MIT Venture Lab<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

Thursday, May 4^th, 2006
6:00 to 8:00pm

Doors open @ 5:30

"Going Global (Customers & Team)"

Seattle, WA 98101

Discover "HOW TO" get started with and/or manage your foreign relationships and operations. 

The world continues to get smaller and early stage companies can take advantage of this fact to reduce costs and increase revenue (But you have to know what you are doing).

Going Global, by outsourcing and/or entering foreign markets, is exciting and can be either profitable or costly.  Issues include culture, connections, costs, competence and control. 

Join Venture Lab speakers Tod C. Turner of LINQware Communications, Colin Prior of Reaxion and Wistar Kay of Washington State Department of Community Trade & Economic Development (CTED) as they share their knowledge, experience and perspective surrounding this exciting topic.

This event will discuss countries ranging from Russia to India.

Speakers

Tod Turner - CEO and Founder - LINQware Communications

LINQware is a communication software company.  Founded in 2001, and now with 2 patents pending, LINQware's suite of products combine audio, web, video and text conferencing into a single software platform that works from any device, anytime, and anywhere.  We have just concluded our first major partnership with a global international telecom carrier.

Tod has been involved with the software development business for more than 25 years.  He has served in leadership roles as President and CEO of Fox Industries, CEO and Chairman of Norfox Software, and as an advisor to numerous other software startups.  During that time he has brought more than 50 software products to commercialization.  Because of the depth of Tod's experience and his acute awareness of marketplace trends, he has been able to guide companies to commercial success, both with business and military customers.  Tod began his career as a software development engineer, and his grasp of the engineering process is a critical component in his ability to commercialize software into scalable solutions.  His degree in accounting from the University of Washington has been a key factor in understanding the financial implications of product development and distribution.

Colin Prior - Chairman and Chief Operations Officer - Reaxion Corp.

Founded in 2001, Reaxion is a privately-held 60 person company headquartered in Seattle, with offices in Moscow, Minsk and San Diego. Reaxion is a market leading publisher and developer of cutting edge 3D, 2D and multiplayer mobile games. With titles available through more than 50 top CDMA and GSM wireless carriers, Reaxion has access to over 160 million subscribers worldwide.

Colin, a serial entrepreneur, has been advising Reaxion since its inception in 2001. He was unable to resist the lure and rush of "startup fever" and transitioned over from NetReflector; a company he helped found and led as CEO, to take a full-time position at this exciting new company that is in the hot mobile games space.

Wistar Kay - Information and Communication Technology  (ICT)

Business Development Manager

International Trade Division

Washington State Department of

Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED)

Wistar Kay assists Washington State software and telecom companies with finding distribution partners and making sales in Asia, Europe, and Mexico.  She works closely with the technology associations and organizations in the state, including Washington Technology Center, AeA, WSTPA, and WSA where she serves as the leader of the International Work Group.  She has become involved with the interactive media industry in recent years and took a group of game software developers to China in 2005. 

Previously, Wistar was Executive Director of the Japan America Society for the State of Washington and organized several trade missions to Japan focused on the development of wireless applications in that country.  She has had a career in the hospitality industry managing international business and she has been in sales and marketing with the American Cultural Exchange, the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, the Four Seasons Hotels, and Westin Hotels. 

She has also done intercultural training and presented workshops on doing business with the Japanese to over thirty-five companies and organizations.

Wistar was born and raised in Japan and moved to the US in middle school.  She graduated with honors from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and also attended Kansai University of Foreign Studies in Japan and the Universit'e Aix-Marseilles in France.