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: Web/Tech (Page 7 of 21)

DEMO ’09 Presenters Announced – Best Damn Gig Goin’ In This Economy, and I’m There!

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.  DEMO-stage
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

DEMO-09-logo+datesIf 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.

Hints of What’s Coming at DEMO ’09

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."  DEMO-09-logo+dates
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.

DEMO-TheMomenContinues

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:

DEMO-09-stats 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?

Minnedemo Was Great … Now, How About Those Business Models?

If you're part of the Minnesota Internet and software community and you missed Minnedemo on Friday night, you must be bummed — as several of you told me from afar as I was tweetin' it … :-)  Minnedemo-logo
[Evidenced by this clip from my twitterstream that night, which shows a few of those who were talking back at me in real time.]  You missed a great event.  No worries, though, because myself and my buddies at Minnov8 posted lots of audio and video recorded at the event for your listening and viewing pleasure.

Minnedemo_Tweet-outs

But, for those of you who were there, how many of you noticed what I did?  Namely, the almost complete lack of the presenters talking about their business model?

I have something to propose for future Minnedemo pitches: how about, as part of the 7-minute presentation, a new rule is instituted that states a minimum of one minute of that has to be devoted to explaining the business model? Is that an unreasonable request? Even thirty seconds would be a welcome addition.

Now, I realize the traditional audience of Minnedemo is developers, listening to their fellow developers on stage presenting their cool, new code creations.  Elegance in app design and functionality have been the focus of pretty much every presentation I've seen at these events.  Or features.  Or UI design.  But, is not the end-game in all this something that might actually be commercially viable, too?  That is, a business that could make it in the real world?  From where I sit, more and more business people and investors have started to attend these quasi-quarterly events.

I don't mean to imply that none of the presenters on Friday night has a business plan. Of course, all but the very newest, coolest projects must have one, right?  And it would then follow that these presenting companies would have to have a business model for how they will make money.  They just didn't talk about it Friday night — or, in most cases, even mention it.

I say that's a big thing missing from Minnedemo. What do you think?  Should presenters be required to talk more about such things?

Where I’ll be Tonight: Minnedemo! Look Me Up…

For all of you readers, followers, and friends lucky enough to be in Minneapolis right now — yes, February is good for something! — it'll be All The Tech You Can Handle tonight at our quarterly Minnedemo event, mixed in a with a frosty brewski or two. BeerMug
Myself and a couple of my buddies from Minnov8.com (Steve Borsch and Tim Elliott) will even be there doing video and audio interviews for our next podcast — so get ready to have a mic shoved in your face while you're navigating that beer mug… 🙂

For the details of what's happening, here's the post I did on Minnov8 earlier this week:

Emerging Minnesota Software and Internet Technologies to Take the Stage on February 6

Entrepreneurs, software developers, and computer professionals of
all stripes will be rubbing shoulders again this Friday evening with
other hopeful company founders, VCs, angel investors, bloggers, and
media people from throughout the Twin Cities and other parts of the
Upper Midwest.  They'll
be gathering for what's become a not-to-be-missed quarterly geek-fest
called Minnedemo.

minnedemo-logo Billed as "the Twin Cities’ premier technology demo
and networking event," it features free beer, pop, munchies, and lots
of conversation, with product demonstrations mixed in between. The
latter are delivered from the stage of an auditorium with theater-like
seating. More than 200 people are expected to attend.

Minnedemo is being held for a second time at Intermedia Arts in
Uptown’s Lyn-Lake neighborhood, and will kick off about 6:00 p.m. this
Friday, February 6, with demos starting about 7:00. (Intermedia Arts is
located at 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408.) According to
Minnedemo organizer Luke Francl, "All are welcome, just please remember
to RSVP online." The web site for registering (again, it's free) is http://minnedemo.eventbrite.com/
This quarter's event will feature ten demos — five, then a break, then
five more. Most demonstrators will be launching their products or
showing off their creations for the very first time. Here they are
alphabetically:

actionchess-logo65wAction Chess
is a game app for the iPhone, described as a cross between Tetris
Attack, Tetris, and the classic board game Chess. The developer claims
it "makes your brain work in interesting ways." It will be released for
the iPhone in the coming weeks and will be demoed on stage. (Martin
Grider will present.)

amo-logo1Association Manager Online
(AMO) is a new web application from local development shop ArcStone
that let members, staff, and administrators of associations and
non-profits manage tasks (such as sending emails, posting documents,
collecting payments, etc) in a secure manner from any internet browser,
whether at home or work. (David Carnes will present)

bevpost-logoBevPost
is a site that lets consumers select coupons for their favorite adult
beverages and have them delivered directly to their cell phones, so
they can redeem them at their local liquor store and save cash. (John
Ballatine will present)

enstratus-logoenStratus
is a brand-new startup that's addressing the "confidence" questions
businesses naturally have as they move their systems into Amazon EC2
and other "cloud computing" environments. The company, recently
launched by the founders of successful local software firm Valtira,
provides a suite of cloud infrastructure management tools that enable
companies to automate the secure deployment, scaling, monitoring, and
disaster recovery of their cloud computing infrastructure. (George
Reese will present.)

loudclick-logoLoudClick
is a free website builder program that people can use to build web
sites around their interests together, all without the need of a
techie. (Alex Huff will present.)

nabbit-logoNabbit
lets you identify a song you hear on the radio using your mobile phone.
Just text Nabb and include the call letters of the station you're
listening to. The service will fetch the song information for you and
deliver it to your account page on its web site. The company also
recently introduced a native iPhone app. (Norton Lam will present.)

re-searchr-logore-searchr
is a social search app that lets you "find stuff easier" online. It
helps you get search results from people you trust, using data from
your friends to influence the re-searchr score presented on top of your
search results. Another feature pushes your questions out to your
social networks, where your friends can then answer or comment; the app
then lets you push back their answers or comments for others to see. 
(James Ostheimer will present.)

sendoncue-logoSendOnCue
is a browser plugin that lets you schedule email delivery for later. It
integrates directly into your email or webmail client. Send an email
reminder at a later date and time. Slow down a conversation by delaying
when your reply is sent. If you work odd hours, you can adjust the time
your email is sent. (Aaron Kardell will present.)

socialbrowse-logoSocialbrowse
is a YCombinator-funded startup that provides social bookmarking with
discussions in the browser. It lets you share and discuss the web in
real time, and see what's good on every page. It  combines your social
network with your everyday web browsing. You can share and discuss any
page with a single click. Pages you share or comments you make are
automatically sent to other users in your network. You receive
real-time updates of cool links shared by people you like. (Zack Garbow
and Dave Fowler will present.)

ZippyStat (no web site yet) is a simple online service to
record and monitor nearly any type of information such as your gas
mileage, business cards collected, "poops by your newborn," books read,
miles run, etc. (Kelly Heikkila will present.)

This Minnedemo event is sponsored by:
New Counsel
Split Rock Partners
Sierra Bravo
Tightrope Media Systems
The Foundation
VISI

In a first for Minnedemo, this entire event will be video recorded, courtesy of TJ Kudalis from Internet Broadcasting.
And, I'm told, monitors will be located in the networking area for
those that can't squeeze into the limited seating in the auditorium. In
addition, Minnov8 will be recording interviews throughout the
networking portion of the evening, with the help of 612Authentic, also
a first.  For more information, see the Minnedemo web site.

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