Summer’s usually not a big time for me to be blogging from tech conferences, but I decided I had to get to Ad:Tech Chicago, July 31 – August 1, because nothing beats hot, old sweaty downtown Chicago in the summertime. 
No, seriously, I’m getting soo into ad technology and widget technology these days, how could I miss it? And I actually love being on Lake Michigan — literally! It’s being held in the Navy Pier conference center. Lots of good speakers and exhibitors at this one that I want to hear from. Please, definitely look me up if you’re there and think you have something disruptive in the world of advertising and marketing that we should all know about.
The next day, I’m back in Minneapolis for a local gig, put on by The Collaborative. It’s called Summer Venture Camp, and it should draw a couple hundred of us crazy tech startup Minnesotans looking to rule the world from the Land of 10,000 Lakes (one of which I’m sitting next to right now, and about to dive in). 
I’ll see a lot of my friends and clients at this one….including a bunch of you in my GetGoMN network, I hope!
Then, come September, I’m stoked about being able to blog from my favorite conference of ’em all, another one of the famed DEMO events — this one DEMOfall ’07”,
in my favorite other place in the world, San Diego. 
Looking forward to seeing many of my media and blogger friends at this one — and, yes, I know a lot of you VCs colleagues will be lurking about, too… 🙂 Nothing beats hearing some 70 startups, many heretofore in stealth mode, pitch their new wares. DEMO rocks! And you’ll read all about it again right here, o faithful readers….
Not sure where I might be venturing off to in October but, in November, I just have to blog from the Defrag Conference in Denver. It’s being run by, among others, my old buddy Eric Norlin, with sponsors including the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association and Colorado’s CTEK organization. 
Guys like Brad Feld, VC extraordinaire in Boulder, are involved, too. I just gotta find out more about the the brand of startup mojo those guys have going’ there — it’s awesome! And how can you miss an event with a sales pitch like this:
“Defrag is the first conference focused solely on the internet-based tools that transform loads of information into layers of knowledge, and accelerate the ‘aha’ moment. Defrag is about the space that lives in between knowledge management, social networking, collaboration and business intelligence. Defrag is not a version number. Rather it’s a gathering place for the growing community of implementers, users, builders and thinkers that are working on the next wave of software innovation.”
Hurry up and register for this one. The buzz is building, and they only have room for 300 — which is a great size for an event. You can get to know people a lot better in a group of this size, and there will be mucho heavies in attendance here.
What events are on your radar in the next few months? Tell me in the comments….
Written from the shores of the Whitefish
Chain, north of Brainerd, Minnesota.
“We let everyone take advantage of our widgets — not just webmasters or bloggers who put the code on their pages, but any user of the widgets.” Users will receive a one-time only pop-up dialog when they confirm their vote, comment, etc., and PagePow will prompt them to log in and will briefly explain the benefits of tracking their data.
It was a tough ticket to get, as usual, sold out months in advance. A press pass? Hah! I could only dream. The closest I could come was knowing someone who scored a pass — for example, my editor at Conferenza, Gary Bolles (see below for link).
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