We at ParallelCities are very excited about “Ramen Camp: the Art of Bootstrapping” taking place this weekend at Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center (Saturday, May 21, 2011 from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM - @ 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge 02142)
Having been avid Ramen consumers for the past year, we are really looking forward to seeing how the “Camp” will unfold, and learn possible new Ramen Recipies? mmmm….
Make sure to use ParallelCities during the event to find fellow entrepreneurs that have a liking for the same type of ramen flavor you do, or who are programmers, or who have that Business Background you are sorely missing in your own venture…
(they better have some Ramen for lunch!!)
Here is a discription of the event:
Bootstrapping is tough, but you’re not alone!
Don’t miss out! Join Boston’s best and brightest entrepreneurs on May 21, 2011 at Microsoft NERD as we learn from some of the top bootstrappers in the country. We’ll be exploring:
Bootstrapped customer development
How to build a team without a budget
Cheap (and free!) tools to build your project
Building profitable side businesses
Getting Press & PR for your bootstrapped startup
Don’t miss the panel at the end of the day: When to stop bootstrapping and take money!
All attendees will receive a bundle of free services from great companies that will help them start (or keep) bootstrapping (see RamenCamp.com sponsors for more details) - plus a free t-shirt!
Who Should Attend?
Entrepreneurs of all ages. RamenCamp teaches aspiring entrepreneurs the art of bootstrapping. Master the challenges of getting a startup off the ground with advice on finding customers, building teams, getting press and staying organized, all on the cheap.
Attention Students!
If you are a full-time student and would like financial assistance to attend this event, please visit www.stayinma.com to apply for a scholarship
Speakers:
Here is a video of how we are using “Soccial Augmented Reality” to sky rocket your success networking & socializing at this and future events you attend: ParallelCities Demo Video
Please Sign up for an account before you go to the event, so you can take advantage of the application. In addition, please help spread the word to other people you think might be interested!
I would like to officially invite you to partake in the second of a 5 event series ParallelCities is organizing. The series, titled “Grilling the Boston Startup Scene” will focus on different aspects of Boston’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is going to be at the Microsoft NERD CENTER, on April 12, 2011 at 6:30 PM (1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142). This second event will focus on Branding, Marketing and Public Relations, and panelists (comprised of experts on each field) will focus on how these different fields differentiate themselves but how they need to work together, if a company is to ultimately be successful.
The event will be broken down into two parts. The first, features a panel where each panelist will talk about their organization how they relate to the topic, and fellow members of the Boston startup community will be given a chance to “grill” panelists with all types of questions they may have, including: how would the panelists see it done successfully from their perspective, how they would approach it if they were in an entrepreneur’s shoes, lessons they have learned from great examples they have done/seen, mistakes entrepreneurs usually make, how they have effectively worked with the other fields represented in the panel, etc .
After the panel, the second half of the event will allow attendees to network.
Why, oh why, demo gods!, must you do these things?! :)
Yeah, another big learning experience yesterday at our Launch party - server crash! some things you just can’t plan for… Apparently it was all caused by the new version of the app that got released yesterday, which had a bug that messed up the whole thing.. Now people can’t even sign in anymore.. We can’t Post new events… Our system is down right now, but worry not! help is on the way - we should get it fixed soon, and you will be able to enjoy using the app again, check back here for updates.
And, of course, because of the people Networking afterward. However, our goal of improving both sections of the event by the use of our app, and its “Social Augmented Reality” technology, didn’t take place… people had to do everything the old school way.. at least we had that to fall back on.
Good thing is we got nice publicity because of the event… And because we planned the release over a 5 event series - “Grilling the Boston Startup Scene - a social experiment”, the next being on April 12th. This coming one is going to be about Branding, Marketing and Public Relations.. People understood that these things happen and said they would come to the next one as well… We have already Scott Kirsner, and Bobbie Carlton as confirmed guests for the panel, and awaiting confirmation on others. Will you be around on the 12th? Put it on your Calendar! :)
So, bottom line: Our Launch got postponed for April 12th! Sorry for the inconvenience…
But hope to see you there!
…
Follow us on Twitter @ParallelCities and share this article:
I hope you are ready to take your networking and socializing at events into the 21st Century!!!
Come participate in the launch of the ParallelCities Mobile Application at 6:30pm on March 22nd at the Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center - 1 Memorial drive, Cambridge, Ma on the 11th floor. For the first time everyone in the audience should have the application so you will be able to see how useful and fun the application can truly be!
Here is a video of how we are using “Soccial Augmented Reality” to sky rocket your success networking & socializing at future events you attend:
This event is the first of a 5 event series titled “Grilling the Boston Startup Scene - A Social Experiment.” This first event will focus on Incubators and Co-Working spaces here in Boston; and will be broken down into two parts. The first, features a panel with Tim Rowe from the Cambridge Innovation Center, Anupendra Sharma from Startup Leadership Program, Gus Weber from Dog patch Labs, Ariel Assaf from Founder Institute, where questions will be posed by the audience using the ParallelCities chatting feature and projected on a big screen in real time. After the panel, the second half of the event will allow attendees to network using the second main feature of the ParallelCities application: the ability to find relevant people in a crowd, by searching for specific key words that would describe them, and then messaging them directly.
Please Sign up for an account before you go to the event, so you can take advantage of the application. In addition, please help spread the word to other people you think might be interested!
Tweet about it!: @ParallelCities Launch party on tuesday 22nd!! For the 1st time everybody in the audience using the app! should b fun! http://bit.ly/gTORzl
Here is a video of how the application works, and how your networking and interaction with other people at the events you attend is about to move into the 21st century with “social augmented reality,” check it out:
Last Week we had a lot of fun with Massinno during Innovation Potluck – another great event put up by Bobbie Carlton in collaboration Carrie Stalder at the Venture Cafe.
This week we are partnering up with MassInno again, to do their “barely legal” , 21st event. We had a bunch of people using the app during the event , and the feedback to the app was great.
We are going to test it again, this time with a bigger crowd at Massinno 21.
Please Sign up for an account before you go to the event, so your profile is complete, and spread the word to everybody you know attending the event.
See you in Parallel!
…
Follow us on Twitter @ParallelCities and share this article:
We will be testing the ParallelCities app with the people attending the event. Check out a video of how it works, and how you are about to start making the “networking” you engage in at events you frequent exponentially more productive, informative and Fun:
First thing you will need to do is signup for the FREE service by Clicking Here!
Then Download the app, and you are ready to go!!
It should be a great experience, Can’t wait to see you at the Venture Café!
Please leave us your comments/suggestions if you have any after your experience at the Cafe.
There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the mobile social networking space, but no one has quite yet determined how to attract and sustain long-term consumer interest. As consumer demands evolve, the major players in mobile social networking shift in and out of a highly dynamic competitive landscape. Given this fluidity, it becomes critical to offer consumers something uniquely different. ParallelCities sees considerable opportunities for a company with a niche vision and product to easily enter the marketplace and eventually establish both dominance and permanence.
So, what does the current mobile social networking landscape look like?
Consider the universe of social networking services mapped along two dimensions, degrees of social separation (friends to strangers) and scope (global to local). We like to think of this universe as divided into four quadrants.
In the Global-Friends quadrant, we have social networking giants like Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster – services devoted to strengthening a user’s existing relationships with friends and acquaintances around the world. The Global-Strangers quadrant is dominated by Twitter, which introduced the unilateral model of following rather than the bilateral model of connecting. And in the Local-Friends quadrant, we have emerging mobile services like Foursquare, designed for people who want to engage with existing friends in the real world rather than virtually.
In contrast to all of these services, ParallelCities is positioned in the Local-Strangers quadrant. We seek to facilitate real connections, and use virtual socialization as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. However, we recognize that when out in the city people are not usually surrounded by friends, but, more likely, by thousands of strangers, a fact that diminishes the utility of Local-Friends services. Our application seeks to create new local relationships among the small percentage of strangers in each city who share similar interests and who would want to interact but simply do not have a means of identifying one another. It’s a tool for facilitating not only virtual communications but also face-to-face interactions, and creating a safe, comfortable, and effective environment for doing so. In short, ParallelCities is seeking to revolutionize social behavior by changing the way people think about the scope of social relationships.
But what about other Local-Strangers services like Meetup.com and Match.com? While the theory is optimistic, meetings organized around certain topics occur very infrequently in practice, given the reality of time constraints. Rather, we are much more likely to interact with people who share similar interests while doing activities that we already engage in on a daily basis. The great advantage of ParallelCities is its emphasis on meaningful relationships built through frequent encounters, given the similarity of two people’s schedules. As for services like Match.com, their purpose is explicitly non-platonic in nature and tends to zap the serendipity and magic out of chance encounters. ParallelCities takes the pressure off – the two products don’t compete.
The Local-Strangers quadrant is still just emerging within the landscape of social mobile networking, and ParallelCities is ready to shape its development. We see applications of this model in enhancing professional networking events, guiding newcomers to a city (young professionals, recent graduates, etc.), and facilitating low-pressure dating. Our philosophy? ParallelCities is a social augmented reality mobile app that focuses not on ideas, places, or events, but on the people who are involved in them. And our mission? Simply to make these interactions easier than ever.
At last Wednesday’s Mass Innovation Nights, ParallelCities introduced a prototype of our social augmented reality mobile application for the first time (!) to an incredible group of innovators, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts gathered at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center. The event was an amazing convergence of energetic people and groundbreaking ideas, and we were just thrilled to be among the exhibited companies. After talking and talking about our product for months, we were excited to finally have something for people to click and explore!
Our big idea: We all know that professional networking events can be incredibly useful, but let’s be real – they can also be unwieldy and unproductive. In a sea of dark suits and tiny ill-placed nametags, how do you know and find the people whom you should be meeting and with whom you should be exchanging ideas? Enter the ParallelCities mobile app: By having mobile access to a rich layer of real-time information about the personal and professional interests and experiences of the people surrounding you, you can identify and make targeted new connections with an unprecedented level of efficiency and ease.
We were amazed by the unanimously positive feedback. People absolutely loved the idea of a mobile application that would help make networking at events like Mass Innovation Nights more effective and fun. One of our features designed specifically to take the awkward out of professional networking was especially popular. And even those who had already heard about the project were impressed “Wow! It’s even cooler than what you’d described!” (a real verbatim quote.) One attendee even started searching the App Store on his iPhone before we told him it wasn’t on the market quiiite yet. It would just be a few more weeks.
OK, by unanimously positive feedback, we meant almost unanimous…We set out red, orange, yellow, and pink Starbursts to match our brand colors, and there were quite a few people who could not get enough and kept coming back for more throughout the night. Everyone seemed to be a fan, except one particular nonbeliever of high-fructose corn syrup who let us know where he stood on that issue.
The best part of the night? Although we explained that ParallelCities would use an advertising-based revenue model and that the service would be free to users, several people insisted that they would “totally” pay to use an app like ours. Throughout the night, we were also consistently asked whether ParallelCities was planning to charge event organizers to list their events on our service.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think?
Make sure you signup at the homepage, so we can inform you when the product is launched.
Here is a small introduction to what we are about:
Anybody – be it a student, a recently relocated young professional or graduate, or even any person doing business networking – that happens to have the objective of meeting new people in a given city will face the same problem: having to navigate a sea of people in order to find the few that they are actually interested in meeting.
With the introduction of Parallel Cities’ mobile networking application, which will be available in most smartphones, you will have an enhanced experience of the city you are in: through what we are labeling “Social Augmented Reality” you will be able to see diverse types of information about the people surrounding you in different events and places as you move around your city, and connect with exactly the people you are looking to meet!
ParallelCities restructures and redistributes the city’s population in a new virtual city where communities are formed based on specific interest topics rather than arbitrary geographical proximity.
From the website you can engage in a number of internet activities (which today you are forced to enjoy alone) with people from your own city, and centered around any specific community. Activities range from reading the news, to watching videos, shopping, researching and sharing information.
Thus, ParallelCities is bringing a revolution to the city, changing it from a place where its inhabitants barely socialize because of a lack of information, trust, or time; to a city where social interactions bloom!
