Graeme Thickins of Tech~Surf~Blog interviews Mike Garity, VP-marketing of Network World Events, at the DEMO ’09 conference, which was held March 1-3, 2009, in Palm Desert, CA.
Mike Garity is one of the executives in charge of DEMO at Network World Events, a part of IDG, which owns DEMO. I chatted with him about his take on this year’s event, how it compares to last year, and how people who can’t be here can watch a live stream of the entire conference.
Tag: Mike Garity
Well, have I ever got a linkfest for you. Following up on my post of January 7, the big event next week is now taking shape: I just got the early word that no less than 77 new products (!) will be launched at the DEMO ’08 conference. Check out the list — did I mention it’s with links? — that I inserted for your clicking pleasure below. David Weinberger would love this one. And my other Cluetrain friend, Doc Searls, too. He once described a post I did as "linkier than a vest of chainmail." Well, this one’s got more, Doc — about eighty, if you can stand it. I’m getting so adept at inserting links in my Typepad WYSIWYG interface, it’s scary. Remember, it’s not so much how many people read your posts, it’s how long you engage them. Well, this one’s got a lot to keep you engaged if you’re hooked, like me, on just having to know what’s coming next in tech.
The rules for DEMO presenters state their products must not be previously available or promoted publicly, so many of the links below are brand-new sites, and some may not have much info online till Monday morning, the day registration opens. So keep watching their sites…that’s right, via those links below.
Most of you probably don’t need me to tell you this, but DEMO is a twice yearly "emerging technology showcase" that’s known for launching some of the tech industry’s biggest innovations. Now in its 18th year, the events have hosted a "who’s who" of company and product debuts, including those from VMWare, Google, IronPort, Apple, salesforce.com, Palm, Intel, HP, Yahoo!, Logitech, TiVo, and GrandCentral. The show’s producers, led by Chris Shipley, select presenters from hundreds of applications. Each firm launches its new product in a six-minute live stage demonstration attended by journalists, investors, and business professionals from around the globe. The press corps, of which your humble blogger is a part, will number close to 100. As I like to say, everyone from Walt Mossberg on down. (Okay, I’m at the bottom.) DEMO ’08 is being held January 28-30 in Palm Desert, CA. [You can still register — click on the graphic at right.]
DEMO kicks off 2008 with a variety of technologies for consumers and businesses alike. Here are some hints about what’s coming next week:
• a personalized telephony service converging data and voice
• broadcast-quality video delivery service for the Internet
• a Web-based platform for scalable storage delivery
• a portable learn-to-read system
• a service that enables image and video collaboration
• a solution that teaches you to play your favorite popular tunes
• a collaboration solution for business and personal use
• TiVo for your mobile phone
• HD video conferencing over IP networks
• multiple technologies for students, parents, and children
• and products from all over the world, including Australia, Canada, Finland, Israel, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
Here are the DEMO ’08 demonstrators:
2Win Solutions, Ltd.; Raanana, Israel; www.2win-solutions.com
800 PBX, Inc.; Fremont, CA; www.800genie.800pbx.com
Acesis, Inc.; Mountain View, CA; www.acesis.com
Asankya, Inc.; Atlanta, GA; www.asankya.com
Aternity, Inc.; Westborough, MA; www.aternity.com
atlaspost.com; Taipei City, Taiwan; www.atlaspost.com
Avistar Communications Corp.; San Mateo, CA; www.avistar.com
BitGravity, Inc.; Burlingame, CA; www.bitgravity.com
blist, Inc.; Seattle, WA; www.blist.com
Buzka, Pty Ltd.; Subiaco, Australia; www.buzka.com
Capzles, Inc.; Culver City, CA; www.capzles.com
Catalyst Web Services, LLC; Alexandria, VA; www.catalystweb.com
CellSpinSoft, Inc.; San Jose, CA; www.cellspin.net
Celsias, Ltd.; Wellington, New Zealand; www.celsias.com
CHALEX Corp.; Grasonville, MD; www.chalexcorp.com
Circos.com, Inc.; San Mateo, CA; www.circos.com
Citiport, Inc.; Taipei City, Taiwan; www.citiport.net
Citrix Systems, Inc.; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; www.citrix.com
Cozimo.com, Inc.; Berkeley, CA; www.cozimo.com
Delver, Inc.; Herzliya Pituach, Israel; www.delver.com
Ecrio, Inc.; Cupertino, CA; www.ecrio.com
Education.com; Redwood City, CA; www.education.com
Eyealike, Inc.; Bellevue, WA; www.eyealike.com
Fabrik, Inc.; San Mateo, CA; www.fabrik.com
Flypaper, Inc.; Phoenix, CA; www.freshbrew.com
GoldMail, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.goldmail.com
good2gether, Inc.; Melrose, MA; www.good2gether.com
Green Plug, Inc.; San Ramon, CA; www.greenplug.us
HealthPricer Interactive, Ltd.; Vancouver, BC; www.healthpricer.com
Hubdub, Ltd.; Edinburgh, Scotland; www.hubdub.com
Huddle.net; London, England; www.Huddle.net
Iterasi, Inc.; Vancouver, WA; www.iterasi.com
iVideosongs; Alpharetta, GA; www.ivideosongs.com
Jodange, LLP; Yonkers, NY; www.jodange.com
Kaazing Corp.; Mountain View, CA; www.kaazing.com
LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.; Emeryville, CA; www.leapfrog.com
LegiTime Technologies, Inc.; Westport, CT; www.legitext.com
LiquidPlanner, Inc.; Bellevue, WA; www.liquidplanner.com
LiquidTalk, Inc.; Chicago, IL; www.liquidtalk.com
Liquidus Corp.; Chicago, IL; www.liquidusmedia.com
Livescribe, Inc.; Oakland, CA; www.livescribe.com
MANDIANT; Alexandria, VA; www.mandiant.com
MOLI, LLC; West Palm Beach, FL; www.moli.com
Movial; Helsinki, Finland; www.movial.com
Nirvanix; San Diego, CA; www.nirvanix.com
NotchUp, Inc.; Los Altos Hills, CA; www.notchup.com
Notebookz.com, Inc.; Berkeley, CA; www.ileonardo.com
Pathworks Software Corp.; Mountain View, CA; www.pathworkssoftware.com
Redux, Inc.; Berkeley, CA; www.redux.com
Review2Buy, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.review2buy.com
Ribbit Corp.; Stanford, CA; www.goribbit.com
Rove Mobile, Inc.; Ottawa, Ontario; www.rovemobile.com
Santrum Networks, Inc.; Taipei, Taiwan; www.santrum.com
SceneCaster; Richmond Hill, Ontario; www.scenecaster.com
Seesmic; San Francisco, CA; www.seesmic.com
Silobreaker, Ltd.; London; England; www.silobreaker.com
Skyfire; San Jose, CA; www.dvclabs.com
SpeakLike, LLC; New York, NY; www.speaklike.com
Sprout, Inc.; Honolulu; HI; www.sproutfusion.com
Squidcast; San Francisco, CA; www.squidcast.com
StackSafe, Inc.; Vienna, VA; www.stacksafe.com
Standout Jobs, Inc.; Montreal, Quebec; www.standoutjobs.com
STEP Labs; San Jose, CA; www.steplabs.com
Sterna Technologies, Inc.; San Mateo, CA; www.friend-ltd.com
support.com; Redwood City, CA; www.support.com
SupportSpace, Inc.; Redwood Shores, CA; www.supportspace.com
Symantec Corp.; Cupertino, CA; www.symantec.com
TimeTrade Systems, Inc.; Bedford, MA; www.timetrade.com
Toktumi, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.toktumi.com
TubeMogul, Inc.; Berkeley; CA; www.tubemogul.com
Vidyo™, Inc.; Hackensack; NJ; www.vidyo.com
Visible Measures Corp.; Boston, MA; www.visiblemeasures.com
Voyant, Inc.; Austin, TX; www.planwithvoyant.com
xtranormal, Inc.; Montreal, Quebec; www.xtranormal.com
Yoics, Inc.; Palo Alto, CA; www.yoics.com
YouChoose, LLC; Thornton, PA; www.youchoose.net
Zodiac Interactive; Valley Stream NY; www.zodiac.tv
The DEMO conferences, which are now held in China and Europe as well as the U.S., focus on
emerging technologies and new products that are hand-selected from
across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. DEMO has earned a reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow’s
cutting-edge technologies, serving as a launchpad for
companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping
them to secure venture funding, establish critical business
relationships, and influence early adopters. More information about the conferences is at Demo.com.
Oh, one more thing: my buddy Mike Garity at Network World Conferences, which runs these great events, would especially want me to tell you this: videos of the live stage demonstrations launching each of the 77 products will be available on Demo.com beginning Tuesday afternoon, January 29. That’s a new wrinkle, and I hear a whole new Demo.com site is launching, complete with community and social networking features. That will be cool.
Let me know what you like from the above list, or want to know more about. I’ll be live-blogging from the event, as always. Hell, I might even Twitter, too…from my iPhone…while simultaneously uploading the pix I’m shooting to Flickr…or maybe Tittr.
UPDATE (3:30 pm Central): To fix three links… 🙂
Another DEMO event has come and gone, and it was a great one. Kudos again to Chris Shipley and team. These conferences go by so fast, but I try to capture as much as of the energy and optimism as I can from all the tremendous innovations that get launched here. It’s certainly a challenge to cover so many interesting, breakthrough technologies, but always a great conference experience. Entrepreneurship at its finest!
Didn’t get a chance to shoot a whole lot of photos this time — too darn busy meeting people, attending all the sessions, and (of course) writing posts! But I did get 50 pix or so up on Flickr. And I’ve included a selection of them here in this post.
As a recap, I thought it’d be fun to give you some facts about this conference. This year is the 17th straight for DEMO events (and two conferences per year have been held for many years now). The brand had its beginnings in 1991, founded by tech journalist Stewart Alsop, and was later acquired by IDG. It’s now run by the crack team from Network World Conferences. [By the way, speaking of Stewart Alsop, who became a VC several years ago — I was bummed that I had to miss hearing him deliver a keynote at an angel investor conference back here in Minnesota last week, because of all my travels. But I hear that event went very well, too.]
There were 69 companies pitching at DEMOfall this year, two of them public firms, and all the rest private — mostly small startups (and, in most cases, just coming out of stealth mode). Those 67 companies have amassed — get this — more than $450 million in funding to date! That’s an eye-popping average of $6.7 million each. (Of course, that figure is skewed somewhat by one DEMO presenting company, Jasper Wireless, which has already raised a cool $49 million! Its investors include my friends at Crescendo Ventures and BridgeScale.) As I mentioned in a previous post, 13 of the 69 companies were from countries other than the U.S. — quite a global contingent this year! 
It was great to see and hear these entrepreneurs from other countries, and I got to meet several of them. [My favorite company name of that bunch: Red Square Ventures, from…guess where?] My post with links to all the presenting companies is here, and it lists where each of them is based. There were also 12 states represented — CA, as you may have guessed, had the most companies (32), with MA a distant second (6), then TX (5), and NY (4). Sadly, none yet from my adopted home state of MN — but I’m working on that. [Chris, trust me — we have several here waiting in the wings!] I was, however, instrumental in getting a firm from WI to DEMOfall this year, so I’m happy about that.
Attendance at the event was more than 700, which DEMO sums up as "corporate development executives, investors, influential journalists, and the most imaginative entrepreneurs in the world." I love that last bit. The press list numbered 76, including such venerable names as the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, The Economist, The Deal, CBS, the AP, Reuters, USA Today, the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Merc News, Wired, CNet, ZDNet, eWeek, Computerworld, NetworkWorld, InfoWorld….but that’s not all! 
Several standout blogs were reporting on site as well, including Read/Write Web, GigaOM, Mashable, TechDirt, the new Blognation (Oliver Starr and Marc Orchant) — and (ahem) your buddy at Tech-Surf-Blog, of course… 🙂
DEMO has quite a track record as a launchpad for some pretty amazing firms. Here are just some of them: Skype, WebEx, E*Trade, Six Apart, Salesforce.com, IronPort Systems, Moobella, Kaboodle, U.S. Robotics, and new ventures from such large firms as IBM, Sony, Motorola, Microsoft, and Adobe. It’s also launched such memorable products as TiVo, Half.com, Java 1.0, the Palm Pilot, and Ugobe’s Pleo toy.
This year’s DEMOfall had a good mix of consumer-facing, corporate computing, and enabling technologies. So,the event reflects activity across the entire technology industry. Here’s how this crop of presenters was categorized:
• Consumer technologies … 36 (5 devices, and fully 31 software and services offerings)
• Enabling technologies … 16
• Small business software and services … 10
• Enterprise software and services … 5
• IT management and infrastructure … 2
An interesting bunch of the small business tool companies got together the first night for beers, I was told, and decided their offerings were the solutions for "everyman," or all the "average Joes" out there. In the course of all this revelry, they coined a new term: "Web2.joe" — which is pretty funny. [Well, okay, maybe you had to be there.] They decided all their tools shared the main criteria needed by today’s small business people: affordable, easy to use, and customizable. These partying companies, a few of which I had a chance to later blog about, were BatchBlue, FastCall411, Advanta (ideablob), InstaCall, Vello, PlanHQ, and Tungle. I definitely think they’re all addressing a big need, and I’m sure we’re bound to be seeing more such small business tools, especially hosted apps, at future DEMO events. It’s such a huge market opportunity.
And that, friends, is what DEMO is all about: unlimited opportunity.
See you down the road at the next conference!
Great piece in the Boston Globe yesterday by Scott Kirsner: In Venture Capital, a Growing Rift Over Blogs. It’s the best look I’ve seen so far into why some VCs blog and why others pass. Makes some excellent points about the main advantage for VCs — better deal flow — and the main advantages for entrepreneurs — leveling the playing field, including from a geographic standpoint. That latter point is one I’ve written about a lot, and a very real issue for founders not lucky enough to be located in one of the VC hotbeds.
I like the way Kirsner characterizes VC blogging as the "new parity in the world of venture capital."
The article quotes one of the best-known VC bloggers out there, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures in NYC, a guy who’s invested in many Internet and Web 2.0 deals. Here’s an excerpt from the article that quotes Fred:
Venture capitalists who blog say it isn’t just about helping pump up
their firm’s reputation and show how market-savvy they are. Blogging,
writes Wilson via e-mail, is "the best tool for VC investing that I’ve
ever seen, and I’ve been in this business for more than 20 years."Wilson
says his blog not only helps him meet more start-ups, but it brings him
companies that are "more targeted and more relevant" to the areas he’s
interested in. Wilson also likes it when his readers argue with him or
tell him about companies he might not already know; it’s not unusual
for one of his posts to attract 25 or 30 comments. "You can’t buy that
kind of education," he writes, "and I get it every day for free."
Later in the piece, an opposing viewpoint is put forth:
"My gut says that there’s no correlation between VC blogging and
financial returns," Spark Capital’s (Bijan) Sabet says, noting that blogger
Fred Wilson has done well with his investments – but so has John Doerr
of the Silicon Valley firm Kleiner Perkins, who doesn’t blog but has
put money into Amazon, Google, and Intuit.
The trouble with that characterization, however, is that those latter deals were done long before blogging was popular. Granted, it’s hard to argue that big-kahuna KP needs to blog. But there’s a whole universe of newer, younger VCs out there who are finding it benefits them.
IDG Ventures’ Jeff Bussgang adds this great thought:
…as entrepreneurs increasingly maintain blogs of their own, Bussgang
says, "they want to see that the VCs are their peers and are wrestling
with similar issues and thinking through things."
I wonder how many VC bloggers will be at DEMOfall, starting later today? I’m looking forward to talking with them.
What do you think about blogging representing "the new parity in venture capital"? What are your experiences?
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