Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Will the Apple Tablet be called the “iJulio”?

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It’s unlikely that Apple will name the rumored tablet being announced tomorrow the “iJulio”, but it’s about the only name that hasn’t been floated up as a possibility! There is so much anticipation about what it will be — even though the McGraw-Hill CEO sticking his foot in his mouth and chewing soundly pretty much confirmed the tablet is a reality this afternoon — it will be fun to observe the announcement.

But alas, none of us will see it in real time. Unless, of course, you write for a news daily that sends you to the Apple event!

Julio Ojeda-Zapata is the Pioneer Press’ consumer-tech reporter and he will be live tweeting and posting photos which you’ll see on this page (http://minnov8.com/tablet/) throughout tomorrow’s event beginning at 12pm CST on Wednesday, January 27th.

As you probably already know, Julio writes a Tech Test Drive column about gadgets, apps and social media (among other things). He is the author of Twitter Means Business, one of the first books about Twitter.

He is also a sometime co-host of the Minnov8 Gang podcast (and will join us this Saturday to discuss this Apple event in more detail) and focuses his commentary on tech trends. See his Posterous geekstream. Contact him by e-mail or on  Twitter.

Visi Launches ‘ReliaCloud’ Services to Packed House

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ReliaCloud-logoGot a nickel? Then you have a server for an hour, my friend. Visi.com, Minnesota’s largest Internet services/hosting firm unveiled on Wednesday morning its all-new brand of cloud computing services, dubbed “ReliaCloud,” with pricing starting at 5 cents per hour for its first offering, called “Cloud Server.” The breakfast seminar, “CloudVision,” was held at The Metropolitan in St. Louis Park, and was sold-out, with more than 200 IT and business executives attending. (Tweets are archived at the hashtag #cloudvision, including my own.)

CloudVison-crowd+stageThe seminar featured talks by Mike Sowada, CEO of Visi, shown here on stage. (Photo courtesy of Charles Robinson.) Visi is the state’s largest Internet services and hosting firm, with data centers in both St. Paul and Eden Prairie.  A talk followed entitled “Cloud Computing as a Business Advantage” by Chris Howard, a VP at analyst/research firm Burton Group.  Jason Baker, CTO of Visi, wrapped up the event by presenting the first details of his firm’s new ReliaCloud offering, which included a live, online demo by product manager Johnny Hatch that came off flawlessly. I captured a few of the key slides for you… …  [Read More…]

Our Head In The Cloud: Minnov8 Talks With Chris Howard

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Visi hosted Cloud Vision 2009 at the Metropolitan this past Wednesday and invited Minnov8 along. It was an event tailored to the IT community they serve and was the chance for them to introduce attendees to their soon to launch cloud product called ReliaCloud. Minnov8 colleague Graeme Thickins has posted a complete look at ReliaCloud, so look for that here.

Along with the demo and pitch Visi featured a presentation on Cloud Computing as a Business Advantage by Burton Group VP, Chris Howard. Chris took some time to talk about opportunities, concerns, and even the multiple definitions of “the cloud.”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ktP0i143B4

The slide deck of the presentation is available now from Visi.

Was Unsummit Perfect?

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From the comments in our usual post event video, you would have to believe that the recent Unsummit was an example of pure perfection in conference land. In reality, there very well may be some issues that founder Don Ball and organizers Mykl Roventine and Meg Canada should address…but damned if I know what they are.

unsummit3_logoOK, there is one comment I heard; “It’s not really an unconference.” True, the ‘un’ in ‘unconference’ might denote that there is no set agenda, that the space is provided and the topics are decided upon by those who show up. This style of meeting has spawned many a BarCamp like event, our own Minnebar to comes to mind.

However, as it pertains to UnSummit, the ‘un’ is a hold over from the inaugural event last year. Don Ball, not able to secure a ticket to the always popular MIMA Summit, decided to host a gathering of those interested in Interactive and Marketing who, like him, either couldn’t get a ticket or didn’t want to pay the relatively spendy ticket price. Hence, being held at the very same, the UnSummit was born.

It should be noted that, at it’s even loftier price, MIMA attracted 1000 folks to it’s recent 2009 Summit…and despite a few exceptions was well worth the price. It should also be noted that what little competition between the MIMA Summit and the UnSummit that might have existed in the very beginning, or perception of such, has long since disappeared. At least it should have. So while the UnSummit does borrow from the unconference concept in it’s presentation, it is really ‘un’ in name only.

OK, so next time perhaps there can be a few more open times and rooms to build some sessions on the fly.

No matter the format, the UnSummit was about bringing together close to 200 hundred interactive enthusiasts on a Saturday to learn from each other and discuss the future of the interactive and online world in a relaxed environment. From my standpoint, at the end of that day, that’s what everyone walked away with. But don’t just take my word for it…

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYb6ZJIn-Uo

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 54: Live from #UnSummit ’09

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The Minnov8 Gang was delighted to report on, and be a part of, the UnSummit ’09 unconference, held today at the incredible facility at the Hennepin County Central Library in downtown Minneapolis. Hats off to Meg Canada, Don Ball and Mykl Roventine — as well as all of the sponsors — who made it such a great event. We did some light liveblogging which you can see on this page.

We were pleased to have a slot to record our first live version of the Minnov8 Gang podcast. Hosts today were Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is up north searching for colder weather, we presume).

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 33:49 — 19.5MB)

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Blogwell Minneapolis Videos & Presos Now Available

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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

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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)

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MIMA Summit Goes Gadget Happy

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geek2No doubt, the Minnov8 Gang is stoked about the upcoming MIMA Summit this Monday. We plan on our usual “no holds barred” live coverage complete with live blogging, video, and photos. A practice that’s…well…pretty geeky. However, we are not alone.

The MIMA folks and Jennifer Kane Consulting, the people that brought you “little Seth”, are giving the geek meter a workout by providing plenty of tech fun gadgets and mobile access. For those of you who thought that free wifi at a conference was the shizznit, prepared to be amazed…

Behold, courtesy of the M Group, the Wayfinding Station. Not to be confused with the Wayback Machine (Sorry Mr. Peabody), this little gem, built on Microsoft’s Surface technology, is, and I quote, “a multi-touch experience to deliver conference information and services to attendees”. Check this, “Users can navigate a map of the conference facility and related breakout sessions by grabbing digital information with their hands and interacting with content on-screen by touch and gesture – without using a mouse or keyboard.” Sweet!

MicrosoftSurfaceMGroupWait there’s more. MIMA created “conference personas,” each with a pre-configured schedule based on an area of interest. You can chose a “persona chip” and be Social Media Maggie, Suzy Search, Email Ian, Mobile Mack, Victor Video, or Brady Branding. (Sorry, no Pete Propeller-Head.) You’ll then get an itinerary of sessions related to that area of interest. “Because Surface sees and interacts with objects, guests will be able to place their conference persona chip onto the Surface screen to trigger different types of personalized digital responses, and then the transfer of digital content to their mobile devices,” explains the M Group’s Janessa Meyer.

ScottMonty200992517433No, wait! There’s even more. MIMA is even using  individual tags that are embedded with the URL to each of the conference speakers’ social networking site of choice. These tags are printed on the conference signage corresponding with that speaker’s session. Using the Microsoft Tag Reader application you just use your mobile device to connect with the speaker’s sites and social media outlets just by snapping a photo of the tag with their device. Shnikies!

If they only had an iPhone app…wait…they have one of those too! Geek metered…pegged!!!!

(Crap! I don’t have an iPhone. My coal burning Treo 650 probably will only buzz and click pittifully. But still…it’s pretty cool.)