Monday, March 16th, from 6:30-9PM
University of California Berkeley Extension, Golden Bear Building
UC Extension Classroom, Second Floor, Room 211
1995 University Avenue
Berkeley, California
(Two blocks from Downtown Berkeley BART)

Bake User Experience Strategy Into Your Startup

In the rush to get a new product or concept into the market, the “user experience” may be given a back seat. In the myriad of start-up details, how much attention can be given to the “look and feel” – which can be added later? Or can it? And what is it anyway?

“User experience” covers the myriad ways your customer will interact with your product and company – website, user interface, support center, user manual, training, forums, help system, and beyond. While you may see each of these areas as different company functions, to your customer they are all part of a single thing – your product and their “experience.’

The success of your product (and company) depends upon whether that experience is engaging, efficient, effective, and predictable, or disconnected, time-consuming and difficult. Because a good user experience touches nearly every part of your company, it must be “baked in” from the very beginning — and it is nearly impossible to “add later”.

Meghan Ede will explain how to “bake in” an approach which produces great user experiences, from the get-go. She’lll start with a simple question: “Does Customer = User?” (Not always). And she’ll end with an explanation of how to hire the right person from a growing array of user experience professionals. In between, she’ll talk about how to make your great product even better.

Who should attend: This session will be of particular interest to entrepreneurs launching products or services with a visible user interface or company website. If you are responsible for any of these product areas: creation/design, marketing, support, training or evaluation, or face resource allocation decisions you will find value in this presentation

About the Speaker:
Meghan R. Ede provides user experience strategy and research for products in a wide variety of fields – from complex Enterprise & IT software to finance, social networking and youth gaming websites. Meghan hones in on key elements and then creates unique srategies to develop creative user experiences. She has worked at small start-ups and also “big names” such as Intuit, eBay/PayPal, Intuit, Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, Yahoo, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Symantec. She has a B.A. in Psychology from Universite d’Ottawa and an M.A. in Psychology from Carleton University, both in Ottawa, Canada.

Registration:
To register, please send your name to register@ebig.org and mention the session name and the date.

Pay at the door by cash or check
Free to e-Big members
$15 if pre-registered
$20 otherwise

Directions:
From downtown Berkeley BART, walk two blocks northwest to University and Milvia. The Golden Bear Building is on the North side of University.

From I-80, exit University Avenue and drive East toward the hills roughly 19 blocks. The building will be on your left (north) side. There is street parking available and also the Center street parking garage two blocks south. Do not try to park in the onsite underground parking lot, as the lot closes early and your car will be locked in overnight.

Pricing for Profitability in the Information Age
Pricing for Profitability in the Information Age will enable you to take your products and services to new levels of profitability — even now. The program is led by the top experts and researchers in the field of pricing. The lead professor is Teck Ho, who has won the highest teaching award three years in a row at the Haas School of Business (2004 to 2006) and consults on Pricing with many of the Fortune 500. He is joined by three other star faculty members. Upon completion of the program, you will be provided a UC Berkeley certificate and be invited to join our alumni group.

Program Details: http://executive.berkeley.edu/programs/pricing/
Program Dates: February 24-27, 2009
Program Price: $5,445

Negotiations: the Art of Working with People to Get Things Done
At the Negotiations Program you will learn key negotiation skills and put them into practice through in-class exercises. You will receive feedback on your negotiated outcomes in debrief sessions—enabling you to improve your skills throughout the two-day program. Additionally, you will be provided with two self-assessment tools that we will complete in class. The program is led by Holly Schroth, a well-known negotiations expert, who is an award winning lecturer at UC Berkeley and consultant to numerous Silicon Valley companies. She is one of the leading authors of negotiation exercise materials which are used worldwide by educators and trainers.

Program Details: http://executive.berkeley.edu/programs/negotiations/
Program Dates: January 12-13, 2009 (in San Francisco)
Program Price: $1,895

Product Management: Translating Market Opportunities into Profitability
Designed for Product Management professionals, this intensive 5-day program will teach you to build profitable products your customers will love. The program is taught by top faculty at the Haas School of Business, who have won awards for excellence in teaching, do cutting edge research, and consult regularly for high tech companies. At the end of the program, participants will be awarded a certificate of completion by the UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education and become part of a large and active alumni network.

Program Details: http://executive.berkeley.edu/programs/pm
Program Dates: April 27 – May 1, 2009
Program Price: $5,995

Startups/VCs – Berkeley SIG: “Leadership for Success for Young Enterprises”

ENTER the 2008 Clean Tech Open Competition

The deadline for entering the competition is Saturday, June 14thDo you have a clean tech idea? Are you ready to take your clean tech business idea to the next level? For only $250 per team, or $150 for all-student teams, and just three summary pages on your business, you can have the chance to win $50,000 in cash and a suite of prizes worth another $50,000. Executive Summary upload begins June 1st. To download executive summary guidelines presentations, click here.

For more details and to enter the competition, click here.

In this highly interactive, personal, and experiential retreat, you will gain a deep understanding of your leadership approach, negotiating style, beliefs and assumptions about power, and your network structure. We will build on your increased self-awareness to assist you in becoming a happier and more effective leader and negotiator.

Who Should Attend

High potential women “stars”: executives, VPs and senior managers approaching the peak of their career years. Their partners, mentors, and coworkers, whose happiness and success are linked to these “stars.” Members of organizations concerned with creating and maintaining a diverse and thriving workforce.

Dates and Fee

June 2-4 2008 (3 days)

Program Location

The Haas School of Business, Executive Classroom, UC Berkeley

TiEcon 2008: An Invitation to the Clean Tech Open Community
Our friends at TiE would like to extend an invitation to the Clean Tech Open community. Please join us at the largest global entrepreneur conference, where a variety of issues, with the topic of clean tech being central, will be discussed.
TiEcon 2008
Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17
Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
Click here for more information.

For more information, visit: www.cleantechopen.com

A database publisher that allowed their Information Technology team to use Agile development techniques experienced severe cost and schedule overruns that were not turned around until we re-introduced structured product management and project management practices into the firm.

The ISS-certified Conference program provides state-of-the-art techniques in risk management, audit and compensation practices, litigation and liability strategies, Board recruitment, succession planning, and shareholder resolutions. The highly respected Conference Faculty is drawn from Directors of public companies, distinguished Partners of accounting and corporate governance firms, and senior Berkeley Graduate Business School and Law School Professors. Conference graduates will be entered into a Certified Director Database that will be made available to Executive Search Firms, pre-IPO and IPO companies, and other private and public companies seeking Board members.

The group is “speed dating” for start-ups! This is the group to join -and attend- if you are looking for good people or the right ground floor opportunity and they welcome any start up looking for team members, and anyone looking for a start up to join. Be prepared to do focused networking and jump start your dreams.