated panel of investors and entrepreneurs in the connected healthcare industry. Boston, MA.

October 8, 2010- PBLN CEO Conference (Audio is available here)
Moderated panel titled, "How Can Innovative Companies Drive Long-Term Job Growth and Economic Development in the Region?" Waltham, MA.

October 7, 2010- DIGMA Design Means Business Conference
Moderated a session on design + innovation. Canton, MA.

September 23, 2010- IFP's Independent Film Conference
Moderated a panel on video content creation, with speakers from College Humor, Next New Networks, Kickstarter, and Dinosaur Diorama. New York, NY.

September 14, 2010- Energy Summit: Legends and Leaders
Moderated panel with executives from A123 Systems, Ionics, Rockport Capital, General Catalyst, ARC Energy and Mass. Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles. Boston, MA.

September 14, 2010- 140 Characters Conference
Moderated a session on "Investing in the Real-Time Web" with Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital and John Landry of Lead Dog Ventures. Boston, MA.

July 29, 2010- TedXBoston
Delivered a presentation: "What We Need is a Cultural Revolution." Boston, MA. (Video available here.)

July 19, 2010- Mobile Monday CEO Dinner
Moderated a discussion among participants. Boston, MA.

June 24, 2010- The Edge Conference: Branded in Boston
Moderated a panel on new technologies with Laura Fitton of Oneforty, Patrick Faucher of Nimbit, and Bob Mason of Brightcove. Boston, MA. (Video available here.)

June 23, 2010- Momentum Summit
Organized day-long event on "how start-ups get big," with founders and CEOs from Zipcar, Constant Contact, TripAdvisor, Rue La La, and Akamai. In partnership with MIT's Sloan School of Management. Cambridge, MA. (Audio is available here.)

June 5, 2010- Producers Guild of America "Produced By" Conference
Spoke on panel, "Smashing Windows: DIY and the New Hybrid Distribution." Los Angeles, CA.

Jun 2, 2010- Mass Life Sciences Innovation Day
Moderated panel on "The Founder's Journey," with three founders of life sciences companies. Boston, MA.

May 28, 2010- TieCON East 2010
Hosted a panel of technology demos from early-stage companies. Waltham, MA.

May 24 - 26, 2010- Compliance Week 2010
Moderated and hosted several sessions throughout this three-day event. Washington, DC.

May 21, 2010- New England Financial Marketing Association
Keynote presentation on "New England's Innovation Economy." Providence, RI.

May 18, 2010- Music 2.0: Tools + Tech for Musicians
Delivered a short presentation on "Building a Big Audience in a Digital Age." Cambridge, MA.

May 5, 2010- Tata Chemicals Executive Briefing (private event)
Moderated a panel of entrepreneurs, delivered presentation on "New England's Innovation Economy." Cambridge, MA.

March 31, 2010- Mass Biotech Council Annual Meeting
Moderated a "fireside chat" with Nobel laureates Phil Sharp and Richard Roberts. Boston, MA.

March 31, 2010- Greater Boston's Cleantech Cluster
Moderated a panel with executives from A123 Systems, Ze-Gen, and the New England Clean Energy Council. Boston, MA.

March 27, 2010- The Conversation NYC
Organized and hosted one-day event on how the Internet, digital distribution and social media are changing filmmaking. Moderated opening panel. Held at Columbia University. New York, NY. (Video is available here.)

March 22, 2010- Olin Innovation Lab
Keynote presentation on "The Unspoken, Unpredictable, Unengineerable Truth About Innovation." Needham, MA.

March 14, 2010- SXSW
"Fans, Friends & Followers: Creating Your Own Cult (of the Non-Apocalyptic Variety)," with filmmaker Gary Hustwit. Austin, TX (Video is available here.)

March 13, 2010- SXSW
Moderated onstage Conversation with Ze Frank, on "The Creative Lifestyle." Austin, TX (Video available here.)

February 4, 2010- Launchcamp
"PR Improv" session on how entrepreneurs can work with media. Cambridge, MA.

February 1, 2010- Mobile Monday CEO Dinner.
Moderated invite-only CEO dinner discussion for Mobile Monday Boston. Boston, MA.

January 27, 2010- Half-Day Workshop on "Fans, Friends & Followers" for NorthWest Vision+Media. Liverpool, UK.

January 18, 2010- Presentation on "Fans, Friends & Followers" for Telefilm Canada Workshop. Montreal, QC.

January 13, 2010- Presentation on "Fans, Friends & Followers" for Telefilm Canada Workshop. Halifax, NS.

December 16, 2009- The Future of Online Travel
Moderated panel discussion with execs from ITA Software, TripAdvisor, and Goby. Boston, MA. (Audio is available here.)

December 1, 2009- Building Big Audiences & Generating Revenue in the Digital Age
Presented an evening workshop at the Bay Area Video Coalition. San Francisco, CA. (Video is available here.)

November 19, 2009- New Bedford Chamber of Commerce
Delivered a presentation on New England's Innovation Economy. New Bedford, MA.

November 7, 2009- Distribution U.
Co-presented this sold-out workshop on marketing and distribution for filmmakers, with Peter Broderick. Los Angeles, CA. (New York Times coverage of event; Documentary Magazine coverage of event.)

November 5, 2009- Future Forward
Served as program chair for the ninth annual edition of this event, which brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and tech execs. Moderated a session with E Ink CEO Russ Wilcox and TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer. Weston, MA.

October 28, 2009- SMPTE Annual Tech Conference
Delivered a lunch keynote on "Innovation in Hollywood." Hollywood, CA.

October 24, 2009- Boston Book Festival
Moderated a session with TV producer Tim Kring and author Reif Larsen. Free and open to the public. Boston, MA.

October 15, 2009- Innovation Day at the State House
Moderated a panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Free and open to the public. Boston, MA.

October 7, 2009- Inbound Marketing Summit
Delivered a short talk on "Social Media for Creatives." Foxboro, MA.

October 1, 2009- Mass TLC Innovation Unconference
Served as an "expert" and helped to lead a session on "Turbo-Charging the New Culture of Entrepreneurship in Massachuetts." Burlington, MA.

September 24, 2009- Microsoft Startup Labs Culture Clash
Participated in a panel on the evolution of storytelling. Cambridge, MA.

August 28, 2009- NAMAC Conference
Presented a workshop on "Cultivating an Audience and Generating Revenue in the Digital Age." Boston, MA.

August 1, 2009- DIY Days Philadelphia
Gave a talk about Fans, Friends & Followers, moderated a panel on the future of indie film, and participated in a session on audience-building. Philadelphia, PA.

June 25, 2009- What's Next in Tech: Exploring the Growth Opportunities of 2009 and Beyond
Organized event and moderated two panels. Boston, MA.

June 20, 2009- LA Film Festival - Film Financing Conference
Moderated a panel on digital movie distribution. Los Angeles, CA.

June 17, 2009- SilverDocs Festival
Ran a workshop on Fans, Friends & Followers and participated in a panel on "The Future of Public Media." Silver Spring, MD. (Video here.)

June 7, 2009- Internet Week 2009
Moderated a panel on "Where Internet & Film Collide," at the Apple Store in Soho. New York, NY. (FREE!)

June 3-5, 2009- Compliance Week 2009
Helped introduce and moderate several sessions. Washington, DC.

May 30, 2009- Producers' Institute for New Media Technologies
Moderated an opening panel, and talked a bit about Fans, Friends & Followers. San Francisco, CA.

May 5, 2009- Speaker Series at Portsmouth Public Library
Conducted a "fireside chat" with Kiva.org co-founder Jessica Jackley-Flannery. Portsmouth, NH. (Audio here.)

April 30-May 2, 2009- 10th Annual Nantucket Conference
Served as program chair, and moderated fireside chats with Skype COO Scott Durschlag, Google Ventures managing partner Rich Miner, and Heartland Robotics founder Rodney Brooks. Nantucket, MA.

April 26, 2009- The Muse & The Marketplace
Served on a panel about digital marketing for writers. Boston, MA.

April 26, 2009- Boston Independent Film Festival
Moderated a panel on "How Filmmakers are Building Their Audiences Online." Somerville, MA. (Audio is here.)

March 25, 2009- Media Tech Tonic
Gave a talk about Inventing the Movies and Fans, Friends & Followers as part of this series at MassArt. Boston, MA.

March 19-21, 2009- NCIIA Annual Meeting
Gave a talk about What Innovators Can Learn from Hollywood and moderated a panel on social entrepreneurship. Alexandria, VA.

March 15-16, 2009- South by Southwest Film Festival
Moderated panels on audience-building and the future of distribution. Austin, TX. (Audio from the audience-building panel is here.)

February 26, 2009- Transforming Healthcare Summit
Moderated a panel about healthcare in the age of Obama. Boston, MA.

February 25, 2009- What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Hollywood
Gave a presentation about Inventing the Movies for the Boston chapter of EO, the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Revere, MA.

February 19, 2009- Innovation in Hollywood: Past, Present, and Future
Gave a short overview of Inventing the Movies and then moderated a panel of filmmakers and digital visionaries at USC. Free. Los Angeles, CA. (Audio of the panel is here, and video from my talk is here.)

February 13, 2009- Making Your Media Matter
Served on a panel about "outreach and connection" for social issue media-makers. Washington, DC. (Audio is here.)

February 11, 2009- Innovation in Hollywood: The Oscars
A special Oscar edition of my Inventing the Movies presentation at the Boston Public Library. Free. Boston, MA.

February 1, 2009- Connect the Docs
Offered a sneak preview of my work-in-progress book, Fans, Friends & Followers, to a group of Boston area documentary filmmakers. Boston, MA.

January 18, 2009- The New Era of Digital Creativity: Opportunities & Challenges
Spoke with a group of digital media executives at the public television station WGBH. Private event. Boston, MA.

January 18, 2009- What's Next? Models and Experiments in Indie Distribution
Moderated panel at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Park City, UT. Audio and video are here.

January 15, 2009- Innovation in Hollywood: Past, Present & Future
Presentation at Concord Free Library. Free. Concord, MA.

December 17, 2009- How is the Current Economic Climate Affecting Venture Capital Funding?
Moderated a panel of VCs. Boston, MA.

December 11, 2009- New England's Innovation Economy: Strengths & Challenges
Presentation to the Regional Technology Corp. Holyoke, MA.

December 10, 2008- Innovation in Hollywood: Past, Present & Future
Presentation at Portsmouth Public Library. Free. Portsmouth, NH.

December 6, 2009- MIT Venture Capital Conference
Moderated a panel on consumer tech and conducting a fireside chat with Harmonix co-founder Eran Egozy. Cambridge, MA. Audio of the Egozy session is here.

December 3, 2009- Augmenting Human Capabilities
Moderated a panel at the 2008 MIT Robotics Conference. Cambridge, MA.

November 19, 2008- Future Forward 08 (Invite-only event)
Moderated a panel on tech trends for 2009; conducted a fireside chat with two CEOs (audio recording is here); and helped to organize the agenda. Weston, MA.

November 12, 2008- Innovation in Hollywood: Past, Present & Future
Presentation at Museum of Science. Free. Boston, MA.

November 9, 2008- Boston Jewish Film Festival
Moderated a panel of filmmakers, titled "New Generation, New Passions, New Quests." Boston, MA.

November 7, 2008- YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup East
Moderated a panel on "What Works in Online Video." Boston, MA.

November 3, 2008- Inventing the Movies presentation for the MediaTech club at MIT's Sloan School of Management
Cambridge, MA.

October 29, 2008- What Innovators Can Learn from Hollywood (Private event)
Boston, MA.

October 27, 2008- The New Era of Digital Creativity
Presentation at the Rome Film Festival's "World Going Digital" conference. Rome, Italy.

October 25, 2008- Inventing the Movies presentation at the Hotel Majestic
Rome, Italy.

October 23, 2008- Inventing the Movies presentation at Chelmsford Public Library
Free. Chelmsford, MA.

October 20, 2008- Book Talk at Netflix (Private event)
Los Gatos, CA.

October 19, 2008- Inventing the Movies presentation at the Hillside Club (video is here)
$10 for members, $15 for general public. Berkeley, CA.

October 17-18, 2008- The Conversation: The Future of Cinema, Games, and Online Video
Moderated a few sessions and helped to assemble the agenda. Berkeley, CA.

October 16, 2008- Book Talk at Google (Private event... but video is available here)
Mountain View, CA.

October 15, 2008- Inventing the Movies Book Talk at the Walt Disney Company (Private event)
Burbank, CA.

October 6 & 7, 2008- Paley Center/ITVS Documentary Conferences (Invite-only events)
Moderated panels on the future of distribution. Los Angeles & San Francisco.

October 4, 2008- DIY Days / Boston
Spoke about digital distribution and moderated a discussion with Todd Dagres. (Audio is here.) Boston, MA.

October 1, 2008- Inventing the Movies presentation at Charles River Museum
Attendees pay museum admission only. Waltham, MA.

September 25, 2008- "Tech @ the Movies"
Moderated panel on new technologies and the role Massachusetts is playing in the movie industry. (Video is here.) Cambridge, MA.

September 18, 2008- IFP Filmmaker Conference
Conducted an on-stage interview with documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald. New York, NY.

September 9, 2008- Vilna Shul Speakers Series
Interviewed MIT professor Ed Roberts. Boston, MA.

June 20, 2008- Silverdocs Int'l Documentary Conference
Participated in a panel, "Film Critics: Main Street vs. The Blogosphere." Silver Spring, MD.

June 12-14, 2008- Convergence: The Life Sciences Leaders Forum
Interviewed Alkermes chairman Richard Pops and moderated a panel on the overlap between cleantech and biotech. Vineyard Haven, MA.

June 11, 2008- Tegrity User Conference
Delivered a keynote talk on "What Innovators Can Learn from Hollywood." Orlando, FL.

May 30, 2008- TieCon East
Conducted an on-stage interview with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. (Some video here and full audio here.) Waltham, MA.

May 30, 2008- Making Media Now 2008
Participated on a panel on "the future of long-form documentary in the age of Internet video," and delivered keynote talk on "Innovation & Cinema: The Role That Indies and Outsiders Play." Waltham, MA.

April 9, 2008- AlwaysOn Venture Summit East
Moderated a panel of partners from new(ish) venture capital firms. Boston, MA.

March 27, 2008- Nantucket Conference dinner: Consumer Tech in Boston
Moderated a panel of entrepreneurs and executives from consumer electronics companies, including Ambient Devices, HP, and Chestnut Hill Sound. (Audio is available here. Cambridge, MA.

March 18, 2008- NAB Futures Summit
Moderated "Innovators' Insights" panel. Pebble Beach, CA.

March 13, 2008- Harvard College Entrepreneurship Club
Delivered talk on New England's Innovation Economy. Cambridge, MA.

March 11, 2008- NERCOMP Annual Conference
Gave a talk on "What Innovators Can Learn from Hollywood." Providence, RI. (Audio podcast of the talk is here.)

March 8-9, 2008- South by Southwest Film Festival
Moderated panels on digital cinema for indies and visual effects/computer animation. Austin, TX. (Video is available here -- click on "SXSW 2008 Film Coverage.")

March 2, 2008- Plumb Club Forum
Moderated a panel on Web 2.0 retailing. New York, NY.

February 27, 2008- Harvard Business School Entertainment and Media Conference
Moderated a panel: "Will Venture Capital Find and Fund the Next YouTube?" Boston, MA.

February 25, 2008- 7th Annual North America Forum for Investing & Partnering in Biotech
Moderated a panel on investing in medical devices. Boston, MA.

February 13, 2008- Entrepreneurs on the Edge: Next-Gen Display Technology
Moderated a panel with execs from QD Vision, MERL, E Ink, Myvu, and Ambient Devices. Cambridge, MA. (Audio and video available here.)

February 12, 2008- Internet Video: What's Next?
Moderated a panel with execs from Boston.TV, Brightcove, Digitas, Polaris Venture Partners, and WGBH. (Sold out.) Cambridge, MA.

January 31, 2008- Sundance Film Festival
Moderated annual "VC Outlook" panel, with investors from Highland Capital Partners, General Catalyst, Advanced Technology Ventures, and Bain Capital Ventures. (Sold out.) Waltham, MA. (Audio podcast available here.)

January 25, 2008- Sundance Film Festival
Moderated a panel: "Collision Course: Content Providers and the Creative Community Chart a Course for the Future." Panelists included filmmaker Maria Maggenti and JibJab co-founder Evan Spiridellis. (Audio podcast is here.) Park City, UT.

January 10, 2008- "New England's Innovation Economy: Understanding the Strengths and Challenges"
Talk for the Harvard Business School Association of Boston. Boston, MA.

January 8, 2008- "The Venture Capital Industry: Looking Back on 2007 and Looking Forward to 2008"
Moderated a panel on venture capital trends, with Jonathan Seelig, Larry Bohn, and Alan Spoon. Boston, MA.

December 3-4, 2007- International Film Festival Summit
Moderated two panels. Las Vegas, NV.

November 30, 2007- MIT Venture Capital Conference
Conducted a "fireside chat" with Google executive Chris Sacca, and moderated a panel about Web 2.0, digital media, and consumer tech. Boston, MA

November 28, 2007- Thinking Big (Private Event)
Conducted a conversation about building big, innovative companies in New England, with Michael Greeley of IDG Ventures and Paul Maeder of Highland Capital Partners. Boston, MA

November 14, 2007- MIT Enterprise Forum
Moderated a panel on "how innovative businesses are combating global warming." Cambridge, MA

November 8, 2007- Future Forward 07
Served as the program chair for the seventh edition of Future Forward, a gathering that brings together CIOs, CTOs, entrepreneurs, and investors from around New England. Conducted "fireside chats" with the CEOs of Akamai Technologies and RSA Security. Weston, MA.

October 31- Video on the Net
Moderated a panel about video search, with execs from Dabble, AOL Video/Truveo, and EveryZing. Boston, MA.

October 28-30- CIO | 08: The Year Ahead
Hosted and moderated a gathering for CIOs and senior IT execs. San Diego, CA.

October 25, 2007- Village Ventures CEO Summit (private event)
Moderated a panel discussion with CEOs Steve Ellis of Pump Audio and Jim Eisenstein of OptaSite. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

October 23, 2007- Tech Blogs
Moderated a conversation about the impact blogs, podcasts, and video reports are having on the tech sector. Cambridge, MA.

October 11, 2007- Film Arts Foundation
Taught a class on digital distribution and marketing for makers of film and video. San Francisco, California.

September 17-19, 2007- IFP Filmmaker Conference
Moderated panels on how new technologies are helping filmmakers connect with audiences, and the opportunities presented by digital distribution. New York, NY.

September 8, 2007- Toronto International Film Festival
Moderated a panel on what social networking means for filmmakers. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

September 5, 2007- Leadership in Venture Capital
Moderated "fireside chat" conversations with Paul Maeder of Highland Capital Partners and Scott Tobin of Battery Ventures. New York, NY.

June 27, 2007- Web Video Summit
Moderated a panel on video production titled, "Lights, Camera, Sound: How to Get Great Results." San Jose, CA.

June 21-23, 2007- Convergence: The Life Sciences Leaders Forum
Served as program chair and moderated a "fireside chat" with investor, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and frequent candidate Chris Gabrieli. Martha's Vineyard, MA.

June 12, 2007- Digital Distribution for Film and Video (free event!)
Gave a presentation at the downtown SF Apple Store on Internet distribution opportunities for film- and video-makers. San Francisco, CA.

June 6-8 2007- Compliance Week 2007
Moderated four panel discussions, which involved senior ethics and compliance executives from companies such as Google, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, HP, Fannie Mae, SprintNextel, Xerox, and Lockheed Martin. Washington, D.C.

June 2, 2007- Producers Institute for New Technologies (private event)
Spoke about the changing landscape of film funding, production, and distribution. San Francisco, CA.

May 17, 2007- Film Arts Foundation Member Event: Depth of Field (for members only)
Participated on a panel discussion about film funding and distribution. San Francisco, CA.

May 9, 2007- BIO International Convention
Moderated two panels, "Biotechnology Devices: Where Man Meets Machine," and a panel on venture capital investing in New England. Boston, MA.

May 3-5, 2007- The Nantucket Conference on Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Served as program chair for the eighth annual installment of this invite-only event, which convenes a high-level group of entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and technologists. Moderated "fireside chats" with Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone and MIT Media Lab Director Frank Moss. Nantucket, MA.

April 27, 2007- New Rules: Convention and Change in Communication
Hosted day-long conference at Baruch College. New York, NY.

March 21, 2007- The Future of Film
Moderated the opening panel, "What Does the Future Hold?" Beverly Hills, CA.

March 18-20, 2007- NAB Futures Summit
Moderated a panel discussion on "Disruptive Innovators," with execs from Grouper, Sling Media, MTV Networks, and BitTorrent. Pebble Beach, CA.

March 10 and 11, 2007- South by Southwest Film Festival
Moderated two panel discussions: "New Media Goes to the Movies" and "Building an Online Fan Base." Austin, TX.

February 15, 2007- Institute for International Film Financing
Gave a talk on "The Future of Web Video." San Francisco, CA.

January 24, 2007- Sundance Film Festival
Moderated a panel discussion on rights and licensing issues in the digital era. Park City, UT.

December 5, 2006- MITX Fireside Chat
Conducted an on-stage interview with Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. (Audio of the event is available here.) Boston, MA.

December 2, 2006- MIT Venture Capital Conference
Moderated a panel on "The Future of Digital Media." (Video is available here.) Cambridge, MA.

October 26, 2006- Future Forward 06: The New England Technology Summit
Helped organize the sixth edition of Future Forward, an event that brings together companies involved in creating important new technologies with the CIOs and CTOs who evaluate, purchase and deploy new technologies. Moderated a panel on "The Psychology of New Technology Adoption." Beverly, MA.

October 16-18, 2006- Digimart: The Digital Revolution, Take 2
Moderated panels on "How to Engage with the Online World" and "Future Theatres" at the second annual Digimart conference on digital distribution. (Video available here.) Montreal, Canada.

October 3, 2006- New England Healthcare Institute Member Dinner
Conducted an on-stage conversation with Boston Scientific co-founder John Abele. Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Not open to the public.)

September 22, 2006- The NAB Radio Show
Moderated a panel of "Extreme Thinkers," featuring political commentator and blog entrepreneur Arianna Huffington, "Mavericks at Work" author Bill Taylor, and JWT Chief Marketing Officer Marian Salzman. Dallas, TX.

September 7, 2006- Village Ventures Partner Fund Meeting
Delivered a talk about Hollywood's love-hate relationship with new technologies, and sat on a panel discussion about new media opportunities. Cambridge, MA. (Not open to the public.)

July 27, 2006- The Future of Movies: Digital Age Cinema Executive Roundtable
Moderated a panel for the Churchill Club that included director Randal Kleiser, tech execs from Disney and Universal, Dolby's GM for digital cinema, and Todd Wagner from 2929 Entertainment. Palo Alto, CA. (An audio version is here.)

June 23, 2006- Los Angeles Film Festival
Moderated a panel titled "The Film Experience: Big Screen/Small Screen," with Jim Ramo from Movielink, James Ackerman from ClickStar, Ashwin Navin from BitTorrent, John Horn from the LA Times, and director Brad Silberling. Westwood Village, CA.

June 8-10, 2006- Convergence: The Life Sciences Leaders Forum
Served on advisory board, moderated a panel, and conducted a fireside chat with Abiomed CEO Michael Minogue. Martha's Vineyard, MA.

May 18, 2006- FilmAngels Gala
Conducted an on-stage conversation with Jim Ramo, CEO of Movielink. San Jose, CA.

May 4-6, 2006- The Nantucket Conference on Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Served as program chair for the seventh annual installment of this invite-only event, which convenes a high-level group of entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, and technologists. Moderated sessions with Staples founder Tom Stemberg and Dr. Robert Gagosian, president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

April 28, 2006- Symposium on Effective Communication
Hosted day-long conference and conducted an on-stage interview with Judith Summerfield, Dean of Undergraduate Communication, CUNY. New York, NY. (Video is available here.)

March 21, 2006- NAB Futures Summit
Moderated a panel on "Must See IP: Models for Success." Pebble Beach, CA.

March 13, 2006- South by Southwest Film Festival
Moderated a panel on "blogging about film." Austin, TX.

November 29, 2005- Institute for International Film Financing
Moderated an event in San Francisco.

November 1, 2005- Future Forward 05: The New England Technology Summit
Helped organize the fifth annual edition of Future Forward, which was held at Tupper Hall in Beverly, MA, on the beautiful north shore. Brings together start-ups (and larger companies) involved in creating important new technologies with the CIOs and CTOs who evaluate, purchase and deploy new technologies. Moderated a "fireside chat" with inventor and writer Ray Kurzweil.

September 30, 2005- Getting Ready for Prime Time: Online Video and the Future of Television
Moderated a panel on "Content Discovery and Search," with executives from Yahoo, AOL, and BlinkX. At the Hillside Club in Berkeley, CA.

September 18-20, 2005- CMO Perspectives: Making the Right Connections
Hosted this first-annual event for CMO Magazine at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Speakers included Diane Gulyas, CMO of DuPont and Charlotte Beers, former chair of J Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. Also, Steve Hayden, who was involved in creating Apple's famous "1984" Superbowl ad. Plus marketing executives from McDonald's, Wal-Mart.com, Hyatt, Levi Strauss, NASCAR, and Harrah's.

June 9-11, 2005- Convergence: The Life Sciences Leaders Forum
Moderated a couple panels and served on advisory board. Speakers included Senator Ted Kennedy and John Abele, founder of Boston Scientific. Martha's Vineyard, MA.

May 5-7, 2005- The Nantucket Conference on Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Served as program chair for the sixth annual installment of this invite-only event, which convenes a high-level group of entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, and technologists. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor were two of the "featured speakers."

May 13, 2005- Technology and Communications Conference
Hosted several sessions at Baruch College in New York.

May 24, 2005- Nokia and Mobility
Served on a panel in San Francisco.

April 13, 2005- MITX Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Scott Cook, the founder and chairman of Intuit. Cook also serves on the boards of eBay and Procter & Gamble. At the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge.

February 3, 2005- Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Conference
Moderated a panel on team-building, which included Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko's.

January 29, 2005- Cyberposium at Harvard Business School
Moderated a panel on "Data-Driven Marketing."

January 27, 2005- The Boston Foundation
Served on a panel that discussed the book "The Good City: Writers Explore 21st Century Boston," which includes an essay of mine.

December 15, 2004- MITX Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Dr. Robert Langer, a noted medical device inventor who runs the Langer Lab at MIT. Langer is the youngest person ever to be admitted to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine (and the only person ever to be admitted to all three). At the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge.

December 4, 2004- MIT VC Conference
Moderated a panel on "The Battle for the Digital Home" at the 7th Annual MIT Venture Capital Conference.

December 8, 2004- Life sciences panel discussion at Swiss House
The title was "Life sciences clusters: how does Boston perform in comparison to European regions?" Panelists included Mass Biotech president Tom Finneran and Joseph von Rickenbach from Paraxel International. At the Swiss House for Advanced Reseach and Education in Cambridge.

November 12, 2004- Babson Forum on Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Moderated a panel on "Identifying an Opportunity in Technology" at Babson College. Panelists included Ray Kurzweil and representatives of Terra Lycos and Protonex.

October 19, 2004- MITX Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Robert M. Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, founder of 3Com, venture capitalist, conference organizer, and former columnist for InfoWorld. At the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge.

October 14 and 15, 2004- Future Forward 04: The New England Technology Summit
Helped organize the fourth edition of this annual event, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Brings together start-ups (and larger companies) involved in creating important new technologies with the CIOs and CTOs who evaluate, purchase and deploy new technologies.

May 25, 2004- MITX Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point" and staff writer for the New Yorker. Dan Bricklin has a write-up. Held at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004- Nanotech 2004
Moderated a panel on nanotech investing.

Friday, March 4, 2004- HBS Entrepreneurship Conference
Moderated a panel of entrepreneurs and VCs on the topic of "Financing Your Venture."

February 11, 2004- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Clayton Christensen, author of "The Innovator's Dilemma" and the "Innovator's Solution" and a professor at the Harvard Business School. Held at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge. (Dan Bricklin produced a great write-up on the event, with photos.)

February 7, 2004- HBS Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference
Moderated a panel on "Technology Investing: Promising Sectors and Strategies" with four venture capitalists.

December 8, 2003- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with George Gilder, author, oracle, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, and publisher of the Gilder Technology Report. Held at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge.

November 14, 2003- Babson Forum on Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Moderated a panel on "Creating Compelling Consumer Products" with former Bose president Sherwin Greenblatt; John Farber, co-founder of Oxo Corporation; and Elizabeth Lewis of Insight Product Development, among others.

November 6-7, 2003- Future Forward: The New England Technology Summit
Helped to organize the third installment of this event, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. First two were in Woodstock, Vermont and Lenox, Massachusetts. Moderated panel on "The State of the Tech Sector in New England."

October 14, 2003- WPI Venture Forum
Delivered a presentation on new technologies being developed in New England, and the new rules of entrepreneurship. Then participated in a panel discussion on the region's economy.

October 1, 2003- The New Breed of Technology Leader
Managed a wide-ranging panel discussion with Helen Greiner of iRobot, Paul Sagan of Akamai, and Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard's Berkman Center on Internet and Society.

September 18, 2003- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Esther Dyson of Edventure Holdings. Esther is a venture capitalist, publisher of the influential tech newsletter "Release 1.0," and the organizer of PC Forum. (Dan Bricklin covered the event in his Weblog.)

June 2, 2003- J. Robert Scott Executive Breakfast
Ran a panel on entrepreneurship in the life sciences.

May 30, 2003- TiECON 2003 Annual Conference
Moderated a panel on nanotechnology at what is described as the largest conference on entrepreneurship in the Northeast.

May 29, 2003- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Dean Kamen, founder of DEKA Research in New Hampshire and winner of the National Medal of Technology. Kamen is best-known as the inventor of the Segway Human Transporter, but has also devised dozens of medical devices from implantable stents to suitcase-sized dialysis machines.He's the founder of the non-profit FIRST, which organizes a nationwide robotics competition, and is currently working on water purification technology for developing countries. (Dan Bricklin has some photos and a wonderful write-up of the event right here.)

May 28, 2003- Molecular Internet Panel
Moderated a panel - how do you measure and justify investing in the Internet as a channel for sales and customer service?

May 1-3, 2003- The Nantucket Conference on Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Moderated a panel on renewable energy tech and served as program chair for the fourth annual installment of this invite-only event, which brings together technologists, investors, entrepreneurs, and IT executives - primarily from the Boston area.

April 2nd, 2003- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Ray Kurzweil, winner of the National Medal of Technology and author of the forthcoming book "The Singularity is Near." Ray is also the inventor of the Kurzweil reading machine and the Kurzweil music synthesizer, and was a pioneer of optical character recognition scanning.

January 18, 2003- Harvard Business School Cyberposium
Moderated panel on WiFi market evolution.

January 10th, 2003- CEA Executive Forum
Hosted a day-long, invite-only event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, put together by Fast Company.

December 9th, 2002- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Forrester Research founder and CEO George Colony. George is well-known for being provocative and funny; he's less well-known for playing the banjo.

November 12th, 2002- Cliff Notes: Pearls of Wisdom from Leading Business Authors
Ran a panel of several local authors, including David Weinberger, Larry Weber, and Christopher Meyer, for the Jewish Technology Business Network.

October 29th, 2002- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Monster.com founder and CEO Jeff Taylor. (He's also the world blimp waterskiing champion.)

September 26-28th, 2002- Future Forward: The New England Technology Summit
Served as program chair for the second annual installment of this event, designed for tech innovators and businesspeople from around New England. It offers a sneak peek at new technologies being developed in the region, as well as free-wheeling discussions on the business of technology and the challenges of technology leadership.

September 19th, 2002- Molecular X Internet Panel
Moderated a panel that explored some of the more interesting new directions of the X Internet (aka the "executable" or "extensible" Internet).

September 10th, 2002- Technology Enterprise Council monthly meeting
Holyoke, Mass.
Delivered a talk on the state of the tech sector in Massachusetts (and an overview of some promising new tech directions)

August 29th, 2002- Vermont Venture Network monthly breakfast
Burlington, VT
Delivered a talk on the state of the tech sector in New England (and an overview of some promising new tech directions)

June 27th, 2002- State of Massachusetts CIO Council
Delivered a talk on the state of the innovation economy in Massachusetts. (Not open to public.)

June 13th, 2002- An Evening with David Weinberger
Conducted a one-on-one interview with David Weinberger, author of the books "Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web" and "The Cluetrain Manifesto." Venue: Wordsworth Books, Harvard Square. Time: 7 p.m. Admission is free.

June 12th, 2002- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with New England Patriots vice chairman Jonathan Kraft at the Omni Parker House.

June 10th, 2002- Mass eComm Tech Policy Roundtable
Moderated a roundtable of technology executives and Bruce Mehlman, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the Office of Technology Policy in the afternoon; delivered a report on the roundtable that evening at the Mass eComm Annual Awards Dinner

June 6th, 2002- Old Colony Planning Council Annual Dinner
Delivered a talk on the state of the innovation economy in Massachusetts.

June 4th, 2002- MRPC Annual Dinner
Delivered a talk on the state of the innovation economy in Massachusetts.

March 20th, 2002- MIMC Fireside Chat
Conducted a one-on-one interview with Rodney Brooks of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab about his book, "Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us." The event, held at the Harvard Faculty Club, was later broadcast as part of C-SPAN's BookTV series.

November 30th, 2001- Inventing the Future: Visions of the World to Come
Conducted a half-day symposium on technological possibilities in the 21st century, with panelists including Ray Kurzweil, Alison Taunton-Rigby, David Cyganski, and Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Link above includes streaming video of the entire event.