CMA Presents "Confessions of a 'Dot.Com' Refugee"

Did your "dot.com" "dot.bomb"? And why did the majority of the dot.com industry crash? Was it bad management or was the industry destined to fail? Experts are still trying to pick up the pieces and determine exactly what happened in the 1990s that made the industry grow exponentially, only to implode just as quickly.

Come hear Rich Fagen, former Vice President and Managing Director at Idealab, describe why some companies survived the economic extinction while others did not, what the surviving dot.coms did to persevere through their financial "winters," and why people left places like JPL and Campus only to return "ahead of the ice." Mr. Fagen will conclude his presentation with a glimpse of the future for some of the fortunate dot.coms.

Rich Fagen recently returned to Caltech after two years at Idealab, a creator of internet companies based in Pasadena. Rich began his career at JPL in 1979, where he was a Member of the Technical Staff and a Group Supervisor. In 1984, Rich moved to Campus, where he was Manager of User Services until 1990, then Director of Information Technology Services (formerly the Campus Computing Organization) until 1999.

This event is free. All JPL/Campus personnel are welcome.

For more information about this event, please send e-mail to [email protected] or call Michael Eastwood, (818) 354-9273.