Boston has a pretty well-known cluster of tech companies—young and old—that are focused on aspects of travel like booking flights and hotels. Kayak, TripAdvisor, and ITA Software (now part of Google), just to name a few, fit that mold. But there’s another area player that’s helping customers to experience a city once they get there, via an interesting marketing proposition.

That would be Boston-based Smart Destinations, which is looking to provide a Disney World-esque experience to hitting tourist and historical sites in 12 cities such as Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. It’s not a new idea, as you’ll see, but it has a modern twist.

For Boston, adult travelers can buy a three-day “Go Card” from Smart Destinations for $109, and gain admission to more than 70 attractions, like the New England Aquarium, Salem Witch Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, and even Cape Cod activities like whale watching. That price can be adjusted in wintertime (when people don’t want to be out on a boat), and, naturally, a kids’ Go Card costs less. The card also enables users to skip lines at tourist attractions, says CEO and founder Kevin McLaughlin. That, and the one-stop-shopping aspect give it the amusement park pass feel.

“It makes it really easy for families to go to big cities,” he says.

McLaughlin recognizes that not every customer may be looking for a 72-hour-straight, nonstop tourist-attraction-hopping vacation, though. Smart Destinations also offers a Go Select pass, with which consumers can pick certain spots they’d like to see. For each attraction they add to the pass, the amount of the discount at each individual spot grows.

McLaughlin started the company with travel industry veteran Cecilia Dahl in 2003. The inspiration came from a Paris tourist service, which sells a card giving visitors access to all of the city’s museums. This is McLaughlin’s sixth tech startup. His past ventures include Delphi Internet (acquired by News Corporation), Netspoke (acquired by Premiere Conferencing), and exchange.com (acquired by Amazon). Smart Destinations is now up to around 32 employees, and has raised three rounds of funding from investors such as North Hill Ventures.

Smart Destinations is now making a bigger push into the mobile sphere, says McLaughlin.The company started by selling physical cards with a smart chip through its website. Consumers can get still get that card via snail mail or participating kiosks in their destination cities, or they can access it via their mobile phones. Starting first quarter of this year, consumers can also create, purchase, and customize the Go Select pass right from their phones, adding tourist destinations and racking up discounts as they make their way through a city. A small … Next Page »

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According to the National Science Foundation, eighth grade girls are half as likely to be interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers as boys—a dramatic change from second grade, where the numbers are roughly equal. This trend continues through high school, college and into the workplace, as even women with advanced science degrees tend to leave the field at higher rates than their male counterparts. The numbers also show that careers of men and women in bioscience progress at markedly different rates; while women and men each hold about half of the graduate degrees in biology, far more senior leadership roles are held by men than women (17 percent vs. 83 percent, respectively.)

Women In Bio Greater Boston (WIB-GB) is one group that is trying to change that. It is the newest chapter of a fast-growing international trade association aimed at fostering leadership, entrepreneurship and careers of women in the biosciences. Comprised of professionals across the career continuum—from those just starting out to industry veterans—the group plans to leverage the region’s strong biotechnology supercluster to provide career development opportunities for women in New England. Programming being planned for 2012 includes networking, mentoring and educational events specifically geared at the interests of and challenges faced by women working in this industry.

Similar WIB chapters in Washington, DC/Baltimore, Research Triangle Park, Seattle and Chicago are enjoying enthusiastic participation in both social and career-enhancing programs, such as an expert lecture on IP in Chicago and a national team entry in the Walk for the Cure in DC. In addition, Washington/Baltimore, RTP, and now Boston have organized a special series aimed at young girls interested in science, called Young Women In Bio (YWIB).

As part of the YWIB series, Biogen Idec opened its doors as host to 25 curious middle school girls from across Massachusetts on December 1. It was an educational, fun program designed to provide the students with first-hand knowledge of the biotechnology and life sciences industry. Nadine Cohen, Biogen’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs, provided a welcome and an overview of the company, biotechnology, and the field’s range of career paths. Community lab director Tracy Callahan, and lab manager Jennifer Greenberg took the visitors on a site tour, engaged them in a hands-on lab experiment (involving M&Ms!), and visited the purification lab to share information about the crucial assays used in biotechnology. A shadow experience demonstrated a “day in the life” of several Biogen employees. Scientist mentors led the visitors to their individual work areas as they explained their roles, shared how they became interested in science, displayed and explained a variety of lab equipment, and answered insightful questions from the inquisitive young ladies.

Lisa Geller, program chair of the Women in Bio Greater Boston chapter, explained why the group is spearheading these events. “As successful women who are passionate about working in the biotechnology industry, we hope to fuel a similar interest in the next generation of female scientists and business leaders. We hope that our Young Women In Bio program blossoms into an ongoing series for girls from early middle school into high school to continue keep them interested as they get older.”

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The offices have been laid out. The applications are flowing in. And come next spring, 10 proto-companies will meet in Seattle for a three-month bootcamp focused on new uses for the Kinect, Microsoft’s breakthrough motion- and sound-sensing system.

For Redmond-watchers, that may not seem like such a big deal. Microsoft already cultivates startups through its BizSpark program, and is putting plenty of steam behind the Kinect as a next-generation user interface. I have no idea how much money Microsoft is paying to bankroll the new Kinect Accelerator program, but it’s certainly in the realm of a rounding error.

But the thing that makes this Kinect program really interesting is Microsoft’s partner: TechStars, the startup accelerator with branches in Seattle, New York, Boston, and Boulder, CO.

TechStars is a top-tier example of the startup incubator programs that are sweeping the country right now, a phenomenon that challenges the established education and entrepreneurship systems. Those programs have already gotten plenty of interest from entrepreneurs, the press, and early stage investors. But now, mammoth tech companies are taking a longer look, too—and doing more than just offering free software or a few mentors.

“Corporations have been trying to create innovation ecosystems forever. Historically, those that do it themselves have tended to struggle in general,” TechSars co-founder David Cohen says. “We believe we can help Microsoft get it right. It appears to be working so far—we have some amazing applications and the interest is very high.”

“Traditionally, it’ll be, ‘Hey, here’s a toolkit and here’s some terms and conditions, and, essentially, have fun. Good luck,’” says Microsoft Studios general manager Michael Mott, the company’s point person for the Kinect Accelerator. “Now, we’re saying, here’s that same set of technologies … and here’s a little bit of expertise and guidance, not only from us but also from this great incubator of startups, TechStars. In that case, I think it’s a little bit more of a wraparound approach and a little bit more hands-on than we maybe have done in the past.”

The Kinect Accelerator will look very much like a typical TechStars class, with 10 companies chosen to participate in an intensive three-month program of product-building, testing, and business development. At the end, there will be a big demo day party, where the entrepreneurs can show off their work to insiders and potential investors.

But this version is a wholly Microsoft endeavor, and focused on one technology, the Kinect. “This is Microsoft’s program,” Cohen says. “We’re powering it, which means we’re responsible for making sure it’s awesome.”

That’s a first for TechStars, which, like other independent accelerator programs, chooses its own class of entrepreneurs from a wide-open field of applicants. This year’s Seattle class, for example, produced startups tackling everything from smartphone-powered robot kits to international money transfers.

That’s a totally new way of thinking about something like TechStars: Not only does it run bootcamps of its own, but it can be hired out to help the world’s biggest companies develop their own entrepreneurial ecosystems.

It’s a huge validation for the TechStars model and its people, and there’s a more concrete upside as well. Just like in a regular TechStars program, the companies will get an investment: $20,000 from TechStars in exchange for 6 percent equity. (Significantly, Microsoft will not take a stake in the startups or their intellectual property.)

When it was announced last month, the Kinect and TechStars partnership instantly reminded me of Google’s recent two-year deal to be a global sponsor of Startup Weekend, the Seattle-based entrepreneurship program that has been steadily growing beyond its signature hackathons.

Google’s deal with Startup Weekend is more than just a check. Googlers will also host developer workshops ahead of Startup Weekend events, and bring promising entrepreneurs from the global Startup Weekend network back to Google headquarters for a week of collaboration. In short, it’s tapping into the Startup Weekend network of more than 250 events worldwide to find promising talent—and make sure they’ve got Google on their minds.

Kinect Accelerator is different on the details, but it has the same flavor. It’s probably a smart move for a lumbering technology giant that is often criticized for being too bureaucratic to get out of its own way and innovate. Not coincidentally, Xbox and Kinect are very prominent examples of consumer offerings that Microsoft has actually done very well.

The Kinect Accelerator will be directed by Dave Malcolm, a former longtime Microsoftie who has been a TechStars mentor in Seattle. The startups will operate out of Microsoft office space in South Lake Union, a block away from the growing Amazon campus.

Teams will get Xbox kits, Kinect hardware, and the upcoming Windows software development kit for Kinect, along with the usual array of developer tools and software. Products that might have phone and tablet interfaces or other applications are also welcome, Malcom says: “The solutions these 10 companies create simply have to leverage the Kinect in some form.”

“We are looking for the 10 teams who have the most compelling, big ideas that we think, post this program, they have the best chance of getting follow-on funding and building real businesses that scale and have an impact,” Malcolm says. “We would like people to think big when they come to us with applications.”

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Seattle-based NanoString Technologies has made a big bet that the future of the company depends on turning its genetic analysis research tool into a diagnostic workhorse. Today, it presented some hard data that suggests it is on its way.

The company reported today that its instrument, called nCounter, was able to predict whether or not women with early-stage breast cancer were likely to have a recurrence in the future, by looking at an array of 50 genes known as the PAM50 signature. The information went beyond the usual 21-gene analysis done by Redwood City, CA-based Genomic Health (NASDAQ: GHDX). While some women get clear information today from Genomic Health about when they are at “low” or “high” risk of recurrence, doctors and patients often are confused about how aggressive they should be with chemotherapies when the results put patients into the “intermediate” risk group. NanoString’s tool could prove valuable because it classified fewer patients in the “intermediate” risk category.

The findings for the NanoString study were presented today in front of several thousand people at a plenary session of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

NanoString CEO Brad Gray

“This is one of the single most important events in NanoString’s history, along with the launch of our first commercial system,” says Brad Gray, NanoString’s CEO, when reached by phone at the conference. “It really validates we can develop diagnostics on the nCounter, and that our first product is likely to be a significant one.”

NanoString, a spinoff from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, introduced the first commercial version of its tool in the summer of 2008, for research purposes only. The technology provides scientists with a digital readout on the extent to which genes are dialed on or off in a sample—what’s known as gene expression analysis. The tool has gained popularity the past couple years with academic customers, especially those at The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, because of its ability to help spot patterns in complex diseases like cancer where 50 or 100 genes might be perturbed instead of just one.

But the research market has its limits, and NanoString has been thinking big about the diagnostic potential for the nCounter. In October, the company introduced a second-generation product that’s supposed to have 50 percent higher bandwidth (known as throughput in the genetics business); more flexible software for analyzing the data from the instrument; and hardware that is manufactured in line with more rigorous, consistent diagnostic industry standards. Last month, the company raised $20 million in venture capital from a syndicate that includes GE Healthcare and former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer, to help pursue its diagnostic opportunity.

NanoString’s vision is to challenge Genomic Health directly, with a different kind of business model, Gray says. While Genomic Health runs its sophisticated 21-gene analysis at a centralized lab that doctors ship samples to, NanoString envisions selling instruments to labs around the world so … Next Page »

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Microsoft and General Electric are mashing together some of their health IT business lines to create a new company in Seattle that will attempt to bring more efficiencies to the massively inefficient $2.6 trillion U.S. healthcare industry.

The new company, which doesn’t yet have a name, will be a 50/50 joint venture between Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT and GE (NYSE: GE), according to a Microsoft statement. Among other things, the new venture will bring Microsoft’s Amalga software, which is supposed to help various proprietary hospital software programs talk to one another, together with GE’s eHealth information exchange.

GE’s Michael J. Simpson will be the CEO of the new company, while Peter Neupert, the longtime head of Microsoft’s health operation, is retiring, according to a report in the New York Times. The new company will have about 750 employees recruited from Microsoft, GE and elsewhere, the Times said. While that may sound like a lot, Microsoft has said previously that its Health Solutions Group, the operation that oversees Amalga, HealthVault and other programs, has had a steady headcount of 750 to 800 employees for several years.

One interesting comment from the Times story, however, was about how Microsoft and GE say they want to reach beyond their walls to make more progress against some very tough healthcare IT problems. One of the issues the new venture plans to wrestle with is how to better track the health of individuals in real-time, but also that of entire patient populations of people with chronic conditions, like diabetes.

“It is the developer community that is going to solve these problems,” GE’s Simpson told the Times. “This is a big bet,” he said.

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Dendreon has never lifted a finger to develop any new drugs for hepatitis C, but now the Seattle cancer drug developer is getting $125 million in cash for its stake in the emerging market for the chronic liver infection.

The company (NASDAQ: DNDN) said today it made the money by selling off the rights to its royalty stream related to boceprevir (Victrelis), a new hepatitis C drug. Dendreon sold the royalty rights to CPP Investment Board.

While Dendreon has always invested its time and money in developing cancer drugs, it obtained the hepatitis C intellectual property through its 2003 acquisition of San Diego-based Corvas International. Corvas had licensed its IP to Schering-Plough, which used it in part to develop boceprevir, a protease inhibitor for hepatitis C. Schering-Plough is now owned by Merck, and Merck started generating revenue from the intellectual property in May when it won FDA approval of the new drug. Dendreon didn’t disclose what percentage it gets from worldwide sales of Victrelis, but the company said it collected $2.9 million in royalties from Merck in the three-month period that ended Sep. 30, according to its most recent quarterly report.

“The sale of the Victrelis royalty interest allows the company to strengthen our cash position, and enables us to further invest in our core business initiatives,” said Greg Schiffman, Dendreon’s chief financial officer, in a statement.

Dendreon certainly has found itself in a position where it needs to scrape together cash any way it can. The company is on track to fall way short of the $350 million to $400 million sales forecast it had this year for its lone marketed product, sipuleucel-T (Provenge) for prostate cancer. The sales shortfall prompted Dendreon to lose more than 60 percent of its market valuation, and prompted Dendreon to cut 500 jobs back in September. Despite the cost cuts, the company still burned through $106 million of cash in the most recent quarter. It had $568 million in cash and investments left in the bank at the end of September.

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If you want a glimpse at the leading edge of tech startups, TechStars Demo Day is a fine place to go prospecting. In just 60 minutes of total pitch time, you’ve got a damn good idea of the industries, customers, ideas, and technologies that top entrepreneurs and investors think are ripe for innovation.

And the accelerator phenomenon itself is certainly part of that picture. Organizers say attendance at pitch day was up significantly this year, as was the number of applicants—700 startups vying for just 10 spots, compared with 400 in 2010′s inaugural Seattle class. That growth comes as we’ve seen a big spike in the overall incubator/accelerator scene nationally, with increasing competition for getting into the top programs.

I’ve already posted the most complete rundown anywhere of Seattle Demo Day 2011, and you can also find quick snapshots, links, and founder contacts at this handy page put together by the group.

Today, we’re throwing in some extra insight from the head honchos themselves: TechStars CEO and founder David Cohen and TechStars Seattle director Andy Sack, who we interviewed right after the pitches wrapped up Thursday night.

One clear trend in the companies presenting in this year’s class, Cohen said, is the use of social media as platforms to build businesses that could have some substance, coming up with “new and interesting ways to actually monetize” all that sharing.

“So companies like Bluebox or Vizify are taking advantage of this proliferation of consumer data and the sharing that’s going on to drive that value back to businesses,” Cohen said. “That’s certainly a trend that continues to be the case. I think four years ago, it was all the social stuff coming out. This is the actual application of it for business.

David Cohen

Another reflection of the mood of investors is the presence of “very real businesses that have very clear revenue models—things like EveryMove. There’s a lot of money being spent in health care. Those guys are tapping into that,” Cohen said. “I think what investors want today are businesses that have a revenue model that they can understand, but that take advantage of the cool, hot, new, and social to really leverage it.”

“The other trend that you’re going to see more and more of—I know TechStars is looking at it—is the area I would call human-computer interaction. Broadly, I would throw robots into that, which you saw with Romotive,” Cohen said.

“You take this guy,” he said, holding up a smartphone, “that we’ve all spent money on, and you figure out other cool stuff to do with it. Or you take the iTouch that your kid has and you figure out how to … Next Page »

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Cambridge, MA-based health IT firm Vitality announced today that it has been snapped up by a healthcare industry veteran and angel investor, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. The acquisition, whose dollar value was not made public, will help Vitality expand its product line of wireless devices focused on encouraging healthy behavior, and better target insurance companies and healthcare plan providers to pay for the devices.

Vitality is the maker of GlowCaps, Internet-connected pill bottle caps that alert patients to take their medicine and send automated phone calls to patients who skip doses. The system helps caregivers and family members track down the real reason behind patients’ delinquency and help develop action plans to keep them on track and improve wellness.

Soon-Shiong was an early investor in Vitality, alongside MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and a crop of other angel investors. Soon-Shiong was previously the executive chairman of Los Angeles-based Abraxis BioScience, which sold to Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) last year in a deal that valued Abraxis at $2.9 billion. He’s now focused on improving healthcare through patient-centered approaches and innovative technologies, through a venture known as the AAAH (All About Advanced Health) Project, Vitality president Joshua Wachman told me on a call today. “We fit in there nicely,” he says.

The Vitality management team will stay in Cambridge and will be expanding, to complement other teams that are part of Soon-Shiong’s operation in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Toronto. Wachman and Vitality CEO David Rose will retain their existing titles.

Vitality has focused largely on getting the GlowCaps systems to patients through partnerships with big pharma companies like Novartis, who stand to earn more on drug brands if patients take all their pills as prescribed. But the union with the AAAH project enables Vitality to better connect with insurance companies and big employers who are paying for healthcare plans, and are “confounded with the rising healthcare costs,” Wachman says. Vitality thinks its devices will help providers keep healthcare costs down by encouraging healthier behaviors.

The company also sees its device taking off this year with specialty drug markets, for rarer conditions like HIV infection and organ transplants, where adherence to prescriptions is even more crucial.

The newest edition of the GlowCaps system sends data to the Vitality network over the AT&T wireless network. The data from the GlowCaps system is managed through a device that the company calls the Home Health Hub, which resembles a nightlight and plugs into a wall socket. Wachman says the acquisition enables Vitality to use this component to connect with other devices focused on encouraging healthy behaviors, in areas from sleep to diet and exercise.

“There are other devices and services that we can layer in using that connectivity in service of better health and wellness,” he says. “The acquisition gives us more resources and more reach to bring it to market. Later on this year, we’ll be releasing a couple of other products that will look like they fit in the family.”

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In 2009, employment at high-tech companies either declined or stayed essentially flat in all of the cities Xconomy calls home, according to a study of the nation’s top 60 “cybercities” released this week by TechAmerica, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the information technology industry.

Though the underwhelming job data certainly accords with most people’s subjective experiences of the recession, there is a glass-half-full way of looking at it: the job losses weren’t as bad in Boston, San Diego, and Seattle as they were in most other places around the country. Between 2008 and 2009, high-tech employment nationwide fell by 195,607, or 3.2 percent. The decline in Boston was far milder—just 1 percent—and tech employment held steady in Seattle (though it declined slightly in neighboring Portland). The TechAmerica report found that San Diego actually added a small handful of jobs—500, an increase of 0.4 percent.

The situation was much worse, however, in Xconomy’s other two home regions, Detroit and the San Francisco Bay Area. Of all U.S. cities on TechAmerica’s top-60 list, Detroit was by far the hardest hit: an alarming 16,737 tech jobs evaporated there, representing nearly one-sixth of all tech employment in the region. The Bay Area lost almost as many jobs–16,147—but that represented only a 3.9 percent decline, thanks to the region’s much larger base of technology workers.

Keep in mind that these are 2009 figures, and don’t take into account any gains in employment that may have occurred in 2010. (It takes about 11 months for TechAmerica to compile its annual cybercities jobs report.) But with high unemployment endemic across the country—and likely to persist for years, according to economists—it’s likely that the trends called out in the report are still being felt.

Continue reading for some analysis of the city-by-city data from the TechAmerica report. Because the report sometimes counts cities within a cluster separately, I’ve recombined some of the numbers into aggregate statistics that represent Xconomy’s home cities more accurately. Specifically, TechAmerica counts San Francisco, San Jose/Silicon Valley, and Oakland as separate cybercities; I’ve recombined them into one. Similarly, the report gives separate statistics for Providence, RI, Worcester, MA, and greater Boston. I’ve put those numbers back together into something more representative of the New England technology cluster. And I’ve combined the Seattle and Portland, OR, statistics into a single Northwest category.

If you do all that, then some of TechAmerica’s rankings begin to make more sense. The report claims, for example, that New York City is the country’s leading center for high-tech employment, with 316,971 people working in areas like computer manufacturing, communications, software, engineering, technical services, and biotech R&D in 2009. But in aggregate, the Bay Area is larger, with 394,290 jobs, and so is the Washington, D.C-Baltimore area, with 369,782.

TechAmerica represents some 1,200 U.S. technology companies and was formed in 2009 from the merger of AeA (the American Electronics Association), the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, the Government Electronics & Information Technology Association, and the Information Technology Association of American. As part of its effort to highlight the importance of high-tech jobs to the overall economy, the organization has long produced an annual “Cyberstates” report contrasting high-tech industry growth in the 50 states. Three years ago, it also began publishing a sister “Cybercities” study focusing on the places within states where innovation is concentrated.

To their credit, TechAmerica’s analysts recognized that high-tech cities often spill across state lines—Boston, for example, extends all the way into southern New Hampshire, by the report’s reckoning, and New York City extends all the way into Pennsylvania. But I’d have argued for an even more liberal interpretation of cybercities, combining neighboring cities that have close ties. There’s obviously enormous interdependence, for example, between innovators and investors in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Oakland/Berkeley.

Here’s a look at how the country’s top 15 regions stack up in high-tech employment, after recombining individual cities:

1. Bay Area (Oakland + San Francisco + San Jose/Silicon Valley) 394,290
2. National Capital Area (Washington, DC + Baltimore) 369,782
3. New York City (including Long Island, Westchester County, northern NJ, and Pike County, PA) 316,971
4. Greater Los Angeles (including Orange County, Riverside, and San Bernardino) 289,847
5. New England (Boston + Worcester + Providence) 262,920
6. Northwest (Seattle + Portland) 211,005
7. Dallas-Fort Worth 174,848
8. Chicago 161,799
9. Philadelphia 134,235
10. Houston 127,760
11. Atlanta 123,582
12. San Diego 110,985
13. Minneapolis-St. Paul 98,583
14. Detroit 95,042
15. Denver 88,936

Continue to the next page for selected details on Xconomy’s home regions.

… Next Page »

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For many Seattleites, Labor Day weekend is a time to take refuge in the outdoors. Some 50,000 people will spend the holiday weekend wandering around the Seattle Center grounds listening to live music, cooling off in the International fountain, and filling up on $5 elephant ears (for those of you who’ve missed the phenomenon, these are essentially slabs of fried dough dipped in cinnamon and sugar) at the city’s largest music festival, Bumbershoot. Those wanting to avoid the crowds, the parking lot that will become of Lower Queen Anne, and the high ticket prices, will spend the weekend elsewhere—hiking, barbequing, boating, or participating in some other summertime activity, most likely—a last sunny hurrah before fall arrives, and the gray skies creep back into the city.

And then there is Seattle’s self-proclaimed ‘geek’ population. The techies of the Pacific Northwest will spend their three-day holiday participating in another local tradition—the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Over the years, PAX has become one of the biggest trade shows in North America, if not the biggest, come video and computer games. The conference, which kicked off this morning in downtown Seattle, will draw tens of thousands of techies and video game enthusiasts to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center over the course of the weekend for countless game exhibitions, demos, panel discussions, tournaments, concerts, and parties.

The three-day conference, like last year, was sold out before opening. But for those of you who reserved your badge early, here’s a look at my top 10 most interesting sessions. (These predictions are purely subjective, and based entirely on what piques my particular gaming interests.)

—The Myth of the Gamer Girl: True Demographic or Anthropological Hooha? (Friday, 12:00 pm)

This panel will dissect the myth of the girl gamer, and attempts to answer the question of whether or not there is something unique about women who play video games, or if the distinction is “just a bunch of hogwash” being sold by game marketers.

—Movin’ on Up: How to make It (Or Not) in Videogames Journalism (Friday, 4:30 pm)

In this session experts will “drop knowledge” on videogame website owners and aspiring gaming journalists on how to get game writing noticed by “the right people,” and get started in the world of videogames reporting.

—Of Dice and Men: The Play (Friday, 7:30 pm)

Get ready to laugh until your abdomen hurts, and wind up brought to your knees, with tears streaming out of your eyes at this play about “friendship, what it means to be grown-up, and why gaming matters.”

—Raising Geek Generation 2.0: Roll For Parenting Ability (Saturday, 11 am)

Talk gaming-meets-parenting shop with Wired.com’s GeekDad blog and other geeky parents, to share stories and give advice on to how to raise your kid to be a geek like you. One of the many questions to be tackled at this geek-tastic panel: “How can I control my disgust if my child tells me he likes Jar Jar?”

—Game Writing & Rabid Badger Combat (Saturday, 1:30 pm)

“Do you want to be a game writer? Do you like single handedly fighting rabid badgers while building a miniature version of the Eiffel Tower in a glass bottle? If you answered yes … Next Page »

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It’s been a relatively slow week for Seattle-area technology deals (sunny weather strikes again!). Only one local tech startup reported financing over this last week, while, much like the week before, two others were acquired, this time both by big companies down south.. Take a look at this week’s highlights:

—Seattle-based project management software developer Daptiv was acquired by Parallax Capital Partners, a software and technical acquisition firm out of Laguna Hills, CA. The company was founded in 1997 and provides on-demand collaborative business and project and portfolio (PPM) software for clients including Harvard University, Honeywell, and Virgin Blue. Daptiv would not comment on the financial terms of the deal, however TechFlash, citing M&A documents sent to shareholders, reported the transaction amount as $12.6 million.

—This isn’t a deal, but it does refer to some. Last week we published a story that looked at deal trends for Washington-area startups tracked by Xconomy (i.e. including tech and biotech) for the month of June, and made some somewhat unexpected discoveries—the healthcare and energy/utilities sectors pulled in the most financing. Of the $104.3 million dished out to local startups in June, $41.1 million went companies in the healthcare sector, while $35.8 million was raised by energy and utilities startups. Internet startups took third place at $15 million, while all other sectors (industrial, products and services, software, and video game) trailed behind.

—Seattle-based DocuSign, an electronic signature automation software developer, partnered with web-based financial software company MeridianLink, headquartered in Costa Mesa, CA. MeridianLink currently offers online loan origination and account opening applications for 450 banks and credit unions, and 26,000 customers. Through the deal, DocuSign’s electronic signature capabilities will be integrated into MeridianLink’s existing services.

—Total Living Choices, a Seattle-based online senior care information and referral service raised $2.2 million in equityTwilightLiving) was founded in 1999 and maintains a database with more than 68,000 listings for nursing homes, assisted living facilities, medical equipment, long-term care providers, and home care and hospice services. out of a $3.5 million offering, according to a regulatory filing. The company (also known as

—Delve Networks, a Seattle startup in the online video hosting and “search inside” video technology space, was acquired by Tempe, AZ-based Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) yesterday. The 20-person software-as-a-service company, founded in 2006, will operate as an “independent business unit” of Limelight, according to Delve founder and chief executive (now vice president and general manager of the Video Platform Solutions Group at Limelight) Alex Castro. Limelight brought in $131.7 million in revenue last year, and generated $34.9 million in profit. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, however there have been reports that the deal valued Delve at approximately $10 million.

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Susannah Malarkey, the executive director of the Technology Alliance in Seattle, spent three days earlier this month in Boston with a group of Seattle civic and business leaders as part of the 2010 Intercity Study Mission. These annual trips, organized by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce since 1983, enable Seattle business leaders to pick the brains of civic leaders from around the country and bring the lessons back home to the Northwest on venture capital, urban planning, and education.

In the 27 years the program has been around, this was the third time Seattle representatives have looked to Boston for tips on how to foster community, growth, and local industry. There’s a reason why we keep coming back. Boston has a comparable population to Seattle with just half the landmass and a long history as a standout cluster for academia, innovation, and startup culture. Boston has a lot to offer Seattleites as we are planning for our own city’s future, Malarkey says. I dropped by Susannah’s office last week and spoke with her about the trip. Here are a few of the most important lessons she took away from our sister city to the east:

Reconnecting to the Waterfront

In 2006 Boston completed the most expensive highway tunneling project in the country, the “Big Dig,” which rerouted the city’s Central Artery, Interstate 93, through downtown and away from the waterfront. The project, which went billions of dollars over budget and six years past its initial completion deadline, is often compared to the proposed deep-bored tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct along Seattle’s waterfront. And though the two projects are  different, according to Malarkey, there is much to be learned from both the Big Dig and its aftermath. What were the biggest hiccups in the project? How do we ensure that we don’t make the same mistakes? What can we do once the project is completed to help our city reconnect to its waterfront?

Former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Fred Salvucci, often referred to as the “godfather” of the project, told the visitors from Seattle about the major road bumps Boston experienced during the Big Dig. On the top of the list: inconsistent management. He emphasized the need to have a clear vision, measurable objectives, and strong and consistent leadership to successfully complete a project of this size, Malarkey says.

“It was an enormous project, they had switched management, and it was so huge and so complex that not having consistent management was really key to not having it finish on time,” Malarkey says.

In Boston’s case, finishing the project was only the first part of the equation. The second part was reviving the city’s waterfront, even when little resources remained. Instead of using taxpayer dollars, … Next Page »

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Sometimes you have to leave a place in order to really appreciate it. That’s not the case for me and Boston. I’ve always loved this area—but coming home after a two-year stint away makes for a nice opportunity to put my appreciation down in words. So, as the incoming Editor of Xconomy Boston, I hope you’ll indulge me in a quick tour of some thoughts on the local innovation community and culture.

My family has roots here. I was born in Arlington, MA, moved away to the Midwest as a kid, and came back to Boston for grad school at MIT. I spent 16 years of my adult life in this fair city. For the past two years, I’ve been out in Seattle reporting on the technology scene and co-leading Xconomy’s office there. Now I’m coming back to Boston to do something similar here. It’s a great opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to it—especially since I’m bringing some outside perspective back with me, which I think will be valuable.

I can’t help but feel a little nostalgic, and think back to when I was first getting to know this city in 1990. I remember when the Red Sox had losing seasons, and the Patriots were 1-15. I remember Larry Bird’s last playoff game, and when “Beat L.A.” meant something different. I remember when Tom Menino wasn’t mayor, and the Big Dig hadn’t even started yet (now that’s saying something).

Certainly a lot has changed in 20 years. What hasn’t changed, I think, is the spirit of innovation around New England, rooted in its long, proud history and traditions. No doubt my Boston colleagues would agree that, if anything, that spirit has gotten stronger—especially in the past couple of years.

With that in mind, here are five general themes I’m intent on exploring as I hit the ground running here. They have to do with the culture of Boston-area entrepreneurs and investors; the top challenges and opportunities for young startups; and the impact of big companies and universities on local innovation.

1. Does the startup ecosystem properly reward risk-taking?

Last fall, Brad Feld, the venture capitalist from Foundry Group and TechStars, said he thought the Boston tech community had “a massive chip on its shoulder.” That’s because this region, once the undisputed technology leader with its venerable Route 128 companies (even well into the ’90s), fell behind Silicon Valley, he said. And I’ve heard others say the New England tech scene has a bit of an inferiority complex as compared to the Valley (who doesn’t?). The question is, what is being done about this?

From what I can tell, Boston tech startup culture has been changing for the better as of late. Anecdotal stories suggest this community is more conducive to risk-taking than some other areas of the country. In other words, failure is tolerated by investors (as long as an entrepreneur failed … Next Page »

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By now most Xconomy fans know that we’re in the middle of a big game of musical chairs inside the company. Well, next Tuesday night will be your chance to join the fun. We’re throwing an open party at the Cambridge Brewing Company, at One Kendall Square in Cambridge, to welcome Greg Huang, who’s leaving our Seattle office to become the new Editor of Xconomy Boston, and to give a sendoff to Wade Roush, who’s leaving Boston to become Editor of Xconomy San Francisco.

The festivities begin at 5:00 p.m. The first few towers of beer are on us, so show up early!

For the whole back story about the developments at Xconomy, see Bob’s story about the opening of Xconomy San Francisco, his subsequent story about the staffing changes, Luke and Wade’s manifesto for the San Francisco bureau, Greg’s ode to innovators in Seattle, and Wade’s goodbye to Boston.

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Seattle mayor Mike McGinn announced today that the city will respond to Google’s request for information from communities across the U.S. that want to partner with Google to build ultra-high-speed fiber broadband networks. The experimental idea is to connect homes to the Internet via ultra-fast fiber optics (100 times faster than a conventional broadband network), and see what effect it has on user behavior and innovation. The Google project plans to offer service to between 50,000 and 500,000 people. The deadline for submitting applications to Google is March 26.

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It’s not every day you get to see three great East Coast rock bands on the same stage with two amazing West Coast bands—so we made a point of documenting our big fundraiser last Thursday, the Battle of the Tech Bands 3: Seattle vs. Boston.

Today we want to share the amazing footage and images captured at the event by our volunteer videographer, Mark Woit, and our photographer Kevin Vogelsang.

CLICK HERE FOR SLIDE SHOW (18 images)

Our video is below. And for even more great photos, you can check out Boston24.com’s awesome coverage of the band battle.

We want to thank all our bands for coming out for the event, including Audience Favorite winner The Dirty Truckers (from Jamaica Plain, MA, representing American Well), Most Innovative Band winner Lions Ambition (from Seattle, representing Boeing), and worthy competitors Deadbeat Darling (from Brooklyn, NY, representing Pictela), Juda’s Wake (from Seattle, representing Microsoft) and McAlister Drive (from Boston, formerly representing Linedata Services). For winning the Audience Favorite prize, The Dirty Truckers took home a seven-hour package of studio recording and engineering time donated by Bristol Studios of Boston. And for winning the Most Innovative Band prize, Lions Ambition was awarded a year of online merchandising services donated by Nimbit, also of Boston, as well as three hours of digital media/strategy consulting from Ten Minute Media, of Holyoke, MA.

We’re donating net ticket proceeds from the event to two great local non-profit groups, Science Club for Girls and Year Up Boston. Once all the beans are counted, it looks like we’ll be contributing about $1,100 to each organization.

For helping us to make the Battle of the Tech Bands 3 a big success, we want to thank our event sponsors, Microsoft New England Research & Development Center, McNamee Lawrence & Co., Aerva (which flawlessly handled the audience text message voting for the third year in a row—and this year added interactive photos as well), Bristol Studios, and Nimbit; our band sponsor, Brad Feld; our event partners, the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, MITX, and the Mass Technology Leadership Council; and our event supporters, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, American Well, Avalon Ventures, Chen PR, The Computer Cafe, General Catalyst Partners, Google, Google Ventures, Harmonix, H&R Block, Heartland Robotics, IDEO, iRobot, Ten Minute Media, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands 3: The Video

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We know, we’ve been holding out on you. But don’t worry, we do plan to reveal the winners of last night’s Battle of the Tech Bands 3, for those of you who couldn’t make it. The evening saw a great turnout of people representing all facets of the tech, life sciences, and venture communities here in Boston. Each band played a riveting set, and captured the attention of audiences and judges alike.

But for all our boasting that we’d settle the battle for coastal superiority once and for all, we did no such thing. The audience chose Boston’s gritty country rock band, The Dirty Truckers, who won in a very tight race (182 votes to 180) against electronica hipsters Deadbeat Darling. But the judges forced an East Coast-West Coast draw when they selected Lions Ambition of Seattle as Most Innovative Band. And few could dispute their choice after hearing the band’s seamless and energetic fusion of rock and hip hop sounds.

In addition to the audience’s affection, the Truckers took home seven hours of studio time, including engineering and production, from Bristol Studios. And the Lions headed west with a marketing package that includes one year of retail service from Nimbit and three hours of consulting from Ten Minute Media, known for designing websites for the likes of Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz.

As it did in its last Battle of the Tech Bands appearance, McAlister Drive went the extra mile (or yard, anyway) to work the crowd, with its lead vocalist jumping down off the stage and out onto the dance floor. And heavy metal band Juda’s Wake showed us that the Pacific Northwest can produce seriously intense sound (and some beautiful rocker locks).

In the end, it seemed the Boston and Seattle contenders were happy to set aside any coast-to-coast rivalry and share the spotlight. Following the competition, Deadbeat Darling returned to the stage to play a closing set for the audience. To our surprise (and delight), they invited the Lions to join them for spontaneous collaboration. If you didn’t think those two musical styles could go together, think again!

Thanks again for all who came. And a big shout-out to our event sponsors, Aerva, Bristol Studios, McNamee Lawrence & Co., Microsoft, and Nimbit; to Brad Feld, who chipped in to help us fly the Seattle bands out for the event, and to all our event partners and supporters. Thanks also to our incredible guest judges: Shawn Broderick, executive director of TechStars Boston, Bob Cramer, executive chairman of Nimbit, Laura Fitton, CEO of oneforty, Jennifer MacLean, CEO of 38 Studios, and Giles McNamee, Managing Director of McNamee Lawrence & Co.

Here’s a few snapshots from last night’s show, courtesy of Kevin Vogelsang. Click on the the images for a larger view. We hope to see you all at our next event!

The Dirty Truckers rock the house.

Lions Ambition roars.

Juda's Wake built a wall of sound.

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Art Technology Group (NASDAQ: ARTG), an e-commerce software and service company in Cambridge, MA, announced its plans to sell 25 million shares of common stock at $3.50 a share in an underwritten public offering. Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities will serve as underwriters for the deal, and will have the 30-day option to purchase as many as 3.75 million additional shares to cover over-allotments. ATG, which said the proceeds of the stock sale could go to future acquisitions, paid $17 million in cash in January to acquire InstantService, a Seattle-based provider of SaaS-based live chat services. [Editor's Note 02/09/10: A previous version of the story mistakenly listed the offering as 25,000 shares. We regret the error.]

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It’s been a busy week covering venture deals, IPOs, and all the iPad fallout fit to print, so we’re ready to release by defending our East Coast honor tonight at the Battle of the Tech Bands. This will be the third year we’ve hosted the showdown between bands from area tech companies, but will be the first time we’ve twisted it by inviting contenders from Seattle’s version of the event to compete. If you’re ready to show the Pacific what we’re made of (and laugh at them for shivering in these frigid temperatures we’re all too used to) join us at the Middle East tonight. Doors open at 7, and the music starts at 7:30 sharpish.

As a reminder, we’ll be listening to West Coast guests Lions Ambition (representing Boeing) and Juda’s Wake (Microsoft) battle some of the best bands from our past two Boston competitions. That includes McAlister Drive (formerly representing Linedata Services), The Dirty Truckers (representing American Well and formerly Sophos), and Deadbeat Darling (representing Pictela and formerly Akamai). In answering the age-old question of which coast is superior, these bands will fight for prizes that should help boost their fame, including studio time and marketing services.  Our Seattle editor has asserted with some understated Pacific pride that his city is poised to take it. That’s fine. We’re OK letting others think they’ll win, all the while knowing that our team is the best (duh, we’re Red Sox fans!).

Bring your business cards, cause we’re giving away some great door prizes such as Rock Band bundles, Roombas, Middle East tickets, a fancy dinner gift certificate, and hotel night stay for two  (for you classy people out there). You’ll also get to be in the same room with our fabulous guest judges, who represent colorful facets of the local technology entrepreneurship arena (and the entertainment world), such as a Twitter app store, a big name startup incubator program, an investment banking services company, and a music promoter.

If all this appeals to you, hurry! You’ve got another few hours to buy your tickets online for $25, and then they’ll go for $35 tonight at the door. See you there.

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Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands has become a welcome wintertime ritual in Cambridge: every January or February we get a bunch of loud, enthusiastic musicians together with a loud, enthusiastic crowd at the Middle East Night Club for a night of hot tunes, bravura performances, and audience voting. But this year—on February 4, to be exact—we’re trying something a little different.

Usually, we invite bands from tech companies around the Boston area to apply to compete, with judges selecting the finalists—and we’ll likely return to that format next year. But this time we decided to bring together past standouts from all three of Xconomy’s previous battles in Boston and Seattle for a grand East Coast vs. West Coast play-off that should put an end to all future questions about which edge of the continent is the most talented.

And believe me, the Seattle bands are ready to strut their stuff for a Boston audience. One of the two bands, Juda’s Wake, offered a dose of trash talk in advance of the battle, while the other, Lions Ambition, is a bit more restrained.

“We’re getting’ prepped for it and can’t wait to bring some Seattle thunder to Boston!” says Jim Dixon, bassist/vocalist for Juda’s Wake, which represents Microsoft. The heavy metal group’s material is loud, edgy, and rhythmically intricate, showing the influence of groups such as Tool, Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Rush, and Static X.

Lions Ambition, an upbeat six-member hip-hop/rap/rock ensemble representing Boeing, offers a slightly more lamb-like preview. “I think we do the best as the humble guest,” says Frankie Starr, who shares the group’s MC/vocals role with Marlon Turner. “We’ll let the music and our performance do the talking and have it speak for itself. Looking forward to seeing Boston and competing.”

A big shout-out to Brad Feld, the co-founder of Mobius Venture Capital, Foundry Group, and venture incubator TechStars, for picking up the tab for the two Seattle bands’ travels to Boston. TechStars recently announced, by the way, that it will host a Seattle startup bootcamp session this year—and TechStars Boston executive director Shawn Broderick will be on hand on February 4 as a guest-celebrity judge to help us choose our traditional “Most Innovative Band” prize.

I haven’t seen either of the Seattle bands play, but I have seen their competition, and it will be stiff. The Seattle groups are going up against DeadBeat Darling, a pop/dub/electronica band that won the Audience Favorite award at the inaugural Battle of the Tech Bands in 2008, and The Dirty Truckers, a country-rock-soul band that took the same prize in 2009. Deadbeat Darling formerly represented Akamai and now represents Pictela, a New York cloud computing startup funded by Avalon Ventures through Cambridge-based partner Rich Levandov. The Dirty Truckers represent Boston-based American Well.

You can get tickets for the showdown here. They’re $25 in advance at $35 at the door, and we’ll be donating the net proceeds to two local educational non-profits: Science Club for Girls and Year Up Boston.

As always, we’ll be giving away some fabulous door prizes at the battle, including Roomba robot vacuum cleaners donated by Bedford, MA-based iRobot. We’ll have more to announce on that front soon, and we’ll also be letting you know about the prizes for which our four bands are competing.

Buy your tickets now, and be sure to bring your cell phones to the battle, as you’ll be able to vote for your favorite band via text message, using an interactive display system provided by our event sponsor Aerva of Cambridge. Our other event sponsors include Microsoft and McNamee Lawrence & Co., and the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce is an event partner.

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