September 26th, 2006
DEMOfall 2006 begins today
A number of ZDNet and C|Net folks are here in San Diego at DEMOfall 2006 so look for great coverage of the event which kicks off in just a couple of hours. Last night at the opening reception, I had a chance to connect with some old friends and make some new acquaintances as well. ZDNet’s Dan Farber and Mitch Ratcliffe, Rafe Needleman of C|Net, Buzz Bruggeman of ActiiveWords, Renee Blodgett, and, to my great delight, Andrew Carton of Treonauts are in attendance.
This morning, the schedule of keynotes and presenters looks like this:
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences
Life Just Got Simpler
Chris Shipley, ever the astute prognosticator of trends in the tech industry, told the audience at DEMO 2006 this Spring that hardware and software products were still too hard to use. Failure to address this ever-present problem, she cautioned, would generate increasingly intense pushback from users who were no longer willing to put up with hassle of figuring out how to make new tools work. The following companies have developed new approaches to address the ease-of-use and integration issues.
Demos by:
- Dash Navigation, Inc.
- Tribeca Labs, Inc.
- Pluggd, Inc.
- Presto
- RingCube, Inc.
Enterprise Computing Gets WebDotOh-ed
Ease-of-use is just as much of an issue in business applications. Companies developing software for the enterprise are increasingly faced with the challenge to keep pace with the innovations being delivered in the consumer technology space. New offerings from the following companies promise to address pervasive business challenges, while delivering easy-to-use tools to business users and reduced cost and complexity to IT staff.
Demos by:
- System One
- ThinkFree, Inc.
- Genius.com, Inc.
- Koral, Inc.
- MindTouch, Inc.
- Serebrum Corp.
- BuzzLogic, Inc.
The Mobile World According to QUALCOMM
Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, CEO, QUALCOMM Incorporated
Taking place, as it does, in QUALCOMM’s hometown, this keynote by the company’s CEO should be an interesting look at where he thinks the mobile world is heading as devices and technology become more powerful, useful, and affordable.
Now You See It . . . Now You Don’t
The increase in concerns over security and privacy affect everyone who sends information over public networks. Fears about phishing, hacking, and other attack vectors continue to proliferate. If connectivity and distributed work are going to realize their potential, we must find ways to keep private information secure.
Demo by:
- Void Communications, LLC
WiFi permitting, we’ll be posting our thoughts as each of these companies experiences their six minutes on the DEMO stage. The structure of this event is always intriguing to me. Vast amounts of preparation go into a brief opportunity to tell a company’s story in front of a very smart, very connected audience. Should be great fun. Stay tuned…
Marc Orchant has been building, testing, and sometimes breaking hardware and software for 25 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
