Here I am for my third consecutive year covering the Defrag conference in Denver. What an awesome event! The cream of the crop in tech — big thinkers, and lots of the Internet's movers-and-shakers and upcoming leaders. As I've done at two previous conferences this year, I'll be live-blogging the proceedings right here. I use a tool called Scribble Live, which I really like because I'm not limited to 140 characters per post, as I am when I live-tweet an event. Yet I can still attach photos if I wish to any given post (or even an audio or video file). Plus I can have my Twitter stream appear in real-time within the Scribble Live window as well — so it's the best of all worlds. Please follow along and let me know on Twitter how I'm doing. I'll start with the opening session Wednesday morning, and blog all the way through the final session late Thursday afternoon, when three of the original Cluetrain Manifesto guys will be on stage for the first time in 10 years.
Tag: conferences (Page 1 of 7)
My twice-yearly coverage of the DEMO conference — this one, the DEMOfall edition, where some 70 new ventures will be launching — will appear here. It's a special event because it will be executive director Chris Shipley's final DEMO, after 13 great years. She's co-producing this one with Matt Marshall of VentureBeat, who takes the sole producer role as of DEMO 2010.
Here's the page where my live blogging posts will appear, in real time as they are published: bit.ly/TWU3L. (I'll be leaving this post here at the top of my blog as a "sticky post" for a few weeks.) To do this live blogging, I'm using a great tool designed just for this purpose called "ScribbleLive." My coverage begins either Monday evening 9/21 (after the reception), or Tuesday morning 9/22 when the opening session kicks off, and goes through early afternoon Wednesday 9/23, when I must bolt for the airport.
At the last three DEMO events I've attended, I have live-tweeted them rather than live blog — and that works okay. But this approach is better, for a number of reasons: (1) I'm not limited to 140 characters per post… (2) I find it a nice middle ground between doing short, often hard-to-write (and understand!) tweets and the more rambling long-form blogging… (3) it's as fast or faster than tweeting… (4) it's way faster than me trying to post quickly on my own Typepad blog here… and (5) it prevents many of my Twitter followers from getting mad and unfollowing me when I'm doing so many rapid-fire tweets at events, which for a DEMO can be upwards of a couple hundred! Another cool thing is that I can attach a photo to any of my live-blog posts as well. (Though I will also upload all my pix to a Flickr set during and right after the event.) The tool also allows me to attach an audio or video file, if I wish, but I don't expect to do that.
For me, as a longtime event reporter, this ScribbleLive tool is really an ideal solution. Thanks to my colleague on Minnov8.com, Steve Borsch, who set up this tool for some of the other events we cover, and helped me with this one. Here's an example of how our team of four Minnov8 bloggers used the tool simultaneously for the first time: it was at the recent Blogwell event at General Mills in Minneapolis.
I look forward to DEMOfall and hope I hear from you — whether during the event, before, or after. I will likely be publishing some other, stand-alone posts here on this blog while at DEMOfall — namely, audio interviews, as I did for DEMO '09 back in March. To communicate with me, you can always post comments here at my blog. Or, talk to me via Twitter by putting @GraemeThickins at the beginning of your tweets — since I will be monitoring Twitter search closely as I live-blog the event. I'll be in my usual spot in row three of the press section, right down in front.
Could it be any more fun than getting to see this many entrepreneurs get up on stage and pitch their exciting new stuff at DEMO? Or maybe you'd rather sit at home and whine about "the economy"? Go ahead, wallow in your lamestream-media bullcrap. 
I'm goin' to the Disneyland of Entrepreneurship and Innovation: DEMO '09! Where the excitement of what's new and what's coming next in cool, new technology will encourage and inspire all those lucky enough to be there. And, if even if you can't be in the room, you'll have lots of online options to feel like you're almost there — which the DEMO folks tell you all about right here.
Yes, there are only 39 presenters this time, when 60-something have been common at most events in recent years. But, hey, what would you expect in these times? It's not quantity — it's quality! The DEMO producers never disappoint on that.
Here's the current crop of lucky presenters:
• 7 Billion People, Inc., Austin, TX
• Always Innovating, Inc., Mountain View, CA
• AppZero Corp., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Asurion Mobile Applications, Inc., San Mateo, CA
• Avaak, Inc., San Diego, CA
• BitGravity, Inc., Burlingame, CA
• bluBuzz, LLC, Holland, MI
• Cc:Betty, Inc., Palo Alto, CA
• Citrix Online, Goleta, CA
• Coveroo, Inc., San Francisco, CA
• deskNET, Lausanne, CH
• Document Depository Corp., LLC, Wayne, PA
• eFormic, Ltd., Stuttgart, DE
• Ensembli, Ltd., Sheffield, Great Britain
• Evri, Inc., Seattle, WA
• Gazaro, Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• HAM-IT, Inc., North Andover, MA
• Home-Account, Inc., San Francisco, CA
• HowSimple, LLC, Huntington Beach, CA
• Jadoos, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
• Kutano Corp., Burnaby, BC, Canada
• Liquid Media, LLC, Arvada, CO
• Ontier, Inc., Portland, OR
• Primal Fusion, Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
• Promptu Systems Corp., Menlo Park, CA
• Purewire, Inc., Atlanta, GA
• Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc., San Diego, CA
• Qubes, Inc., Taipei, Taiwan
• Silverstone Solutions, Inc., San Francisco, CA
• Skout, Inc., San Francisco, CA
• SmartyCard, San Mateo, CA
• Symantec Corp., Mountain View, CA
• Technicopia, LLC, Carmel Valley, CA
• Transformyx, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA
• Vokle, Inc., Santa Monica, CA
• Xandros, Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• XMARKS, San Francisco, CA
• Zipadi Technologies, LLC, Bluffdale, UT
• Zuora, Inc., Redwood City, CA
If you're attending or presenting, look me up, starting Sunday evening at the opening reception. Then I'll be in the grand hall all day Monday and Tuesday, sitting in the press area up front. In a new wrinkle this year, I'll be doing audio interviews with startup team members and various friends and colleagues I run into — then posting those MP3s regularly to my blog during the two-and-a-half days. And, of course, I'll be live-tweeting the whole affair as well — as I have several times now.
To communicate with me, please comment here on my blog, or you can always reply or DM me on my Twitter page, which is simply @GraemeThickins. Please follow me there for the full-on firehose of DEMO updates! My tweets will also be running at this aggregator page, where all DEMO '09 attendees' tweets will appear: @DEMOchatter.
The DEMO conferences have a long, rich history, serving for some 19 years as "The Launchpad for Emerging Technology." It's a brand like no other in the conference business. And I can say that as someone who's been reporting on a wide range of technology conferences for more than a decade. DEMO isn't so much a meeting or event as it is a spirit, a dedication, a community of people who celebrate new ideas and product innovations, and the thrill of building those into companies. (There's a lot more on the DEMO web site, and here's their About page.)
As closely as I follow all things DEMO (and I attend both their flagship U.S. events, spring and fall, every year), I was as shocked as anyone when a press release jumped out at me as I scanned my email inbox around midnight on February 18, saying DEMO was forging a long-term partnership with VentureBeat, and, after 13 years as executive producer, Chris Shipley was passing the torch to VentureBeat's Matt Marshall.
The next day, I emailed Chris and asked if she'd consent to be interviewed. I thought the week before DEMO '09 would be a good time (in the lull as we press and bloggers anxiously await the well-guarded list of who will be presenting at the event) to delve into the background behind this startling news announcement, and get Chris' own words on why and how it came about. She was kind enough to agree. I especially wanted to cover this story because a mini-firestorm had erupted in the blogosphere of conjecture and commentary on this news, and I felt a real need to clear the air. So, she and I conducted the following email exchange over the past couple of days. (Just as background, Chris is CEO and founder of her own analyst firm, Guidewire Group, and has been throughout her entire stint as DEMO's executive producer.)
Tech~Surf~Blog: Chris, how hard a decision was this to make? Have you been considering it for some time? What made this the right time?
Chris Shipley: Neither I nor Guidewire Group took this step lightly. DEMO has been a big part of my career and a key client to Guidewire Group for a long time, and it's difficult to make a big change like this. At the same time, I've been able to accomplish many of the goals I've set for DEMO, and while there is still a long and rich future ahead of the DEMO brand, Guidewire Group poses new and bigger challenges, challenges that I find very exciting. Is there ever a "right time" to make a big change? I'm not sure, but I do know that Guidewire Group's focus — working with young companies as they face significant points of transition — couldn't be more needed than now. As we put our full attention on our clients, I believe we'll have plenty of opportunity to help companies through this tough economy.
Tech~Surf~Blog: What did you think of a certain Silicon Valley tech blog that shall remain nameless running a story saying that "DEMO is in trouble"? And what's been your take on the media interest in general that's resulted in your decision to pass the baton?
Chris Shipley: Honestly, I don't think much about it at all. DEMO isn't in trouble; it's a strong brand that continues to deliver value to its customers.
Your question implies that last summer's market noise drove my decision to step down from DEMO, which is not at all the case. I'm not leaving DEMO so much as I am going to a new and exciting opportunity.
You know, there's a lot of "Inside Baseball" in the blogosphere and in Silicon Valley. I've really never been a big participant in those conversations because I don't find them particularly relevant to what I'm trying to do: work with young companies to help them deliver great products to customers who value the relationship with that company. The vast majority of those customers don't care who launched what gossip about whom. They care about solving real problems effectively and cost-efficiently. So, it seems a much better use of my time to listen to the broader market rather than the echo chamber that the Valley can too often be.
Tech~Surf~Blog: How long have you known your designated successor, Matt Marshall of VentureBeat? How influential were you in his selection as your successor? DEMO has stated it plans to delve into "deeper topics." Will the fact that Matt has a Ph. D. in government mean the event will try to appeal more to policy wonks and academics? Or what does that portend for the brand, really?
Chris Shipley: I met Matt as he was founding VentureBeat in 2006, and immediately recognized him as a smart, ethical guy passionate about entrepreneurs and the venture ecosystem. When I finally made the decision to step down, IDG asked me to help identify my successor and I immediately thought of Matt. I approached him in the fall and worked closely with both VentureBeat and IDG to make the deal happen.
By "deeper topics," I think Matt's saying that the combination of the live event (DEMO) and the online media property (Venture Beat) creates the opportunity to continue a conversation across the two forums. The DEMO events cover only about six days a year. Now, with VentureBeat, DEMO can be a 365-days-a-year community, and that, fundamentally, will allow the conversation to dive deeper into themes and trends.
You know, I don't see Matt as a policy wonk or academician so much as I view him as a thoughtful, hard-working journalist. I think he'll bring that energy and integrity to the DEMO event, infuse it with his own style and interests, and ultimately make the event his own. That's what I hope for him, for DEMO, and for the DEMO community.
Tech~Surf~Blog: How much time will Matt devote to DEMO versus running his own company (which isn't even three years old yet)? How much time did you personally devote to DEMO versus running your own longstanding firm, Guidewire Group?
Chris Shipley: Ultimately, that's a question for Matt, so I'll leave it to him to answer. DEMO is, however, a big job and it is time consuming. Like every other entrepreneur, I had to get smart about how I spend the limited resource that is my time. I think I was able to do that reasonably well. Ultimately, though, I determined that the exciting and energizing work ahead for Guidewire Group is work I want to be dedicated to full time. And that's what drove the decision to step down from DEMO.
Tech~Surf~Blog: As DEMO's executive producer, it's no secret you travel a lot, worldwide, to meet one-on-one with startups. Did this demanding travel schedule have anything to do with your decision? Or did other aspects of doing the same thing for 13 years enter in?
Chris Shipley: I love the travel because I love meeting entrepreneurs in their business environments, no matter if it's an office in Mountain View or one in Taipei or Madrid or Adelaide. It's critical, I think, to understanding local market constraints and opportunities. And it puts Silicon Valley in appropriate perspective. Guidewire Group has international reach and international clients. It is, in no small part, what differentiates us from other analyst firms. So, I don't think the travel demands are going to change very much, and I'm not sure that I'd want them to.
The subtext of the question, really, is "what drove you from DEMO?" It seems people want the "real story" behind my departure. The true and remarkably non-salacious answer is "nothing." DEMO is a great property. It is a tremendous platform. And it has been an honor to oversee this event and work with so many passionate entrepreneurs over the last 13 years. DEMO never got boring, and I am not tired of DEMO, or run down by the travel, or discouraged by competitive or even economic pressure.
I'm not leaving DEMO so much as I am going to a great new challenge: building Guidewire Group into a world-class analyst and advisory firm, focused on early-stage companies that, at times of transition and critical decision, need a fresh perspective to help form and validate their strategies and positions. Working intensely to help startups succeed. What could be more fun than that?
Tech~Surf~Blog: What's your take on the health of the technology startup mindset? Has it changed with the recession, now increasingly a worldwide one? Have you observed differences, now or over the years, between U.S. entrepreneurs and those in other countries? Is there a reason more non-U.S. startups seem to be increasingly pitching at DEMO conferences?
Chris Shipley: Are you testing my ability to parse a multi-part question? 😉 This is, without question, the deepest recession in the technology market I've experienced in the 25 years I've been covering the industry. It is affecting every company, not just one over-inflated sector, and it is global in scale. Without question, the recession will cull the flock. Companies that lack the resources, leadership, and vision to manage through this crisis will go away. And those that are just a little bit smarter, a little bit faster, a little bit more courageous will win the day. That's true whether they are in Silicon Valley, the United States, or in any other part of the world.
I used to see a pretty big capabilities gap between U.S. and non-U.S. technology entrepreneurs. That gap has closed pretty dramatically. While there are still many cultural and business structural differences that separate U.S. and foreign entrepreneurs, I think I could argue successfully that the barriers that non-U.S. entrepreneurs face are exactly the conquests that make them smarter, more adaptable, and ultimately more successful companies. Think of it: it's relatively (and I stress "relatively") easy to create a business in an environment that offers all the support and infrastructure an entrepreneur could need. It's a whole lot harder to do that same work without the support systems. So a company that is successful without the support is, arguably, going to be very successful when given the full comfort and care of a nurturing environment like Silicon Valley, even if it is also more competitive.
We consciously went looking for non-U.S. companies to bring to DEMO for exactly that reason. This is a global market. Competition can come from anywhere. Great new ideas aren't bound to Silicon Valley. I've tried to reflect that in the DEMO lineup.
Tech~Surf~Blog: Please tell us about Guidewire Group. How many employees do you have? Who are your clients? What is your mission? And what if anything will change about Guidewire Group now that you've stated it will become 100% of your focus, once you transition fully from your role at DEMO after the fall 2009 event?
Chris Shipley: Guidewire Group is a global analyst firm that works with early-stage companies to effectively build and execute their business strategies. We've identified opportunity in working with young companies at key transition points, to develop and deliver business strategy, monetization plans, and market validation. Through custom projects, retained analyst services, events such as Innovate!Europe, and Guidewire Studio, our exclusive in-residence program, we're doing the work we love most — helping startups thrive.
We work with a range of clients, both startups and large companies that want to build their relationships with early-stage companies.
We are a small team today, although I suspect that will change a bit over the next year. We have so many ideas that we want to pursue, and with full focus, time, and passion, I know we'll be able to bring the best of those ideas to life for the benefit of our clients and community.
Tech~Surf~Blog: Many thanks for taking the time, Chris. Best of luck in the next, exciting chapter of your career. And I'll see you at DEMO '09 in Palm Desert. I'm so looking forward to that opening reception Sunday night…
Chris Shipley: Thanks, Graeme. I really do appreciate your support. See you in a couple of days.
Photo credits: 1) DEMO PR photo, 2) my own photo as I left DEMO '08, January 30, 2008.
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As noted to the right in my sidebar, I'll be reporting from the DEMO conference coming up soon in Southern California. I always look forward to this time of year. I think it will be my seventh or eighth DEMO event in a row (they're held twice a year), and maybe my tenth overall. DEMO is "The Launchpad for Emerging Technology." 
Nowhere else can you get a reading on what's coming in tech better than you can at this event. Click in that graphic to the right for details about registering.
DEMO prides itself in finding the "diamonds in the rough" before anyone else. Over the years, this event has been the site of the first launch of such ventures as Palm, Java, TiVo, and E*TRADE in the mid/late '90s, and, in more recent years, Salesforce.com, VMware, Six Apart, OddPost, IronPort, GrandCentral, and Glam Media, to name a few.
DEMO says it focuses "on real products ready for market—regardless of their geography." Presenting firms hail from many countries.
So, who attends this thing? Media and bloggers, VCs, business development professionals, IT executives, and new technology firms from all over the world. DEMO says 15,000 people have attended their events over the past
19 years. Read more here: Who Attends DEMO? Here's a sampling of companies the people of DEMO have told me will be attending the upcoming event on March 1-3: Deutsche Telekom AG, August Capital, Meakem Becker Venture Capital, First Round Capital, Allegis Capital, Motorola, Google, Hitachi America, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Symantec, UBS, NYSE, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, VentureBeat, Business Week, Forbes, ABC, eWeek, North Bridge Ventures, NTTCOMWARE, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Verizon, Alcatel-Lucent, SVB Capital, Mayfield Fund, Granite Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and more.
What kinds of firms will be pitching? Well, DEMO doesn't let out much in advance of the show — certainly not the list of presenters. That's a big secret. (Companies actually have been dropped from the event if they leak that they're presenting. And we press attendees, of course, have to honor that embargo as well.) The list of presenters is only released the Friday night before the event, which kicks off with a Sunday night reception. (I always post that list of presenters as soon as it's released to the press, so watch this space on the evening of February 27th.) But the DEMO producers did provide me with an interesting set of stats on the DEMO '09 presenters, represented in a couple of charts. So, here's a Breakdown of DEMO '09 Presenters by Market Segment and Funding to Date:
But should we really be expecting much excitement at DEMO this year? Isn't the economy in the tank? Does innovation really move ahead in these times? You bet it does! And the DEMO blog cites recent examples of that from the 2001 downturn. Sure, there will be fewer attendees, and fewer presenters. For the last several shows, we've seen about 65 presenters on average doing their six-minute pitches at each event. This time, it will undoubtedly be less, maybe may even fewer than 50. But I guarantee you we'll be hearing some of tomorrow's big winners, on stage for the first time. Because we always do. And the anticipation of that is, frankly, really exciting to me, and to the rest of 500+ who will be attending. It is an extremely upbeat affair, every single time.
There are some great updates being posted on The DEMO Blog, by Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, and other staff members. Here are three recent posts:
• Two Panels Just Announced for DEMO '09 … VCs on one, past DEMO company CEOs on the other
• Smart Money Takes a Flight to Quality … "yes, it's a great time to throw a conference that launches new technology products, spots trends, and celebrates innovation"
• Making a Lasting Impact … about how one past DEMO presenter, battery company Boston Power, is growing rapidly
And give a quick listen to a podcast about DEMO '09 recorded on January 29 by my friend Keith Shaw of Network World and Carla Thompson of the Guidewire Group.
Your intrepid reporter: pumped and ready. I can't wait to live-tweet DEMO '09! I did somewhere between 200 and 300 newsy tweets at the last one — so (fair warning) get ready for the firehose! And I'll be doing podcast interviews for the first time, too, with my whiz-bang new toy: a studio-quality handheld recorder. I'm gonna give it a go in the way of some short, ad-hoc interviews of presenting company founders, VCs, and various luminaries wandering the great hall, the pavilion, and (of course) the hallways. And I'm told I can upload these pretty quickly to my blog, giving those of you who can't be there at least a near-realtime sense of what's going on at DEMO.
Will you be going to DEMO '09? If so, let us know in the comments! (And let's try to meet up face-to-face.) If you can't make it, what would you most like to see covered? What answers would you be seeking if you were there? What you would most want to get out of the event?
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