Mass Technology Leadership Council and the IMFA brought together in this awesome blog!

Yesterday was a long, productive day for me. It started at a social networking breakfast all the beautiful All Steel Showroom at State Street, Boston. I got to network with individuals from furniture salesmen to marketers to CEOs. We discussed everything from the ongoing problems in Washington to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. I was happy to alert Bill Farrick from Wentworth Institute of Technology of the program because hes a co-op adviser for the school. The MLSC program offers hundreds of MA students full-time employment year-round at any life science company or service company paid by the state. It’s what got me this gig and I’ve been nothing but smiles because of it.

Terrafugia Flying Car
Terrafugia Flying Car

The Mass Technology Leadership Council was one of the most interesting events I’ve been to yet. Not to be outdone, the event was staged at the flawless Castile Ventures building in Waltham MA (pictured below). Many executives involved in the high-tech industry were there from Microsoft to Terrafugia. I had a great conversation with Richard Gersh of Terrafugia about their project involving a flying car (pictured above). Does it get any cooler? The MTLC announced the finalists for the 2011 Awards Gala which will be on October 6th, 2011 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston MA. I hope to attend the gala in the fall so I can continue getting to know the members and feed my hunger for technology.

 

930 Winter St, Waltham MA

Winter St, Waltham MA

 

ENET Boston Harbor Cruise

Last night was the capstone event for ENET this season—the Boat Cruise around Boston. The weather couldn’t have been better. I had a great time seeing all the sights of the harbor, and even watching Old Ironsides firing a cannon shot at sundown. It was the perfect end to a great year at ENET and I can’t wait to get rolling again in the Fall. I only joined ENET for the last 1/3 of this year and I’m looking forward to the topics I missed out on such as Launching a Company, Building Teams, and Start-Ups. Tomorrow I’ll going to 2 more networking events, one called the 2011 Social Networking Breakfast held by the IFMA and CPFA in Boston, and the other called the 2011 Mass Technology leadership Council’s Award Reception which I received a scholarship to go to courtesy of StayInMa. You’ll be hearing all about it…

Mass Bay Lines MV Samuel Clemens
Mass Bay Lines MV Samuel Clemens in cool photo filter

Bayer Apologizes for Tweets

I wrote a blog post entitled “FDA Misses Own Deadline On Social Media” in December of 2010. Well, it’s almost seven months since that post and halfway through our third calendar year, the pharma & biotech industries are still waiting for the FDA’s guidelines on social media.

Today I read a news summary from FiercePharma about Bayer apologizing for two tweets, one about the erectile dysfunction drug Levitra and the other on Sativex, a multiple sclerosis treatment. BNet Pharma includes the offending 13-word tweet in its entirety in “Bayer Apologizes for Tweeting: Pharma’s Never-Ending Social Media Nightmare“. To quote from the article:

“The tweet was an extract of a press release that had been internally “certified” by Bayer’s compliance people, but the PMCPA, which regulates drug promotion in the U.K., said that wasn’t good enough. As the tweet promoted a prescription drug to the public — which is illegal in Britain — it was in violation.”

And Bayer’s troubled tweet could land them in difficulty with the US FDA because it could be interpreted as an efficacy claim. Hold onto your hat! This story could have a very long tail.

Verizon and the Horizon

So my Droid is coming in today and the timing couldn’t be better. Today is the last day to sign up for $30 unlimited data from Verizon and as of tomorrow it will cost many times more for tiered data packages. Good timing for me! I intend to use it for GPS and internet radio which over a month would destroy the limit of 5gb per month at the new $30 plan.

I sent an email to Verizon explaining about how what their doing is a very poor decision. They are trying to limit the 20% of customers who use a lot of data for the sake of the network. Their solution involved everyone constantly monitoring their usage out of fear of huge overage fees. Bad feelings translate to a bad company. Data is cheap to provide, and yes I’m aware of the huge overhead changes, but if money is the driving factor then appealing to customers should be the solution. Throttling overusers would be a better solution than this. Something tells me they make money with the current plan and are trying to squeeze more out of greed or because “everyone else” is doing it. Why not stand out as a good guy and win all of the unsatisfied customers from other carriers, instead of creating your own. Marketing 101 Verizon… In the words of Ice Cube, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

But enough about me, oh wait this is my blog post muhahahaha!

Next week we are going to roll out our Customer Satisfaction Survey to a selected list of customers. We want some brutally honest feedback to work with so let us know truly how you feel about TRA360. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been making a lot of changes recently for the better- And we are just getting started! Feedback is critical to this process, so if your one of the lucky few who are asked to helped please do- It’s for the good of everyone involved. Stay tuned…