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

Tag: conferences (Page 6 of 7)

Final Thoughts on DEMOfall…

Well, two days since my return from San Diego, let me summarize my take on the latest DEMO event and share some random images and opinions. First of all, everything was extremely well run. This is *the* most crack conference team on the planet — logistics, food, press support, absolutely flawless wi-fi, the whole nine yards — even great bumper music. Demofallstagecolors_1 I just wish theyda told me the hotel had two towers, and that if you were unlucky enough to make your reservations a bit too late, you’d get stuck in the West Tower and have to hoof it three-quarters of a mile to where the event was held, in and around the East Tower. For the prices, there has to be a better venue in the San Diego area.

But, more importantly, what was the tenor of the event, and what were the takeaways? I touched on a lot of that in my report published on event-review site Conferenza.com the other day. But let me ramble on a bit more, now that I’m two days removed from it all. DEMOfall was definitely an upbeat affair — exhuberance was in the air at every turn. [Even if sunshine wasn’t. Now, if someone could demo a technology that would remove fog, haze, and overcast from the San Diego climate, that would really be something!] Demofallpavilionscene It was reminiscent of the pre-crash conference scene for sure — and I wondered how many of these people were experiencing this “high” for the first time. My guess would be a large percentage, because there were many, many young faces in the crowd.

The mix of technologies — consumer tech vs. enterprise IT, business vs. home, widgets vs. software (including another kind of widget!) — was excellent. There was something here for everybody. Almost too much — but that’s always the case at DEMO. Trying to cover it all is essentially impossible for any one reporter. Which is why outfits like Ziff Davis/CNet send multiple people — but they have separate media entities, too, which is how they can do that. Demofallpavilionside_1 The press policy is a very democratic one, I learned: it allows only one reporter from any one media outlet, even including the WSJ, NY Times, USA Today. But let me apologize now for not covering all 67 presenting companies. Nothing against any of you that I didn’t — just not enough time. It’s flatly impossible to do, with any depth, anyway. [I did manage to blog some 37 of them, though!]

Would I recommend DEMO as the launchpad for a new startup? Absolutely, positively — if you can handle the rigor and the preparation. It’ll make a better company out of any fledgling startup, I assure you — just going through the process (starting with getting accepted). The next event, which will be #25, is in Palm Desert, CA, January 30 – February 1 (where the weather is guaranteed to be much better). It’s at the Desert Springs Resort & Spa. How does one apply to present? Read all about that here.

Let me share a few more pix I shot at DEMOfall — these with my new little HP Photosmart M425. That’s the one with the new “pretexting” feature… 🙂 Five megapixels, very compact, 3x optical — not bad for a hundred bucks. [More proof of The Cheap Revolution, as Rich Karlgaard calls it.] I’ve included a shot from the demo of the wi-fi bunny, from Paris-based Violet, a product Ed Baig of USA Today called “easily the silliest Demo product.” Demofallwifirabbit Another of my shots shows the two presenters from Eluma on stage, including VP marketing Joe Lichtenberg on the right, who just told me his firm got one of the coveted “Demo God” awards that were handed out at the final evening’s dinner (which I had to miss). Demofalleluma That’s two Demo conferences in a row where companies I’ve run into early and blogged about became Demo God winners. [Just lucky, I guess…]

A funny scene near the end of Wednesday’s closing session was Chris Shipley strutting out with the surfboard giveaway, replete with shades, to the sounds of The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA.” Demofallchrissurfboard I was so hoping to win that nice stick (donated by sponsor Qualcomm). But, alas, the guy in front of me did — and he didn’t even seem excited about it. Dude?

One final ranting bitch about the show, which I just have to get in, is exemplified by my final photo, which is of the CEO of Moixa Energy presenting. [You’ll remember this outfit, if you’ve been reading my blog, as the one that got my vote for the worst name — though I’ve since decided it’s a tie with PrefPass.] His “USB Cell” may be cool — though it certainly isn’t the most visually elegant product I’ve ever seen. Demofallmoixa But could the guy conjur up something better to wear than the most god-awful pair of jeans I’ve even seen? I look better than that when I’ve done lumberjack work for three hours in the woods behind my house, for kee-rist sakes. In his defense, he was just one of several presenters who were dressed shabbily. And, sorry, anything including jeans fits that category for me. Please, Chris, can we have a dress code for presenters? It’s the least they can do for us. Hey, if Steve Jobs is coming on stage — fine, he wears what he wants. But these guys, they ain’t no Steve Jobs — okay? 🙂 Certainly not yet… And having them pretend like they are is just too hard to stomach.

What were the takeaways of DEMOfall 2006?
• The tech economy is strong. But we’re not in a bubble, according to the show’s producers. [How could we be when the Nasdaq is still 55% down from its high in the year 2000?]
• Money is flowing. Many of these startups-you’ve-never-heard-of have already raised substantial funding, as reported in their profiles. And a person can only wonder how so many of them get such amounts, based on what appears to be a sketchy or risky plan. I can only recall a few presenters who said they were bootstrapped — that is, surviving just on their own funds at this point. Whatever happened to the raw, truly undiscovered startups getting a chance? Must they all be VC-backed already?
• Consumer tech continues to influence enterprise IT. And Web 2.0 type services are leading the way here. The center of gravity is now on the consumer or individual user side of things. Internet apps are where the most energy is these days, not in computers, operating systems, desktop apps, and the corporate IT power base of old.
• The tech economy, and really the entire economy, is going global faster than you think. This Demo had the largest number ever of non-U.S. presenting firms. And who knows what percentage of all the firms that pitched are relying at least partially on offshore technology expertise to develop their products. Either that or on immigrants who now call the U.S. home.

One final thing: links to a couple of excellent recaps of the event by some of the good press people covering it. First, a story from CNet with several contributors, including Rafe Needleman, Daniel Terdiman, and Dan Farber, all of whom I chatted with at the conference. And another good story is from Thursday’s edition of USA Today, by Ed Baig.

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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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PC Forum: Handling Too Much Choice

The first speaker was Barry Schwartz, psychology professor from Swarthmore College, and author or “The Paradox of Choice,” a book we all got in our conference bag. (One guy who asked a question later said he’s already read it.) Basically, I’ll give you what I got out of his talk and the psycho-babble — I mean discussion — that followed. The Internet gives us too many choices. Check. How can Internet businesses help us? Help narrow our choices. Check. That’s what all the community services, for shopping, tagging, sharing, etc, actually do: as Esther says, filter or constrain our choices, without us having to be be involved in every silly little choice. Check. Therefore community is good, vertical search is good. Check.

Rock on Web 2.0.

(I took a bunch of photos, and I’d share a one or two here, but I can’t decide. No, actually, the Bluetooth in my RAZR phone won’t power on. Hmm, did I make the wrong phone choice?)

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Made It to PC Forum!

I’m sitting here now in the registration area, just outside the Grand Ballroom, where the first session fires up at in an hour or so. The sun came out full-on on my drive south from San Clemente late this morning, so the weather turned out to be quite nice here at LaCosta (but still cool). People started trickling in about noon, but now they’re filing in more heavily. Many folks, of course, just flew in today, from all over, so they’re just now getting checked into the hotel. Here are some shots I grabbed with my cell phone while I strolled around to check out this sprawling resort a bit. (Excuse the quality of the pix, but I forgot my big camera – duh.) In the first shot, of the registration desk, that’s Daphe Kis, Publisher of Release 1.0 on the right. I also chatted with Esther Dyson, who was greeting many people personally and seems as calm as can be. (Comes with experience, I guess, from doing this conference so many years.) Talking to other attendees here, I already get the idea that PC Forum has a very loyal following, year after year.

(Just click on the photos to make them larger.)

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Esther Speaks: An Inside Look at PC Forum

As a follow-on to my earlier post today, I asked Esther Dyson some questions about her upcoming event in Carlsbad, CA, March 12-14. She was kind enough to take out some time to give me her perspectives. Here’s the interview:

What should attendees expect at this year’s PC Forum?
Esther Dyson: The people they sit next to at lunch and dinner will be interesting — either prospects or competitors or potential partners or both, with challenging ideas and opinions. [Ed: and that doesn’t even include breakfast, my personal favorite!] Aside from that, the content will be thought-provoking. The subtheme — “Users in Charge” — sounds like a mindlessly cheery, rarely-delivered-on slogan. But it’s preceded by the provocative reality of “Erosion of Power.” New business models, when they’re delivered on, often destroy old ones. Users in charge is no mere slogan; it’s a threat to the people who were in charge. Pcforumlogo_2 Businesses have a choice whether to lead the changes or resist them. But just deciding to respond isn’t that easy. You have to figure out how: how to put users in charge, how to listen, how to mediate among users who disagree, how to collect revenue (and for what)….and most important, how to change a culture. So, in many ways, things are easier for startups — except they lack resources and have to prove their new business models. So, the discussions will be fun. I have spent the last two months interviewing all the speakers — but I know I’ll still be surprised with what they say, especially once they start talking to one another and engaging with the other participants.

How might it compare with previous years’ events?
Esther Dyson: In character, it will be the same, but we have new material — everything from recent developments around Google to a gaggle of startups ranging from Spot Runner to invisibleCRM.

How is PC Forum different from other conferences?
Esther Dyson: The content tends to be more provocative because we don’t have any outside sponsors. By and large, we don’t let speakers “present.” We ask them questions. And they really talk among themselves, rather than presenting serially. There’s a dramatic tension that gets people paying attention. Beyond that, we really cater to all the attendees, not just to the speakers. It extends to the details: The badges are large and readable and don’t flip over, so it’s easy to find people you want to meet. [Ed: And they have a great attendee networking site, with features better than any I’ve seen.] We keep the lights up in the auditorium so you can see the other attendees as well as the speakers. We encourage people to bring their families, and that makes the atmosphere more relaxed and friendlier than at most conferences I attend. Also, we hold it in a slightly out of the way place, so people (even speakers) come and stay, instead of dropping in.

Please tell us about the types of attendees you attract, and the quality of networking attendees can expect.
Esther Dyson: They include entrepreneurs, investors, industry veterans, big company execs, analysts, press. We’re proud of what we do and we charge for it, so we get high-level attendees. On the other hand, we work hard to bring in new people and especially startups, so many of these high-level people are ones you haven’t heard of — yet. And things start happening at PC Forum: for example, Eric Schmidt met Larry Page at PC Forum, IBM met Lotus, and AOL met ICQ/Mirabilis.

How do you select the categories for companies you debut, and the companies themselves?
Esther Dyson: We select the companies first, by and large, and then we design the categories to fit them. We’re looking for companies that will be successful, of course, but we’re also looking for new ideas. We want attendees to walk out saying, “Now that’s a neat idea!” Over the years, our debutantes have included Flickr, Brightcove, IronPort, Technorati, Emode (Tickle), Groxis, Junglee, Mirabilis (ICQ), Eurekster, and JotSpot, to name several.

What are your conference themes this year, and which of these are getting the most buzz so far?
Esther Dyson: Well, in addition to what I said in answer to the first two questions, “Users in Charge” is getting lots of buzz. But it’s my contention that many people who think they resonate with it don’t quite get all the implications.

What are the three outcomes you most hope will result from this year’s PC Forum?
Esther Dyson: I’ll give you four, actually: that 400 people will walk away with new ideas and new friends and business partners…that the 70-odd family members who came will feel appreciated and closer to the world of the attendees who brought them…that the ideas that were floating around PC Forum will get crisper….and that the companies embodying those ideas will learn from one another and will compete more effectively, giving their management better tools and goals, and end up serving their customers better.

My thanks to Esther for these great insights into PC Forum, especially for those of us who’ve never attended. I look forward to seeing any and all of you who can make it. And I of course plan to do many more blog posts on this one…

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