Spilka Hosts High-Tech State House Takeover Thursday

The state’s top technology companies, venture capital firms, startups and technology associations will take part in a forum at the State House on Thursday, May 26, to talk about why they do business in Massachusetts.

One of the forum’s hosts is state Sen. Karen Spilka, whose legislative district includes Hopkinton.

The State House Hall of Flags will be transformed into an exhibit hall for technology demonstrations, panel discussions, and presentations from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

The forum will include BL Healthcare, which links patients and health providers over the internet, RunKeeper, makers of a fitness app, CSN Stores, an online furniture and department mega-store, warehouse-lighting specialists Digital Lumens, Innerscope, which measures audience emotional engagement to media stimulus, AisleBuyer, a smart-phone self-checkout app, Altaeros Energies, which builds wind turbines, EnerNOC energy-management services, Shoebuy, which is just what it sounds like, Echo Nest, a sophisticated music playlist interface for business and personal use, Affinnova, a marketing company that essentially allows its users to bypass re-inventing the wheel, peerTransfer, which handles money exchanges between universities and international students, HubSpot marketing software, Gemvara, a company that allows users to customize and buy jewelry, Zeo, a sleep-coaching tool, and Verizon.

Legislators will have the opportunity to meet and learn about the state’s emerging digital technologies, new venture-backed companies, innovative market leaders and large global technology companies.

Keynote speaker will be Colin Angle, co-founder, chairman and CEO of iRobot. iRobot has also created affordable ($300 and less) robot platforms for students, teachers and developers.

A panel on how tech start-ups are faring in the state will be moderated by Michael Greeley of Flybridge Capital Partners. It will feature the chief executives of Kibits, RunKeeper and Localytics, software that allows app developers and providers to track their apps' usage.

A second panel entitled  How They Play, Why They Stay will be moderated by Emily Green of connectivity consultants Yankee Group. It will feature area executives from Google, IBM, Verizon and Microsoft.

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