Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Weblogs/Blogging (Page 16 of 22)

What to Look for at DEMOfall – Part 1

Let’s take a look at what we can expect at DEMOfall 2006, where I’ll be bloging from next Tuesday and Wednesday. First, I notice nine non-U.S. companies are presenting, undoubtedly a result of executive producer Chris Shipley’s wild travel schedule. As Gary Bolles of Conferenza says, “she meets with more startups than anyone on the planet.” Demochrisshipley_1 For this fall’s event, I see on the list there’s a company from Canada (Cascada Mobile), one from Israel (eSnips), one from the UK (Moixa Energy), one from Germany (Open Business Club), one from France (Realeyes3D), one from Austria (SystemOne), another from the UK (Tao Group), another from Canada (Trigence), and another from France (Violet).

My “hardest-company-name-to pronounce” award, by the way — overall — has to go to one of these non-U.S. firms, Moixa. Ta-dah! Please come forward….. Now, tell us, is that moyxa…mo-ik-zah…or….huh??? And, looking through the entire list, including the U.S. entries, the most-confusing-name award has to go the Grand Central Communications. Why? At first, I thought — what? — that company was founded in 2000 by former CNet head Halsey Minor, and it was a web services outfit. This one appears to be VOIP startup, founded by two other guys, though there is little yet posted at their new web site. So, what’s with that? Did they acquire the domain of the previous firm? Is this a rebirth? Or is this just some kind of of a weird coincidence? That would be doubtful, since both firms are in SF….

By the way, speaking of the Bay Area, fully 45% of the presenting companies at this event are from there — 30 out of 67. Chris may travel the world, but why is it the geographic distribution of the DEMO presenting companies ends up, again, being heavily skewed to a certain county or two in NorCal? Could it be possilby be….the VCs? Or is it simply because more companies from there apply?

You tell me….

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A Bloggers Heyday in San Diego

Looks like the upcoming DEMO show will draw a ton of bloggers once again. The PR folks tell me the list already includes such names as TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, Techdirt, GigaOM, Gizmodo, Engadget, ForbesOnTech, buzzmodo, Kauffman’s eVenturing blog, Marc Orchant, Dan Farber, Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed, and others…including yours truly, of course. Demofall06logo I’ll continue to post a heads up or two about companies who’ll be presenting there over the next few days, and will be blogging onsite as well — starting late Monday night or early Tuesday morning, as the opening session fires up.

Oh, many of the usual press suspects will be there, too, I’m told: AP, USA Today, Business2.0, CNet, WSJ, PC Magazine, Forbes, Computerworld, InformationWeek, ZDNet. Notice how I list them second? 🙂

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Kicking Off My DEMOfall Coverage

You say the event hasn’t started yet? You’re right, it’s September 25-27. But that doesn’t stop me. I blog pre, during, and after such major conferences that I attend as a press registrant. [See my coverage of DEMO ’06 in February in Phoenix here.] Demofalllogo This is just my first post of what will be many for DEMOfall, and I’m looking forward to it.

So, what’s the buzz on this one as I sit here in Minneapolis, less than two weeks from my flight to San Diego? Well, not much that’s hit my radar so far. The DEMO folks like to keep a lid on things till it’s closer to showtime. [And why would they compete with all the Apple media hype going on right now, anyway (peaking today)?] These folks do know how to build the buzz quite well as they approach their conference dates, however, to hype both attendance and media coverage — which is considerable.

Coolest thing I’ve heard so far is the Widgetbox Competition, sponsored by one of the presenting companies at DEMOfall, one of about 70 chosen from hundreds of hopefuls. Demo06widephoto Haven’t seen the official list of all the presenting companies yet from the DEMO PR folks (and it may actually still be getting finalized). But if you search on “DEMOfall 2006,” you’ll see some companies are already promoting their selection to pitch at this event — names such as 4INFO, Simple Star, Add Me, MyPW, Headplay, Koral, Scrapblog, Mvox, and SiteKreator, to name a few.

How does DEMO select companies? Check out this recent series of podcasts from the show’s producer.

Watch this space for much more soon…

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Tales of an Out-of-Town ‘Blog Wrangler’

Some people blog for themselves, some people blog for companies. Chris Locke does both — the latter of late for Krugle Inc., Menlo Park, CA, a promising new code-search site. The man is multi-talented. [For those who don’t recognize the name, think book titles Cluetrain Manifesto and Gonzo Marketing, not to speak of the crazy web site EGR…and other antics too numerous to mention.] Suffice it to say, he knows how to have fun, tweak the righteous, and, well, how does one describe what Chris (aka Rageboy) does?

Anyway, a couple hours ago, I got an email from my old buddy Steve Larsen, CEO of Krugle, asking me and some of his blogger friends to basically check out this unauthorized post, and “Should I fire him?” I LOLed bigtime! The mad blogmeister was at it again. Loose in Silicon Valley, on an escape from his home base in Boulder, meeting with Steve’s new VP of marketing, and posting about his favorite subject: himself. But I have to give him a pass (and told Steve so) for wanting to break out a bit from his blog-for-hire gig, to “exercise (his) urge to cast aside (his) low-profile ways.” Hah! And do post a comment for Chris…he loves hearing from his fans. Best of all, he can also take anything any unsuspecting first-timer non-fan can dish at him. It only makes him more playful…and inclined to write more raging, inspired prose.

Meantime, what’s the latest with Krugle? Well, most significantly, they raised a $6.1M Series B, on the strength of their success earlier this year, including winning a “Demo God” award at the DEMO2006 event I covered in Feburary, and subsequently signing up 35,000 developers for their new service. Steve, by the way, is yet another former Minnesotan who found opportunity (and venture money) elsewhere. Someday, I’ll get him back here to talk about his experiences.

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