SAP and MyVenturepad hosted an event on December 4th at SAP's Morton St. offices in New York, to mark our first anniversary.    

As those of you who visit us here regularly know, MVP, an SAP-sponsored online community and social network for growth businesses and the experts who advise them, has been growing at an impressive rate from the day one and now includes a membership of over 1000 SME businesses and more than 80 bloggers.  


The event included a panel discussion around "Growing in a Down Economy" plus the participation of some 35 business influencers. Panelists included Albert Wenger, a Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures; John Jordan, PhD, Executive Director at the Center for Digital Transformation at Penn State University; and David Kidder, CEO at Clickable, as well as moderator Robin Carey, CEO and Co Founder of Social Media Today. There were also several, NY-based bloggers, including Barbara Weltman, Nina Kaufmann, Steve Mann, Marilyn Pratt, and Kirk Petersen. 

The conversation incorporated topics such as how SMEs can benefit from Web 2.0 and using online communities to grow their businesses, lessons learned from past economic cycles, how to focus on keeping customers, cost effective tools which SMEs should consider, and how to maintain business momentum and growth. 

Here are some pictures: