April 6, 2009 - Monday
Burke Forte, Director of the 8th Continent Project to speak on "The Business Of Space 2.0" - Unleashing the next generation of space entrepreneurs
Event Video Available
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The Business Of Space 2.0
American taxpayers have spent trillions of dollars funding the Space Program and Defense Department initiatives over the last half century. Beyond keeping our nation safe and exploring our universe, there was little return on investment expected. But, in the Apollo Era, products like Tang and Space Food Bars gave us a hint that some of this technology could trickle into commercial use. Today, that trickle has turned into a torrent of new products, spawning hundreds, if not thousands of news businesses around the world, and across dozens of industrial sectors and vertical markets.
'Space 1.0' was astronauts, rocket ships and billion- dollar government projects. The 8th Continent Project is the first entrepreneurial support organization to represent the emerging market for 'Space 2.0' companies - venture-backed new businesses that apply technologies developed by NASA and the Department of Defense to wide-ranging commercial markets. From energy to healthcare and from manufacturing to retail, and just about everything in between, aerospace technology is flowing quickly into our daily lives.
8th Continent's Burke Fort and John Metzger will explain how the Program will help to bridge the gap between existing technologies and their commercialization through the Space 2.0 industry's first Chamber of Commerce, Incubator, Funding Network and Research program.
EVENT: Night with a Futurist
DATE: April 6, 2009 - Monday
TIME: 6:30pm-9:00pm
WEBSITE: http://www.davinciinstitute.com/events/579/night-with-a-futurist-monday-january--9-2012
LOCATION: MADCAP Theater, 10679 Westminster Blvd, Westminster, CO 80020
DIRECTIONS: Driving Directions
COST: $20, Members: Free, SuperMembers: Free
PHONE: 303-666-4133
TOPIC: Burke Forte, Director of the 8th Continent Project to speak on "The Business Of Space 2.0" - Unleashing the next generation of space entrepreneurs
SPEAKERS: Burke Fort, John Metzger, Paul Jerde, Steve Murchie
SPEAKER: Burke Fort
Director of the Colorado School of Mines 8th Continent Project
Burke Fort is the Director of the Colorado School of Mines 8th Continent Project, bringing to the initiative over 30 years of experience in university aerospace research, technology development, public policy, STEM education and aerospace public outreach. His background represents a hybrid of public and private sector experience, combined with business, law and academic research that defines a true "Space 2.0" career path.
Fort is also the Executive Director of the Foundation for Space Exploration (FSX), a philanthropic foundation dedicated to "weaving space into the fabric of everyday life on Earth." He has served as Program Manager for Planning and Development in the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, and as Special Projects Manager of the Texas Space Grant Consortium, where he directed education programs in microgravity research, Mars mission planning and design, NASA customer engagement, remote sensing and space policy.
Fort is a member of the Colorado Governor's Small Business Council and represents the Colorado School of Mines in the Colorado Space Coalition. He is also an Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. Prior to his aerospace career, Fort was an environmental litigation attorney in the Austin, Texas office of the Fulbright & Jaworski law firm.
SPEAKER: John Metzger
Co-director for the 8th Continent Aerospace Business Incubator
John Metzger was an early pioneer in aerospace and technology public relations and investor relations, establishing the Rocky Mountain region’s first agency in 1991. Metzger Associates has since expanded its client base beyond Colorado to become one of the nation’s most experienced high-tech specialists. From defense contractors during the Cold War to “Space 2.0” companies today, Metzger has personally developed and implemented marketing and communications programs for companies ranging in size from start-ups to the Fortune 500. He has helped to establish the 8th Continent Project itself, and serves as co-director for the 8th Continent Aerospace Business Incubator.
PANELIST: Paul Jerde
Director of the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business and The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Paul Jerde is the Director of the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business and The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship.
Mr. Jerde has held a number of senior general management and senior financial management positions with private and public companies in a broad variety of industries and markets. He has also served on the boards of directors of a number of public and private companies. His management experiences have included early stage start-ups and emerging growth companies, later stage established companies and companies undergoing substantial transition or turn-arounds.
Mr. Jerde co-founded Corboy and Jerde, LLC, an investment banking firm specializing in private transactions for emerging growth and medium sized businesses. The firm’s clients reflected the diversity and rapid growth profiles typified by the expanding entrepreneurially driven sector of companies in the Rocky Mountain region. Previously, Mr. Jerde was CEO and Chairman of Requisite Technology, Inc., an early stage electronic commerce information services business. Requisite created proprietary state-of-the-art “universal” cataloging processes and electronic cataloging technology that enabled a foundation for successful e-Commerce
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Mr. Jerde received his M.B.A. from the Business School at the University of Colorado. He has served for several years as a member of the Advisory Board of the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado-Boulder.
PANELIST: Steve Murchie
More than 25 years of experience in the software industry
Steve Murchie has more than 25 years of experience in the software industry, starting as a programmer/analyst and progressing through a variety of roles in sales, marketing, and general management.
The companies Steve has worked with span the spectrum of the industry, including startups, turnarounds, a VC-backed roll-up, and an eight-year stint at Microsoft where he helped grow the SQL Server business from $300M to over $1B in under five years. In 2004, he left Microsoft to return to the start-up world as CEO of a fledgling company and got his first taste of the angel investing process. While that initial exposure didn’t earn any financing for his business, he did gain a lot of insight from the Keiretsu Forum screening process, which was inevitably even more valuable. Steve subsequently joined the Keiretsu Forum in Seattle as an investor member, contributing time to deal screenings, participating in due diligence, making a few investments, and thoroughly enjoying himself with the group. When the Murchies decided to relocate back to Colorado after nine years away, Steve explored the possibility of bringing a chapter of the group to Denver, and the result is a very successful new chapter that was launched in March of 2007. Steve has since rekindled a passion for alternative energy and conservation technologies, and is currently working with several partners to launch a new cleantech venture capital fund.
Steve holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
