It’s the morning after Thanksgiving and we’re anticipating a quiet Innovation Breakfast.  Those who are not still in a turkey-induced food coma are either out hitting the stores for Black Friday or spending time with family.  I hope.  So we’ll use this time to provide a little holiday warmth and cheer — either early for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas — or late for Thanksgiving.  We’re especially thankful for:

• Everyone who helped make Mass Innovation Nights a reality — “Mom and Dad” — High Rock Media and Carlton PR & Marketing; the team at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation; our first sponsor, TurboPR; Scott Kirsner, whose blog post was our official launch announcement; our first uber-intern, Jennie White; the people who rolled out tables, helped clean up, bought drinks, or manned the registration table; Jamie Bradley from Sophwell who gave us our signage; the team at the IBM Innovation Center, who took us in when the Museum flooded; our spring and summer interns, Doug, Eric and Jodi; the social media mavens (especially Jeff and Joselin) who tweeted and blogged about the events and new products we showcase; the experts who donated their time to talk to the entrepreneurs; and more recently the teams at Microsoft, Mass Challenge and Clock Tower Place for supporting our wanderings.  And, how can we forget, the innovators, product managers and entrepreneurs who believe in what we are doing enough to bring their super-cool, nifty and yes, innovative products out on a Wednesday night and spend a couple hours answering questions for a flood of people who may not be from their industry.  While we say we put on Innovation Nights for you, in truth, without you, it would be pretty boring.
• Everyone who is helping with the new Innovation Nights LLC, especially Tim Stansky and Karen Hu.
• Everyone who came out to speak at one of the Innovation Breakfast 1.0 events and everyone who contributed to the conversations we had there.  To Rich and Keith who pushed me into doing it and Dan who cloned the Mass Innovation Nights website and turned “night” into “day.”
• The people who run Cafe on the Common in Waltham for welcoming us to gather every Friday morning for Innovation Breakfast 2.0 for no more than the price of coffee. (And maybe a bagel or scone too.)
• Everyone from the State of Massachusetts for their encouraging words, direction, ideas and occasional pushes to move things even further outside Boston and Cambridge.
• Everyone who currently runs an event or group who saw us not as a competitor but a resource and who helped us to extend our reach.  Who realized we didn’t come to compete but to support the same ecosystem. That together we can help make more companies successful.  GreenhornConnect, VentureFizz, BostonTweetup, MassHighTech, and the others who help promote events and provide industry calendars which are wonderful ways for innovators to connect with the resources they need to bring their products to market.  To organizations like The Capital Network who provide great services for entrepreneurs, helping them get funded.
• And to the gang on the home front who keep things running in our personal life…or what’s left of our personal lives.  And the friends who are patient with the “come to this networking event, or that one if you want to see me” existence.

We could go on, but look, even on the day after Thanksgiving, there are entrepreneurs and innovators who want to chat, network and connect…as the song goes, we’ve only just begun.  Who are you thankful for?