Graeme Thickins on Tech

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: technology (Page 2 of 3)

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

September 5, 2008 / / 1 Comment

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

Minnebar ’08 Rocked the Mouse, the House, the State, and the Twitterverse

May 11, 2008 / / 3 Comments

The third annual Minnebar unconference, Minnesota’s own Barcamp event, definitely was the place to be for the local Internet developer/entrepreneur community yesterday. (That was an understatement.) The t-shirt we all got, below, says it all. Minnebar08tshirt
More than 430 stormed the Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota, record attendance for the event (and likely for any Barcamp to date in the U.S.). It was pre-Twittered like mad in the days leading up, but the volume of tweets during the day itself — the real-time conversation — was nothing less than awesome. I think we even surprised ourselves. Check it out: just go to Summize and type "Minnebar" in the search window at the top. You’re looking at a lot of energy, folks! You can scroll through pages and pages of conversations — who knows how many! At one point yesterday, Minnebar was in the top four or five largest collective conversations going on in the whole, freaking Twitterverse! Pretty cool. (My own coverage is at www.Twitter.com/GraemeThickins, and four of us were also tweeting all day at www.Twitter.com/Minnov8.)

The event drew techies from not just the Twin Cities, but throughout the state, and even from places like Madison, Des Moines, and South Dakota, to name a few locales I heard in passing. And I know people as far away as Florida and Colorado who were really wishing they could be there. But, you know what?  Thanks to the magic of the Internet and this little thing we call Twitter, there were a whole lot of people on both coasts who were noticing and wishing, too. Thankscoffmanunion

Something very cool was happening on the campus of the U of MN yesterday. And everyone who was there can be damn proud. Minnesota Tech, you rock! Huuge thanks to the organizers, the awesome  sponsors (I’ve never even seen so much pizza in my life!), and to everyone that showed up — who all contributed and benefited. And, doggone if the whole world wasn’t noticing while we were at it…

Minnebar ’08 Schedule Announced – It’s Hot!

May 7, 2008 / / 1 Comment

The program for our annual Minnesota Barcamp — Minnebar — was just released late yesterday. The event is being held Saturday, May 10, at the Coffman Union on the U of MN campus. Here’s a look at where things are so far, and note that it’s subject to change.

Minnebar08sched1

Don’t miss the panel at 12:00 noon: "State of the State: Technology in Minnesota" in the theater on the first floor. Panelists include:
• Doug Olson, who heads a Microsoft developer team in MN
• Jamie Thinglestad, Mpls-based CTO of Dow Jones Online 
• Michael Gorman, Partner at VC firm Split Rock Partners
• Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad (a unit of Best Buy)
• And Dan Grigsby, our infamous local rabble rouser at Unpossible.com 🙂 and original lead organizer of Minnebar/Minnedemo.
Minnebar08sched2_3
Note the "Lightning Demos" at 4:00 and 5:00 — which I think will be especially good!  These are five-minute presentations available to new or existing startups, or anyone who has a new idea or favorite topic to talk about. If you want to add yours to the list (which is not yet published), just send an email to event co-orgnanizer Luke Francl at look (at) recursion (dot) org — telling him your name, company name, and what you’ll be talking about. Minnebar08sched3_3

See you Saturday! This will be fun — how could it not be, with a frenzied crowd of some 400 of your fellow MN tech enthusiasts? 🙂

I’ll be there Twittering and shootin’ pix all over. And I’m also part of the Minnov8 team, who’ll be Twittering as well. But, trust me, there’ll be plenty of hot networking in between!

A New Blog About Innovation

February 23, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Several months ago, some of my Minnesota buddies and I started talking about a need for a site that could focus on the cool things happening in technology and the Internet right here in our state. Minnov8logo_2
We ended up deciding that a multi-author blog seemed to be the way to go, since we as a group (six of us) seemed to collectively be plugged in to most of what was happening here  — the founders, the technologists, the  developers, the investors, the new ideas.
We started sharing thoughts of what we could blog about and kinda blew each others’ minds — so many good Minnesota tech stories out there, just waiting to be told. My esteemed blogging buddy Steve Borsch, of Connecting The Dots, really led the charge. Hats off to him, because this idea simply wouldn’t have happened without his energy and passion.

Well, today, Saturday, you can now check out Minnov8.com — "Minnesota Technology Innovation News & Insights." After talking about it for months, it’s finally a reality. Well, kind of a soft-launch, anyway. Trouble is, starting in January, we all got really busy, but we decided we had enough content in the can, as it were, that we should go, at least with a few posts to get started. (More is coming as we speak.) My first post was about innovation in angel investing, a topic I’m very close to and have also written about here on Tech~Surf~Blog, as well as on GetGoMN.org.

None of us needs another blog to be committed to. But I hope to be able to contribute ongoing, at least in my spare time, weekends, etc. And I personally intend to recruit guest bloggers from time to time. The community needs a forum like this, we’re convinced, and it was time to let ‘er rip. We all really believe strongly in our community. But there’s lots more to come from our current team of contributors, so keep your eye on Minnov8. And do let us know what you think. Go, Minnesota tech!

Some of the Great People I Met at DEMO ’08

February 5, 2008 / / 1 Comment

Time for my traditional waltz through the business card stack from the DEMO conference last week in Palm Desert. Besides, I need something to do on the plane home. I always meet so many interesting people at these events, and this one was certainly no exception.  The mood is so upbeat at DEMO, the energy level so high!  I mean, 77 companies launching, and probably a half a dozen people in attendance from each firm on average (counting a PR rep and many times an investor or board member or two) — all higher than a kite, ready to tell anyone who’ll listen about their red-hot new company! Demostagebanner
On top of that, a press contingent of about 80 is wandering about, not to speak of a whole slew of VCs, angels, and corporate investors and biz dev people. I collect a lot of business cards from these folks, even though I’m quite busy most of the time, attending every session — nose to the Macbook and/or iPhone blogging or Twittering.

Before I get to the new folks I met, here are some of the folks I ran into again whom I already knew or had met previously (alphabetically by last name):
– Stewart Alsop, VC, Alsop-Louie Partners (and the original founder of DEMO)
– Renee Blodgett, Blodgett Communications (for SpeakLike and Toktumi)
– Gary Bolles, now CEO of new startup Xigi.biz
– Katie Boehret, Technology Reporter, Wall Street Journal
– Kevin Dorren. now Chairman, HubDub
– Dan Farber, VP Editorial, ZDnet
– Mike Garity, VP, Network World Conferences
– Dan Gillmor, Journalist, Author, Angel Investor (one is Seesmic)
– Paula Gould, PEG PR (for Delver)
– Shel Israel, Blogger/Author, now FastCompany’s Global Neighbourhood TV guy
– Steve Larsen, CEO, Krugle
– Erica Lee, StrategicLee (for DEMO)
– Walt Mossberg, Technology Reporter, Wall Street Journal
– Rafe Needleman, Editor, CNet, and Chief Blogger, Webware.com
– Keith Shaw, Editor, Network World
– Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, DEMO
– Becky Sniffen, MC2 Communications (for DEMO)
– Brian Solis, Founder, Future-Works PR
– Don Thorson, now VP Marketing, Ribbit

Demopatio

The pix on this page are just a couple random shots. Here’s my complete DEMO ’08 Flickr set.

And now for the new people I met — at least those I got a business card from (again alphabetically by last name):
– Liad Agmon, CEO, Delver
– Michael Bogart, The Bogart Group (who does the production of DEMO)
– Bill Bryant, Board Advisor for both Blist and Liquid Planner
– Terra Carmichael, SutherlandGold Group PR
– Jinnan Cai, Cofounder/VP-Prod Dev, Buska (Perth, Australia)
– Gerry Caulfield, Lead Technology Engineer, Buska (Perth, Australia)
– Kirk Chen, Cofounder/Product Architect, iLeonardo
– Matt Clark, AE, Lotus PR (for Catalyst Web)
– Sanford Cohen, CEO, SpeakLike
– Mike Dever, CEO, YouChoose.net
– Nigel Eccles, Chief News Junkie, HubDub (Edinburgh, Scotland)
– Quentin Hardy, Silicon Valley Bureau Manager, Forbes
– Patrick Harr, CEO, Nirvanix
– Linda Huang, VP Marketing & Sales, Santrum
– Ryo Koyama, CEO, Yoics
– Miiko Mentz, Future-Works PR (for HubDub)
– Melinda Meggyesy, Online Community Manager, LiquidPlanner
– Dave Merkel, VP Products, Mandiant
– Yannis Papakonstantinou, Cofounder, App2You.com
– Stephanie Rice, Sr AE, Ruder Finn West
– Michelle Schafer, Acct Supervisor, Merritt Group PR (for Mandiant)
– Robert Schettino, Marketing, iVideoSongs.com
– Dan Seyer, VP Product Management, Ribbit
– Carnet Williams, CEO, SproutBuilder.com

Once again, it was great meeting all of you!  I thought it was a particularly good DEMO, and I was excited about the quality of the startups presenting.  I hope to hear again from you folks I met at the event. Stay in touch!  For more, see this index page of my coverage of DEMO 08 on this blog, and even more on Twitter, plus my DEMO 08 photo set on Flickr.

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