Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

mIQ: Best Buy’s Cloud-based Sync & Backup

By

miq

Vendors like Apple and Google recognize that the cloud is central to the mobile experience. Without the ability to access ones data, sync to the desktop, laptop netbook (and soon, a tablet?) with our mobile smartphones whether we’re stationary or mobile, our digital life is fraught with nothing but frustration.

The center of the action in communication and being social surrounds mobile devices as does an increasing amount of our consumption of music, video, news and information (and if you head in to a typical retail outlet selling CD’s or DVD’s, you’ll notice a continual downtrending of floor space devoted to merchandising them because, quite frankly, sales in these categories continue to drop in bricks and mortar stores). With smartphones sporting GPS and applications that allow providers (and the marketers who work for them) to have a HUGE amount of data about usage, consumption, social, demographic and location patterns, if you were Best Buy with only stores and a website with typically limited connection to customers, what would you do? …  [Read More…]

Blogwell Minneapolis Videos & Presos Now Available

By

blogwellThis just in from our pals at Gaspedal in Chicago (the group who also runs the Social Media Business Council): The August 13, 2009 Blogwell event held at General Mills (and covered here buy Minnov8 in our liveblog) videos, presentations and Gaspedal liveblog/per event are up on this page.

For those of you who attended yesterday’s MIMA Summit ’09, you might agree that one highlight was the presentation by Ford’s Scott Monty. To whet your appetite for the other videos at Gaspedal, here is the presentation given by Mr. Monty in August at the event covered by the Minnov8 team.

A Recap of MIMA Summit 2009

By

MIMA_crowdYesterday was the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Summit 2009 called “Migrate” and it was not only incredibly well done, but there were over 1,000 attendees, the largest turnout for an event of this type I’ve yet seen in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The Minnov8 team was there with a booth and a plan to liveblog the event, archived here in case you missed either the event or the liveblogging.

Before I continue, accolades are due to the vision of the MIMA board and the flawless execution of the event by Jen Kane and team at KaneConsulting. The only downside — outside of their control — was the unfortunate technical issues with Wifi which made our ability to liveblog the event one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced as a team covering a live event like this one (we had to use our iPhones and the intermittent connections to upload what turned out to be minimal content for your viewing).

We were incredibly pleased to have been the media partner for MIMA at this event and want to thank the board, staff and Jen Kane for

Reactions to the sessions were mixed based on the people I talked with: those who are experienced in interactive marketing and social media found many of the sessions to be quite basic and somewhat redundant (same stories heard over-n-over again like Dominos, Motrin Moms, Dell Hell, et al), while others with less experience absolutely found the sessions enlightening and filled with new information. One attendee from a Fortune 100 company said to me during a break, “I know most of what was said in (session name), but three things were presented that turned out to be completely new information, and my criteria for a successful event is learning ONE new thing in each session I attend. On that count alone, MIMA was a resounding success for me.” I felt the same way and, frankly, am eager to view the videos of sessions I missed and access the slide decks of the presenters since there is so much value that was delivered at MIMA Summit.

The Minnov8 team has yet to process the event in full, but a few thoughts come forth: it would be useful to understand specifically who attends, what their level of experience is, what organizations they work for and so on. In addition, it would be fantastic to see significantly more vendor attendance with booths and, possibly, a two-day event in order to ensure that people had time to migrate through the a vendor exposition. I know I’d hoped to hear A LOT more about analytics software and would’ve loved to have had a chance to talk in depth with makers of analytics software and services.

As always at these events, the people are what matter. It sure was fun to see many of the same folks as at other events and to meet new ones. After the jump are two things from Minnov8 team member Graeme Thickins you will find interesting and useful. …  [Read More…]

Podcast: Download (12.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Minnov8 Gang #53: A Chat with Mark Kurtz

By

markkurtzThe Gang talks with Mark Kurtz, Chief Growth Officer and VP of New Media at Gage where he’s responsible for strategy, execution, and revenue measurement of digital media experiences across a Fortune 500 client base. Mark has held senior marketing roles across technology and ad agencies in Australia, Asia, and the US. We talk about social media, online promotion, blogger relations/PR, and other cool stuff.

(Steve Note: I apologize for the atypically crappy audio quality on this week’s show. Recorded at home where we just remodeled our lower level, it turns out that (unbeknownst to me) the electrician had re-routed my cable connection through three splitters and my 16mbps download speed dropped to 700kbps, barely enough to record a group podcast. In turn, Skype also dumbed its quality down to manage the paltry bandwidth).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Bob Kirkpatrick from Music Alley, purveyor of podsafe tunes.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 52:34 — 30.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Minnov8 Gang Liveblogs MIMA Summit

By

The Minnov8 Gang (Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson) will post LIVE throughout the day on Monday, October 5th at MIMA Summit “MIGRATE ‘09′ and will be covering the event with comments, videos, audio interviews and photos taken throughout the day.

Visit this page on Monday morning (at 8am Central) to watch the day unfold at the MIMA Summit.

MIMA_Liveblogging-post

Minnov8 Gang 52: It’s RAINing Money!

By

RAIN

This week saw Graeme Thickins liveblogging DEMO Fall 2009, Tim Elliott off to California on client adventures, while Phil Wilson and Steve Borsch attended the Social Media Breakfast #19.

In between all of this activity, Graeme and Steve covered the 6th Annual RAIN Makers Conference put on by RAIN Source Capital. The RAIN Makers is a multi-state network of RAIN® funds that works with angel investors who are interested in supporting growing companies. RAIN Source® helps bring together like-minded angel investors to form individual RAIN funds ~ and then provides these funds with a process for due diligence, legal templates, management support, access to deal flow and other resources.

These RAIN funds share expertise, deals and experience between and among RAIN Source Capital’s multi-state network to support growing companies throughout the area. The conference is a chance to get together and look at startups who might be good candidates for syndicated investments shared within the RAIN group as well as to discuss pertinent items that affect all the funds participating in the RAIN network.

Graeme starts off with an interview with RAIN principal Brian Johnson, and then he and Steve interview four up-n-comers showcasing their products to the investors in attendance:

DISCLAIMER: Though she’s an avid listener to the podcast, the woman in the photo above is delighted the economy is turning around and is NOT gazing in awe at, or worshipping, the Minnov8 Gang.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 32:09 — 18.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 51: Cloud and the Crowd

By

cloud-crowdHosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is out in San Diego gearing up for DEMO Fall ’09 and he’ll be liveblogging it here). Music by Excellent Adventure from Music Alley, purveyor of podsafe tunes.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:06 — 26.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events with Minnov8 Media Coverage:

MN Light Rail Gets a New Brain

By

trainapp

Entrepreneurs go with their gut when they see a need and have the skills or moxie to fill it with some innovative technology or approach. When developer Andy Atkinson, a light rail rider, found himself uncertain as to whether his train was on time or when others might be available if he happened to want to catch one earlier than usual, he knew that the GPS-enabled iPhone in his hand was the perfect device to deliver an application that would fix this problem…and he had the skills to create it.

Enter Train Brain. This $1.99 iPhone application (available here in the iTunes store) is for Twin Cities Metro Transit light rail riders. Though you can walk around with a paper schedule in your pocket or pull up a PDF of that schedule on your iPhone, with a couple of taps Train Brain can tell you when the next train is scheduled from the station you’re standing in, how much the fare will cost and and a countdown for the trains arrival.

I had a chance to talk with Andy this week and find out more about this guy and why he created the application. He told me the backstory I alluded to in the opening paragraph along with being a bit self-deprecating about the limited nature of the app and that it wasn’t “complicated.” I’d beg to differ since “perfect is the enemy of good” and what he’s already delivered meets the need squarely and is a tool that will delight Light Rail riders.

Turns out Andy is a web application developer, Objective-C coder and has the technical chops to put out this first Train Brain version and to keep it going (he has lots of ideas and next steps in mind for it). You can read more of his thoughts on his technical blog here and I’m sure he’ll talk more about his new gig with Tightrope Media Systems (a recent Minnedemo presenter) and the great work they’re doing in digital signage and broadcast when he’s able to do so.

One of the things that came up in our conversation was the design of the website and application. I’ve yet to meet a solid developer who’d admit to possessing any modicum of strength in graphic design. Andy was quick to point out that the website and application design I was praising (as clean, functional and fresh) was done by Nate Kadlac Design and Nate deserved the praise.

The only thing that came to mind after talking to Andy was this: Metro Transit ought to buy this app and get behind it. With the future continued rollout of light rail in the Twin Cities, likely delays as the system expands, there is no question riders will need better tools to manage their ridership instead of just a PDF of a paper schedule or, God forbid, having to carry a schedule around in your pocket.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast #50: A Chat with MNCup’s Dan Mallin

By

danmallinThe Minnesota Cup is an effort to identify, reward and kickstart Minnesota entrepreneurial effort and the Gang is pleased to have its co-founder, Dan Mallin, on the podcast. Dan gives us an overview of what transpired last night (the event at the U of MN where the finalists were announced) and it was quite enlightening.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins (Phil Wilson is on assignment shooting video for the upcoming MIMA Summit).

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:54 — 28.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

+ The winners in each category at the Minnesota Cup:
– Bio: Pursuit Vascular
– Green: Packet Power
– Social: Rural Renewable Energy Alliance
– HiTech: Alvenda
– General: Drazil Juice
– Student: ManCave

+ Minnesota Cup Review Board mentioned on the podcast is here

+ Graeme’s Flickr photoset from the MNCup event

+ RAIN Makers Conference, 9/23-24

+ MIMA Summit, October 5th