I’ve often said in the past that I’m not a conference guy so I recognize the irony of me helping organize a conference. Eric Norlin did all the work and as we head into the home stretch of day one of Defrag, I’m blown away. The quality of the attendees is stunning and the panels and side discussions are fascinating.
David Weinberger took us on a romp through his mind, Alex Iskold (AdaptiveBlue) discussed structured attention, Greg Reinacker (NewsGator) covered RSS in the enterprise, and Michael Barrett (Paypal’s CISO) told us why we are totally screwed.
Esther Dyson is up now, having followed a rapid fire presentation by Dick Hardt (on Identity). Esther just suggested that Facebook is encouraging extreme narcissicm, which I identify with. We’ve still got Doc Searls and Ross Mayfield (congrats Ross on your financing) to go before drinks.
Yeah – well – it’s always conference season in the tech business. I’ve been enjoying Web 2.0 from a distance while getting reports from the field. However, I will pop my head up above the surface at a few conferences in November.
We start with New New Internet conference on Nov 1 in DC followed by a quick trip to Chicago to judge the Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards. Next up is Defrag on Nov 5 and 6 in Denver, which I’ve helped organize. I then head to Las Vegas to play with Amy for a long weekend while doing a quick flyby of Blogworld on Nov 7. Then on to NY for the week of Nov 12th for a bunch of stuff.
While not quite as fun as “Business Time”, I look forward to getting out and about again after spending October chilling in Colorado and catching my breath after a very intense year.
If you are in Colorado this Thursday (October 11, 2007), I encourage you to register and attend DEMOgala 2007. This is the CSIA’s (Colorado Software and Internet Association) third annual day long conference highlighting some of the most innovative companies in Colorado.
I’m giving the opening keynote starting at 8:30am at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Denver. I’m going to be sharing the stage with Colorado Governor Bill Ritter who – in addition to discussing the drivers, issues, and opportunities facing Information Technology and Software Innovation in Colorado – will be making a special announcement.
The day is packed with panels – there are four tracks running in parallel: Innovation in Education, Innovation Creation, Innovation in Business, and Innovative Technology Trends. The list of speakers is spectacular and includes some of the brightest and most articulate entrepreneurs in Colorado.
In addition, there is a DEMOgala Innovation Showcase with about 40 companies showing off their stuff. The day ends with a dinner keynote by Tim Armstrong (Google’s President of Advertising and Commerce for North America.) Tim is also the chairman of Associated Content, a Colorado-based social media publisher also known as The People’s Media Company.
Register and come join us at what will be one of the important events this year in Colorado around technology and innovation.
A fascinating sociological experiment is going on this weekend in Boulder called Startup Weekend. Several people in the local tech / entrepreneural scene including Andrew Hyde, David Cohen, Kevin Cawley, Danny Newman, Joe Scharf, and Alex King decided to get a bunch of people in a room for a weekend and see if a company could come out of it. Whatever comes out of the weekend will be up for grabs for someone to run with it.
There are about 60 people here right now and David Cohen is liveblogging things. Out of the gate there are a couple of vectors that are really interesting, including the getting to know each other dynamic, figuring out the idea, working through how to discuss stuff, self-organizing the various groups of people, and figuring out who should do what within each group (e.g. of developers, designers, PR people, user experience, legal, and the VCs that can’t really do anything productive except sponsor the meals.)
We are about two hours in and the idea has been chosen. The energy dynamic has shifted dramatically in the past hour – from a situation where people where clearly trying to figure out how to interact to a steady buzz as people are now digging in to figure out how to approach the problem.
Who knows what is going to come out of this, but it’s more interesting than going to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3.
Metzger Associates is hosting Denver’s Second Annual New Media Summit on May 31st at 5:30pm at the Denver Press Club. Doyle Albee from Metzger is our moderator. I participated in this last year and thought it was loads of fun and very relevant.
This years panel includes me, Phil Weiser (CU Law School / head of Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications program), Veronica Belmont (Associate Editor at CNET.com), and JB Holston (CEO of NewsGator.)
If you are interested in attending, asking us hard questions, and pushing us around, send the nice folks at Metzger an email to register.
Registration for the Defrag Conference is open. My friend Eric Norlin (who I’ve still never met in person – I love this cyberspace thing) is doing an amazing job getting the conference up and running. Great sponsors, a blog full of crazy ideas, cool advisors, and a fascinating agenda emerging. What more could you want from a conference?
November 5th and 6th at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, Colorado. Be there or be square.
I got a note yesterday from David Abramson – an MBA student at Stanford – about The Cool Product Expo which is taking place from noon to 6pm on Wednesday (April 11th) at the Arrillaga Alumni Center (326 Galvez Street) at Stanford. Admission and parking is free – the event sounds very cool. Following is a description.
The Cool Product Expo is an annual exposition celebrating innovative technologies and product design. An attendee walking through the Expo will encounter exciting demonstrations by budding startups, global manufacturers, local design studios, and university research projects. It is a great opportunity to learn about the latest technology advances, as well as interact with successful entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
This year the Expo will be hosting 40 companies, including Tesla Motors, Toyota, Sling Media, Aliph, Venture Vehicles, Method, Linden Labs (creators of Second Life), Neurosky, Logitech, AiLive, Frog Design, Oliso, Powercast, Optibike, Lunar Design and many more.
As a special feature this year, Gibson (renowned maker of fine guitars) will be giving away a cherry-sunburst Les Paul Standard electric guitar with 50s style neck. Entering the drawing is free, and the winner must be present at the time of the drawing.
The Cool Product Expo is supported by Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford’s Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing (AIM). The event attracts over 1000 visitors each year include Stanford students, technology investors, school children, and members of the greater Bay Area Community. Please feel free to invite your family, friends and colleagues to this entertaining and educational event.
Last year, Eric Norlin sent me an email in response to my post titled Intelligence Amplification which was an attempt to put a label on the theme for companies I’d been investing in that address the Trust / Attention / Relevance problem. Eric and I had crossed paths a few times around his involvement in the creation of Digital ID World. He proposed that we put together a conference that addresses this broad theme and I jumped at the idea to help.
The result is the Defrag Conference which we are having on November 5th and 6th at the Hyatt Regency in Denver. Defrag is the first conference focused solely on the internet-based tools that transform loads of information into layers of knowledge and is about the space that lives in between knowledge management, “social” networking, collaboration and business intelligence. We’ve titled this theme internally “the Implicit Web” and have been spending a lot of time in and around it. The FAQ has a little more background on how it came to be and what we are trying to accomplish.
We’ve got a great advisory board started including Paul Kedrosky, Andrew McAfee, Clay Shirky, and Jerry Michalski. The Defrag Blog is up as we view the conference as self-referential – we are working with people interested in this problem to help define what the conference will actually be. We are currently taking applications for speakers and encourage you to apply if you are interested. We got a nice list of sponsors started – if you have interest in participating as a sponsor just fill out this form and Eric will get in touch with you.
Of course, if you are interested in attending the conference, we’ll have registration up shortly. In the mean time you can fill out the form on the pre-registration page.
Someone asked me recently “why would a VC – especially one who hates going to conferences – ever get involved in creating a conference?” I smirked and suggested that my simple goal is “to learn from the people really deep in the idea who are doing the real work.” I’ve got lots of different ways to do this, but there were no conferences out there that were squarely addressing this area in a way that was appealing to me so I figured I just help create one.
Someone asked Eric a similar question – namely “why isn’t Defrag in the Bay Area” and his response was “aren’t there enough conferences there? Let’s all go to Colorado and work on something new!” Come join us, learn, and play a little somewhere different with a crowd that might just be a little unique.
NewWest.Net recently announced a new conference, the New West Summit on Transformation in the Rockies, which will be held June 6-8 at Big Sky, Montana. It’s an interdisciplinary event focused on the New West themes of growth and change in the Rocky Mountain West, with a special focus on four areas: political change, growth and development, energy, and entrepreneurship and the new economy. New West has put together a great line-up of speakers and an excellent schedule for this event.
Some of the speakers include Patty Limerick of the Center for the American West; Rick Holley, CEO of Plum Creek Timber Co.; Jean-Pierre Boespflug, founder and CEO of Idaho’s new Tamarack Resort; John Battelle; John O’Donnell of TechRanch; Maury Povich, talk show host and proprietor of a forthcoming Montana newspaper; and Bill Kittredge, the acclaimed writer. Among the special features are the Innovation Showcase, which will highlight great companies and initiatives form around the region and is now accepting entries.
As New West founder Jonathan Weber puts it, “The New West Summit will provide a unique opportunity to hear, meet and connect with the people who are shaping the future of the most dynamic region in the United States.” Anyone interested in supporting in positive growth and change in the Rocky Mountain Region, be it via financial investment, personal commitment, or otherwise will want to be there. Registration is currently open – I hope to see you there.