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Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge
23 November 2007
Cambridge, home to Silicon Fen, hosted an event at the University's Judge Business School for counterparts from California's famous technology business cluster.
Representatives from some of America's leading companies were at the University for discussion and debate on how they created and funded the most groundbreaking "disruptive" technologies.
Disruptive technologies are products or inventions that grow and eventually overturn the existing dominant technology or product in the market. Examples in the past are inventions such as motor vehicles which over-took the use of horses as a means of transport.
The event brought entrepreneurs and investors from Silicon Valley to Cambridge to meet their British counter-parts along with students, academics and alumni.
The were a number of high profile speakers including Megan Smith from internet search engine Google and Reid Hoffman who has worked for networking websites Linkedin and Facebook.
The event began with a panel debate that discussed whether Europe had over-taken Silicon Valley as the best place to develop the next billion dollar companies. Also included were master classes by leading experts.
A number of start-up entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to have workshops with American experts.
Nik Rouda, a Cambridge alumnus from the US who is developing his own on-line security service said: 'The opportunity to really meet the investors and entrepreneurs was fantastic, and every session was packed with keen insight and entertaining stories. The event rightly reflected Cambridge's position as a world-class centre of innovation.'
The event was hosted with the help of Silicon Valley Connect and The National endowment for Science Technology and Arts (NESTA).
Silicon Valley Connect is a US based group who work to build bridges between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.
NESTA is an organisation that works to support talent, innovation and creativity in the UK by investing in early stage companies and informing innovation policy.
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