Forum on Social Networking at Caltech this Saturday

This may interest some people, especially the Community Buildrs subgroup. Unfortunately the event is not free, but it's cheap for students.

http://www.entforum.caltech.edu/

Social Networks and the Entrepreneurial Reality:
Fertile Platform or Investment NutWorks?

Saturday, January 12, 2008

at the California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
Registration and Continental Breakfast:
8:00 a.m. Baxter Hall
Program: 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Networking: 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Cost: $40 on-line registration fee. $50 at-the-door. $10 for students with full-time student ID (must show at door); free to Caltech students. Registrations are taken on-line up to 12:00 noon the day prior to the event. There are no refunds for no-shows.

As a business and investment vehicle, is it farfetched to credit social networking with value and staying power? The rise and demise of Friendster begs the question whether MySpace will be similarly dethroned by FaceBook. Meanwhile, might LinkedIn emerge as "tortoise" in the race? And might one of today's many soc-net startup alternatives emerge to be the Google of the genre? Whatever you thought were answers, the appearance of OpenSocial as a platform giving common access between entrepreneurs and network members adds a dimension threatening to squelch the skeptics. For example, by adopting this model (long ago used by dBase-Lotus), Facebook has cultivated thousands of third party applications.

Our keynote speakers and panelists will look at the soc-net paradigm from the vantage point of successful entrepreneurs and investors in this arena. They will wrestle with the many-faceted answers to these and related questions.

Keynote Speaker

Jason Feffer
Chief Executive Officer/Founder
SodaHead.com
Former Vice President of Operations and founding team member
MySpace
Former Vice President of Operations
Fox Interactive

Entrepreneurial Venture

Mark Jeffrey
Chief Technical Officer
Maholo.com
Author of "Max Quick Book One: The Pocket and the Pendant"
Co-founder
ZeroDegrees, Inc., a Variety "50 to Watch"

Panelists

Joe Jasin
Vice President, Corporate Development
SK Telecom International
Policy Advisor to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce
and key mobile wireless insider

Tony Karrer, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer/Chief Technical Officer
TechEmpower
Founding Chief Technical Officer
eHarmony
Award winning elearning blogger

Stuart MacFarlane
Managing Director
Momentum Venture Management
Former Chief Executive Officer
Insider Pages
Former Vice President, New Ventures
Idealab

Andrew Shaindlin
Executive Director
Caltech Alumni Association
Board Member of Higher Education Experts
Noted blogger/commentator on social
networking and alumni relations

Moderator and Producer

Michael M. Krieger Ph.D.
Attorney at Law
Willenken Wilson Loh & Lieb L.L.P.

Co-Producers

Lynn Foster
Emerging Technologies Director
Greenberg Traurig L.L.P.

Stephanie Yanchinski
Executive Director
Entretech

Richard Hsu
Partner
Townsend and Townsend and Crew L.L.P.