Time for my traditional waltz through the business card stack from the DEMO conference last week in Palm Desert. Besides, I need something to do on the plane home. I always meet so many interesting people at these events, and this one was certainly no exception. The mood is so upbeat at DEMO, the energy level so high! I mean, 77 companies launching, and probably a half a dozen people in attendance from each firm on average (counting a PR rep and many times an investor or board member or two) — all higher than a kite, ready to tell anyone who’ll listen about their red-hot new company! 
On top of that, a press contingent of about 80 is wandering about, not to speak of a whole slew of VCs, angels, and corporate investors and biz dev people. I collect a lot of business cards from these folks, even though I’m quite busy most of the time, attending every session — nose to the Macbook and/or iPhone blogging or Twittering.
Before I get to the new folks I met, here are some of the folks I ran into again whom I already knew or had met previously (alphabetically by last name):
– Stewart Alsop, VC, Alsop-Louie Partners (and the original founder of DEMO)
– Renee Blodgett, Blodgett Communications (for SpeakLike and Toktumi)
– Gary Bolles, now CEO of new startup Xigi.biz
– Katie Boehret, Technology Reporter, Wall Street Journal
– Kevin Dorren. now Chairman, HubDub
– Dan Farber, VP Editorial, ZDnet
– Mike Garity, VP, Network World Conferences
– Dan Gillmor, Journalist, Author, Angel Investor (one is Seesmic)
– Paula Gould, PEG PR (for Delver)
– Shel Israel, Blogger/Author, now FastCompany’s Global Neighbourhood TV guy
– Steve Larsen, CEO, Krugle
– Erica Lee, StrategicLee (for DEMO)
– Walt Mossberg, Technology Reporter, Wall Street Journal
– Rafe Needleman, Editor, CNet, and Chief Blogger, Webware.com
– Keith Shaw, Editor, Network World
– Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, DEMO
– Becky Sniffen, MC2 Communications (for DEMO)
– Brian Solis, Founder, Future-Works PR
– Don Thorson, now VP Marketing, Ribbit
The pix on this page are just a couple random shots. Here’s my complete DEMO ’08 Flickr set.
And now for the new people I met — at least those I got a business card from (again alphabetically by last name):
– Liad Agmon, CEO, Delver
– Michael Bogart, The Bogart Group (who does the production of DEMO)
– Bill Bryant, Board Advisor for both Blist and Liquid Planner
– Terra Carmichael, SutherlandGold Group PR
– Jinnan Cai, Cofounder/VP-Prod Dev, Buska (Perth, Australia)
– Gerry Caulfield, Lead Technology Engineer, Buska (Perth, Australia)
– Kirk Chen, Cofounder/Product Architect, iLeonardo
– Matt Clark, AE, Lotus PR (for Catalyst Web)
– Sanford Cohen, CEO, SpeakLike
– Mike Dever, CEO, YouChoose.net
– Nigel Eccles, Chief News Junkie, HubDub (Edinburgh, Scotland)
– Quentin Hardy, Silicon Valley Bureau Manager, Forbes
– Patrick Harr, CEO, Nirvanix
– Linda Huang, VP Marketing & Sales, Santrum
– Ryo Koyama, CEO, Yoics
– Miiko Mentz, Future-Works PR (for HubDub)
– Melinda Meggyesy, Online Community Manager, LiquidPlanner
– Dave Merkel, VP Products, Mandiant
– Yannis Papakonstantinou, Cofounder, App2You.com
– Stephanie Rice, Sr AE, Ruder Finn West
– Michelle Schafer, Acct Supervisor, Merritt Group PR (for Mandiant)
– Robert Schettino, Marketing, iVideoSongs.com
– Dan Seyer, VP Product Management, Ribbit
– Carnet Williams, CEO, SproutBuilder.com
Once again, it was great meeting all of you! I thought it was a particularly good DEMO, and I was excited about the quality of the startups presenting. I hope to hear again from you folks I met at the event. Stay in touch! For more, see this index page of my coverage of DEMO 08 on this blog, and even more on Twitter, plus my DEMO 08 photo set on Flickr.
Great report. We actually covered a few of the transactions that took place for companies that were at DEMO and it seemed to be a big success.
Looks like you had a great time!