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: DEMOfall (Page 3 of 5)

DEMOfall Blog Feed Is Startin’ to Buzz

In addition to having a Twitter account — @demofall08 — DEMO has a nice blog feed set up at a site created by EventVue, which you can see here. Actually, it’s just part of an entire social network for the conference. I joined it over the weekend, so my posts will be there. (And my tweets appear at their Twitter page, too.) In the screen shot below, you can see that at least one TechCrunch50 blogger is already using the blog feed. Figures.

Eventvuedemofall

UPDATE:  Hah, just found another Twitter account that DEMO runs — @demotweets — which I see has been going for some time now. I guess it will also have updates about the event. The other Twitter page mentioned at the top is for the purpose of aggregating tweets from attendees, so it was just set up a couple days ago.

TechCrunch50 vs. DEMO – My Take

You may have been seeing some of the talk online about TechCrunch50 taking potshots at DEMO as its organizers try to get publicity for their new event, which they purposely scheduled during the same timeframe as the venerable, long-standing event. Tc50logo
Can you say "in your face"? DEMO is now going into its 19th year and has become widely regarded over that time as the place for promising new startups to launch. The TC50 organizers are trying to claim that they somehow are more pure because they do not charge a fee to the startups they accept to present, while DEMO long has done so — widely seen as the price for the process DEMO puts a presenting company through to benefit from its first-class brand of company launch experience, which includes all the positive things that go along with that in the way of publicity and investor exposure.

Demofall08

I'm about to leave for San Diego to attend DEMOfall 08, which will be about my seventh time covering their events as a press registrant. They are very, very well run events. I also have a press pass to TechCrunch50, although, since the dates of the two conferences directly overlap, I will only be able to attend that last day of TC50 (in San Francisco), on Wednesday. I'd like to take in all of both events, but I can't; no one can, except from a distance or online.

TC50, despite its name, is actually debuting 52 companies. DEMO will have 72 presenters. Another difference between the events is that DEMO always releases its list of presenters the Friday before the event, which typically starts with a Sunday evening reception. TC50 has chosen to be, uh, different, saying it will only release names of its companies at 6:30 am Pacific on Monday, and that's only for companies who will pitch that day. It won't release the names of those presenting on Tuesday and Wednesday until 6:30 am on each of those days. Do some people know already who's presenting?  Sure, I suspect word leaks out a lot from the companies themselves, although both shows prohibit news being formally released before their "embargoes" lift on Monday. (Note that press attendees' inboxes begin filling up days before both events, but they of course expect us to honor the embargoes, and I do.)

So, what do I think about all the hype going back an forth (most from the TC50 side) about this competition for Startup Launch King-of-the-Hill Event?  A lot of distraction, really — which even TC now admits.  This is supposed to be about the startups. I wholeheartedly agree. It seems there are plenty of them out there, so what's the problem with two events like this?  Why does one have to be in the other's face?  (It would just make a lot more sense if the events were scheduled separately.)  I have a take on how they're different in other ways, too. DEMO, over the years, has increasingly tended to attract more established startups — which, of course, have no problem paying their fee. Many have raised Series A and B rounds by the time they get there, and I've seen many beyond that stage. Thus, the fee is a pittance for them, especially for the benefits they gain. (And it costs them more than that to have good PR support for the event.)  DEMO has even taken to having 4 or 5 large firms introduce new products or services at each of their events. My hometown boys from Best Buy being a prime example at the year's DEMOfall… TC50, on the other hand, seems to be seeking raw startups for its event, those that have raised little or no money. Thus, not having to pay a fee is a good thing for them. More power to 'em! But it will be a different type of event than DEMO for that reason: earlier stage startups than most (not all) of DEMO's presenters.

Another way I'm thinking TC50 will likely be different:  I suspect many more of their presenters will be Bay Area based.  DEMO has long prided itself in its companies being from all over the U.S., and increasingly the world. (See my last post for the number of countries this year's DEMOfall class will be from.)  We'll see how TC50's companies stack up in this regard next week

I did not attend TC's first attempt at a conference last year (called TC40), but I heard from a very experienced tech PR person at DEMOfall last year, who had come directly from it to DEMO, that it was "pretty horrible."  I'm hoping for their sake, and for all the hype and expectations they have created, that they do better this year. And, most of all, for the sake of the startups — who may have not invested a fee into the TC50 event, but have surely invested many, many hours of preparation.  And that's money, too.

‘Social DNA’: Do You Know Where Your Digital Genes Are?

You knew it had to be coming: a way to map your online social self. My god, how did we get along without this till now? Thank you, eSnips (I think). Esnipslogo
I mean, Facebook asks some questions when you create your profile there [many of them lame, certainly for adults]. And it seems to me MySpace does, too — but then I never go there anymore.  [I remember they force you to tell your age on your profile, so I went with the max they would allow: 91.] Do I need another social network now?  Well, let me think about that… 🙂  But I went through the sign-up procedure, anyway. After all, if I’m doing a post, I’d better. And it was interesting. More on that in a bit.  First, some background…

eSnips is a content-sharing site that officially launched at DEMOfall in September 2006 (my coverage). CEO Yael Elish, a veteran Internet entrepreneur, told me then that her site lets "everyday people share content in one place, without having to manage so many accounts."  She said then that it was about sharing, publishing, and even selling your creative work — and was all free. At that time, eSnips offered 1GB of free space, but that’s now been upped to 5GB. Traffic to the site appears to be growing nicely when viewed at Alexa.

So, what’s this new wrinkle of "Social DNA" all about?  From today’s press release:

A key premise of Web 2.0 services is the ability to discover like-minded people through common friends or tags. eSnips Social DNA takes this ability to the next level by matching people with others who resemble them most based on hundreds or thousands of common defined aspects of their lives. It’s done through a series of fun, creative and often intriguing 1-2 minute online quizzes across multiple topics (referred to as Social Genes).

The multiple-choice quizzes are just one type of “Social Gene” that makes up a user’s Social DNA.  The other type is a List, where users can express their musical, literary, cinematic and even dietary preferences.  A List can express personal favorites in a more diverse way than a Quiz, which is why a mixture of both is essential to get comprehensive Social DNA results.

Immediately upon answering the first question, users get exposed to others who responded like them.  As they continue the quiz, the matches change until eventually a user only sees the highest scoring matches. They also can see how their answers compared to rest of the population, shown through a uniqueness score and set of graphs. Upon completing a quiz, users can quickly and easily create a fun widget to post on their website or blog.

Here’s a screenshot of the page I got after I went through my first quiz, in the category of Business & Technology.
I chose the Web 2.0 quiz (natch). As you can see, only 30% answered like me, so I’m "in the minority" — how special! This is just one quiz of many I could have done.  I didn’t count how many quizzes there were, but I’m assuming there would have to be hundreds, eventually, anyway. [Note the service is, of course, labeled beta — what isn’t?] Esnipsresultspg_2

My take after going through one quiz is that the questions were a bit trivial — even silly. I think eSnips is trying too hard to be funny, in an attempt to make the process fun (which of course it has to be).  I just question the scientific nature of all this, I guess, if there is any.  Should there be?  More than a few of the questions didn’t offer an answer that I liked.  Nonetheless, I think this Social DNA concept is fascinating, and I have no doubt that eSnips users — mostly all younger than me — will eat it up.  Why?  Because it plays right into the powerful need to get your online profile "just right."  I heard a stat last week that active social networkers are spending up to an hour a week on average fiddling with their profile.  This will enable them to go nuts like on no other site I know!  If you’re into finding/discovering people online (can you say dating?), this will be a very engaging and "sticky" feature for eSnips. I think it’s bound to boost traffic to the site, bigtime.  It will be interesting to watch that play out over the next weeks and months.

DEMO Alumni Party Packed ‘Em In

I don’t know how many people actually showed up last night at Zibibbo in Palo Alto, but the DEMO folks said more than 500 had pre-registered. It’s a good thing they reserved the whole place for this affair — bar, patio, restaurant — because they needed every bit of that space. It was close quarters! But fun, and I saw many old friends, colleagues, and clients, and met some other interesting people. I thought I’d come pretty far, flying in from Minneapolis just in time (and staying today to do some other business), till I learned some other dude had come from France!

The roster of company founders and their VCs and PR people at this gala was pretty amazing. I could name drop, but I won’t. You could look at my Flickr pix of the party, though, and maybe pick out some you know. The list of companies that DEMO has launched, over some seventeen years, is nothing short of remarkable. What a record this conference has. You can read all about that at Demo.com. And, while you’re there, sign up for DEMOfall ’07 in September in San Diego. I’ll be there with bells on.

Here’s a selection of some on my (bad) photography from last evening. Hey, it’s not easy trying to swill wine with a notebook in one hand and a camera in the other! ….while engaging in charming banter 🙂 Well, trying to, anyway.

Partylights_2

Photo 1: I see the lights, I see the party lights…

Shelisrael

Photo 2: My buddy Shel Israel, doing his best to hold up a structural support….

Partyglassware

Photo 3: A lot of glassware was in motion….it’s a wonder he got through.

Chrisshipley_2

Photo 4: Chris Shipley, DEMO Executive Producer, gave a rousing talk, focusing on recent success stories of DEMO alum companies, old and new….

Chrisgammill

Photo 5: Chris Gammill (left) of Teleflip, and Eric Moyer of Boorah, both DEMO ’07 alums….

Kimpstevel

Photo 6: Kim Polese, CEO of Spikesource, and Steve Larsen, CEO of Krugle….yes, things were getting fuzzy at this point.

Zibibbosign

Photo 7: The sign was lit up as I left….just like me!

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