Introducing the Seventh Sense: Location Awareness
location based services
portable navigation devices
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 @ 6:00 PM - Directions/Maps 
Speaker: Event Description:
We perceive and interact with our world through sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. As more of us are increasingly "connected" through cell phones and the Web, the evolution of location based services (LBS) stands to dramatically enhance our lives. Come and discover the incredible capabilities and services that are already available to us as well as the cutting edge technologies around the corner. A distinguished panel of experts spanning the ecosystem of LBS will share and discuss the opportunities and challenges that await, including mobile search and social networking. The event features Loopt, Nokia, Sprint/Nextel, Socialight and Rutberg & Co.
Speaker:
Sam Altman 
CEO
Loopt
Sam founded Loopt to improve the way friends communicate. His primary responsibility within loopt is driving the product vision, assembling a passionate team to realize that vision and making sure people have fun while they're at it. Sam studied computer science at Stanford University, focusing on security and machine learning. He also helped build an autonomous helicopter navigation system while in school.
Loopt is a Silicon Valley based startup that has built a revolutionary social mapping service to change the way people use mobile phones to keep in touch with their friends. Loopt facilitates real-world interaction between friends and puts an end to frustrating missed connections. Using location-based technologies, Loopt lets you know where your friends are by automatically updating maps on your mobile handset. Loopt even lets you send messages to nearby friends or receive automatic alerts when they're nearby so that you never miss an opportunity to meet. Loopt also lets you journal your life so that your friends can see what you're up to. With Loopt, mobile subscribers put themselves on the map. Loopt is backed by venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates, the same firms that helped found Google, Yahoo!, PayPal and TiVo among many other technology innovators.Loopt is available on Boost Mobile and Sprint Nextel and will be available on other major US carriers soon.
Moderator:
Rajeev Chand
Director of Research
Rutberg & Co
Rajeev Chand serves as the Director of Research and Senior Equity Research Analyst for wireless at Rutberg & Company. As Director of Research, Mr. Chand is responsible for building and managing the firm's private equity research practice in industries under coverage, including digital media and wireless. In addition, Mr. Chand leads the firm's coverage of the wireless industry, including roles of thought leadership, private company analysis, and transaction counsel. Specifically, his team has categorized and tracks over 2,200 privately held wireless companies globally. In addition, he works with over 100 publicly held corporations, 300 venture capital firms, and 10 academic institutions to understand, formulate, and evaluate investment and acquisition theses. Mr. Chand's practice spans a broad range of product and technology categories, including semiconductors, devices, infrastructure, applications, and services, as well as wireless wide-, metropolitan-, local-, and personal-area networks.
Established in 2001, Rutberg & Company, LLC is a research-centric investment bank focused exclusively on providing M&A advisory services to both public and private companies, and raising mid to late stage capital for industry leading emerging growth companies in the wireless and digital media industries.The firm is unique in its research concentration on private companies, in contrast to other investment banks, which focus on providing institutional coverage of public companies. The core intellectual capital derived from the firm's research is highly differentiated, and facilitates superior access to key corporate decision makers and investors within the industries they cover. Additionally, by utilizing a research-based approach in evaluating private companies, they are able to adhere to the strictest standards in selecting investment banking clients, resulting in significant credibility with investors and strategic acquirers. Rutberg & Company's research team currently covers approximately 2,200 privately held companies. Through its research and investment banking activities, the firm maintains relationships with the majority of relevant acquirers in industries under coverage. Additionally, the firm maintains relationships globally with over 300 venture capital and private equity firms. Key relationships and intellectual capital coupled with substantial investment banking transaction execution expertise allows for the firm to deliver exceptional advice and investment banking services to clients.
Panelist:
Russ McGuire
Director of Corporate Strategy
Sprint Nextel
Russ McGuire is a leading strategist and visionary in the telecom industry. As director of strategy for Sprint, he is responsible for developing the strategic vision and competitive strategies for the $40 billion+ telecommunications giant. Mr. McGuire is also the author of The Power of Mobility, a book about how businesses can prosper in the next technology revolution which will be published by John Wiley & Sons in the fall of 2007. His daily weblog on these topics can be read at www.law-of-mobility.com. Mr. McGuire's experience includes 20 years in the telecom industry. Prior to joining Sprint, Mr. McGuire was Chief Strategy Officer for TeleChoice, and prior to that he was vice president of strategic development for Williams Communications. Mr. McGuire has also founded or co-founded two technology start-ups. He began his telecom career as a software developer for Northern Telecom.
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks serving 54 million customers at the end of the second quarter 2007; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone.
Michael Sharon
Co-founder
Socialight
Michael Eyal Sharon is the co-founder and CTO of Socialight, a New York-based company developing social media tools for mobile devices. He is an Adjunct Professor at NYU and Columbia University, teaching graduate classes in mobile application design and urban gaming. His work has been featured in a number of outlets including The New York Times, Wired, The Guardian, The Discovery Channel, The Wall Street Journal, The London Times, Business 2.0, Time Out NY, Smart Mobs, and Engadget, among others. His writing has appeared in The Feature, Brainstorm, ITWeb, SL Magazine, and African Expressions. His quarterly column on technology and culture appears in African Communications magazine.
Socialight is a platform that lets anyone publish and distribute mobile and web location-based content services. They allow users to find media and information from trusted sources tied to physical locations such as schools, shops, and urban centers around the world. They meld user-generated content and social networking with the real world and allow anyone to find and discuss information that is most relevant to them. It works today on the web and on almost any mobile phone.
Jodi Sherman Jahic
Principal
Voyager Capital
Jodi Sherman Jahic is based in Voyager's Silicon Valley office and leads Voyager's wireless sector team. She is a board member or observer at 1020, Tropos Networks, Melodeo, and Airlink Communications (acquired by Sierra Wireless, SWIR).
Jodi joined Voyager in 2001 from Battery Ventures, where she invested in a number of early-stage companies in wireless data, semiconductor process control, and communications software. In 1999 she was selected as a Kauffman Fellow in venture capital by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Before entering the venture capital business, Jodi was on the founding team of several successful startups such as Prague-based Personnel Select (now a division of Hudson). She also worked in the technology industry group at Accenture, where she led projects for clients such as Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector, Pacific Bell, and Sun Microsystems.
Jodi graduated magna cum laude from Pomona College in STS with a concentration in physics and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She is a frequent speaker on the topics of wireless communications and venture investment and is a regular columnist for industry publications like RCR Wireless. She serves on the Board of Advisors for the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and is a member of the Executive Council of Astia. Jodi is an avid traveler and has visited over 45 countries around the globe.
Rick Witham
Business Development Manager
Nokia
Rick Witham joined Forum Nokia, Nokias global developer support organization, in 2005 where he is responsible for identifying and building relations with companies developing mobile applications, content and services.
Mr. Witham has more than 14 years experience developing and managing strategic relationships and creating marketing strategies for companies in the technology industry. He also has a background in market research and competitive business intelligence and analysis. Within Forum Nokia, he heads the team focused on developing business models and creating business opportunities for businesses bringing Location Based Services (LBS) to the global marketplace.
Prior to joining Nokia, he was a Senior Account Manager/Licensing at PalmSource, Inc., where he managed Palm OS strategic licensees to maximize product success. Earlier, he headed a consulting company that conducted market research and synthesized key findings to assist software manufacturers in planning and positioning of next generation desktop and Internet based software products.
He has also worked at America Online, Inc., where he developed and implemented new marketing programs to drive incremental registrations through partnerships with firms such as Apple Computer, Hewlett Packard and Intuit. Earlier, he served as a product manager in AOLs CompuServe Division where he identified and launched Web-based products.
Mr. Witham earned his BA in Economics & Political Studies from Pitzer College, Claremont, CA
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