Entrepreneurs, software developers, and computer professionals of all stripes will be rubbing shoulders again this Friday evening with other hopeful company founders, VCs, angel investors, bloggers, and media people from throughout the Twin Cities and other parts of the Upper Midwest. They’ll be gathering for what’s become a not-to-be-missed quarterly geek-fest called Minnedemo. Billed as “the Twin Cities’ premier technology demo and networking event,” it features free beer, pop, munchies, and lots of conversation, with product demonstrations mixed in between. The latter are delivered from the stage of an auditorium with theater-like seating. More than 200 people are expected to attend.
Minnedemo is being held for a second time at Intermedia Arts in Uptown’s Lyn-Lake neighborhood, and will kick off about 6:00 p.m. this Friday, February 6, with demos starting about 7:00. (Intermedia Arts is located at 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408.) According to Minnedemo organizer Luke Francl, “All are welcome, just please remember to RSVP online.” The web site for registering (again, it’s free) is http://minnedemo.eventbrite.com/. This quarter’s event will feature ten demos — five, then a break, then five more. Most demonstrators will be launching their products or showing off their creations for the very first time. Here they are alphabetically:
Action Chess is a game app for the iPhone, described as a cross between Tetris Attack, Tetris, and the classic board game Chess. The developer claims it “makes your brain work in interesting ways.” It will be released for the iPhone in the coming weeks and will be demoed on stage. (Martin Grider will present.)
Association Manager Online (AMO) is a new web application from local development shop ArcStone that let members, staff, and administrators of associations and non-profits manage tasks (such as sending emails, posting documents, collecting payments, etc) in a secure manner from any internet browser, whether at home or work. (David Carnes will present)
BevPost is a site that lets consumers select coupons for their favorite adult beverages and have them delivered directly to their cell phones, so they can redeem them at their local liquor store and save cash. (John Ballatine will present)
enStratus is a brand-new startup that’s addressing the “confidence” questions businesses naturally have as they move their systems into Amazon EC2 and other “cloud computing” environments. The company, recently launched by the founders of successful local software firm Valtira, provides a suite of cloud infrastructure management tools that enable companies to automate the secure deployment, scaling, monitoring, and disaster recovery of their cloud computing infrastructure. (George Reese will present.)
LoudClick is a free website builder program that people can use to build web sites around their interests together, all without the need of a techie. (Alex Huff will present.)
Nabbit lets you identify a song you hear on the radio using your mobile phone. Just text Nabb and include the call letters of the station you’re listening to. The service will fetch the song information for you and deliver it to your account page on its web site. The company also recently introduced a native iPhone app. (Norton Lam will present.)
re-searchr is a social search app that lets you “find stuff easier” online. It helps you get search results from people you trust, using data from your friends to influence the re-searchr score presented on top of your search results. Another feature pushes your questions out to your social networks, where your friends can then answer or comment; the app then lets you push back their answers or comments for others to see. (James Ostheimer will present.)
SendOnCue is a browser plugin that lets you schedule email delivery for later. It integrates directly into your email or webmail client. Send an email reminder at a later date and time. Slow down a conversation by delaying when your reply is sent. If you work odd hours, you can adjust the time your email is sent. (Aaron Kardell will present.)
Socialbrowse is a YCombinator-funded startup that provides social bookmarking with discussions in the browser. It lets you share and discuss the web in real time, and see what’s good on every page. It combines your social network with your everyday web browsing. You can share and discuss any page with a single click. Pages you share or comments you make are automatically sent to other users in your network. You receive real-time updates of cool links shared by people you like. (Zack Garbow and Dave Fowler will present.)
ZippyStat (no web site yet) is a simple online service to record and monitor nearly any type of information such as your gas mileage, business cards collected, “poops by your newborn,” books read, miles run, etc. (Kelly Heikkila will present.)
This Minnedemo event is sponsored by:
• New Counsel
• Split Rock Partners
• Sierra Bravo
• Tightrope Media Systems
• The Foundation
• VISI
In a first for Minnedemo, this entire event will be video recorded, courtesy of TJ Kudalis from Internet Broadcasting. And, I’m told, monitors will be located in the networking area for those that can’t squeeze into the limited seating in the auditorium. In addition, Minnov8 will be recording interviews throughout the networking portion of the evening, with the help of 612Authentic, also a first. For more information, see the Minnedemo web site.