PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD I had a good tour through lots of smart technology startups recently when I attended the Massachusetts Network Communications Council Innovators Summit.
I knew I was at a good conference right from the start as the organizers were sufficiently smart to make sure everyone knew the Twitter hashtag for the event (#Massnetcomms) right at the start. This may sound trivial, but conference promoters that want to get coverage and want to show that they are aware of social media need to make it easy for information about their conference to find a way beyond the conference hall.
I'm not going to get overly full of praise, but I think the conference organizers hit on the right mix: one day, start with wisdom from the old timers, have lots of new pitches from startups and stealth companies, close out with a panel of CIOs and tech users to add a dose of reality and then head for happy hour.
While the lightning-round presentations were divided into four areas (mobile; video and social nets; broadband and security; and cloud computing) it is clear that technology is more frequently crossing borders. Your mobile content is passing through a cloud which uses a broadband infrastructure and is leveraged in a social network. You get the picture.
The first panel—"Will Recession Be the Stepmother of Invention?"—was best represented by Craig Benson. Benson is the former governor of New Hampshire and was the founder of Cabletron Systems. He has a unique perspective on the role of innovation, technology and government stimulus.
"Government needs to be a service," said Benson, noting that many in government often forget that their role is to serve the citizens.
He also cautioned about overly regulated environments as a damper on innovation. I did a video interview with Benson and I'll post the link here when the interview is posted.
Unusual, but I found myself agreeing with the judges' votes for a series of bests following a fast round of one-minute presentations from startups. Here are the results:
Best Product Concept: Virtual Computer. Two longtime techies (Dan McCall, co-founder of Guardent, and Alex Vasilevsky, co-founder of Virtual Iron) have built a PC management platform which aims to isolate critical components and report the status of those components whether it be for one PC or 1,000. This is a big change in system management which usually looks solely at whether a computer is on or off the network and lets the troubleshooting start when the PC conks out.
Company Most Likely to Be a Household Name in Five Years: RatePoint. This interesting company is aimed at small business owners who want to roll up customer feedback, product reviews, e-mail marketing, survey and dispute resolution to help small businesses gauge their status through their customers' eyes.
Coolest Technology: Veveo. Veveo combines search, mobile phones and video to make it easy to find just the video you want and display it on your mobile device. Once you see it, you wonder how you got by without it.
Team Most Likely to Succeed: CloudSwitch. The company has a software appliance which is aimed at the enterprise and allows a manager to select cloud services without having to fear vendor lock-in.
Best 60-Second Pitch: Aylus Networks. Media sharing and live streaming in part aimed at wireless operators. There are two ways to think about this one. Instead of the Twitter that says you are buying a latte at Starbucks, you'll stream that experience. The bigger deal to me is that reporters will be able to stream the news directly to broadcast stations without the need for one of those big ENG trucks—that will change the face of media.
Reality was provided by Mark Hall, who put together an outstanding panel of CIOs. Hall, who was the CIO at CXO Media before going out on his own, is one of the most-connected people I know to the CIO community. CIOs who were once a bit aloof and nervous about dealing with startups are now more willing than ever to hear about new, smarter solutions to their strategic obstacles.
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