Sharing Knowledge Critical to Success

The WPI Venture Forum provides extraordinary opportunities to interact with entrepreneurs, the investors who fund them, and the service providers that understand the landscape which emerging entrepreneurs will travel. Our Forum focuses on providing the entrepreneur with the critical knowledge he or she will need to increase the likelihood of business success and to connect sources of funding with technology-based businesses deserving investment.

Our Program Committee works to develop each of the monthly meetings to meet the Forum's purpose. We select the topics, keynote speakers, business cases, and panelists. One or more members of the Program Committee moderate each meeting. They work to put the meetings together for a specific month, guided and assisted by the rest of the Committee as needed.

Committee members are all volunteers. The work is always fun but sometimes a little hectic as the event time horizon closes in. Within our committee, we gauge our progress by how often one of us declares that the "wheels are on the bus." Sometimes, unfortunately they might be "off the bus." That's when we come through with creative, alternative solutions. We are a good group of people to work with. Certainly the work is for an excellent cause - to grow American technology businesses.

Every organization, including the WPI Venture Forum Program Committee, needs the influx of new members over time to keep the organization fresh, vibrant and growing in energy and ideas. Working on the WPI Venture Forum Program Committee is a great networking, educational, and social experience. I have considered my experience as a member of the WPI Venture Forum as my "informal MBA."

If you want be involved with the WPI Venture Forum, please call me at (508) 341- 8505 or send me an email at rkberger@berkent.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,
Ricky Berger
Chair, WPI Venture Forum Program Committee