Next Disruptivate! to take on health care, education

Thought leaders and innovators who are working to disrupt the fields of education and health care are being sought as potential presenters at "Disruptivate! Goes Vertical," the New Hampshire conference that celebrates the practice of disruptive innovation.

"Disruptivate Goes Vertical," the follow-up to last spring's sold-out conference, will be held Tuesday, Oct. 9 at the Wentworth by the Sea Resort in New Castle.

Like the inaugural conference, the October event will focus on disruptive innovation, which refers to any business or technological innovation that disrupts an existing market, often replacing an incumbent.

Unlike the broad focus of last spring's conference, October's will zero in on two distinct vertical industries: education and health care. The conference, which is organized by the New Hampshire Innovation Commercialization Center, is aimed at entrepreneurs, investors, creatives and technologists, and will have a heavy emphasis on industry-specific networking, talent acquisition and problem solving within the verticals.

At the conference, 12 "Vital Vertical Ventures" — six thought leaders in each industry — will be selected to give short presentations on why and how their organization is working to disrupt their industry. The three top presenters in each vertical will present for 10 minutes in the morning session, and a reaction panel composed of an entrepreneur, a policy expert and funder/venture capitalist will challenge and give feedback to the presenters, with audience reaction as time allows.

The remaining six presenters will present during the afternoon breakout sessions.

Confirmed presenters for the health care vertical are Nick Toumpas, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services, and Jeff Carlisle from Our Health Connector.

Presenters for the education vertical include Mark Huddleston, president of the University of New Hampshire, and Kim Carter, executive director of the QED Foundation.

Nominations for further presenters are open through Friday, Sept. 21 and may be made at http://www.disruptivate.biz/nominate.The morning will also include a to-be-announced keynote speaker and a panel discussion, "Should Universities be Univenturous?" moderated by NHBR editor Jeff Feingold.

At lunchtime, attendees — who will have pre-selected a specific topic in which they are most interested — will sit at a table with like-minded participants for a discussion.

There will be breakout sessions in the afternoon for both verticals. Health care sessions include, "What Will Health Care Look Like in 2032?", followed by the remaining three health care presenters, and an audience participation session. Similarly, the education sessions include, "What Will Education Look Like in 2032?" followed by the remaining three education presenters and an audience participation session.

Also speaking at the conference are Dave deBronkart, or E-Patient Dave, a cancer patient and blogger who has become a noted activist for health care transformation through participatory medicine and personal health data rights; Rouzbeh Yassini, founder and CEO of YAS Capital Partners and "father of the cable modem"; Matt Dunne, head of community affairs at Google, among several others.

The conference will wrap up at 4:45 p.m., with an after party kicking off at 5 p.m.

Event sponsors and partners include University of New Hampshire Information Technology, Pierce Atwood LLP, Borealis Granite Fund, Great Bay Community College, the UNH Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization, Atlantic Plastic Surgery Center, NHBR, the New Hampshire High Tech Council, and Comcast Business Class. Tickets cost $129 before Oct. 1. Register with coupon code 'nhbr' for $10 off.

For more information, a schedule and a complete list of speakers, visit www.disruptivate.biz .