What happens when we add the power of Social/Mobile and always-on personal devices to the evolving health markets?
Peer pressure (social reinforcement) and data tracking have significantly contributed to the success of the $11B self improvement and $55B weight loss markets. Legacy business such as Weight Watchers have relied on snippets of painstakingly input data. Large companies, as well as, garage hackers are leveraging smaller, cheaper sensors and powerful mobile devices are accelerating the virtuous circle of goal setting, data collection, analysis and social motivation necessary to stimulate lasting and steady gains in health, sports performance or other areas of self evolution.
As start ups disrupt the space and incumbents are evolving, numerous questions arise:
- What new opportunities will exist in widespread tracking?
- How do you keep users engaged long enough to make meaningful changes?
- What are the challenges of collecting and applying meaningful data?
- Can a single offering service survive or will those aggregating multiple data streams dominate?
- Can these services grow on an ad based model or is a subscription necessary?
- How are companies using social motivation to encourage consistent engagement and long term participation?
Come and find out the answers to these and many more questions at the next MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) event moderated by Gary Wolf, co-founder of The Quantified Self and editor of Wired Magazine. Click here to register.
When:
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
6:00 – 7:00pm Networking and Refreshments
7:00 – 8:30pm Panel Discussion and Q&A
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