ForbesOnTech

Yet More Notes From Demo Fall 2006--Moxia, HeadPlay and an VC Observation

Demo Fall 2006 Products—the final View and Other Notes

Inexplicably, I’ve waited until now to write about a couple of the other products I really liked at Demo Fall 2006:

Moxia Energy’s USB Cell--. I can’t begin to count the number of times, I’ve had “AA” cells go south when I’m out somewhere really far away from a convenience store, super market or other place where I can buy replacement batteries. Yeah I know the Axiom,   “Be Prepared”, but sometimes, like on a trip up to the Donner Family Cabin site in the middle of the Sierra wilderness north of highway 80, you just run out of battery power and absolutely have to take that final digital image. And this is where Moxia Energy’s USB Cell technology comes in very handy/. Now that battery life is up around four  to five hours, I often have volts to spare, so the idea of rechargeable batteries that get their power through my USB ports is something that not only comes in handy,  but it also makes a lot of sense. I was one of the lucky few people who came home from Demo with a pair of these rechargeable batteries. Right now, I’ve got them plugged into the USB ports on my Think Pad X60s (which is connected back to the Internet mother ship through a Verizon, EvDo wireless broad band connection as I write early in the morning—around 4 a.m.—in a casino floor bar at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. In about 30 minutes I’m going out in the desert for a sunrise walk through a burro and wild horse sanctuary. If I’m really lucky, I’ll be able to grab a shot or two of a desert wild burro foal. I’ll have two charged bstteries in my camera so I’m keeping my fingers crossed and my camera’s lense uncovered.. Having used USBCell, I’ve already come to rely on  this technology and it’s a sure fire bet that these two innocuous little batteries now have a permanent place in my “go now” bag, which travels with me every where I travel. I like Moxia Energy’s USBcell an have absolutely no qualms in recommending it to anyone who has a need for charged AA batteries when it’s inconvenient or impossible to get to a store. Jim says grab your credit card out and order these pups now. The AA rechargeable batteries are just merely the first product from this engineering driven company. It’s probably a very safe bet that their eyes are on a much larger market—USB rechargeable batteries and power packs for cell phones. Hey, I can go for that, like in a flat second.

Head Play Personal Cinema System—Wow, what a concept, an IDEO designed headset with an initial resolution of 800x 600 pixels. This pup comes with a set of ear buds that have great audio fidelity and an instinctive control system I really like.

HeadPlay won’t ship until early in 2007,  I have an idea you’ll see this system featured in in-flight magazines, catalogs and at electronics stores. When I saw HeadPlay I thought, “far out, man, personal theater!”

Personal Theaters as a concept is something I worked very hard to bring to Demo the last year I worked the show. What really got my attention was a system I wanted to highlight as a “works in progress from a well known consumer company that had launched products at Demo several years before. Located far away rfom

Silicon Valley

, the technology was the deepest exploration of “immersive theater” I’d ever seen and is best described as akin to an air force fighter simulator designed for watching movies. It featured three axis movement, generated several G’s of force, had phenomenal video and 5.1 audio. The technology was very much “early days” when I saw it but I wanted it for Demo more than I’ve wanted any other product for the show. Ever!

This system still has not been released, although I’ve heard through the grapevine that a couple of aero-defense suppliers and at least two major entertainment companies have gotten their heads under the big yellow tent for enticing glimpses. I hope it shows up at Demo someday and I’m counting on Chris Shipley to maintain contact with this company to get it at the show soon.

(Note to Chris, you can stop in and see this on your next trip home. It’s near where you were raised and is from the same company that invited you to a seminar in

New Mexico

recently.)

Until this system arrives, I’m content with HeadPlay, which is a great first offering and a solid sample of things to come.

Heart an Soul of Demo Activities: VCs and their friends.

I had several friends at Demo who were waiting for “the word” from VC attendees. Perhaps more than anything else, what I loved most about Demo were behind the scenes dances between entrepreneurs and their partners. Although one of my oldest friends didn’t get a signed term sheet at the show, I did notice attendees from HPQ and Intel deep in discussions with one a self-funded company I think has a real shot at success. I promised I wouldn’t reveal the name of this company until they were ready to announce, So for now my lips are sealed.

One of the things I saw at Demo Fall 2006 that really caught my attention were non-traditional venture backer attendees., They were looking hard for content and internet technologies to enhance their primary brands. The one clue I’ll offer is that I counted two sports championship rings on two attendee hands and both people were deep into Demonstrator’s business plans at tables, shore-side over by

San Diego

Bay

.

Ahh, new money and sharp investors looking for technology to help their brands,   I really love Demo.

Thsat’s it for now, I’m off to a nearby wild burro and horse wilderness area in Nevada with a set of recharged batteries in my camera, comfortable shoes and the expectation I’ll see new more products this winter at Demo in Palm Springs.—Jim Forbes on 10/20/2006 from Las Vegas..

A Reporters Notebook from Demo--More Companies and Thoughts

A Reporter’s  Notebook –Section I

Ok, I admit it, I’m hooked on Demo. And some of the best moments for me have always happened not only on stage, but more importantly in the Demonstrators’ Pavilion and around the periphery of the event And boy was there a lot of action this year

Buzz Logic, the web based service that lets people who get paid top shape and track public opinion and determine who the real opinion leaders are by mapping connections between blogs and web sites, knocked my socks off.  I had about 12 units of public opinion and propaganda as an undergraduate and additionsl classes in this very black art in graduate school. There were two were a couple of  important concepts I learned: 1.) identify who the real opinion leaders are and the path and importance of the messages; and  2.) Few opinion leaders have messages that are universally important; and 3.) Trying to quantify the most important opinion leader can be tedious—it requires identifying the first appearance of a message and the tracing its route. It can be very difficult and time consuming to produce this information for clients. It’s something that really needs to be graphically mapped and chronologically annotated.

BuzzLogic did all of his for me, producing one of the only genuinely personal “AHA” moments at Demo Fall 2006, It does all of the things I’ve learned are important in profession of shaping and managing public opinion and it provides the tools people need to illustrate difficult concepts to clients.

The ability to map opinion is astrategically important capability. It helps professionals who shape public opinion develop focused campaigns thatprecisely target audiences in a cost effective manner.

That’s a very good thing and .BuzzLogic appears to be focusing its initial product launchcampaign on  public relations and brand management professionals. Good target and it makes a lot of sense. But when I heard the target audience defined in their on-stage Demo, I cringed.

You it’sa little like the parable of the blind men describing an elephant. So, I spent about a half hour out in the Demonstrators’ Pavilion watching the buzz Logic folks deal with a hoard of senior PR people testing the product, and then came the venture capitalists, getting their drill down demos and dropping off business cards. I loved the traffic this demonstrator generated in the pavilion, but as I stood quietly to the side a nagging feeling I had experienced first watching the on-stage Demo, continued to grow. I looked at my barely legible notes and tried to remember where my twisted train wreck chinking was going when I fractically scribbled < “Dev0,” “Yuma-Huachucka, USN PGS, Crystal and a Charlief ollowed by two stars.”

Then it came to me, in a  magnesium bright flash, when I saw BuzzLogic I realized that they , like many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs had overlooked a natural market for their products—agencies of the

US

government charged with tracking and identifying terrorist cells that use the Internet to disemminate information using what they think is an anonymous transmission media. Well, now that BuzzLogic has launched that veil has been lifted.

Oh those cryptic notes refer to places where the US Govt and military train IT professionals. They stand for Fort Devons (MA), Crystal City, VA, the Army’s ASA school at Fort Huachuka near Yuma, AZ, the US Navy’s Post graduate School in Monterey, CA and the name of a long retired army general associated with radio research and signals acquisition. And today those same installationd and agencies represent investors and users of BuzzLogic’s technology.

One of my first recommendations to this company’s marketing staff was to get an appointment with INQtel, the CIA and other government agency’s investment banking arm and to get their business plans with two leading Silicon Valley-based venture capitalists (both of which have partners who served the US Constitution as officers in intelligence billets.)

Flag Waving Transition Continues

I can’t fault BuzzLogic or other companies at Demo      for not being aware of the importance of the US Government as a technology consumer (or as an investment partner.)  Few entrepreneurs are government market aware and traditionally, all but a few VCs have bolstered from doing business with the government because of decades old perceptions that jumping in bed with Uncle Sam represents unproductive foreplay. The 9/11 attacks changed much of this and the US government is now fast tracking acquisition of technology that makes it easier for military and civilian agencies to carry out their missions. One example of this is a technology I highlighted from SRI at a DemoMobile event I produced in 2000. The technology I wanted the world to see was Mesh Networking, which had been developed at SRI in support of a USMC bid supporting the Marine Corps Urban Warfare training programs.

That basic technology is at the heart of offerings from a company called Packet Hop, which has received more than $20 million in several rounds and whose 802.11 mesh technology and services are being used by federal, state and local agencies nationwide.

Violet S.A.---- Writing about waving the flag makes me think of the improbably waving ears (antennas) of Violet’s animated Nabaztag wireless messenger bunny. Of all the products shown on stage at Demo Fall 2006, the press may have misunderstood Violet’s offering the  most. Nabaztag is a true “Medium Cool” technology and shows what Demo does best—highlighting new technologies that reshape existing markets or pioneer new territory. As I read the coverage of this event from writers who come from the world of bits, bytes and obscure firewall or networking technologies I shouted to my dog watching me write “The plumbers don’t get it, Damnit!”

I like Nabaztag because it’s unobtrusive and makes me smile. It can sit on top of my monitor and it’s animated actions, announcing something that requires or begs my attention, does its intended job without pissing me off.

There’s another reason I groked Violet’s Demo.  On at least one occasion in my life my technological butt was saved by a computer savvy teenaged daughter who repaired my machine at a critical time.  I would reward Miss Amanda with Nabaztaq in a heart beat, knowing it would make her smile an that she understands that technology doesn’t always have to be harsh or brightly intrusive.

Well, I had planned to cover at least two more Dell 2006 Fall companies,  But, I’m in Las Vegas now and need to drive over to Pahrump to restock my supplies of maritime safety signals (sky rockets) and burrowing rodent control tools (firecrackers).-- Jim Forbes on 10/19/2006 off to

Pahrump

,

NV

in my red convertible with the top down and large Samoan friend along for the ride.

More Good Things From Fall Demo 2006-- Good Companies and Technologies

Other Fall Demo 2006 Products I Really Loved

I-Lighter,-- Want to see me go crazy for a product? Show me something that enhances note taking and which at it’s core is really a collaborative computing platform. I-Lighter does all this without a great deal of user intervention.

OK, I’m a sucker for note taking products  and the longer I looked at I-Lighter,, the more I see a product that should be licensed by every law school and major university in the US. Moreover, if there was ever a product that could recreate the bond of a user to their PC like Visicalc did for  Apple and Lotus 1-2-3 did for IBM and the cloners, it’s I-Lighter. When I look at this nascent Florida start-up I see a company that could be harbored under the Google umbrella and nurtured until its ready to come roaring out of the nest. Conversely, one of the down sides here is that the growth of this company could be tied to an incredibly strategic and costly resource, server plantations. If I were a venture capitalist or company that had the appropriate alliances (or general wherewithal) I’d invest in this company and immediately begin an aggressive licensing campaign. Standing quietly in the backgrond in the Pavilion for two days I watched as several Venture Capitalists and corporate new biz development specialists ogled the I-Lighter demo like hungry sharks. If there was ever a young lean company made for an event like Demo, It’s I-Lighter. My advice: Sign up for a beta account at www.I-Lighter.com and begin using the product NOW and—where its appropriate—share your data and folders. Damn, why wasn’t Microsoft OneNote this good right out of the door? Keep your eyes on this company for news in the coming six to nine months.

ScrapBlog.com— The heart and soul of a great products are implementations of powerful technologies that, (how can I not use the phrase ) touch the heart and soul of consumers. The heartfekt “ahh’s Rippled through the audience S when its founders showed how he creates multimedia rich scrapbook-like entries documenting the life of his young son. With this simple demo, ScrapBlog did more to show the value of digital imaging and strong content creation tools than most companies I’ve ever seen either on stage at Demo, or in a Demo conference room where I would listen to young companies pitch their technologies in advance of the shows. I liked this company’s concise pitch and intentionally personal message.

(More importantly, having recently attended a 40^th high School reunion, I  had seen several hundred photos of former classmates’ grand children presented using conventional paper-based-scrapbooks or wallet-sized albums.)

And now to my point. Scrapbooking today is a tactile, paper-based experience. There’s no doubt that scarpbooking will make the leap to digital and that this will happen in the near future. Right now scrapbookers spend several billion dollars a year for various supplies used in this hobby. If you want to see exactly how pervasive scrapbooking is, open your local yellow pages or do a search on the phrase “scrapbook supplies.”

If you’re an aging baby boomer with grandkids, chances are at least on of those children’s grandmothers is already into, (or has close friend who are already) organizing photos into scrapbooks.  Likewise, if you come home, find a work table in your kids-former bedroom-turned into-a-den littered with weird textured paper, oddly shaped paper patterns and strange scissors with replaceable blades (or emptied QVC shipping containers), there’s a good chance someone is your household is now into scarpbooking.

The downside for this company is that it’s trying to provide a digital solution to an intensely tactile, paper-based experience.  The upside is that ScrapBlog.com sets a very high bar for a new category and could be an early winner.  So other than venture capitalists with grand children, new puppies, or existing investments in photo sharing sites who would invest or ink a deal with this company?  Well, who wouldn’t? There are some very large companies who could use ScrapBlog.com to jump with very large feet into the digital imaging pool. For example, scrap book stock supplier Avery Dennison, giant retailers like WalMart, Sears/Kmart, as well as greeting card maker HallMark (which has been quite open about its intent to make money as a supplier of digital content) and ink jet printer manufacturers like Canon and HP. And then we come to the list of digital camera makes.  Good prospect list?  I thought so too.

Scrapblog.com gets a position very high on my list of best consumer technologies I’ve ever seen at Demo. They worked very hard on their Demo and succeeded in showing an important new approach to several existing categories.  And it’s exactly this that makes a great company for Demo.

Their demonstration spoke for itself, ScarpBlog.com walked away from Demo Fall 2006 with a well-deserved DemoGod award. Way to go Guys.

Some Thoughts on Another Technology Category:

Maybe I suffer from technology overload, or maybe it’s that I’m too much of a skeptic. Regardless, if there’s one category today that makes me scratch me head in wonderment, every time I see or read about a new entrant, it’s digital imaging and content editing/photo sharing.

Hello, want to see a technology class where the pile of heads of belonging to one-time CEOs looks like the losers of a war with the Mongols, or where millions of venture bucks have been thrown to the wind without appreciable returns? Look no further than this inclusive category.

While I’m skeptical about the ability of new entrants to survive autonomously in this segment, there were some technologies that caught my eye.

Tribeca Labs—Despite my overall misgivings about the viability of just introduced digital image/content tools, Tribeca Labs caught my attention with its “zero click” photo correction software. Truth be told, one of the things I find most annoying about image editing is having to wade through a long combination of steps to produce what I think are acceptable images.

What’s different about Tribeca’s PhotoBot is its automation of the digital photo correction and image transfer processes. Select an image, and its automatically corrected and optimized as well as sent to a secure storage facility-- without any user intervention. “the images are automatically routed to a secure Swiss banking computer system  (is that enough “safety” for my digital pictures of last season’s tomato plants and my favorite 4H pig?  I think so.). 

Looking back to Tribeca’s Demo I see is a technology and service that would make a great enhancement to an existing digital imaging product or services. And that’s also something that makes a good Demo product.

Know what?  If I ever learn hoow to rewind my digital camera, I might be able to feel more optimistic about this category.

{Full Disclosure: Jim Forbes (my third-person identity) worked as a Demo producer and wrote for the printed and electronic versions of the DemoLetter newsletter before he retired after having a stroke in the hours before he was scheduled to open a Demo event in Arizona. Forbes has also been a Senior Editor for numerous computer newsweeklies as well as a reporter for newspapers in and around Los Angeles. He currently lives on a small mountain top in  rural San Diego County  with a mischievous small dog, two ungrateful cats, and several large colonies of hateful burrowing rodents. The views he expresses are his own and not necessarily those of Demo, its producers or parent organizations.  Void where prohibited by law. Service subject to temporary termination by the appearance off San Diego along the 30- and 200-fathom lines of pelagic fish such as large Thunnoids, halibut, the infrequent Dorado, or lost and bewildered salmon.}—Jim Forbes 10/17/2006

What Notebooks Are Entrepreneurs Carrying?-- A Surprise

Demo—the Unofficial Portable Brand Count

As an industry barometer, Demo is a great place to see a snapshot in portable computing brand trends. So what were attendees and Demonstrators carrying?

By and large the most common sight on th3 Demonstrator’s stage, tables in front of attendees and in the Pavilion were Lenovo and older IBM ThinkPads.

Nothing surprising there.

Surprisingly, the brand that may be on the rise is Apple’s MacBook Pro.  I counted 21 shiny titanium silver colored Apple portables. This is a new first at Demo. And over half of those had 17-inch screens. Sadly for Apple, none of the Macbook Pros were used on stage, or as part of Demonstrator Demos. I’ve been curious about the penetration of MacBook, every since I bought one late this summer but quickly became disappointed in its basic configuration (which lacks an integrated modem) and its limited WiFi range. Together those two features make MacBook a non-start in my line-up.

I recognize that I’m not your average potable computer user and integrated communications capabilities are much more important to me than “cool looking silver designs”

I had a brief discussion with Demo’s exec producer and my former boss, Chris Shipley, at my house a week ago. I asked her “how many Demo candidates had used Apple portables o show their products.” 

She said “none.” Her answer was what I had expected, since most of the products she’d evaluated for Demo had been produced before the show’s cut off deadline (which preceded widespread availability of Apple’s intel-based Mac portables

.

Chris asked me why I was disappointed in the MacBook Pro. I tolf her that I thought not including a modem in a $2,000+plus notebook was a stupid.

She said she “probably hadn’t used the modem on her notebook in “about two years.”

Well guess what, I now have the luxury of time to travel and to expand my personal interests. Virtually all of the places I now visit have phone lines, and a couple have strong WiFi connections. Apple’s decision to make me buy an optional $50 USB modem dongle is annoying and further proof that the company refuses to look beyond the narrow confines of

Silicon Valley

for real-world product configuration guidance in notebooks

.

Enough of that old rant. Three real surprises in my ad hoc notebook brand survey at Demo were the diminishing number of Dell branded products, the increasing number of Panasonic ToughBooks, and the presence of Lenovo ThinkPad X40 and X60s sub compacts with either EvDO PCMCIA cards or integrated EvDo modems (like on my X60s).

The reason I cling to my X60s like Moses holding on to his staff and waving the seas apart to let the Israelites fleeing Pharaoh and exfililtrate Egypt, Is simple: I rely on my notebook for communications, and I’ve not yeet been to any place where I couldn’t hit a WiFi spot, or catch a signal from Verizon’s EvDo network. And, if those two mechanism fail, I’ve always been able to find some kindly soul who would let me borrow a phone line to check in with my family, friends and associates.

So go ahead and ask what are the extremes I’ve tested EvDo? Well I’ve connected via EvDo from my boat, nine miles off

La Jolla

,

CA

, and eight miles into

California

’s Gold Country wilderness in the tiny berg of Rescue, CA. And, I’ve always been able to connect and I haven’t broken this itty bitty four pound notebook or made many typos because of my fat fingers pounding away on its small form factor keyboard.

What I really wanted to write about today was a picture of Demo as a snapshot of today’s portable computing installed base.  I’m happy to say that Apple is back, and that there’s real innovation in mobile computing. It's also a good sign that Toshiba was well resented, and not just limited to Microsoft employees attending the show (for whom this brand is a corporate tandard)

But hell, I have to shower and get dressed for my 40^th high school reunion. -- Jim Forbes from

Azusa

,

CA

on 10/01/2006.

here's the count:

Demo Fall 2006, the Technological Gifts Get Better

The big unwrapping of technological holiday gifts was rolling into its second day as I inched through the fog from Escondido down to Harbor Island in San Diego to see more Demo products. Commuting to Demo at turtle speed isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It gave me the time I wanted to listen to some of the pod casts from the show.

(Gratuitous transition here) Back to what I love, new products at Demo.

Sometimes, you have to sit back and think about what you’ve seen on stage or in the Demonstrators’ pavilion.

Retrevo.com-- a fresh startup that’s hoping to cut the time it takes you to find the precise piece of information you need amid cluttered web searches.

Retrevo addresses a problem that several of my supposed technologically hip friends snivel about..

Their complaint: they have to scroll through page after page of Google query answers to get precisely what they were searching for. Lets say you had just inherited a five-year-old technological artifact that came with cables, power supplies and software but no instructions. Not only are you clueless about how it all fits together but your ten year old daughter/tech support specialist is away at soccer camp and you want to use the equipment now. With Retrevo, you’d type in the product’s name and, presto, there on the screen is a link to the user’s manual.

Not a bad idea for a product when you think about it. In fact it’s such a natural  Tektronix hard coded the documentation URLs into virtually all of their networked printers back  in early 1990’s.

And it’s because I know this little factoid that I would also have picked Retrevo for Demo. They have a chance at a legitimate business play. If  Retrevo  can sell sponsorships and paid links successfully (potential clients include  any electronics or peripheral maker whose equipment is likely to pass to second generation owners sans documentation).

Will Google’s Larry or Sergi give this company one second’s worth of worrisome thought? Not likely. But that works in start-ups like Retrevo.com’s favor. Because while Google turns its brand into an umbrella for sundry applications, brash startups can fill their larders with some very profitable niche leavings

.

GrandCentral—has the potential to run flat out and is loaded with great features. 

The concept here is extremely simple; you have one phone number, for life, no matter where you are. An incoming call can ring all your numbers at one time (which anecdotally is a feat that hasn’t happened for me since shortly after I hit puberty) or just one number. Alternatively, an incoming phone call can be sent directly into voice mail hell.

            Things I really love about this start up is its web interface and application., which lets me manage my messages from afar and which also lets me hear my email, voice mail and text messages audibly on my computer. This startup is already generating a lot of buzz and is extremely powerful. For example if you opt for its 1.499 a month premium account you have up six phones, and God forbid, the ability to store voice mail for life as well as unlimited talk minutes per month. Both versions offer the ability to record and store conversations at any time during a call and feature a spam blocker you’re sure to love, no matter where you are when the phone rings. The free version of GrandCenttral offers 100 minutes of talk time per month

The free version of GrandCentral  is one of the most powerful offerings I’ve ever seen in this categoey.  My recently fledged daughter (whose only phone is her T-Mobile cell) and I will be riding the Grand Central line in the next few weeks.

I’ve always been a sucker for unified messaging technology and Grand Central rings my chimes like no other company since Bill Nyuen’s OneBox (which sold for about $850 million and made a box car load of cash for its founders and investors. GrandCentral could go par financially with OneBox.

A brief note of caution about exit strategies in the Unified Messaging category: Over the years I’ve seen several companies in this space get cocky because they thought they understood Telcos or nassumed a B-School buddy who worked for a CLAC or other telco as a biz development specialist offered a profitable and quick egress path. The problem with this ytpe of thinking is that in most phone companies, biz development specialists arefive or six layers away from decision makers and that most long-term execs in t his space are from another industrial age. Having said that, I would hope that Sprint, Verizon or Cingular would add the features of grandCentral as a value adder for wireless voice and data accounts.  Of course, if they did they would no longer be able to charge for like-services they now have as revenue centers. Don’t believe me, go to www.grandcentral.com and check it out.

Pinger—the Pinger instant voice messaging service is another one of the applications that really caught my attention at Demo. What I like about pinger is it lets me send voice mails to individuals or groups regardless of what cell carrier they use. I also think this applications voice interface hits a high note in usuability. Pinger makes it easy to upload individual and group numbers and or to any phone from www.Pinger.com .   It’s a sure bet that any of the people headed to my house for Thanksgiving dinner are going to get a Pinger message or two  in the days and hours before I begin carving the turkey. Come to think of it, you can do the same for your family since if you sign up before Oct.1, the service will be free for the first six months.

Well, in the words of my childhood idol, Bugs Bunny, “That’s All (for now)”. I need to hit the bunny trail up to my ancestral home in Azusa, CAto take my aged mother out for an airing and some grocery shopping.—Jim Forbes 09/28/2006. More on Demo later today.

Why Demo is Like Christmas-- Some "Best of Products"

For me, The first full day of a Demo conference is a lot like Christmas—sometimes you are delighted that you guessed s the Christmas gifts waiting under the tree, some times you’re a little taken aback that the gift wasn’t exactly what you thought it would be, and sometimes you’re just blown away by an unveiling you would have never suspected.

And so it went for me this week in San Diego at Fall Demo 2006.

(obligatory disclosure note: I was the original producer of  DemoMobile—which became Demo Fall and is open to products from all categories, and worked on Dethe yearly Demo event. In all, I helped produce about 13 Demo branded events. I also wrote and edited the award winning DemoLetter monthly newsletter with Chris Shipley and wrote DemoLetter Weekly, an electronic newsletter I now think of as my first blog. I retired several years ago after having a stroke the morning I was supposed to open a Demo show in Arizona and am now retired in rural San Diego County. I remain good friends with the staff of Demo and am proud of my past affiliation with the show and the efforts of my coworkers and associates who work to produce these events. Now, on to Demo Fall 2006.

Chris Shipley’s opening remarks have always been one of the highlights of any Demo event.

Several of the points she made in her opener are spot on and highlighting the state of the current economy

+ First there are huge differences between today’s environment and the dot com bubble world p

+Liquidity events in today’s economy are elusive.

+There is substantially less venture money in play and venture capitalists are more careful with their investments today than they were during the bubble.

+Entrepreneurs are more focused on building viable businesses than they were in the 1990’s.

+ The most precious resource that consumer and enterprise start-ups vie for today is time.

+ because of this new technologies are based on simplified design that mask rich features, diverse capabilities and accordingly offer more choices in achieving a specified objective.

+There is fundamental change in new Consumer and enterprise technologies. Consumer technologies are becoming more powerful and enterprise technology has the potential to turn IT managers into “applications specifiers.

Ms. Shipley usesher annual keynotes to spot and predict trends.  She has a track record that’s excellent and while some of the companies that have been picked for Demo have come and gone, the important technologies today’s mainstream.

There were a lot of companies and technology that succeeded in keeping me focused, despite stroke-attenuated ADD.

Several of the  launches I loved from the opening segment included

Cozi—a family-oriented web-based application with scheduling, list, and messaging service with a cell phone (voice delivery/speech recognition components. The founders of this new service are quick to point out and exploit the fact that family messaging and scheduling is an important task. Cozi knocked my socks off, and while my days of child-rearing/family taxi service are behind me, I now make a 186-mile round trip journey once or twice a week to take my 88-year old mother to the supermarket and doctor’s appointments as well as run to the San Diego International Airport to pickup and drop someone off for their weekly commute. One of the things I like most about Cozi is that lists, tasks and other things can be managed using my cell phone. It’s an option that should work very well for me or for anyone else that finds themselves responding to adhoc additions or deletions of  family tasks. Cozi’s business model includes sponsored ads/partnerships from national family-trusted brands and other commercial alliances. When I first saw Cozi my gut reaction was to ask if they had talked to Judy’s List.com, or Start Sampling.com, both of which seem great fits for this technologically and market savvy company.  Cozi goes llive October,1 and is at www.cozi.com. Give it a try. Now if I could just figure out how to get my shopping the list to display on the LCD screen in my Prius as well as my cell phone as I zip through Escondido on errands.

While getting a full demonstration of Cozi in the Pavilion at Demo a thought occurred to me Cozi would be ideal for the hundreds of wounded veterans and families now being treated or undergoing rehab at places like the US Naval hospitals down in San Diego or over the hill at Camp Pendleton. One of the big advances in veteran’s treatment today has been to involve their families in rehab. Cozi is a natural fit for this application and I hope this company follows up on my recommendation to contact the IT departments or volunteer IT Angels at Camp Pendleton, San Diego Naval Hospital and other Department of Defense-run medical centers how treating service people wounded in Iraq.   

Plugged—HearHere (from www.plugged.com)  lets me search and map pod casts for specific content. A search engine for pod casts is something I think m pod cast listeners will love. Pod Cast producers may not be so happy with this, since it gives listeners a chance to tune outmost of their content. Interface connoisseurs will love HearHere’s use of hot colors to indicate the relevance of content to searches for topics of interest and cool colors for everything else. HearHere is definitely one media tool that going to be warmly received by pod cast audiences. Also, pod cast originators, distributors and sponsors, should use this Hearhere e to sharpen the focus of their broadcasts to make them more appealing . If originators overlook  the message behind this technology they run the risk of losing audiences and sponsorship revenue. This self-financed company, which is about to go live, is a great example of what Demo does best—find and expose cutting edge technology that sets a new standard in a segment of technology.  My thanks to Plugged for giving me a mechanism to identify and listen to only those pod cast segments (say for example Thunnoid catch reports with corresponding off shore locations). After all, I don’t care really care all that much about where giant sea bass are (they’re protected here in California) or an ad from WestMarine-- even though I’ve spent a small fortune there over the last three ears.

BuzzLogic—(www.buzzlogic.com) Great technology that redefines a category. Tools that let their users create and track lines of influence as well as identify who the influencers are is something that’s been needed in the blogosphere for years. BuzzLogic’s demonstration is one of the best ’ve seen of a product in years. The application of this technology will be a boon to any comericial or public service group that’s involved in messaging or brand management. After looking at BuzzLogic the only suggestion I could make would be to add hot or cool colors to its path charts to indicate primary and secondary messaging/influence paths.

Well, I’’m late getting on the freeway to Demo this morning, waiting for the fog  to lift on the road from Escondido.—Jim Forbes /09/27/2006. Demo number 14 for me.

How To get The Most From Your Experience at Fall Demo 2006

My pumpkins are a nice brillant orange, the yellowtail are leaving San Diego for warmer waters and it's my favorite time of the year, Fall Demo 2006, which starts on Monday night in my back yard down on Shelter Island in San Diego Harbor.

Of all the things I did in my 35-year career few things were more rewarding than working as a producer on Demo shows twice a year. I loved selecting and notifing companies that they had been chosen for athe shows. Maybe nost of all I enjoyed helping them prepare for their appearance on stage or in the Demonstrators' Pavilion.

Preparation before the event starts and solid planning are two important elements of success at  Demo. Right off the top here are some things your company can do to get the most from your Demo experience:

1.Thoroughly read and understand the Demonstrator's handbook. The handbook has been a part of Demo since the mid 1990's and it's constantly updated to reflect past experiences and current expectations.   Everyone involved in your Demo experience should read the handboook. Your PR people should read it-- and the section petaining to press who attend Demo, twice.

2. Don't clump up at one table for meals.  Send people out foraging for contacts at other tables. Schmooze. Learn what you can about other companies and their products at the event and keep your ears open for an opportunity to network or combine your story with that of another company. Few things work better for a reporter than a story that helps to identify an emerging trend and products and companies that are at the sharp edge of that trend.

3. After a long day of demonstrating your products and talking to the press, venture capitalists and people from other companies, it's a very good idea to meet with all the members of your on-site staff and review who they've talked to and what they've seen. As part of this process assign somoneto follow-up on action items..

4. Long before i went to work for Demo, i was a reporter who covered the event. My experience is pretty representative of the press who attends this event. I'd file one or two stories every day, Typically one story focused on a technology or a company I thought was important and the second story would highlight a trend that was visible at the show. I'd include two or three companies and products in the second story and try to file both by the end of the day for posting in the morning. But more importantly, i'd be making notes on other companies and products and revisit those in the weeks after Demo.  Generally, I'd end up writing as many as 12 stories about Demo companies during and in the four to five months following the show. One of the best ways I know to get someone to cover a company or technolgy is to give them a copy of your product or an account on your site. Hands-on experience is much more important in building awareness of your company or product than is a soft squeeeze ball, disposable pen or other trinket with your company's name on it.

Bloggers, Oh I almost forgot. Treat all bloggers you meet at the show as members of the Demo press.

5.  Make sure you try to answer all of a reporter's questions. Use the opportunity to meet with reporters who may write for publications outside of or on the edge of your  primarymarket. The best way to wow a reporter is through a good brisk demonstration. Don't hesitate to followup with a reporter after the show.

5.  Practice your pitch and your Demo.  Based on experience, I've seen companies get better results  from pitches in  the Pavilion than they did in a six-minute on-stage spot.  Truth be told, what you do in the Pavilion, and how you craft your story can make or break your Demo experience, paticularly if your pitching your company to one of the many venture capitalists who attend Demo.

6.  Relax and have fun.  Demo is the one event where you can let your hair down and socialize a little.  More than anything else, Demo is both a launch pad and a networking event.

If you see me, stop and say "Hi!"  I'l be the big guy using the small Lenovo TinkPad X60s notebook with the persistent EvDo connection. Oh. depending on how i feel, I may also be the only one at the show with a boat loaded with two rods and reels and a half scoop of llive sardines in my bait well. Have fun. I do. Demo was one of th best things i ever did in my career--Jim Forbes from rural northern San Diego County on 09/23/2006.