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: tech (Page 1 of 2)

Gov. Doug Burgum Touts ND, Rich Karlgaard Sizes Up the Economy

event ballroom and stage

North Dakota has a lot going for it. The state embodies many good, positive things. The spirit of the pioneering American West. The frontier. Teddy Roosevelt. Hard work. Endless possibilities. Family values. The great American farmer. It also happens to have one of the best damn football programs in the entire U.S.A.: the NDSU Bison. Oh, and not the least, a booming economy.

I consider myself lucky to live in the next-door state, where I can closely admire what’s going on there. So, early Thursday morning, February 20th, I jumped in my car and headed Northwest to Fargo to attend the annual “Economic Outlook” luncheon event put on by the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber of Commerce.

It was fantastic! I’d only heard about it a few days earlier, in one of the email newsletters I get regularly from the fine folks at the Emerging Prairie organization.  (Thank you, Greg.) I knew it would be a bit of a time investment — a seven-hour round trip! But I happened to have the day open, and I quickly decided I just couldn’t miss the main speaker, my friend Rich Karlgaard (who happens to be a native of Bismarck, North Dakota).

Rich is the longtime Publisher of Forbes and a well known  futurist and speaker, whom the Chamber described as “one of the most influential and respected figures in the technology, economic, and business worlds. He advises audiences on how to harness an organization’s disruptive spirits to maximize business opportunities in the global marketplace. He’s also a regular panelist on one of cable news’ most popular business shows, Forbes on FOX.” Rich has a long bio, and you can learn more about him here, including his many great books. He’s one of my all-time favorite people in the tech business! We originally met some 20 years ago, and I manage to connect with him from time to time.

I arrived about 40 minutes early and was lucky enough to run into Rich as soon as I walked in. So we had a nice chance to catch up before the crowd started arriving. The event was held in a huge ballroom, and Rich drew a full house of business leaders. It was a packed,  high-energy affair!

Doug Burgum (left) and Rich Karlgaard

Doug Burgum (l) and Rich Karlgaard.

As we chatted in the big room, just as it was starting to fill, he saw his friend and colleague Doug Burgum, the noted software founder, VC, and now the Governor of North Dakota, walk into the room. So, we headed over to chat with him. I of course know Doug’s VC firm, Arthur Ventures, quite well and regularly stay in touch with some of the folks there. But Doug has been focused on serving as Governor since assuming that office more than three years ago. He was slated to give some opening remarks.

Times Are Good in North Dakota

“Every region in the country would trade places with us,” Doug declared after taking the stage. “There’s never been a better time for us here!” Then he started ticking off a list of ratings for his state:

• #1 Best Place to Raise a Family

• #1 for Millennials

• Fargo is the #1 Hottest Job Market, with Bismarck (the capitol) coming in at #9

• And, as we’ve all heard by now, North Dakota is the #2 Oil Producing State

“We’re powering and feeding the world,” the Governor said. He also noted that North Dakota ranks high in broadband deployment — one of the most connected states in the U.S.  As one of the top agriculture states, and arguably the most technologically advanced in ag tech, he said, “We need to have every combine connected!”

He went on to say that his state has one of the lowest unemployment rates, and that it needs more workers and education. “Our number-one priority is developing a larger, better educated workforce.”

The Main Event

Billed as a talk on “Tech, Trade, Turbulence, and the 2020 Election,” it was now time to hear from the keynoter, Rich Karlgaard. He began by saying he’s now been with Forbes for 28 years. (I remember when he began as editor of a brand-new publication called Forbes ASAP, after being a key team member of a ground-breaking Silicon Valley-based publication called Upside, which I loved and was where I first came to know him. I had the honor of introducing Rich at a huge event in downtown Minneapolis in 2000  — that will provide some more color about his early career.)

Rich Karlgaard on stageRich kicked off by mentioning a couple of his recent books, “The Soft Edge” and “Team Genius.” The latter, he said, received praise from Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and — interesting tidbit — Rich noted that Satya once reported to Doug Burgum at Microsoft. Then Rich quickly dove into a hot topic of the  moment, the 2020 elections, as the latest Democratic train wreck debate had just happened the night before. His first slide spoke of “The Grim Logic of Money,” referring to the massive sums at play for Bernie and Bloomberg. He commented on some of the candidates, noting that Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar “can’t get into orbit,” and that Nate Silver, the noted statistician, recently said Bernie will come up short of delegates, at only 1500-some, when 1991 are needed to get the nomination. He said it’s looking like a brokered convention this summer — “a mess like Chicago” (referring to 1968).

Rich dove right into a rapid-fire talk with many slides, touching on a  whole array of topics. It was hard to keep up the note-taking, but I was trying:

GDP Growth Rates

Trump has averaged 2.6% 2017-2019. Obama averaged 2.2%  2009-2016. George W. Bush averaged 2.1% 2001-2008 (but that last year was the financial crash). With the you-know-what virus scare, GDP in Q1 2020 will not be good, he said. But he nonetheless sees 2.2 to 2.3% growth for the year — a solid “B.”

Reasons for Hope

“Stocks are still undervalued — there’s room to grow,” said Karlgaard. He noted the increase in housing starts in December of 16.9%. Combined mortgage and household debt is near the bottom of the recent historical range. Interest payments on federal debt as a percent of GDP are way down. And CEO confidence rebounded in Q4 according to the Conference Board. “Also, small business optimism is going up,” he said. “It dipped a bit in Q4 but remains high.”

Life in the Valley

Rich put up a slide of Peter Thiel, the noted conservative VC and billionaire founder, who used to be in Silicon Valley but now lives in LA. Not sure the subtle point there, but Rich made a funny comment: “We conservative Republicans in Silicon Valley could hold our quarterly meetings in a phone booth.”

Bits vs. Atoms

Speaking in North Dakota, Rich couldn’t help but bring up what he calls the “atoms industries” — meaning mining, agriculture, industrial production, manufacturing. The kinds of industries where it’s harder to raise capital — as opposed to the digital industry centered in Silicon Valley, where money flows. (But a side note here: North Dakota is also a major software hub, with the Microsoft Dynamics business in Fargo being one of the largest employers in the state.)

Calling a 2020 Winner

“Trump is favored by voters in the world of atoms,” he said. “Meanwhile, Dems assume they’re better at digital things.” The Obama campaign in 2012 “cleaned Mitt Romney’s clock,” with social media and other digital tools. But, Rich said, look out for Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital campaign manager in 2016, who’s now heading the entire campaign in 2020. He cited a commentator who calls him “smart and dangerous.”

So, the digital edge may be changing. “Look what the Dems did in Iowa!” Karlgaard exclaimed — meaning the big digital fail. He predicts Trump wins easily in November.

Tech Trends that Are “Mega”

So, where are things headed in tech? Rich’s Megatrend #1 is this: “The tech economy is not slowing down — it’s speeding up.” The old Moore’s Law  essentially brought us a 30% improvement each year. But advances in semiconductors will soon be taking us from 30 billion to 60 billion transistors per chip. Taiwan Semiconductor just announced it will be opening a production facility for 3-nanometer silicon — a feat unheard of not long ago. He put up a slide citing “The New Engine of Disruption: Diane Greene’s Law” (she being the recent head of Google’s cloud division, and formerly a cofounder of VMware.) The new norm this brings us, says Karlgaard, is “a 60% annual improvement in digital bang for the buck.” He also quoted Scott Guthrie, head of Microsoft Azure: “Cloud not only scales up — it scales out, to users.” That referring to computing at the edge, which brings us advances like “near-instant trend analysis.” What industries will be transformed in the next decade? Here’s the slide: list of industries that will be transformed

Megatrend #2: “Extreme valuation creates asymmetric funding.” To illuminate, Rich cited the valuation of Tesla, currently at about $166 billion, as compared to GM at $49 billion. “Tesla’s getting free money,” he said. “They roll the dice! The investors want that.” GM, on the other hand, has investors that are primarily pension funds — and they don’t like or want change. What this trend results in, he said, is “repeated assaults to the profits of legacy companies.” And he couldn’t help but cite the current number of “unicorn” companies: it’s now up to 524.

Megatrend #3: “Digital awareness is becoming more important.” And here Rich delves into what the says are best practices — one being “cultural clarity.” Companies  have to know who they are, what they’ll do, and what they won’t do. He showed  what Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx, calls his triangle of health for companies: “Execution” on the left, “Values” on the right, and “Strategy” on the bottom. And he cited Scheel’s, a privately held, employee-owned sporting goods and entertainment chain headquartered in Fargo, which is “a good example of executing on its self-identity.” Another couple of best practices come out in his 2015 book, Team Genius: 1) small is better when it comes to teams, and 2) seek cognitive diversity — meaning both analytical and intuitive people. An example he cited: the pairing of two opposites at Starbucks: Howard Schultz and Howard Behar. When its rapid growth stalled, and customer service was suffering, the hard-charging Schultz promoted the other Howard to deal with the soft side of the business. Behar, not an analytical type and not even a college grad, was critical to the creation of what became Starbucks unique culture, eventually becoming president of Starbucks North America and Starbucks International. Another example of teaming: Fred Smith at FedEx had the “inside view” nailed, but he recruited a key outsider from Silicon Valley as a board member: Judy Estrin, who brought the digital view. Finally, Karlgaard talked about all the Silicon Valley technical-genius founders and cofounders with 800 math SAT scores: Woz, Zuck, and many other well-known names. “No HR manager ever got fired for hiring 800 scores!” But there’s a lot more to talent in the world of cognitively diverse teams in this digital age.

Do you know how many players got list of Karlgaard's "Super Powers"drafted ahead of Tom Brady, he asked? There were scores of them — and he showed many of the names you’ve never even heard of. So the question he asks is, “How do you find more Tom Bradys?” That’s a topic Rich addresses in his most recent book, Late Bloomers (also coming out in paperback soon). And he gave us a brief list of what he puts forth in that book as his key “Super Powers” — shown in the slide here. (I have the book and recommend it — in fact, I brought it along to get Rich to sign it!)

During the audience Q&A following his talk, Rich made an interesting comment about Fargo-Moorhead: “I think it punches well above its weight. I see it as a smaller Austin TX or Columbus OH.” Yes, indeed — population isn’t everything. Intangibles matter.

As the event ended and Rich was being interviewed by a local TV station, I chatted with a few good folks I’d met, then jumped back into my car to get back home before dark. My head was buzzing all the way back down Interstate 94. So glad I made the trip!

 

 

 

 

 

In Its 24th Year, Venture Conference Asks If Minnesota Has ‘Lost It’

MN_VentureFinanceConf2010 We’ll find out Thursday, because I’ll be there to live-blog it all: the proceedings of the annual Minnesota Venture & Finance Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center, co-hosted as always by the Minnesota Venture Capital Association and The Collaborative.

(UPDATE: My complete live-blog of the event is archived here.)

TheCollaborative-logo MVCA-logo

 

The blue-suit crowd will turn out once more to hash over where, oh, where is venture investing going in our state, and whether Minnesota is holding its own or falling behind in relation to other states. 

This is great sport, people!  We can’t beat Wisconsin in college football for seven years straight, but, oh yeah, we got those cheeseheads when it comes to the game of innovation!  … Or do we?  (And, Gopher fans, I won’t even bring up South Dakota.  Shees.)

“Innovation?  Jobs?  Has Minnesota lost it?  Not for one day in October we haven’t,” says The Collaborative in one of its promos.  “2010 marks our second full year of the worldwide recessionary malaise.  Our state’s economy is also not what anyone is calling ‘robust’.  Our unemployment rate is higher than it’s been in decades.  On the plus side, we’re still one of the brightest economies in the nation,” the pitch goes on to say.

“The positive gap between our jobless rate as compared to the nation is at its highest in 30 years… Yet we also hear many reports of our state losing its way in innovation.”

Can you sense the drama, people?  I’m nervously doing finger and hand exercises right now, in great anticipation of the nuances I may be able to capture on my Macbook or iPad (decisions, decisions) as I contemplate the live-blogging nirvana that awaits me Thursday.  It has me breathing heavy.

“Last year, in the throes of the recession, 54 companies gave presentations, 400+ investors and entrepreneurs came, shared, and discussed growth in tough times,” said Dan Carr, CEO of The Collaborative, in his announcement of this year’s event.  DanCarr-Collaborative “It actually felt optimistic! These companies also go on to create jobs.  Lots of them.  Minnesota is 8th in the nation in venture backed employment: 365,000 jobs.”  (No word on how many of those people may have been laid off in recent times because those ventures couldn’t raise enough money.)

Carr continues:  “This year’s ‘homecoming’ promises another day-long celebration of ‘doing’ more than ‘hand wringing’.  It’s true that some of our greatest companies rise from difficult times.  Our annual conference has a knack for bringing together Minnesota’s best ‘Up & Comers’.”

The 2010 version of the conference will begin with a look at the current state of venture investing, by way of an opening address from John Taylor of the National Venture Capital Association.  That will be followed by 18 Presenting Companies giving seven-minute presentations, plus somewhere between 20 and 30 more startups in the “Entrepreneurial Showcase” giving one-minute introductions.  (I’ll be particularly interested to see if any of those entrepreneurs can make a impact in that minuscule amount of time.  I’ve heard several of the new 90-second “Alpha Pitches” at the last few DEMO conferences in California, most of which fail to impress, and they have 50% more time.)

Notable in the 2010 presenter group, says The Collaborative, is the mix of industries and stages… “reflecting Minnesota’s variety and also our strengths: Medtech (Inspire Medical Systems, Galil Medical, and InterValve) … Cleantech (EarthClean, tenKsolar and Packet Power) … Technology (Alvenda and Swift Knowledge) … and mouth guard maker Bite Tech … and more.”  (I don’t know about you, but I beam with pride when I tell people about Minnesota’s rich tradition in mouth protection.)

But wait, there’s more!  Panels and workshops during the day (speakers and panelists) will address these topics:

• Financing Innovation circa 2010:  Angel, Venture Capital, and Private Equity
• Medtech in 2010:  Innovating with New Science, Products, and Markets amid FDA and   Reimbursement Challenges
• Next Generation Technology:  Minnesota’s Unique Advantages and Opportunities
• Financing in a Challenging Economy
• Exit Strategies
• Intellectual Property and Financing
• Going Public
• Planning Your Long-Term Financing Strategy

You can still register for the event.  And (pssst) I hear the “MHTA” might even have a $100-off discount code.

Some 350 or more are expected at the confab, Carr tells me.  Sure, I know most of them already — but the thought that some in the group may be potential new social media friends for me makes me almost giddy.  And, doggone it, I don’t even have to drive to Wisconsin or South Dakota to meet them.  (This conference has been attracting more and more out-of-state attendees in recent years, which is commendable.)

The Twitter hashtag for the event is #mnconf.  I wonder how many of the blue suits might be tweeting.  Not holding my breath on that, but maybe I’ll set my live-blog software to display all the tweets attendees are blurting out during the event.  It’s time we loosened up this venerable conference a bit — thank God Twitter happened, huh?

Watch for the link to my live blog on Minnov8.com, in a post we’ll have up by late Wednesday.

(Note: This post first appeared at Minnov8.com.)

 

 

Minnedemo Was Great … Now, How About Those Business Models?

If you're part of the Minnesota Internet and software community and you missed Minnedemo on Friday night, you must be bummed — as several of you told me from afar as I was tweetin' it … :-)  Minnedemo-logo
[Evidenced by this clip from my twitterstream that night, which shows a few of those who were talking back at me in real time.]  You missed a great event.  No worries, though, because myself and my buddies at Minnov8 posted lots of audio and video recorded at the event for your listening and viewing pleasure.

Minnedemo_Tweet-outs

But, for those of you who were there, how many of you noticed what I did?  Namely, the almost complete lack of the presenters talking about their business model?

I have something to propose for future Minnedemo pitches: how about, as part of the 7-minute presentation, a new rule is instituted that states a minimum of one minute of that has to be devoted to explaining the business model? Is that an unreasonable request? Even thirty seconds would be a welcome addition.

Now, I realize the traditional audience of Minnedemo is developers, listening to their fellow developers on stage presenting their cool, new code creations.  Elegance in app design and functionality have been the focus of pretty much every presentation I've seen at these events.  Or features.  Or UI design.  But, is not the end-game in all this something that might actually be commercially viable, too?  That is, a business that could make it in the real world?  From where I sit, more and more business people and investors have started to attend these quasi-quarterly events.

I don't mean to imply that none of the presenters on Friday night has a business plan. Of course, all but the very newest, coolest projects must have one, right?  And it would then follow that these presenting companies would have to have a business model for how they will make money.  They just didn't talk about it Friday night — or, in most cases, even mention it.

I say that's a big thing missing from Minnedemo. What do you think?  Should presenters be required to talk more about such things?

Where I’ll be Tonight: Minnedemo! Look Me Up…

For all of you readers, followers, and friends lucky enough to be in Minneapolis right now — yes, February is good for something! — it'll be All The Tech You Can Handle tonight at our quarterly Minnedemo event, mixed in a with a frosty brewski or two. BeerMug
Myself and a couple of my buddies from Minnov8.com (Steve Borsch and Tim Elliott) will even be there doing video and audio interviews for our next podcast — so get ready to have a mic shoved in your face while you're navigating that beer mug… 🙂

For the details of what's happening, here's the post I did on Minnov8 earlier this week:

Emerging Minnesota Software and Internet Technologies to Take the Stage on February 6

Entrepreneurs, software developers, and computer professionals of
all stripes will be rubbing shoulders again this Friday evening with
other hopeful company founders, VCs, angel investors, bloggers, and
media people from throughout the Twin Cities and other parts of the
Upper Midwest.  They'll
be gathering for what's become a not-to-be-missed quarterly geek-fest
called Minnedemo.

minnedemo-logo Billed as "the Twin Cities’ premier technology demo
and networking event," it features free beer, pop, munchies, and lots
of conversation, with product demonstrations mixed in between. The
latter are delivered from the stage of an auditorium with theater-like
seating. More than 200 people are expected to attend.

Minnedemo is being held for a second time at Intermedia Arts in
Uptown’s Lyn-Lake neighborhood, and will kick off about 6:00 p.m. this
Friday, February 6, with demos starting about 7:00. (Intermedia Arts is
located at 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408.) According to
Minnedemo organizer Luke Francl, "All are welcome, just please remember
to RSVP online." The web site for registering (again, it's free) is http://minnedemo.eventbrite.com/
This quarter's event will feature ten demos — five, then a break, then
five more. Most demonstrators will be launching their products or
showing off their creations for the very first time. Here they are
alphabetically:

actionchess-logo65wAction Chess
is a game app for the iPhone, described as a cross between Tetris
Attack, Tetris, and the classic board game Chess. The developer claims
it "makes your brain work in interesting ways." It will be released for
the iPhone in the coming weeks and will be demoed on stage. (Martin
Grider will present.)

amo-logo1Association Manager Online
(AMO) is a new web application from local development shop ArcStone
that let members, staff, and administrators of associations and
non-profits manage tasks (such as sending emails, posting documents,
collecting payments, etc) in a secure manner from any internet browser,
whether at home or work. (David Carnes will present)

bevpost-logoBevPost
is a site that lets consumers select coupons for their favorite adult
beverages and have them delivered directly to their cell phones, so
they can redeem them at their local liquor store and save cash. (John
Ballatine will present)

enstratus-logoenStratus
is a brand-new startup that's addressing the "confidence" questions
businesses naturally have as they move their systems into Amazon EC2
and other "cloud computing" environments. The company, recently
launched by the founders of successful local software firm Valtira,
provides a suite of cloud infrastructure management tools that enable
companies to automate the secure deployment, scaling, monitoring, and
disaster recovery of their cloud computing infrastructure. (George
Reese will present.)

loudclick-logoLoudClick
is a free website builder program that people can use to build web
sites around their interests together, all without the need of a
techie. (Alex Huff will present.)

nabbit-logoNabbit
lets you identify a song you hear on the radio using your mobile phone.
Just text Nabb and include the call letters of the station you're
listening to. The service will fetch the song information for you and
deliver it to your account page on its web site. The company also
recently introduced a native iPhone app. (Norton Lam will present.)

re-searchr-logore-searchr
is a social search app that lets you "find stuff easier" online. It
helps you get search results from people you trust, using data from
your friends to influence the re-searchr score presented on top of your
search results. Another feature pushes your questions out to your
social networks, where your friends can then answer or comment; the app
then lets you push back their answers or comments for others to see. 
(James Ostheimer will present.)

sendoncue-logoSendOnCue
is a browser plugin that lets you schedule email delivery for later. It
integrates directly into your email or webmail client. Send an email
reminder at a later date and time. Slow down a conversation by delaying
when your reply is sent. If you work odd hours, you can adjust the time
your email is sent. (Aaron Kardell will present.)

socialbrowse-logoSocialbrowse
is a YCombinator-funded startup that provides social bookmarking with
discussions in the browser. It lets you share and discuss the web in
real time, and see what's good on every page. It  combines your social
network with your everyday web browsing. You can share and discuss any
page with a single click. Pages you share or comments you make are
automatically sent to other users in your network. You receive
real-time updates of cool links shared by people you like. (Zack Garbow
and Dave Fowler will present.)

ZippyStat (no web site yet) is a simple online service to
record and monitor nearly any type of information such as your gas
mileage, business cards collected, "poops by your newborn," books read,
miles run, etc. (Kelly Heikkila will present.)

This Minnedemo event is sponsored by:
New Counsel
Split Rock Partners
Sierra Bravo
Tightrope Media Systems
The Foundation
VISI

In a first for Minnedemo, this entire event will be video recorded, courtesy of TJ Kudalis from Internet Broadcasting.
And, I'm told, monitors will be located in the networking area for
those that can't squeeze into the limited seating in the auditorium. In
addition, Minnov8 will be recording interviews throughout the
networking portion of the evening, with the help of 612Authentic, also
a first.  For more information, see the Minnedemo web site.

Anticipating Defrag….

Getting excited about the Defrag conference, kicking off this Sunday evening in Denver. Once again, Eric Norlin and his colleagues who originally conceived this event (including VC Brad Feld) have planned a wonderful conference program, and again attracted a stellar group — coming off a blowout successful first-year event a year ago. Defrag2008-logo
(I wrote about the inaugural version extensively: here's an index of my Defrag 2007 posts. Actually, I believe it was the last event I live-blogged, versus the live-Twittering approach I've adopted since for my conference reporting. Why has Twitter just sort of taken over?) And, with this year's advisory board including people like Esther Dyson (of PC Forum fame) and Chris Shipley (of DEMO fame), how could this not be another fantastic conference?

Last year's experience was so great in every way that I took to describing it as basically like a religious experience. I was in awe hobnobbing with so many luminaries and big thinkers. I also got to connect again with many of my friends from the early days of the Internet — Doc Searls, Chris Locke, David Weinberger, Steve Larsen, and others.  I love my (younger) friend Aaron Fulkerson's testimonial comment about Defrag 2007, used on the current web site: "The
event had quite the attendee and speakers
list. You couldn’t spit and not
hit an industry notable."
 
It was an amazing group — all told, about 300. The collective intelligence in the room was unlike
anything I've ever experienced, and the program, keynotes, and
discussions — both the panels and the informal variety — were
off-the-charts valuable and thought-provoking.  There was just this energy level that I can't fully describe…that we were about to collectively imagine the future of the Internet, the social web, a whole new level of collaboration. You had to be there.

And you should be there this year! It's not too late, and I even have a juicy discount code posted in my sidebar to the right. [Shhh, don't tell anybody.  I'm not sure I'm supposed to be offering that to all my blog readers — but what the hell! Maybe Eric Norlin won't read this… 🙂 ] The best way to get the real skinny about what's in store this year is to check out the Defrag blog, which Eric writes so well. The man has a gift for storytelling. And, of course, check out the list of stellar speakers…and the great agenda. This conference is packed with aha moments and extreme takeaways.

What's also cool is that there are three speakers from my home state of Minnesota. Rich Hoeg of Honeywell, whom I met at our "Minnebar" BarCamp event this past spring, will be speaking about social search in the corporate environment, and Connie Bensen, a community strategist now working with Network Solutions, will be on a panel about "making the social web." Oneplace_logo
And I'm especially looking forward to a panel on "Re-imagining
the metaphors behind collaborative
tools
," which includes my friend Steve Kickert of Minnesota's own Riverock Technologies, who'll be talking about his very cool, just released from beta OnePlace™ online team collaboration and work management system. 
These guys are some amazing developers, and this thing rocks. (I know — I use it!) You can catch some buzz about OnePlace™ just starting to appear here and here. [Full disclosure: I'm a consultant to Steve's company.]

Want to see who else you'll be able to hobnob with in this intimate setting?  Check out this blog post that lists just some of the many companies attending.  People, I'm tellin' ya, this is a heavy-duty crowd!  Want to read a great rundown on what your two-day experience will be like at Defrag?  Check out this blog post, which will give you "a sense of what you'll encounter" at this great conference.

I really hope you can make it to Defrag. See you in Denver!

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