DEMO Spring 2010 Concludes 20th Annual Conference With Final Product Launches and Previews, DEMOgod Awards and Insightful Panel Discussions
Consumer and enterprise companies take the stage; select outstanding demonstrators chosen for DEMOgod and People's Choice award
PALM DESERT, Calif., March 23 -- The DEMO Conference, the world-renowned launch platform for some of the most notable emerging technologies introduced over the past two decades, today concluded DEMO Spring 2010 in Palm Desert, Calif., where over the past two days, 64 vanguard companies launched cutting edge new products and emerging prototypes to the distinct DEMO community of investors, press, analysts and entrepreneurs. To round out the final day of DEMO Spring 2010, 29 demonstrators and AlphaPitch companies gave remarkable product previews and presented the cutting-edge ideas and concepts. DEMO's Executive Producer, Matt Marshall, closed the conference by presenting this year's DEMOgod awards and the special IDG Million Dollar Media Prize to the selected demonstrator recipient of the People's Choice Award.
Following day one of DEMO Spring 2010, where 35 companies launched products and/or prototypes in the fields of mobile, social and media, and cloud technologies, day two demonstrator and AlphaPitch companies were focused on enterprise and consumer industries. Technologies presented today ranged anywhere from products to enhance a consumer's television watching experience and personal finance tools to grade a consumer's financial health to productivity and organizational tools for businesses and consumers and applications to keep organizations environmentally engaged and accountable.
Highlights from today's launches:
Everyday Tools for the Savvy Consumer
Demonstrators:
-- CalendarFly - a free online calendar for schools that serves as a
single source for parents' schedules and those of their children,
updated instantly and automatically as teachers and coaches enter
assignments.
-- GlideTV Inc.'s GlideTV Navigator - a device that combines big-screen
software with a unique handheld wireless touchpad that makes it a
pleasure to watch Internet videos on an HDTV.
-- Hillcrest Labs' Kylo Browser for TV - a Web browser for television
designed for viewing at a distance and easy navigation, with tools
including an onscreen keyboard, large buttons, screen zooming, and
quick links to popular websites.
-- InVisage Technologies, Inc.'s QuantumFilm - the world's first
commercial thin film-based image sensors, designed to deliver 4x
higher sensitivity and 2x higher dynamic range, including an array of
additional features not found on traditional silicon-based imagers.
-- nyoombl, Inc.'s Greypfroot - a wallet-sized, Linux/Android OS-based
device that enables PC-to-TV teleconferencing and TV-to-TV
teleconferencing, yet costs less than a typical unsubsidized smart
phone.
-- Phone Halo - a small key fob that wirelessly creates a smartphone
"halo" around consumers most important items, keeping track of keys,
briefcases, purses and other personal valuables, and preventing them
from theft, loss or misplacement.
-- Rebtel's Android app - a VoIP application optimized for the Google
Nexus One device that offers users free international calling with
crystal-clear voice quality and without the need for a Wi-Fi
connection.
-- In & Out Cash Management System - an online personal financial
management application that uses custom algorithms to score users in
eight categories to rate their financial health, rewarding them
through an incentive-based point system and integrating social media
and gaming to take the common person and coach them into excellent
money management.
-- Vivox for the Social Web - a tool that makes it possible for users to
interact with each other through online games, social networks or
virtual worlds just as naturally as they would in real life, providing
voice to online communities that enriches the online experience.
AlphaPitch companies:
-- KarmaKorn....grow good! - an innovative technology that creates
virtual currency for social change.
-- MEDL Technology Co., Ltd.'s The Panel - a multipurpose LCD display
that offers both consumer and business audiences a lightweight,
versatile and portable display, adding additional screen real estate
that eliminates bulky peripherals and enhances productivity at home.
Tools for the Modern Business (Part 1)
Demonstrators:
-- BlueSkies Hospitality Management Systems' Restaurant 2.0 - software
that delivers customer relationship solutions by creating a productive
environment for restaurants and their guests.
-- eXaudios Technologies' MagInify Call Center - a call center solution
that recognizes and understands people's emotions through their voice
to mitigate escalations, identify fraudulent situations, outperform
sales and customer satisfaction, provide "how-to" recommendations, and
monitor performance by management.
-- General Inspection, LLC's Li'l Magic - a part-identification system
used by hardware stores with patented, precision laser/optics that
provides pricing and inventory control for all loose components.
-- GreenNurture - a Web-based SaaS application designed to engage
employees in a company's journey towards sustainable business
practices by providing a forum to contribute ideas on how to reduce
costs and environmental impact while tracking resource expenditures
and providing a proprietary Green Action Index rating visible to
stakeholders.
-- InfoDome - an online SaaS database for spreadsheet users and database
authors that makes it easy to collect, manage, analyze and share data.
-- Infusionsoft's Email Marketing 2.0 - an on-demand solution that
combines advanced email marketing capabilities with a full-featured
customer database, e-commerce and powerful automation all in one
system.
-- Network Hippo, Inc. - a network relationship application that
aggregates and organizes contact information intelligently from email
and social networking sites.
-- Solvate's Staffing Engine - a staffing engine that connects companies
with the right talent for their project by leveraging logistical,
social and descriptive data.
AlphaPitch companies:
-- PERMISSIONtosend's PERMISSION: PIN-based email - a PIN-based email
system which, by putting every email you send or receive on a timer,
and attaching an unique PIN number to it, is 100% effective in
removing SPAM from your Inbox.
-- Systems Thinking Institute, LLC's Systemkey - a scalable systems
analysis framework that delivers product innovation risk management
solutions three times faster using thin-slice modeling with optional
near-real-time risk analysis results.
-- ZURB's Verify - product that helps companies collect and analyze user
feedback through customizable tests that collect specific segmented
feedback that companies can then act on report information to further
their product goals.
Tools for the Modern Business (Part 2)
Demonstrators:
-- NetToons, Inc.'s Tooncast reactor - a cloud-computing SaaS platform
and application suite that creates new opportunities for media
companies and brands to leverage their fans in creating and
distributing brand-safe, professional-quality animations across three
screens, from smartphones to the open Internet to CATV.
-- Supercool School - an online school platform that lets people create
customized education environments for live online learning.
-- Sutus, Inc.'s Business Central 1600 - an all-in-one solution that
provides small businesses or larger businesses with multiple small
offices with the communication and IT tools they need, including
voice, data, networking, security and business applications.
-- Teneros, Inc.'s Social Sentry - a solution that provides granular,
real-time tracking of employee activity on social networks to enable
businesses to eliminate significant corporate risks related to
compliance, leakage of sensitive information, HR issues, legal
exposure and brand damage.
-- VenueGen - a browser-based 3D virtual meeting platform where business
colleagues meet and collaborate, creating shared experiences that lead
to faster learning and business actions.
-- Widgetbox's ClickTurn Ad Builder - an advertising tool that allows
brands to create and flight customized content ads that leverage their
conversational marketing and appeal to users, resulting in 6-8x
increases in click-through and engagement rates.
-- Tastr, Inc.'s Xpenser - a mobile time, receipt, and expense management
solution that records items from any device, anywhere, anytime, using
simple natural language.
-- VIC Wave, Inc. - a hybrid Web/phone service that brings free inbound
calls to enterprise SMBs from anywhere on the Internet.
Visitors to http://www.DEMO.com may view all DEMO stage presentations within 24 hours of each product launch.
DEMO Explores Funding Landscape of Enterprise and Consumer Technologies
On Tuesday afternoon, the final series of DEMOfocus panel sessions took place, focusing on both enterprise and consumer technology categories and the specific funding challenges and opportunities that exist within each today. Moderated by Matt Marshall, DEMO's executive producer and VentureBeat's editor-in-chief, today's discussions included:
DEMOfocus on Consumer Technologies: Panel Discussion on Funding Challenges and Opportunities:
-- Chi-Hua Chien, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
-- Robert Davis, Managing General Partner, Highland Capital Partners
-- Michael Jones, Chief Technology Advocate, Google
DEMOfocus on Enterprise Technologies: Panel Discussion on Funding Challenges and Opportunities:
-- Keng Lim, Chairman & CEO, NextLabs
-- Gordon Ritter, General Partner, Emergence Capital Partners
-- Mark Sugarman, Managing Partner, MHS Capital
-- John Taschek, Vice President, Strategy, Salesforce.com
DEMOgod Award(TM) Winners
Each conference DEMO unveils a new class of the industry's upcoming technologies, and it always proves difficult to pick and choose the most exceptional products. The desirable DEMOgod Awards are given to those that show outstanding potential to succeed in the market while motivating and exciting the DEMO audience. Congratulations to the 6 companies that Matt Marshall honored with DEMOgod Awards during DEMO Spring 2010:
-- Mobile Technologies: ABJK NewCo, Inc. for Zosh
-- Social and Media Technologies: Everloop for Everloop Connect
-- Cloud Technologies: gwabbit for gwab-o-sphere
-- Consumer Technologies: Phone Halo for Phone Halo
-- Enterprise Technologies: BlueSkies Hospitality Management Systems for
Restaurant 2.0
-- Alpha Pitch: UppyMedia for TAGtheLOOK
People's Choice Award - IDG's Million Dollar Media Prize Winner
The winner of the second annual $1M IDG Media Prize, an exclusive multimedia advertising package, was also announced this afternoon, awarded to a single demonstrating company that has been identified by attendees as winner of the coveted People's Choice award. The multi-faceted media package will consist of a six-month advertising campaign promoting the launch of the selected innovations across the most relevant IDG brands including CIO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, Network World, PC World, Macworld, The Industry Standard, among others, as well as the DEMO and VentureBeat Web sites. Attendees and the press vote on the People's Choice Award winner. Matt Marshall honored the following company with this exciting award:
-- People's Choice winner: eXaudios Technologies for MagInify Call
Center
Save the date for DEMO Fall 2010! In an exciting move to the Bay Area, DEMO will host the conference this fall at Silicon Valley's Hyatt Regency, September 13-15, 2010. And it's not too late to join the DEMO conversation. Stay connected with DEMO through the communities on the following sites:
DEMO Spring 2010 Platinum Sponsors: BitGravity, BluePoint Venture Marketing, Boston Interactive, the Institute for Information Industry, Microsoft BizSpark, PayPal, Porter Novelli and Qualcomm.
DEMO Spring 2010 Gold Sponsors: Comerica Bank, Connect Public Relations, Cooley Godward & Kronish, National Science Foundation, NEC, NYSE Euronext, Silicon Valley Bank, Symantec, TriNet, VCNetwork, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Strategic Partners include: VentureBeat, GuidewireGroup, IDG Ventures, The Demo Coach
The official DEMO Spring Live Broadcast Sponsor is BitGravity BG Live(TM).
About the DEMO Conferences
Produced by the IDG Enterprise events group in conjunction with VentureBeat, the DEMO conferences in the United States and China focus on emerging technologies and new products innovations, which are hand selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events 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.. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/.
The DEMO community also benefits from the award winning DEMOletter. A weekly e - newsletter designed to reach the people who are creating companies, building products and launching new ideas, DEMOletter provides smart insight and analysis of entrepreneurial business issues. To subscribe, go to: http://www.demo.com/
About International Data Group (IDG)
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