DEMOfall Minis (Day One)

So that I don’t overwhelm you with long reviews of all the cool stuff I saw on DEMOfall Day 1, here are the quick hits of companies and products that intrigued me:

·        U3 (see previous post)

·        Realm Systems (see previous post)

·        Hatsize Learning’s TrueLab – sort of like WebEx/GoToMeeting meets the computer lab environment – offer training or education to a group of people from a central location; allows instructors to easily jump in on any user’s session)

·        H3.com – tools to enable referral hiring, but the same tools could enable referrals of any kind

·        UnwiredBuyer – they haven’t formally presented, but I heard the pitch at their booth and this app allows eBay bidders to use their cell phones to place bids in the final 3 minutes of an auction – the critical juncture according to much research.  Eventually they will probably expand to wireless notification of timely offers from other e-commerce providers.

·        PeerFlix – a peer to peer trading platform.  Right now it is a user-to-user version of NetFlix, but they envision the platform being used for all sorts of other things – from books to baseball cards and more.  I’m not 100 percent convinced that this is better than NetFlix (and even their own folks claims to use both), but it’s an idea and platform with much promise.  And they’ve started to address the user reliability question, but if they become more eBay-like in rating other traders, I think they might have the secret sauce to really take off.

·        IMMI – This one is off-topic not only for this blog but also for DEMO itself.  But these folks have used technology to come up with a much better child car seat – one that eliminates key hassles of others on the market (it’s easy to install, easy to adjust as your child grows, and easy to buckle the kid in).  It isn’t cheap – about $429 each – but they were handing out significant coupons and I just may have to get one for my youngest son.

·        Pie – this company has come up with a product that would make it much easier for consumers to set up home networks.  I love this idea since it would mean I wouldn’t have to make field trips every time one of my friends buys a new computer, router, etc.  Unfortunately, it seems their business model is to work through service providers like Best Buy and broadband providers rather than selling direct to consumers.  I’d like to see this product as easy to get as possible.

·        NextPage – facilitates document collaboration, something I do a lot. I plan to test this one more thoroughly.

·        Trimergent – they’ve created a tool that makes it easier to share files among groups of people.  Since several of the companies I work with are geographically diverse and don’t have robust network infrastructures, this could be a good solution to enable document sharing more conveniently than constant emails.

·        iCentera – their icSuite product promises to make portal creation as easy as a 5 minute wizard.  I see promise for this product in a number of areas and could see partnerships between them and at least one of my companies.

·        Workshare’s “Hygiene” – this software helps to easily enforce rules against disclosure of information for privacy, financial or other business reasons.  It monitors emails at the PC and server level to flag problematic files and suggest fixes.  It will also convert some documents on the fly to a protected PDF format to prevent tinkering.

·        GreenArray – this web-based application appears to be a cross between a product management and workplace efficiency tool.  I definitely want to learn more about it.

·        ATG – they’re offering an interesting customer service application.  I liked what I saw and want to know more.

More to come tomorrow…