Quantum Insider Session Series: Strategic Networking in the Quantum Ecosystem for Collective Success

As part of our quantum computing business skills series, we’re excited to invite you to attend a live session on Strategic Networking in the Quantum Ecosystem for Collective Success with Alaina Kanfer from UIUC NCSA.

A version of this talk was presented at IEEE Quantum Week’s Exhibit Theater, and feedback was so positive that we wanted to bring this exciting presentation to our whole community.

Join us on Tuesday, 9 December 2025, at 1:00 PM EST.

Key Takeaways

You're developing a quantum technology with enormous potential—but it’s still emerging, and so is the market’s understanding.

Learning from science and network theory, as well as past tech revolutions and industry partnership programs, this talk describes how to build strategic partnerships that can help overcome barriers.

This session provides tools for startups, researchers, and enterprise technologists to work together to advance the evolving quantum ecosystem.

Speaker: Alaina Kanfer

Alaina Kanfer is Assistant Director for Strategic Partnership Development at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Driven by a passion for cutting-edge scientific discovery and its potential impact on society, she brings decades of expertise with fostering multidisciplinary collaborations, nurturing relationships with internal and external partners, and advancing technology ecosystems.  Her successes include building industrial-academic partnerships, securing technology research funding, facilitating public engagement, and helping to form new research groups. She earned her doctorate in Mathematical Social Science at the University of California, Irvine, specializing in social network analysis.