Kendall Square next to MIT has been called “the most innovative square mile on the planet.” This unique innovation ecosystem plays host to virtually every major pharma company, tech powerhouses such as Google, Amazon, Apple, IBM, and Microsoft, scores of biotech companies including Biogen and Moderna, leading venture capital firms, and hundreds of startups exploring the frontiers of healthcare, AI, energy, and much more.  All within walking distance of each other.  

What has made this hub thrive for nearly 200 years?  
Can lessons be drawn for other ecosystems?  
What does the future hold, both in terms of challenges and opportunities? 
Join this open lecture to get the answers to these questions, and more! 

Bob Buderi is an author, journalist, and entrepreneur. In 2007, he founded Xconomy, an online news organization covering the business of technology that expanded to 11 innovation hubs around the U.S. before being sold to publicly traded British company Informa in 2016.  

Prior to launching Xconomy, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT’s Technology Review magazine and as BusinessWeek's technology editor, where he shared in a National Magazine Award for "The Quality Imperative."  
Bob has twice been a Fellow at MIT. After leaving Xconomy in 2018, he served as President of the World Frontiers Forum, a non-profit established by Moderna co-founder Robert Langer, Harvard scientist David Edwards, and Dennis Ausiello, former chief of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.  

Bob is the author of five books about technology and innovation, including The Invention That Changed the World (Simon and Schuster 1996), which told the story of the MIT Radiation Lab during WWII and its post-war legacy.  
His latest book, Where Futures Converge, was published in May 2022 by MIT Press.