October: Research and Development

Lecture audio.
Watch Video Clip on TechCrunch.tv

Presented by Plantronics, Inc.

The What’s Next Lecture Series continued its five part Innovation program with a fireside chat between Reed  Hastings and Sarah Lacy on October 5, 2010 at the Del Mar Theater.  Sarah Lacy, technology reporter for TechCrunch, interviewed Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix about his company’s successful use of crowd sourcing for innovation.  The lively conversation between Lacy and Hastings covered a wide range of topics including the company’s recent $1 billion streaming deal, its TV content approach and the unique Netflix corporate culture.  Hastings provided background and an update on the $1 Million Prize awarded to “BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos” for improving the movie rental company’s recommendation software.

The series is a collaboration between UC Santa Cruz, NextSpace Coworking + Innovation, and the City of Santa Cruz.  The final topic in this year-long series will be Gaming & Social Media.



Speakers


Sarah Lacy is an award winning journalist and author of the book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0” (Gotham Books, May 2008). She is currently a columnist at TechCrunch. Lacy has been a reporter in Silicon Valley for nearly a decade, covering everything from the tiniest startups to the largest public companies. She writes a biweekly column for BusinessWeek.com called “Valley Girl” and is co-host of Yahoo Finance’s Tech Ticker. She lives in San Francisco.

Reed Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 and launched the subscription service in 1999. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of the movie-rental company. In 2005, Time magazine added Reed to its “Time 100” list of the one hundred most influential global citizens. In March 2007 Reed was appointed to Microsoft’s board of directors. Earlier in his career, Reed founded Pure Software, which was acquired by Rational Software in 1997 after a successful IPO and numerous acquisitions. He also served as President of the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004. After receiving his Bachelors in 1983, Reed served in the U.S. Peace Corps as a high school math teacher in Swaziland (read his full bio).




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