MANCEF's COMS WORLD 2020's Opening Keynote Address to be given by Kathy Ireland®, Chair, CEO and Chief Designer of kathy ireland® Worldwide

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MANCEF™ INC. (www.mancef.org), a USA-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Micro And Nano Commercialization of Emerging-technologies through Education Foundation ("MANCEF"), will hold its COMS WORLD 2020 conference October 19-22. Kathy Ireland®, Chair, CEO and Chief Designer of kathy ireland® Worldwide (kiWW®), is Keynote Speaker. 

Ms. Ireland's Keynote, set for Oct. 20 at 8 a.m. PDT, is titled "Finding Resilience and Success in Crisis," and will address the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and its effects on businesses, especially small businesses as well as provide tools and guidance for businesses to not only survive, but thrive during the pandemic. kiWW® was recently ranked as the 26^th most powerful brand in the world in Global License magazine's annual Top 150 Global Licensors issue.   

The 23^rd annual COMS conference, is renamed COMS WORLD 2020 this year, as speakers will join virtually from all over the globe, including from various states across the US, as well as Germany, Poland, UK, Australia, China, and the Philippines. In addition, small group (less than 25 people each, following local COVID-19 government mandates) satellite sub-conference locations have been established in CA, CO, NM, and Washington, D.C., and in Germany, Australia, and China.

COMS WORLD 2020 boasts 60+ speakers and panelists, including 33% women, which is in line with our #empoweringwomen initiative. A selection of the Keynote and invited speakers, and panelists include:

• Kathy Ireland, CEO kiWW® (Platinum sponsor), Rancho Mirage, CA, USA;
• Allan Dib – Bestselling entrepreneurial author of "The 1-Page Marketing Plan", and Managing Director, Successwise, Australia;
• Scott Case | Founding CTO, Priceline, and Founder and CEO Upside Business Travel (Bronze sponsor), Maryland, USA;
• Lucy Huang, CEO, Hanking Electronics (Bronze sponsor), China;
• Rafael Grossmann, MD, FACS, Bangor, ME, USA;
• Veena Misra, Ph.D. | Distinguished Professor, NC State University and Director NSF ERC ASSIST Center, North Carolina, USA;
• Joao Bocas, The Wearables Expert™, London, England, UK;
• Azar Alizadeh, Ph.D. | Principal Scientist, GE Global Research and Fellow/Co-lead NextFlex, Schenectady, NY, USA;
• Kurt Petersen, Ph.D. | Co-chair HardTech (formerly Wearables) Group, Silicon Valley band of Angels, Silicon Valley, CA, USA; and
• Mary Ann Maher, Ph.D. | Founder and CEO, SoftMEMS; Former CTO, MEMSCAP, France.

As Wednesday, October 21, is also Wearables and IoT/software Day, the conference will feature wearables talks and a Wearables Technology panel, titled   "Commercialization Challenges of Wearable Technology in Health & Wellness Tracking including Cybersecurity'. A second panel entitled, "Funding the Entrepreneurial Enterprise Successfully During a Crisis" will occur on Tuesday, October 20^th with moderator, Roger Grace, Founder and President, Roger Grace Associates (www.rgrace.com).

MANCEF also continues to hold its annual Entrepreneurial Workshop, which will be held on Monday 19^th October from 12am to 7pm EDT. Allan Dib will provide marketing feedback to company participants during the workshop and he will also present a 2-hour Keynote address on, "Entrepreneurial Marketing Strategies." Allan Dib will also be a mentor/coach alongside these selected notable entrepreneurs:

• Kurt Petersen, Ph.D. | Co-founder and CEO, SiTime (acquired by MegaChips) and Cepheid (acquired by Danaher); Co-founder and VP technology, NovaSensor (acquired by GE); Silicon Valley, CA, USA;
• Janusz Bryzek, Ph.D. | Co-founder and Chair, eXo; Co-founder Jyve (acquired by Fairchild Semiconductor), LV Sensors and CEO, NovaSensor (acquired by GE); Silicon Valley, USA;
• Steve Walsh, Ph.D. | Distinguished Professor, University of New Mexico (Gold sponsor); Albuquerque, NM, USA;
• Qaizar Hassonjee, Ph.D. | Co-founder and CDO Textronics, acquired by Adidas; Hass technology Associates, Robin Hood Ventures and Forbes Technology Council; PA, USA;
• John Canosa, Ph.D. | Co-founder and CEO, Palantiri Systems acquired by ThingWorx, A PTC Business, former Chief Strategist; Rochester, NY, USA;
• Inder Thukral, Ph.D. | Co-founder and CEO, Kognetics, Albany, NY, USA;
• Aard Groen, Ph.D. | Dean and Professor, Centre of Entrepreneurship, University Groningen, The Netherlands; and
• Robert Giasolli | Founder and CTO/VP R&D, Intact Vascular, which was acquired in part by Philips for $360M in August 2020; Operations Board Director, MANCEF; PA, USA.

This year's COMS WORLD 2020 is dedicated to MEMS/sensors colleague, friend and SiTime's Co-founder and former COO, Joe Brown who passed away on May 15, 2020. Next year's COMS WORLD 2021 will take place in Vietnam (date TBD), and a smaller local commercialization conference, COMET 2021 with a focus on MEMS/sensors will be held at Hanking Electronics' MEMS Campus in Shenyang, China.  (contact Hanking's CTO, Dr. Doug Sparks at [email protected] for more information).

All media representatives receive complimentary attendance. Please contact the MANCEF's President, Todd Christenson for a media registration special code. All others interested in attending please use the code 'comsfriend' to receive a 20% discount when registering at www.comsworld2020.com. All attendees receive FREE membership in MANCEF for 1-year. All presentations can be viewed by attendees for up to 2-months post the closing remarks of COMS WORLD 2020 next week.

About MANCEF™
MANCEF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization comprised of an international group of passionate technology commercialization evangelists whose goal it is to accelerate the commercialization of emerging technology of all varieties. Within this group one finds 'professional entrepreneurs' and highly experienced commercialization practitioners from industry, government and academia who possess hundreds of cumulative years of commercialization experience and have seen and coached newco's through numerous manufacturing, marketing, and product introduction pitfalls having a deep understanding of the ingredients necessary for commercialization success. Members of MANCEF are also available to provide direct mentoring through candid, constructive commercialization guidance and feedback one-on-one and case-by-case. This experience base can be accessed by sponsoring an international COMS or local COMET meeting as well as by sponsoring a MANCEF commercialization session in conjunction with your organization's professional meetings.

SOURCE MANCEF INC.

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