Today is the last day of the DEMO conference in Palm Desert, CA. It’s a showcase of 70 new companies, today often Web 2.0 companies. It’s a very exclusive conference. It is the place to be seen.
Stealing some thunder from the conference was the announcement from power bloggers, Jason Calcanis and Michael Arrington, of their conference, Techcrunch20. It will be a direct competitor to DEMO, but it will only showcase 20 companies and none of them will have to pay to participate which is the case with DEMO. Well, that sounds great guys, but you still need to make money from someone. So who are you going to charge? The early announcement sounds great, but when the word comes out on who you ARE gouging (attendees, sponsors, etc.) your free presenting announcement won’t be so impressive. And the point of painting DEMO as not being fair because they’re forcing start ups to pay money to be seen is ludicrous. All conferences cost money to put on. You’ll discover it when you start producing your own.
Although not as impactful, some are comparing this announcement to be a similar play when Steve Jobs overshadowing CES with the announcement of the iPhone. It’s definitely not in the same league.
It doesn’t matter, the market is plenty big enough to handle two big conferences and in fact I think it will do them both a lot of good to be out there. I just think it’s obnoxious to announce a conference by attacking your new competitor. It paints you as a jackass. Just not the tactic I would have used.
Still, there are some cool companies coming out of DEMO. A few highlights include OurStory.com. A site that allows you to capture stories of your family history on a timeline where everyone can comment with pictures and video.
Jaman.com is an online distribution site for viewing a world of independent films. You can watch the film online with commentary from the filmmakers and with viewers like yourself by participating in the Jaman social network.
But hands down the coolest was the demo of Total Immersion’s D’FUSION which integrates 3D virtual video live with real video. They refer to it as augmented reality solutions. It’s Like making the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” but without the three year production schedule. Animated characters react to real world objects in real time. It’s truly amazing and my description will not do this justice. You must see it to believe it.
