About
Innovation Happens is a group of entrepreneurs and corporate executives who connect in the Pittsburgh area once a quarter to network and see demonstrations from innovative startups.
Panel Discussion
What are corporations looking for from the startup community?
Six Quick Pitches
Hear from six local startups ... six minutes per pitch!
Goals
- Provide networking event connecting entrepreneurs & large corporations
- Encourage entrepreneurs to focus more on getting customers
- Create a culture of “buying local” in Pittsburgh
Team
Sean Ammirati
Sean Ammirati is a Partner at Birchmere Labs and an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Sean is an entrepreneur with experience building and selling businesses in the media and software industries. Most recently Sean was COO of ReadWriteWeb, one of the most influential sites about the future of technology and innovation. In December 2011, the company was acquired by SAY Media to strengthen its technology channel. Sean was previously co-founder and CEO of mSpoke, which was the first acquisition of LinkedIn. Sean is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School. He also was a founding advisor to Innovation Works’ AlphaLab accelerator. He holds a B.S. in computer information systems from Grove City College and was a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Sloan Software Industry Center.
Ari Lightman
Ari is a Professor, Digital Media and Marketing at the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University. Ari has a strong interest in innovation and ideation having worked with several early stage companies as both an investor, advisor and part of the management team. Ari also spent time as a management consultant working with several well known companies on strategic marketing assessment and new product/service development.
Lou Musante
Lou Musante is the Founder of Echo Strategies a boutique-consulting firm focused on innovation, research design, strategy, culture and leadership development. He’s the co-author of 8 ½ Best & Next Innovation Practices and formerly was a computer chemist for General Tire & Ruber, A.D. Little, NASA and A.C. Nielsen. Lou has a bachelors in Chemistry from Clarion University and MS in Information Science from The University of Pittsburgh. Lou also has deep ties to both Carnegie Mellon University and The University of Toronto.
Dave Passavant
Dave has held consulting positions with Accenture and Stone Yamashita Partners. His startup experience includes business and product development roles with Silicon Valley startups Rearden Commerce and SquareTrade Inc. He is currently the Director of Consumer Innovation at UPMC Health Plan. Dave has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Washington & Lee University and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.
Next Event: February 12
Location
Our events are hosted at AlphaLab
2325 East Carson Street Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Agenda
5:30 Registration & Networking
6:00 Facilitated Discussion
6:45 Meet the Startups
7:30 Reception / Setup Follow Up Meetings
Continue the conversation and set up follow on meetings.
Past Corporate Attendees
We like to be know by the company we keep. In this case, we’re quite proud of the support provided by many large corporations in the Pittsburgh region. Below is a sample of some of the past attendees.
Past Corporate Attendees Include
Feedback / Register
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