MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioForward, Wisconsin’s state association representing over 220 biohealth member companies, announced seven additions to this year’s Board of Directors. The board of eighteen represents many facets of the state’s diverse biohealth industry and focuses on uniting the industry to develop integrated health solutions that define the future of healthcare.

“This is an industry that thrives on collaboration and innovation,” said Lisa Johnson, CEO of BioForward. “Our new board members bring leadership and expertise from all corners of the vast biohealth industry, offering insight and a huge potential for growth in 2020 for both our industry and our state.”

Entrepreneurs looking for advice on pitching their business ideas will find abundant resources on what to include in their presentations but less about how to respond to questions. Is it wise to showcase strategies to deal with a project’s risks? Is it smart to show competitive aggressiveness? Are there downsides to being too intense?

As an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often hear the desire to run their own company, to avoid having someone else telling them how to run the business. They then ask me to help them find investors who can provide the funding they need. They don’t seem to realize that investors can be the most demanding bosses your ever had, since it’s their money you are using and potentially losing.

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CES, the annual tech confab in the heart of Las Vegas, showcases the latest and greatest in technology and consumer gadgets. There truly is something for everyone, from new and improved products and services announced by major corporations to truly innovative ideas made real by entrepreneurial spirits.

Image: https://time.com

So far, a venture capital company called In-Q-Tel has invested in three startups within the 3D printing and scanning space: Voxel8, Arevo, and Fuel3D. If you don’t recognize the name In-Q-Tel, you might recognize its parent organization, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), known for torture, domestic surveillance, extrajudicial killings and attempts at mind control. Given the CIA’s controversial history and present, the fact that the U.S. spy unit is involved in venture capital may raise a few eyebrows.

Image: A 3D-printed antenna made by the MITRE Corporation using Voxel8’s electronics 3D printer. Image courtesy of Voxel8. - https://3dprint.com

In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Daniel Kahneman, arguably the world's most influential living psychologist and a Nobel Prize winner in economics, said that if he had a magic wand he would do one thing: eliminate the propensity for humans to be overconfident.

Image: Contributed - Richey Piiparinen

Sam Gerace is now on his fifth business startup: Convey.io, whose software replaces business cards with a digital service that updates contact information in real time. Before Convey, Gerace led teams that built and then sold tech firm Veritex, which operated the digital ticketing business Flash Seats and was sold in 2015 to AXS. His earlier firms were PCXIS Inc., PCX Consulting Inc. and BeFree Inc.

Image: Contributed photo - Sam Gerace

Though funding a startup is easy than ever, and technology has drastically cut costs for many must-haves, one statistic has failed to change: 50% of all new companies fail within the first five years, according to the SBA. This stat freaks out loads of entrepreneurs — and not just newbies, but also those who have been in the game for decades.

The first “demo day” in Beijing last November of y Combinator (yc) hosted two dozen local startups vying for the attention of high-profile investors. It marked the entrance into China of Silicon Valley’s most famous accelerator, which has helped launch the likes of Airbnb and Dropbox. Then, days later,yc abruptly announced it was pulling out of the country.

Image: https://www.economist.com

Every January, the annual Consumer Electronics Show snaps the tech press out of its holiday stupor to fly to Las Vegas and walk through aisle after aisle of new televisions, robots, and plain old weird gadgets that are all billed as the next big thing.

I’ve been to CES. Many times. And I can tell you, the sheer corporate thirst on display is exhausting. But I’ll also admit, there is almost no better portrait of our times than when businesses reflect our values back at us in the form of must-have products.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

Boyan Slat proposed the idea for the Ocean Cleanup machine – a giant device to collect ocean plastic. Since then, he managed to raise the funds to build it, test it, and finally get a functional prototype out into the Pacific Ocean. The initial prototype, System 001, did not retain the plastic as it should, and the system suffered a fatigue fracture, so the system had to return to the shore.

Innovation districts are supposed to be places where people think differently. So why do the architectural designs for West Philadelphia’s uCity Square lack innovation?

In case you’ve lost track of the various innovation districts under construction in Philadelphia, uCity Square is the one just north of Market Street, between 36th and 38th, in the border land between the Drexel and  enn campuses. Drexel and its development partner, Wexford Science + Technology, created the concept for the research center after acquiring the 14-acre site — once home to the University City High School — from the school district in 2014.

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I have a simple solution to the annual ennui that rears its ugly head this time of year. When the pressure mounts to create (and fulfill) New Year’s resolutions, do the opposite: Don’t make them. Instead, harness the “fresh start effect,” per University of Pennsylvania researcher Stewart D. Friedman, who found that a sense of new beginnings is actually a strong motivator. Use this renewed energy to build an action plan to grow your business by setting attainable goals for the year. Unlike resolutions, which often veer towards the vague (“make more money”), goals are detailed and actionable (“pitch five new clients every month”) and, therefore, lead to real results.

When a noted doyen of the Fortune 500 like Coca Cola talks innovation, your ears should perk up. After all the consumer packaged goods conglomerate has been in business for a long time, and has been successful, but is facing a number of headwinds in its core business. Selling sugary drinks seems passe, as bottled water, energy drinks and other health conscious foods and beverages seem to be taking over the “share of mouth” or “share of stomach” that food and beverage companies like to talk about.

Image: https://www.innovationexcellence.com

In my experience working with entrepreneurs, once they feel they have a winning formula for their business, they are often hesitant to change or update it. They forget that adapting their company and themselves as their customers evolve is the key to long-term survival. Think of Blockbuster and Toys ‘R’ Us, both of whom missed customer changes and the move to online.

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This event is designed to provide an opportunity to those attending:

• To learn more about The State of the Healthcare Industry and the Impact on Investment Banking/Capital Markets from a variety of perspectives represented by the Moderator/Leader and different Panel Members with different views. 
• And to be able to interact with others who are in the Healthcare Industry such as Investment Bankers, IT, Legal, M&A, Banking, Accounting Regulations, etc.

Most new entrepreneurs don’t anticipate the learning burden of being the leader, including the sense of loneliness and isolation at the top. People outside the team can’t relate to the pressures of “the buck stops here,” and everyone on the team assumes that they are the primary ones under pressure to deliver. Even in a single entrepreneur startup, the leader carries a heavy weight.

In the decade ahead, waves of exponential technological advancements are stacking atop one another, eclipsing decades of breakthroughs in scale and impact.

Emerging from these waves are 20 “metatrends” likely to revolutionize entire industries (old and new), redefine tomorrow’s generation of businesses and contemporary challenges, and transform our livelihoods from the bottom up.

I have had my name butchered my entire life — not just since I’ve lived in the U.S. over the past eight years, but in countries where I worked all over the world including my home country of Singapore. While it made me feel excluded and awkward, it also spurred me to investigate whether having a non-Western name would negatively impact my career.

I turned 60 this year, and just weeks later received my first piece of direct mail advertising from a cemetery in Queens. I don’t live in Queens, and when I do someday meet my demise, I have no desire to be buried there. I’ve been targeted with advertising for incontinence and erectile dysfunction, ailments that I do not suffer from.