Hope all is going well. We hope that you enjoyed the webcast that Cam from our team put together regarding our 20-year anniversary. If you have not seen it, I would suggest that you check it out (https://www.biosurfaces.us/single-post/biosurfaces-20th-anniversary-webcast-7). It was a lot of work to put this together so it was really appreciated. It is something that we can look back on years from now if we are fortunate to do so and see what we were able to accomplish. It was such a great feeling being able to relive the history of the company, from the beginning to where we are now. You don’t realize how much things are changing when you are so involved in it. It was also good to hear the thoughts of the team members as to what they want to see move forward or what they like about what they do. Tina and I got to hear them right before the webcast was released so we almost heard them at the same time you did. As we always say, our team is what makes us successful.
I wanted to let you know that we will have a big announcement this coming Thursday June 1st. We are excited about this news! I will give you a loyal reader insider hint. The information that we are going to announce will help to significantly advance one aspect of the company’s technology for the next few years. We were looking forward to announcing this several weeks ago but it took longer than expected to finalize the process. We believe that this is just the start, with more news yet to come.
This news comes off of a successful launch last week of our in vitro research tools (IVRT) products at the 3D Tissue Model Summit in Boston. This was the first time that our IVRT products were displayed at a booth where people could see our Bio-Spun™ scaffolds up close and personal. The business team did an outstanding job creating a full presentation for our booth, essentially starting from scratch. We were not sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. We had a lot of people visit the booth and want to learn more about our technology. People seemed to want something new and I think we provide that solution. We look forward to where our IVRT products are heading.
The topic of this week’s blog is something that we all can have – an epiphany. For those not familiar with the word, an epiphany is getting a sudden realization about something. I equate it to a light bulb going off in your head. You finally get a better understanding or realization about something in your life. I’ve had several of these epiphanies in my lifetime. Some are simpler than others. This describes the two most recent epiphanies that I had. I revealed these to Tina and they send her into hysterical laughter. Hopefully, you will be a little kinder than she was.
I was asked to participate in evaluating senior research projects at UMass Dartmouth. It is something I had done for many years at my alma matter as well as for senior projects at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. As I sat and listened to the different student presentations, I thought about how they designed their projects, what was done correctly, what could have been done differently and what future experiments could be done to support their data. I enjoyed the back and forth when I was asking questions and seeing their excitement in describing their work – the next generation of scientists getting ready to enter the workforce. There was a level of naiveté in terms of them being inexperienced and thinking they had the answers. They were just beginning to learn the questions. I was them over 33 years ago. Experience made me realize how little I knew at their age. At that moment, I had an epiphany – I really love science.
Now before you go rolling on the floor in laughter and say no kidding you fool, hear me out. That experience that I just wrote about also makes you jaded as your career goes along. You then (foolishly) start a company and you become even more hardened because science becomes a smaller part of what you do. But, then you attend a project review at your university and see these students passion early in their careers and you realize why you got into this in the first place. I love science and somewhere along the way, this can get lost. I guess when I sprang the simple statement to Tina, I didn’t really get to explain so I’m sure this sounded like a “duh” moment. The other epiphany I had that same day was related to my experience. I used to attend research meetings years ago and there was always this one person (typically an elder statesperson) that lead discussions and that people looked to actually do this. As the meeting progress, people on the panel kept looking at me to lead the questions. I had become that old man in the room. When did this happen? I didn’t mind being this person but it made me realize I am on the back 9 of 18 holes (for you golfers). It is tough to accept but this is a fact. Now that I confessed my recent epiphanies, my wish is that you have your moment. What would it be? Would it be as silly or obvious as mine? I am fortunate to have had mine and it is a Zen kind of moment.
I hope that our US readers have an excellent Memorial Day weekend, which is the official start of the summer season. Please be on the lookout for the announcement coming out next week. For the rest of June, we will have Factual Friday on June 9th, the Monthly Spin-Off on June 16th, another factual Friday on June 23rd and finally another blog on June 30th.
Matt