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October 17, 2007
DEMO Germany: International Teams, Laser Pointers, And No PowerPoint
At DEMO's first manifestation in Europe in Munich this week, rules like no ties and no powerpoint rule made the pitchfest a little more dynamic than we're used to here. (Computerwoche slide show here).
At the end of the day the DEMO gods, based on best presentation, were FRING, an Israel-based VOIP over mobile startup, as well as Vyro Games (Irish US), IDENT (German startup with working sensors and software that reads gestures) and Stagespace (SocNet/Virtual World).
Voting for the DEMO gods was by the audience using laser pointers at the end of each of the day's sessions. (As the day wore on, the a:c euro noticed that the crowd started to amuse itself by not turning off the lasers after the voting, continuing to pointing them randomly on the screen. Funny that.)
Several startups, including Vyro Games, an Irish/US startup whose Bluetooth gadget could become the Wii for the over-30 stressed out generation, and Red Square Ventures, whose software for mobilephones makes them into music track mashup machines via the ringtone feature, were invited to come back to Demo in Germany, after doing the San Diego DEMO event earlier this year. (Photos at number 17 and 18 in aforementioned slide show).
These two told the alarm:clock euro that the PR, investor contacts, and instant recognition the US event brings is worth the relatively steep investment in time to prepare and money to participate. It was too soon to tell about the European event, despite a good turnout of the region's VC, with Atlas, Earlybird, Neuhaus, Partech, TVM, Target Partners, and HighTech Grunderfonds on hand, they said.
The story goes that DEMO enabled Skype and Six Apart (owns Technorati MovableType Typepad), as well as quite a few other household names to raise capital from investors at the show.
Some twenty companies demonstrated yesterday their mobile, web, and enterprise software innovations. About half the ventures were from Israel, and the rest a mix of Irish, Canadian, Spanish, German, and Russian. IDG seems committed to the event as next year's DEMO Germany is already set for mid-October.
View a partial list of demonstrators here
Posted on October 17, 2007 09:23 AM | Posted to News And Updates | Permalink
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