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: San Diego (Page 1 of 5)

My Live Blogging of DEMOfall 2009

My twice-yearly coverage of the DEMO conference — this one, the DEMOfall edition, where some 70 new ventures will be launching — will appear here. It's a special event because it will be executive director Chris Shipley's final DEMO, after 13 great years. She's co-producing this one with Matt Marshall of VentureBeat, who takes the sole producer role as of DEMO 2010. 

DEMOfall09-ScribbleLive

Here's the page where my live blogging posts will appear, in real time as they are published: bit.ly/TWU3L.  (I'll be leaving this post here at the top of my blog as a "sticky post" for a few weeks.) To do this live blogging, I'm using a great tool designed just for this purpose called "ScribbleLive."  My coverage begins either Monday evening 9/21 (after the reception), or Tuesday morning 9/22 when the opening session kicks off, and goes through early afternoon Wednesday 9/23, when I must bolt for the airport. 

At the last three DEMO events I've attended, I have live-tweeted them rather than live blog — and that works okay.  But this approach is better, for a number of reasons: (1) I'm not limited to 140 characters per post… (2) I find it a nice middle ground between doing short, often hard-to-write (and understand!) tweets and the more rambling long-form blogging… (3) it's as fast or faster than tweeting… (4) it's way faster than me trying to post quickly on my own Typepad blog here… and (5) it prevents many of my Twitter followers from getting mad and unfollowing me when I'm doing so many rapid-fire tweets at events, which for a DEMO can be upwards of a couple hundred! Another cool thing is that I can attach a photo to any of my live-blog posts as well. (Though I will also upload all my pix to a Flickr set during and right after the event.)  The tool also allows me to attach an audio or video file, if I wish, but I don't expect to do that.

For me, as a longtime event reporter, this ScribbleLive tool is really an ideal solution. Thanks to my colleague on Minnov8.com, Steve Borsch, who set up this tool for some of the other events we cover, and helped me with this one.  Here's an example of how our team of four Minnov8 bloggers used the tool simultaneously for the first time: it was at the recent Blogwell event at General Mills in Minneapolis.

I look forward to DEMOfall and hope I hear from you — whether during the event, before, or after. I will likely be publishing some other, stand-alone posts here on this blog while at DEMOfall — namely, audio interviews, as I did for DEMO '09 back in March. To communicate with me, you can always post comments here at my blog.  Or, talk to me via Twitter by putting @GraemeThickins at the beginning of your tweets — since I will be monitoring Twitter search closely as I live-blog the event.  I'll be in my usual spot in row three of the press section, right down in front.

DEMOfall 08 vs. TechCrunch50: My Wrap-Up of Last Week

I attend a lot of conferences. A ton of conferences. I actually started reporting on tech conferences in 1997, would you believe?  Heck, I can’t even count how many I’ve attended, how many reports I’ve filed, for how many media outlets, how many endless thousands of words I’ve tapped out, at all hours of the day and night, from meeting rooms, lobbies, and bad hotel rooms all over God’s green earth (not to speak of planes flying above it).  I think that gives me some perspective on what makes for a good conference. Demofallkarawalt

So, then, I suppose you guys would like to hear my take on the events I attended in California this past week, huh?  I guess this is as good a time as any, as I drink wine on the plane home and finally get some think time, to start tapping this one out on the keyboard. Seems like my chance to wax on about my thoughts on these two opposing/overlapping events… Techcrunch50mikearrington

Now, the way I figure it, there are two ways I could do this: a really long blog post (trust me, I have tons I could say), or really short. I can’t see something in between. Since the flight is only another hour and a half, I’m thinking shorter has to be the way to go. Thus, here’s my analysis in sound-bite form.

Two Conferences for Startups: Similar, But World’s Apart
You know how the two events were similar, I suspect. I’ve blogged previously on this topic (scroll back if you want). I’ll focus here on how they were different.  So, here goes some thoughts off the top of my head:
– DEMO was for a more experienced, mature crowd. TC50 was for the "cool kids." (Cool kids by definition are not all that experienced, and frankly can be a real pain in the ass.)
– DEMO was extremely well run. TC50 wasn’t.
– DEMO was held in a resort location. TC50 was held…south of Market.
– DEMO was friendly. TC50 wasn’t.
– DEMO networking was excellent, as usual. TC50’s was…meh.
– DEMO had great social media tools set up for attendees. Never saw anything like that at TC50.
– DEMO had some great parties. TC50’s…weren’t.
– DEMO had everything on site. TC50 required riding cabs (hotel, evening events), which sucks.
– DEMO’s food was flat-out excellent. TC50’s was ho-hum.
– DEMO’s production values were top-flight. TC50…has some things to learn.
– DEMO had great bump music. Never heard much at TC50.
– DEMO’s on-stage presenters were well prepared. TC50’s varied…widely.
– DEMO’s logistics were impeccable, as usual. TC50’s were…challenged.
– DEMO’s support of press attendees is flat-out the best. TC50’s was…some emails.

But enough equivocating! How do I really feel? 🙂 I’m just telling it like it is based on my own conference experience. Do with it what you will.  Now, in defense of TC50, I was only there for one day (the last).  Maybe the first two days were better (God, I hope). Because I wasn’t there for all of TC-50, I can’t attempt to give you a list of my top-10 favorite startups that launched there.  But, since I did take in the entire DEMOfall conference, I will do my normal best picks from that event — out of the 72 startups that presented.

My Top-Ten DEMOfall Picks
Here are the ones that lit me up, presented here in no particular priority order (just alphabetically). And, to give you the gist of each, I’m including part of what I tweeted about each right as they were on stage:
•  Best Buy (Giftag.com) – of course! my hometown boys – "universal gift registry"…Firefox plug-in…just highlight product at any ecommerce site, then click Giftag icon in your browser bar, and it’s saved
•  BizEquity.com – provides valuations of small businesses, at no cost to the business…small biz in U.S.=$5.8 trillion, a couple trillion more than all Nasdaq cos!
•  BlueLava Technologies (iLovePhotos.com) – has desktop software (Mac now, Win later) that examines your photos and sends ’em to the people in the photos…ooooo!
•  DialDirections (SayWhere) – no more typing on your iPhone, just SAY it, dude! mapping, directions, reviews… (coming soon)
•  Fusion-io – announced ioDrive last yr, now ioSAN…shared solid-state storage…1.5Gb/sec – doubling perf from last yr…can transfer 5 DVDs in seconds
•  MixMatchMusic – a community for musicians and consumers alike, to mash it up…and the musicians even make money!
•  PaidInterviews – disrupting the traditional recruiting model…once candidate’s selected, they’re paid their "ask price" to go on interview…turns recruiting world upside down
•  Plastic Logic – been developing new display technology for 10 yrs, reader coming ’09…no glass, very light, long battery life….woooo!
•  PhoTrade – a visual marketplace connecting photogs, advertisers, web publishers…upload, set price, share…when you’re on deadline, you gotta find and buy a photo fast
•  SpinSpotter – out to bring transparency to news reporting…lets user put on "Spinoculars," highlight unsubstantiated words, submit objections…gad, maybe keep media honest?

Read My Play-by-Play Twitter Account of Both Events
By the way, speaking of tweets, I thought I’d give you the links to my entire Twitter archive on each of these events. The only way I can capture or save all my tweets for later blogging — at least until somebody creates a better way — is to scroll back in Twitter and shoot a screen capture of a page at a time. So, that’s what I did, and I then posted those images (PNG files) to my web site.  The trouble with this approach, of course, is that everything is arranged most recent first — so you don’t get the logical, chronological order of the event, unless you somehow go to the bottom screen capture first and read up.  Anyway, here’s my index of tweets for DEMOfall (#1 most recent, #18 oldest), and my index of tweets for TechCrunch50 (#1 most recent, #8 oldest). 

Let me know what you think. Did you attend either event?  Or did you try to follow them online?  Do you even care?  What were your favorite startups at either one?

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.

DEMOfall 08: 72 New Technologies to Launch Sept 8-9

I’ll be attending the DEMOfall 08 conference in San Diego, September 7-9, 2008. Demofall08 Close to 100 media and bloggers will be there, with total attendance expected to be the largest ever (I predict close to 1000).

Here are some excerpts from DEMO’s press release, which just hit the wire, including the complete list of presenting companies, A to Z, and their web addresses:

Leading Technology Conference Continues to Highlight
the Best in Entrepreneurship from Around the World

The DEMO conferences, known for launching some the world’s biggest technology products, will kick off this Sunday with 72 new products poised to launch onstage in just 72 hours.  Beginning its 19th year of supporting innovation, DEMOfall 08 will highlight products from more than 11 countries and 19 states. Known as the conference that launched products from Google, Apple, Palm, Intel, Yahoo!, and TiVo, the fall conference will host one of its largest attendances of journalists, investors, and business professionals in its history.  DEMOfall 08 is being held from September 7 – 9 at the Sheraton San Diego.  To learn more about the event and register to attend, visit www.demo.com.

"Every DEMO, we strive to identify the companies that will defy all the odds and have significant impact in the technology markets.  Ours is a year-long process that culminates in 72 hours of products that are more than disruptive; they change the rules of the game as we know it,” said Chris Shipley, product analyst and executive producer of the DEMO conferences.  "I am very excited to unveil the class of DEMOfall 08.  They are innovative, they are important, they are fun, and they represent the future products and solutions we all will be using soon.”

The DEMO conferences are held twice a year, requiring the DEMO team to hold in-depth interviews with more than 1,000 companies ready to launch new products at the event. This rigorous process ensures that DEMOfall 08 attendees will, for the first time, see new products from around the globe including Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Taiwan.

DEMOfall 08 Presenting Companies

Accordia Group, LLC; New Rochelle, NY; www.accordia-group.com
Adapx, Inc.; Seattle, WA; www.adapx.com
Alerts.com, Inc.; Bellvue, WA; www.alerts.com
Arsenal Interactive, Inc.; Mountain View, CA; www.heycosmo.com
Asyncast Corp; Campbell, CA; www.rocketron.com
Awind Inc.; Junghe, Taiwan; www.awindinc.com
beeTV; Milano, Italy; www.bee.tv
Best Buy; Minneapolis, MN; www.giftag.com
BizEquity Corp.; Spring House, PA; www.bizequity.com
Blue Lava Technologies, Inc.; Honolulu, HI; www.bluelavatech.com
Cerego; Tokyo, Japan; www.usa.iknow.co.jp
Cinergix, Pty Ltd.; Melbourne, Australia; www.creately.com
Clintworld; Boenningstedt, Germany; www.clintworld.de
CoreTrace Corp.; Austin, TX; www.coretrace.com
crowdSPRING, LLC; Chicago, IL; www.crowdspring.com
DesignIn, Inc.; Marblehead, MA; www.mydesignin.com
Dial Directions, Inc.; Alameda, CA; www.dialdirections.com
DOCCENTER; Omaha, NE; www.doccenterinc.com
Enterprise Informatics, Inc.; San Diego, CA; www.enterpriseinfomatics.com
Familybuilder; New York, NY; www.familybuilder.com
ffwd.com, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.ffwd.com
Fortressware, Inc.; Mountain View, CA; www.fortressw.com
Fusion-io; Salt Lake City, UT; www.fusionio.com
G.ho.st; Ramallah & Modin, Palestine and Israel; http://g.ho.st
Green Sherpa; Santa Barbara, CA; www.greensherpa.com
Infovell, Inc.; Menlo Park, CA; www.infovell.com
Intelius, Inc.; Bellevue, WA; www.zumende.com
Invision TV, LLC; Bethesda, MD; www.invision.tv
iWidgets, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.iwidgets.com
Kadoo Inc.; Washington, DC; www.kadoo.com
Koollage, Inc.; San Jose, CA; www.koollage.com
Mapflow, Ltd.; Cork, Ireland; www.eirlift.com
Maverick Mobile Solutions, Pvt. Ltd.; Maharashtra, India; www.maverickmobile.in
MeDeploy; Hamden, CT; www.medeploy.com
Message Sling; Worcester, MA; www.messagesling.com
MeWorks, Inc.; Taipei, Taiwan; www.meworks.net
Microstaq, Inc.; Austin, TX; www.microstaq.com
MixMatchMusic, Ltd.; Burlingame, CA; www.mixmatchmusic.com
Momindum; Paris, France; www.momindum.com
OpenACircle.com; Dallas, TX; www.openacircle.com
Paidinterviews, LLC; McLean, VA; www.paidinterviews.com
Paragent, LLC; Muncie, IN; www.paragent.com
Photrade, LLC; Cincinnati, OH; www.photrade.com
PlanDone, Inc.; Petaluma, CA; www.plandone.com
Plastic Logic, Ltd.; Mountain View, CA; www.plasticlogic.com
Qtask, Inc.; Burbank, CA; www.Qtask.com
Quantivo Corp.; San Mateo, CA; www.quantivo.com
Radiant Logic, Inc.; Novato, CA; www.radiantlogic.com
RealNetworks, Inc.; Seattle, WA; www.real.com
Rebus Technology, Inc.; Cupertino, CA; www.rebustechnology.net
RemoTV, Inc.; New Haven, CT; www.remotv.com
Rudder, Inc.; Houston, TX; www.rudder.com
Semanti Corp.; Alberta, Canada; www.semantifind.com
Sim Ops Studios, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.wildpockets.com
SitScape, Inc.; Vienna, VA; www.sitscape.com
SkyData Systems, Inc.; San Mateo, CA; www.skydata.com
SpinSpotter; Seattle, WA; www.spinspotter.com
Telnic, Ltd.; London, England; www.telnic.org
TetraBase, LLC; Boothwyn, PA; www.tetrabase.com
The Echo Nest Corp.; Somerville, MA; http://echonest.com
tikitag, an Alcatel-Lucent Venture; Antwerp, Belgium; www.tikitag.com
Toolgether; San Mateo, CA; www.toolgether.com
TravelMuse, Inc.; Los Altos, CA; www.travelmuse.com
Trinity Convergence, Inc.; Durham, NC; www.trinityconvergence.com
TurnTo Networks, Inc.; New York, NY; www.turnto.com
UbiEst S.p.A.; Treviso, Italy; www.ubiest.com
UGA Digital, Inc.; Taipei, Taiwan; www.ugadigital.com
Unity Solutions, LLC; Clearwater, FL; www.unitysolutions.com
Usable Security Systems, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.usable.com
WebDiet, Inc.; Henderson, NV; www.webdiet.com
Xumii, Inc.; San Mateo, CA; www.xumii.com
Zazengo, Inc.; Santa Cruz, CA; www.zazengo.com

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