MORNING WELCOME: Walt Minnick

Walter C. “Walt” Minnick is serving in his first term as the Congressman from Idaho’s First Congressional District. He took the oath of office for the 111th Congress on January 6, 2009.

Walt serves on the House Agriculture Committee, where he helps craft policy for Idaho farmers and where he helps oversee the U.S. Forest Service lands throughout Idaho and the west. Walt also serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where he helps craft the nation’s economic policy and regulations. Both committees fit well into Walt’s focuses on crafting a sensible, consensus-based approach to public lands, improving care and services for veterans, and creating more good-paying jobs here in Idaho.

Walt grew up near Walla Walla, Washington, on his family’s dryland wheat farm. He earned an economics degree from Whitman College in his hometown before moving east. He graduated from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, and spent two years in the U.S. Army. From there he went to work in the White House Office of Management and Budget, but resigned from the Nixon Administration in protest the day after the president fired a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate burglary.

Walt moved to Idaho soon after and began his 35-year career as a businessman. He went to work for Trus Joist, a wood-products company headquartered in Boise. He rose quickly through the ranks, and would eventually serve more than 15 years as its CEO, growing the company to more than $700 million in sales. After an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 1996, Walt founded Summerwinds, a company which has grown into one of the 10 largest retail-nursery chains in the country. He resigned as chairman of the board after winning election to Congress in November 2008.

Walt has served a host of foundations and on numerous boards, but has a special love for education. He has been a trustee for two universities, co-founded a statewide initiative by businesses to help improve Idaho education and helped guide the Boise State University business school through accreditation. Walt is also an avid outdoorsman with a deep affection for Idaho’s backcountry. When not serving in Congress, he is often back home in Idaho rafting rivers, fishing mountain lakes and hiking peaks.

Walt has four children and three grandchildren. He is married to A.K. Leinhart-Minnick.

MORNING ADDRESS: William W. Wilmot, PhD.

Bill Wilmot is an incongruity: He the son of a small-town businessman and the grandson of two weather-beaten Wyoming homesteaders. Today, he lives in a log cabin in western Montana. Yet he is a highly educated technocrat, a retired college professor, speaker, and author of seven books. Bill is the Director of the Collaboration Institute, which conducts innovation and communication workshops based upon the book he co-authored with SRI CEO Curtis Carlson titled Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want. He is also an avid outdoorsman, telemark skier, and elk hunter who sometimes carries his laptop on backpacking trips. However, he regularly travels outside the US to consult with technology leaders inside foreign governments and international corporations. He has flown to Great Britain, Spain, France, New Zealand, and South Africa on business and made personal excursions to Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, India, and most recently, the Galapagos Islands.

Bill's clients include:

• National Semiconductor
• Philips Medical Instruments
• The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Discovery Communications
• University of Virginia
• The Travel Channel
• The Virginia Angel Network
• NTT (Japan Radio Telephone and Telegraph)
• TEKES - The innovation arm of Finnish Government
• FPInnovations - a Canadian forest products industry consortium
• Tech Transfer Office - James Madison University

KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Brad Feld, Foundry Group

Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies and later became a venture affiliate of the predecessor to Mobius Venture Capital.

Brad currently serves on the board of directors of Gnip, Oblong and Zynga for Foundry Group. Previously, Brad served as chief technology officer of AmeriData Technologies. AmeriData acquired Feld Technologies, a firm he founded in 1987 that specialized in custom software applications. Brad had grown Feld Technologies into one of Boston's leading software consulting firms prior to the acquisition. He also directed the diversification into software consulting at AmeriData, a $1.5 billion publicly-traded company which was acquired by GE Capital in 1995.

In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chairman of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and co-chairman of the Colorado Governor's Innovation Council. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes widely read and well respected blogs at www.feld.com and www.askthevc.com.

Notable companies that Brad has invested in and/or sat on the boards of include Abuzz (acq. NYT), Anyday.com (acq. PALM), Critical Path (CPTH), Cyanea (acq. IBM), Dante Group (acq. WEBM), DataPower (acq. IBM), FeedBurner (acq. by GOOG), Feld Group (acq. by EDS), Harmonix (acq. VIA), NetGenesis (IPO), ServiceMagic (acq. IACI), and ServiceMetrics (acq. EXDS).

Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies and later became a venture affiliate of the predecessor to Mobius Venture Capital.

Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed thirteen marathons as part of his mission to run a marathon in each of the fifty states.

Moderator: Mark Solon, Highway 12 Ventures

Mark Solon is the founder and Managing Partner of Highway 12 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in high-growth, entrepreneurial companies in the Intermountain West. With over $100 million under management, Highway 12 is Idaho's largest venture capital firm. Prior to Highway 12 Ventures, Mark was a General Partner at Atlantic Capital Group, a private equity firm in Boston.

Mark is a Director of multiple Highway 12 portfolio companies as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association. Active in the Boise community, he is a member of Boise State University's College of Engineering Advisory Board and currently serves on the Idaho Business Coalition for Education Excellence and the Board of Directors of the Idaho Hockey Foundation. He is formerly President of the Board of Directors of the Discovery Center of Idaho and a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy of Idaho.

Panelist: Pete Gombert, CEO, Balihoo

Pete is an entrepreneur and visionary with extensive experience building software companies. He has been the founder or co-founder of three software-based businesses and has proven abilities to establish the vision and foster the growth necessary to return significant value to shareholders.

Pete's software leadership experience spans multiple industries to include energy, finance, and media. Prior to Balihoo, Pete founded Enerx, a software company focused on the energy trading space. Upon selling the company to KW International, a London-based company that builds trading and risk management software for energy markets, he became Executive Vice President of International Operations. Previously, Pete was on the founding team of a financial services software and services firm. Pete holds a bachelors degree in accounting from Villanova University. In any spare time he finds, Pete can be found mountain biking in the Boise foothills and skiing in the central Idaho mountains.

Panelist: Dr. Donna Hutchinson, CEO, Idaho Digital Learning Academy

Dr. Donna Hutchison, is CEO of the Idaho Digital Learning Academy (IDLA), a state-sponsored on-line school created to overcome distance time and barriers and give Idaho students greater access to diverse classes and high-quality faculty. The IDLA reaches traditional, home schooled, at risk, and gifted students with innovative e-learning programs. The academy was ranked #3 in the nation in 2008 for "on-line learning, policy, and practice" by The Center for Digital Education. Over 6,500 enrollments were logged by the IDLA in 2008 with an annual budget of $4.5 million, 25 full-time staff members, and more than 200 faculty members. Dr. Hutchison holds a PhD. In Education from The University of Idaho, a Masters in Educational Technology from Boise State University, and a Bachelor of Science degree from The University of Virginia in Management Information Systems and Marketing.

Panelist: Kristi Saucerman, Auction Frogs

AuctionFrogs.com began simply as a way for Kristi Saucerman to simplify the process of hosting silent auctions. After 12 years of charity event management experience as KLS Events, Kristi believed there was a better way to conduct a fundraising auction using technology tools to extend the auction period and simplify the process. She believed a web solution could not only make fundraising easier, but increase the amount of money raised. After nearly 2 years of development, AuctionFrogs.com was launched in August of 2007.

Since the launch of the website, AuctionFrogs has received numerous requests for online auction management, yet has been selective about the types of organizations that it works with. AuctionFrogs has successfully hosted several online auctions and is currently working with organizations that range in scope from local schools and non-profit organizations to the Special Olympics and the PGA Tour

Moderator: Brad Feld

Brad Feld, our Keynote Speaker and Panel Moderator, has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies and later became a venture affiliate of the predecessor to Mobius Venture Capital.

Panelist: Dr. Terry Gilton, CEO & Founder, pSiFlow

Dr. Terry Gilton is the CEO and founder of pSiFlow Technology, a Lab-on-a-Chip startup in Boise. He was most recently the VP of Technology at Aptina Imaging in San Jose, CA. Dr. Gilton holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from UC Santa Barbara and has been in technology R&D for 20 years. Terry has authored several articles and presentations for conferences and journals, many of which were invited. He has over 130 patents in various fields of semiconductor and materials technology.

Panelist: Pat Sewall, CEO and Founder, CradlePoint Technology

As founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pat brings a wealth of experience to CradlePoint. After a 16-year tenure at HP where he worked in their R&D lab for LaserJet printers, Pat started RidgeRun, a software company that developed embedded Linux solutions for the cellular phone and consumer electronics markets. Prior to HP, he held management positions with Bently Nevada Corp., a privately held electronics manufacturer. Pat holds a BS in CS from the University of Iowa, and an MS in CS from the University of California, Davis.

Panelist: Bob Lokken, CEO, WhiteCloud Analytics

Bob Lokken is the founder and CEO of WhiteCloud Analytics, a Boise-based software/consulting company focused on decision support for hospitals. Bob was previously founder and CEO of ProClarity Corp., winner of over 40 industry awards for analytic and performance management technologies. Bob authored the key patents behind ProClarity's market leading technology. In May 2006, ProClarity was acquired by Microsoft. Afterwards, Bob led the development of the commercial strategy for Microsoft's business intelligence offerings.

Bob is a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences and a guest lecturer for Executive MBA programs on the use of analytics to drive business results.

Panelist: Ryan Woodings, Chief Geek, Metageek

In 2005, having recently finished a master's degree in computer science, Ryan was developing short-range wireless systems for computer mice and keyboards and had to make sure that his wireless systems weren't interfering with one another. To do this he was using a $30,000 spectrum analyzer. It quickly occurred to him that having to rely on such an expensive piece of equipment for so commonplace but crucial a task would severely limit the average Wi-Fi network operator for whom such an expensive tool was unavailable. There had to be a simpler, and far less expensive, solution... so he formed MetaGeek, LLC and six months later Wi-Spy was released.

As MetaGeek has grown Ryan has worn a variety of hats. These days he spends most of his time managing the business and software development. To relieve his stress Ryan enjoys running... a lot. When he's not training for a half marathon he's training for a full marathon. In the summer Ryan cruises to work on his Honda Shadow (65 mpg), mountain bikes in the Boise foothills and attempts to jump with his wakeboard.