Please welcome this week's guest blogger; Gerald Kimber White, Senior Managing Director at RF|Binder. Gerald was assigned to Uncharted Play during the MITX Up Hackathon, who recently developed the SOCCKET Ball. Learn more about this innovative product in this article from Co.EXIST! 

Last week, I was scheduled to participate in the latest MITX UP “hackathon” but when Wednesday evening rolled around and I ran through my mental “to do” list – preparing for two new business pitches, our agency’s annual meeting in New York, this week’s SXSWedu in Austin, etc. – part of me felt I should skip it and stay focused on my other obligations. As much as I love going to the hackathons, there was simply no way to get it all in. Fortunately, the selfish side of me that loves the hackathon experience overwhelmed the clock-watching side of me and I went to the Harvard Innovation Lab to meet another startup.

I was particularly looking forward to this hackathon since the startup I was assigned was Uncharted Play, a company that has developed a soccer ball that somehow manages to incorporate a power generator inside an almost perfectly standard size and weight ball. The generator converts the kinetic energy from play into electricity that can be stored to power an LED light (with plans to increase the output to be able to charge cell phones, water purifiers, etc.). The SOCCKET ball is designed for communities in developing countries for whom power supply is inconsistent or non-existent. Basically, SOCCKET combines two of my biggest passions – economic and social development and soccer – in a business model.

On February 1st, MITX hosted the second annual "What's Next" e-Commerce Summit, exploring today's customer journey. These are the tweets and the hottest topics of conversation from the event:

When you're part of a CSA, you get more than just vegetables. You get BETTER vegetables. You know who grows them and where they came from. In fact, you might get to work on the farm as part of your share. Because having a farm share means you're part of the farm. You have to do a little bit more to get your vegetables (drive to a farm!), but you end up with better vegetables, and your supermarket-shopper friends are definitely jealous. But the best part of it all is this: you get to be part of a community.

FutureM presenting sponsor Google (you may have heard of them) works with the very amazing Citizen Schools. We love their work with middle school students, and we're sharing it with you! We hope you find it as inspiring as we do. The original post can be found here.

Guest post by Katie Del Angel. Katie is a content strategist at ISITE Design, responsible for content marketing and social media within the agency. She oversees a mini B2B content empire of five in-house blogs, including the CMS Myth, and a growing army of internal contributors. She also oversees website content and organizes the agency’s annual UX event in Portland, Oregon, Delight 2012.

I was at Social Media Club Boston last night and ran into a friend from Upword Search. We discussed upcoming events, and naturally FutureM came up. We chatted briefly about the ISITE session and the myriad of other events that week, promising to chat soon to compare schedules. In that moment, I was vaguely reminded of my college years, comparing schedules and professors with friends - and it got me thinking: FutureM actually reminds me A LOT of the first week at college. Only way better.

The possibilities are endless, but there are no requirements. No prerequisites necessary -- you sign up for whatever you want, simple as that.

Temperature@lert’s Solar Cellular Edition was officially named a finalist in the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products in the “Other” category.  They were also named a finalist in the 2012 American Business Awards for Best New Industrial Product earlier this year. They are currently waiting to hear if they will take home the gold. In order for Temperature@lert to win this category, they must collect enough votes to move into first place.

We love featuring guest posts by our diverse and super fabulous members! This guest post by Sarah Sykora. Sarah is the Chief Marketing Officer at Babson College and is the parent of two young children. She is passionate about empowering women and entrepreneurship. You can follow Sarah at @ssykora.

One long-held notion about entrepreneurs is that they begin their path to superstardom by tinkering in garages. And, by coding in coffee shops. And, by networking in Silicon Valley. While this is an accurate definition of some entrepreneurs, you don’t need to do these things to be defined as an entrepreneur.

We currently face economic uncertainty and a rapidly changing job market where the need for and existence of entrepreneurs absolutely shatters this former notion. Have you ever pivoted your career path? If so, you’re an entrepreneur.

FutureM, the weeklong event experience on the future of Marketing, today announced eleven new session topics and meet-up leaders focused on digital media, mobile and e-commerce for its national fall event. Today’s session leaders include:

The Interactive Awards celebrates the best marketing and creative accomplishments emerging from New England. And every year, we know know we need to give you our best, because we ask you for your best (best examples of modern marketing, that is).  So, in effort to beat last year's showcase of our region's winning work, we've revamped and enhanced our categories. Ten of them are brand new (keep an eye out for Corporate Social Responsibility and Screens), and the rest got made over so hard their families won't even recognize them. Check them out in the list below! You'll laugh at LEAST twice, or we're not the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange.

Nine Industry Leaders Join Board of Directors

Today MITX named nine new members to our Board of Directors, an esteemed group of marketing visionaries, accomplished entrepreneurs and industry leaders.