Leaving Best Buy's venture capital innovation network

This blog's initial experiment: Listing my conversations and topics to perhaps trigger ideas or interest from viewers. Discussions this week:

Just back from Chicago, discussing projects for the summer with:

* Stepheny Lauer, vice-president of marketing, Coldwell Banker, and co-founder, Art.com. Topics: future of real estate marketing.

* Rich Gordon, professor, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. Topic: future of journalism education, including a focus on studying audience trends.

* Tom Collinger, associate dean, Medill and professor, school of Integrated Marketing Communications. Topic: future of Integrated Marketing Communications education.

* 30 of Collinger's IMC grad students. Topic: The successes and failures of Best Buy's venture capital innovation network.

* Steven Hanson, CEO, Hanson Inc., Toledo.. Topic: future of Web publishing and marketing for building products industry.

* Senior executives at Scripps Networks Interactive Group. Topic: the future of Web video-on-demand and video search in lifestyle media.

* Senior executive at Meredith Interactive. Topic: the focus on Web 2.0 viewer experiences in lifestyle media.

* John and Melissa Uppgren, principals, TechBarn. Topic: their online advertising lead tracking and fulfillment systems for tracking ad results in consumer lifestyle media, both for media companies and for leading advertisers.

* Dean Ekman, CEO, Online Builder. Topic: launch of SuperBuild, a breakthrough online best practices business management tool for contractors and landscapers, with a consumer service to help consumers manage their building, remodeling and landscaping projects.