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About the conference: A growing heterogeneity of demand, the advent of “long tail markets”, exploding product complexities, and the rise of the creative consumer are demanding innovative strategies from companies in all industries. For many companies, Mass Customization and Personalization (MCP) is an answer. The biannual World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization (MCPC) is the primary event in this domain. Join us for the MCPC 2007 at MIT, where leading-edge developers, analysts, business thinkers, and researchers creating MCP strategies & technologies intersect with entrepreneurs and corporate managers seeking out these applications to gain a competitive edge.

We invite you to MIT for an in-depth discussion on, for example, co-design toolkits, mass customization strategies, product design for high variety, virtual models, lead user methods, customization value, market trends, open source architecture, customization communities, product family design, MC supply chains, and many case studies, often presented by the company's founder or CEO. The MCPC 2007 is a multi-track conference featuring a unique combination of high profile keynotes with expert talks, panel discussions, interactive sessions, workshops, receptions, and much more. A Business Seminar with keynotes from Don Tapscott (“Wikinomics”) and Dell's Supply Chain Evangelist Mike Gray at HEC Montreal on October 11th, 2007 will provide a focused top-management-view on mass customization in retail and the future of virtual identities.

 
Program of Oct 7-9, 2007: MIT Stata Center
MCP Research & Innovation Conference at MIT
Program of Oct 11-12, 2007: HEC Montreal
MCPC 2007 Business Seminar in Montreal, Quebec
 
... MCPC@MIT Sponsors We thank our sponsors of the MCPC@MIT!
 
Oct 7-9, 2007: MCP Research & Innovation Conference at MIT
MIT Stata Center: Bringing Mass Customization to the Next Level
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MCPC 2007 @ MIT
 

Oct 7, 2007 (Sun - MIT Stata Center):

9:00-15:15: Pre-Conference Workshops

(Noon: Regular Conference Registration opens at the Stata Center)

3:45 pm: Opening Keynotes

Conference Opening: Welcome to the MCPC 2007
William Mitchell, MCPC 2007 Chair
Ryan Chin and Betty Lou McClanahan, MCPC 2007 Organizers
Frank Piller and Mitchell Tseng, MCPC 2007 Program-Chairs

Opening Keynote by B. Joseph Pine II: The Past, Present, and Future of Mass Customization
B. Joseph Pine II, Strategic Horizons LLP,
Author
of “Mass Customization” and Co-Author of “The Experience Economy”

Opening Keynote: Mass Customization 2.0: Creating the Missing Link Between The Long Tail and MCP
Brennan Mulligan, Senior Vice-President, Zazzle.com

6:15 pm: Opening Reception at the MIT Stata Center

 

Oct 8, 2007 (Mon - MIT Stata Center):

8:30: Keynote Sessions

Product Grammars, Customization, and Consumer Choice
Prof. William J. Mitchell, MIT Media Lab and MIT School of Architecture
     

Mass Customization and Architecture
Kent Larson, MIT Media Lab and MIT School of Architecture, House_n consortium, MIT Open Source Building Alliance

10:00 - 11:15 : Parellel sessions I

  • Creating New Markets by Innovative Mass Customization Offerings
  • Strategies and Cases of MCP in Architecture & Construction
  • Expanding Mass Customization Thinking: What is Next
  • Value of Customization: Why do customers value customization? (I)
  • Developing Powerful Product Platform Architectures

11:25 - 12:40 : Parellel sessions II

  • MC Fashions: Learning From MCP Entrepreneurs in the Fashion Industry
  • Concepts & Tools of MCP in Architecture & Construction
  • Extreme Examples of Executing Mass Customization
  • Value of Customization: Why do customers value customization? (II)
  • Managing Complexity & Cost in MC Product Architectures

1:45 - 2:20: Keynote Session

Toolkits for Collaborative User Innovation
Prof. Eric von Hippel, MIT Sloan School of Management

2:30 - 3:45: Parellel sessions III

  • What is Next in Open Innovation & Customer Interaction
  • Mass Customization of Apparel: Strategies & Technologies
  • Strategies and Conceptual Thinking in User Manufacturing
  • Creating MCP Systems that Sell
  • Setting the Right Degree of Variety
  • Panel: Mass Customization in Education (I)

4:00 - 5:15: Parellel sessions IV

  • User Innovation Strategies & Policies
  • The Elements of Successful MCP Manufacturing Systems
  • Examples and Capabilities for User Manufacturing
  • The Paradox of Choice: Complexity of MCP Configuration
  • Factors Influencing MCP Design
  • Panel: Mass Customization in Education (II)

5:20 - 6:35 Parellel sessions V

  • User Innovation in Practice: Real World Insights from User Innovation Entrepreneurs
  • Manufacturing Cells for Mass Customization Manufacturing
  • Advances in Rapid Manufacturing Technologies
  • Mass Customization of Apparel: Case Studies
  • Comfort, Usability, and Safety by and for MCP

7:00 pm: Conference reception: A Night At the MIT MUSEUM

 

Oct 9, 2007 (Tue - MIT Stata Center):

8:15 - 9:30: Parellel sessions VI

  • How to Profit From Lead Users
  • Mass Customization Effectiveness
  • Linking Between Product Architecture & Configuration System Design
  • Best Practices & Experiences in MCP Marketing
  • Strategies for Customized Footwear: State of the Art

9:45 - 11:00: Parellel sessions VII

  • Application of Open Innovation Methods & Tools
  • Reality Check: Strategies for Mass Customization
  • Tools and Methods for MCP Toolkits
  • Showcase Panel: Design-Inspired Innovation
  • Case Studies and Technologies for Mass Customization in the Footwear Industry
  • Mass Customization of Automobiles (paper session)

11:15 - 12:30: Parellel sessions VIII

  • Mass Customization Information Systems
  • Differentiating Mass Customization Strategies
  • Strategies for Service Customization
  • MCP Production Planning & Scheduling
  • Making the Clothes Fit: Body Measurement, Scanning, and Virtual Models
  • Mass Customization of Automobiles (panel)

1:45 - 2:20: Keynote Session

The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind – and What We Can Learn From This For Mass Customization & Personalization
Prof. Marvin Minsky, MIT Media Lab and MIT AI Lab

2:20 - 3:35: Parellel sessions IX

  • MCP Toolkits in Practice: Experiences and Insights
  • The Mass Customization Profit Chain: The Example of the Furniture Industry
  • Approaches and Tools for the Design of Service Customization
  • Supply Chain Design for Delivering Customized Products
  • Design, Virtual Garments, and Virtual Models

3:50 - 5:05: Parellel sessions X

  • Enabling Open Innovation & Customization in Consumer Electronics
  • Change Management for MCP
  • Case Studies in Service Customization
  • Managing Supply Chain for Delivering Customized Products

5:15-6:00: Panel Discussion:

The State and Future of Mass Customization & Personalization

Chairs: William Mitchell, Frank Piller and Mitchell Tseng

 

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Time for network meetings, research group discussions, or a MIT campus visit

Travel to Montreal (on your own, rent a car for a nice four-hour drive or take a plane or bus) and Pre-registration for the MCPC 2007 Business Seminar will be available at HEC Montreal in the Main Lobby  (3000 Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 2A7).

17:00 to 19:00 Evening Cocktail in Old Montreal


Did you miss the conference?

Order the conference proceedings and a CD-Rom with the full text of all presentations.

 

MCPC 2007 Keynote Presentations

B. Joseph Pine II: The Past, Present, and Future of Mass Customization

When Stan Davis coined the term "Mass Customization" in 1987 it was an oxymoron. When B. Joseph Pine II popularized the term in his 1993 book of that name, he described it as "the new frontier". Today it has become an imperative for companies across a wide range of industries. Hear Joe Pine discuss the origins of the movement that led to MCPC, his views on the current state of the art, and where his continuing search for how businesses can add economic value through their offerings is leading him -- and where it could take us.

Prof. Eric von Hippel, MIT Sloan School of Management: Toolkits for collaborative user innovation

Toolkit development within the field of mass customization has so far focused on assisting individual customers in customize a product - for example, a custom Adidas shoe or a custom semiconductor designed by and for a particular user. But outside the boundaries of mass-customized production, toolkits for COLLABORATIVE user innovation are emerging like Google map mashup toolkits.  Here, many users apply a toolkit to collaboratively design a rich and complex joint product. We explore the implications of this trend for mass customization.

Prof. William J. Mitchell, MIT Media Lab and MIT School of Architecture: Product Grammars, Customization, and Consumer Choice
     

In this presentation, William Mitchell demonstrates the use of product grammars for concisely describing customizable products and specifying their ranges of variants. He will show that this provides a rigorous way of defining customization possibilities, assuring that all possibilities are functional and safe, creating configurators, and exploring supply chain and assembly strategies.

Prof. Marvin Minsky, MIT Media Lab and MIT AI Lab: The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind – and What We Can Learn From This For Mass Customization & Personalization
     
Marvin Minsky is one of the founders of the study of Artificial Intelligence, and also has made many contributions to computer science, psychology, mathematics, linguistics, robotics, and optics.  Since the early 1950s, Professor Minsky has developed computational models of human mental processes and, in recent years has worked chiefly on ideas about how human commonsense reasoning works. He is the author of the 1987 bestseller ‘The Society of Mind’ (which is also the title of the course he teaches at MIT) and its new sequel, The Emotion Machine. This book suggests that we can best understand human emotional states by regarding them, not as different or complementary to   'intellectual' or 'rational' mental conditions, but as being among our many different, alternative mental strategies or "Ways to Think." In his presentation, he will connect his latest thinking with the design of better customization and personalization offerings.

Kent Larson, MIT Media Lab and MIT School of Architecture, House_n consortium, MIT Open Source Building Alliance: Mass Customization and Architecture

Kent Larson is director of Changing Places: a joint MIT Department of Architecture and Media Laboratory research consortium. He also runs the associated House_n consortium and the MIT Open Source Building Alliance within the Department of Architecture. Current research focuses on strategies for creating responsive places of living using new design/fabrication strategies, defining system level standards for an open source approach to building design and construction, and developing ubiquitous sensing/computation technologies that do useful things for people related to proactive health, energy conservation, communication, and learning. Larson's group, with TIAX, has developed a unique research facility called the PlaceLab to systematically prototype and test new technologies and design concepts in the context of everyday life. Larson practiced architecture for 15 years in New York City in partnership with Peter L. Gluck, and more recently as Kent Larson, Architects P.C., with work published in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Global Architecture, the New York Times, A+U, and Architectural Digest. His book, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks was selected as one of the Ten Best Books in Architecture, 2000 by the New York Times Review of Books. Related work was selected by Time magazine as a "Best Design of the Year" project.

Brennan Mulligan, Vice President, Zazzle.Com; Founder & Former CEO of Timbuk2, USA: Mass Customization 2.0: Creating the Missing Link Between The Long Tail and MCP
                                                                       
Zazzle is the world's creativity marketplace that enables thousands of users every day to customize their own products, but also to shop for products created by their peers. Zazzle created a profitable and scalable business model that delivers what it promises. The company was originally started on the concept of "create your own". But time passes, though, and sales are shifting to the Zazzle marketplace, where semi-pro designer shop their wares to consumers. This is where mass customization meets the long tail. Brennan Mulligan has a long track record in mass customization: He was founder and CEO of Timbuk2.com, the first online customizer of bags. later, he helped Nike and rebook, among others, to start their mass customization initiatives. He last company, confego, was acquired by Zazzle.com.

 


Did you miss the conference?

Order the conference proceedings and a CD-Rom with the full text of all presentations.

 

 

Oct 11-12, 2007: Business Seminar in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal HEC: An Extreme Makeover of Retail

MCPC 2007 Business Seminar @ HEC Montreal

Oct 10, 2007 (Wed)

Travel to Montreal (on your own, rent a car for a nice four-hour drive or take a plane or bus) andPre-registration for the MCPC 2007 Business Seminar will be available at HEC Montreal in the Main Lobby  (3000 Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 2A7).

17:00 to 19:00 Evening Cocktail in Old Montreal


Oct 11, 2007
(Thu - HEC Montreal)

Business Seminar and Reception: Meet mass customization experts from more than 20 companies in three keynotes and 5 interactive panel sessions


Oct 12, 2007
(Fri)

Workshop at MyVirtualModel: Using Virtual Models of Products, Customers, and Identities for Competitive Advantage: An introduction into the latest tools, technologies, and strategies
                                                                        

Special registration required. The free workshop will take place at MVM in Montreal, 80 Queen Street, Montréal (Québec), Canada, H3C 2N5

NEW: For more detailed information on the MCPC 2007 Business Seminar, please visit our special sub-site!.


MCPC 2007 Keynote Presentations -- Business Seminar

Don Tapscott, Chief Executive of New Paradigm, and Adjunct Professor of Management at the University of Toronto

Don is an internationally renowned authority on the strategic value and impact of information technology. He has authored or co-authored eleven widely read books on technology and business, including his most recent Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, which will form the basis of his presentation. He is also the author of The Naked Corporation, Digital Capital and Growing Up Digital.

Mike Gray, Supply Chain Evangelist – Dell, Inc.

With Dell for over 15 years, Mike is considered an expert on Dell’s unique approach to supply chain management. He has been a lead architect for many of the business processes that allow Dell to achieve its unprecedented levels of inventory while maintaining industry-leading customer service. Mike Gray is a lifetime Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) with the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and is also certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM) by APICS, the Association for Operations Management.


The MCPC 2007 Audience

A key characteristic of the MCPC conferences is a unique mix of practicioners and academics from different disciplines. This enables all participants to learn from both practical experience and latest research in the field -- and provides great networking opportunities.

During the previous conferences, the audience mix was as follows:

45% Practitioners

  • 15% Consumer goods (packaged goods, consumer electronics, fashion)
  • 20% Industrial goods
  • 10% Other (e.g., service industries)

10% Consultants, Managers from Technology Providers, etc.

45% Academics

  • 20% Engineering and Information system
  • 20% Management & Marketing researchers
  • 5% other fields (design, architecture, etc.)

Overall number of participants toped 450 for the Munich event and 350 for the 2005 Hong Kong event. For the MCPC 2007 at MIT, we target more than 500 participants (due to the better location and the growing interest and application of mass customization).