Boomerang

(George Shroder and Mike Cordano, Fabrik, Inc.)

Chris Shipley and the crew at DEMO, the premier event for introducing emerging technologies for more than 16 years, run a top-notch and well-oiled operation from their annual desert launch pad. Unlike CES and Macworld, there’s a more “make-or-break” feel to DEMO’s first public unveilings, which are broadcast live on the Web, and blogged about in real time. There’s also added pressure to deliver the golden sales pitch and big “aha” moment in less than six minutes flat to qualify as a DEMO-God. (At least in the Warhol 60’s, you had 15 minutes of fame.) 

Last week, 77 carefully selected entrepreneurs gathered on the main stage to reveal their wares to the world, while their software development teams back at the home office cheered them on. The demos are tightly scripted, including A/V cues for the broadcast crew, and the quality of lighting and sound is impressive. The best demos I saw this year were funny. Take Mandiant, for example, an enterprise security company that “Finds Evil and Solves Crimes.” The founders’ comic delivery had a campy Hawaii Five-O ambiance, but the simplicity of their messages played out quite well on the grand stage.

The DEMO experience stands out from other events in January, typically tech PR’s busiest month. It’s much less frenetic than CES, and the balmy Palm Desert air gave me a chance to dry out from the dismal weeks of San Francisco rain during Macworld. It’s a more intimate gathering that lends itself to networking for partners, making personal connections, and learning more about other great ideas and implementations in the works. Instead of journalists running from one tech giant to the next, like CES, it seemed they had more time for casual conversations, laughs and insights from smaller, innovative companies.

DEMO proved to be a fantastic launch pad for our client Fabrik’s Joggle, a new Web service for consumers frustrated by finding content spread across a variety of devices, online services and social networks. It’s one of the most extensive and interesting services yet to be based on the Adobe AIR platform. To kick off the coverage, BusinessWeek picked Joggle as one of its annual top DEMO picks, and buzz about Joggle spread across the Web quickly — including blog posts from CNET Webware, Popular Science, the San Jose Mercury News and Macworld.  

For companies planning to make a big splash with a cool new product or service, DEMO is definitely at the top of my short list of recommendations.

I don’t have an iPhone, and although I envy the people who do, I don’t have near-term plans to acquire one.  My friends regularly testify about how wonderful it is. “Get it for the touch screen,” they coo.  “The REAL Internet – Google Maps, New York Times, YouTube – all on your phone!” they exclaim.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m no Luddite – I love gadgets and gizmos and spend a substantial portion of my income on them.  I’m also not one of those people with a bizarre vendetta against Steve Jobs over the backdating thing.  In fact, I’ve been a happy Mac driver since 1999.

Here’s the thing:  I want the iPhone to be better.  I want at least one year’s worth of collective genius geek wisdom poured into this thing.  I want even more battery life.  I want it to operate on any carrier network without the hack this kid traded for a very fast car.  Of course, I also want it to do my taxes, vacuum my apartment and cook a pot roast.  Not going happen, I know.

Some things get better with age.  Sam at FL250 reminds us that an “old aviation axiom says: ‘Never fly the ‘A’ model of anything!’”  It is for this reason that I’ve held off in buying an iPhone despite the fact that I’ve purchased other first model year items like the original Sony Walkman – bought with money earned mowing/shoveling/raking about a hundred acres of suburban New York.  I’ve also been an early adopter of Internet services like now-defunct greats Webvan and Kozmo.com.   

Dan Nystedt at IDG tells us that “more than 2,700 companies will be jostling to show off their wares at CES” in Las Vegas this week.  Combine that tech orgy with Macworld, Demo, CTIA, and myriad events throughout the year and there will be plenty of shiny, sexy new things to covet.  I can’t wait to have to make those wonderful choices.

(PHOTO CREDIT: LAS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU)

Move over Facebook, enterprise software is about to steal your headlines. At least that was one prediction that came out of last week’s PRSA dinner at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The theme of the evening, “What’s Hot and What’s Not in 2008” was a popular topic with PR pros and top technology reporters at the sold-out event. I couldn’t help but think that my colleagues in the room will be among the folks that will help establish these hot trends, companies, and technologies. And, who better to forecast emerging trends in the technology sector than the reporters whose job it is to separate hype from reality.

A panel of luminaries offered their perspectives on everything from Facebook overload to Google’s numerous product initiatives. The panel included the astute Victoria Murphy Barret of Forbes, the very musical Don Clark of the Wall Street Journal (his band “Off the Record” rocked the house), the very funny Jim Goldman of CNBC, the insightful Rob Hof of BusinessWeek, the omnipresent Robert Scoble of Podtech, and the rapid-firing Kara Swisher of All Things Digital.

For the most part, there seemed to be consensus that the looming US recession will have an adverse impact on technology. A few of the panelists commented that with the recession, the ever-popular advertising model that most Web 2.0 companies hang their hat on will no longer be enough to sustain them next year. Also predicted was the return to the limelight of heavyweights such as Microsoft, HP, Oracle and IBM, as consumer tech hype subsides a bit, more than likely a direct result of the recession. And when it was declared that “enterprise software will make a comeback in 2008” – the audience came alive and broke into fervent applause.

Sam Whitmore, everyone’s favorite confidant, was the dapper emcee of the evening while Ann Winblad was the composed and gracious panel moderator. A few more worthwhile panelist predictions for 2008:

Victoria: Consolidations will occur driven mostly by a dip in the stock market as companies ride it out. She also believes widgets will take off and be more ubiquitous.

Don Clark: Second Life will crumble and go away. Clean energy will be a big story next year.

Robert Scoble: He sees “live video” being a huge headliner next year and hopes that unified ID will finally take hold. He also commented that print media will get a huge boost from political advertising in 2008 but will suffer tremendously after the presidential election is over.

Jim Goldman: Yahoo will get acquired or at the very least be seen as an attractive purchase.

Rob Hof: The current technology environment will push more companies into the deadpool.

Kara: Hollywood will finally get digital and become more of a collaborator with technology companies and make entertainment more consumer friendly. She also sees online privacy and presence becoming more of a hot topic in the coming year.

Tom Foremski, an attendee at the dinner but who should have been part of the panel, offers his take on the event at SiliconValleyWatcher as does Brian Solis at Bub.blicio.us. For those of you interested in watching a video of it, our friends over at Podtech.net have captured the lively conversation.

Photo courtesy of Brian Solis - More photos from the event can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansolis/sets/72157603331062749/.

When I was young, I dreamed of hitchhiking to Hollywood and working my way up from the mailroom to the executive office. The mix of drama, good screenwriting, camerawork and surround sound was like a siren call, but one that I ultimately ignored for the glamorous life of public relations. Who knew that my dream of working in the film industry would be possible as a communications pro?

The most powerful PR programs are ones that reflect popular culture, speak to human needs and emotions, and harness new technologies in creative ways. As people increasingly turn to the Web for entertainment, news, information and social networking, it’s a brave new PR 2.0 world. Like the media outlets that we pitch story angles to every day, the landscape is quickly morphing around us. Video is emerging at the forefront of it all: to engage, provoke, demonstrate and influence.

We’re proud to represent some of the most interesting Web-meets-video pioneers. For instance, U.K.-based Friction.tv has quickly become a hotbed for public debate on important issues. The video-sharing site is a Web TV platform promoting freedom of speech, no matter how controversial. As an early innovator that’s focused on social media for social change, it’s achieved a lot of traction in a short time, according to The London Times.

Another client, MixerCast, lets people blend their own user-generated content (UGC) with legal studio content from partners like ABC News, Getty Images and popular record labels to create their own custom Web TV channels. Better yet, MixerCast lets users embed branding and engaging advertising spots, hypersyndicate them on the Web, and track traffic to the money-making mashups. Robert Scoble recently interviewed MixerCast CEO Jen Cooper, formerly with Yahoo!, and the resulting video was posted to PodTech.net as an Editor’s Choice pick of the week.

Beyond new platforms that merge video impact with social media, many larger, global brands that we represent, like Panasonic Toughbooks, are using entertaining viral videos to effectively communicate core messages with key audiences through social networks and popular sites like YouTube. In fact, fans of the popular rugged notebooks have frequently posted many buzz-building videos about Toughbooks on their own.

As PR pros, we’re being called on more and more for our broadcast production talents like scripting, shooting, interviewing and editing. And I’m happy to say: “There’s no business like show business, it’s like no business I know.” A career in PR is becoming a lot like a career in broadcasting and film these days.

Will everyone who hates social networks please raise your hand? Do you (like me) believe that the overwhelming lameness of these networks overshadows their usefulness? Granted, they can be an excellent way to connect with people you never would have connected to offline. They can also be great for companies that want to connect with their customers to get real, instant feedback — which is invaluable. For my personal life however, I haven’t found social networks to be essential, since they are completely separate from my normal Web experience.

The good news is that social networks are finally getting the picture. Two weeks ago, Facebook launched its latest feature, positioning itself as an operating system by allowing outside developers to build programs to live on its site. Basically, the social network is allowing anyone with the right knowledge to create a program for Facebookers to add to their site and spread virally. I care, because now a ton of really cool mini apps will be created that focus on the things I’m interested in, making my social networking experience more in line with my regular Internet experience.

Another great benefit is that the cost of entry for creating and spreading a tool has virtually diminished. You no longer need an entire web company to produce a cool application and distribute it to a wide user base. Any single person on Earth who has a unique idea and the right knowledge can create a tool that is used by many thousands, if not millions of people within a short period of time. Take iLike, an application that makes music recommendations based on preferences, and allows users to know what types of music their friends are listening to. This company created an application for Facebook immediately after the feature launched. After only a week, around a million users have added iLike to their page.

I have to admit, I didn’t think Facebook had the guts to step up to the plate and hand the reins over to the masses. There are a number of risks it is taking on by allowing others to add to its site. Because anyone can create a program and spread it instantly, Facebook risks associating its brand with content it has no control over. Also, many users blame programs they don’t like on Facebook, rather than the developers. It will be interesting to see how other large companies deal with relinquishing control as this trend expands. Will their next step be massive regulation of this type of content? Will they try to disassociate themselves from content that appears undesirable?

I believe that the benefits of opening up these resources far outweigh the cost.  Facebook’s evolution represents a large shift in the Internet experience. If it’s successful, it will make the social network a much more useful and integral part of the Web experience. We will be able to connect to our friends in more ways and take all our favorite parts of the Web and collect them in one place. My question to you is what type of application do you want to see created on the site? 

We’ve become spoiled by professional Hollywood movies, TV shows, and ads filled with stunning special effects and $500,000 crane shots. Don’t get me wrong – there are some compelling films from Tinseltown, and some neat TV shows and clever ads. But for every “good” Hollywood flick, I’ll show you 10 others that pit style over substance and insult their audience’s intelligence with formulaic, predictable and boring storylines.

Yes, HDTV is beautiful, and growing in popularity too. But I don’t care how beautiful content looks. If it doesn’t really connect with people and speak to some aspect of the human condition, it useless. It’s like eating cotton candy: tasty, but no nutrition.

Enter… the amateurs!! Amateur Web content, or user-generated media as some prefer, broke new ground in 2006. YouTube just announced its awards for the best user-generated videos of 2006, and amateur content will likely continue its strong growth in 2007. Why? Because we have a fundamental need to express ourselves, connect with others, and be acknowledged for our creations. The Web and social media like blogs give us an inexpensive way to do just that.

But corporate marketers have also realized the value of amateur content. Consider the 2007 Doritos Crash The Super Bowl ad contest. An amateur video by Dale Backus aired during the big game, marking the first time a major marketer entrusted a novice with a 30-second Super Bowl spot worth up to $2.6 million of air time.

Backus’ spot aired very well – it ranked fourth in USA TODAY’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. The production cost? $12. That’s about four bags of Doritos!! Not bad considering pro spots easily cost near $1 million to produce. Smart corporate marketers realize the power of enlisting amateur consumers to become, in essence, an extension of their marketing team.

And don’t think News Corp. and NBC’s new Web venture means the death of amateur content. The unnamed company may be more attractive to advertisers with its professional content and longer clips. But viewers have proven there’s still a place for amateur content so long as it speaks to them in a concrete way. Ultimately, consumers care more that their content is compelling, rather than who actually produced it.

We recently hosted a pretty cool high performance IT simulation event with HP and some influential journalists like Robert Mullins (IDG News Service), Christopher Lawton (The Wall Street Journal), and Nicole Wong (San Jose Mercury News). Participants broke into groups and worked as a team to simulate how IT processes can be more efficiently managed to deliver better ROI in a mock racing event.

I know, you’re probably asking, “What does car racing and IT have in common?” Well, as it turns out, a decent amount…

In a racing car, various performance indicators (e.g., tire wear, air drag, fuel level, throttle response and G-forces exerted on a driver) are monitored in real time with computer hardware and software solutions. Similarly, services like ITSM (IT Service Management) monitor and integrate people, processes, and technology in real time to solve business problems and save money.

A poorly designed IT operations system can slam the brakes on business operations and hide significant cost-saving opportunities. And it’s estimated that 80 percent of downtime results from people and process issues, not technology.

It’s akin to narrative filmmaking: a story’s meaning is ultimately driven more by creative choices, not by technology. For instance, there’s really no perfect, technical way to light a scene – it depends on what your scene is trying to convey. A scene designed to be scary might be lit in a high-contrast fashion to accentuate the dark and light areas of the actors and/or their environment. People making decisions in context, not technology in a vacuum…

ITSM isn’t done in a vacuum either – it takes into account who needs what and when. It frees up time for people to be creative and do their jobs more efficiently. Business and IT professionals must be able to effectively communicate even though they often speak different languages. ITSM is the conduit for bridging that divide; for making sure IT and business operations are in synch.

And it doesn’t require that business pros become experts in server hardware and software management, or that IT pros become experts in marketing. It’s about having a well-designed system that integrates people, processes and technology – one that can propel teams to winning the checkered flag!!

For longtime tech valleywags, last week’s Business 2.0 “Next Net” mixer was a dose of deja vu. Held down the road from our offices, it was a nostalgic throwback to the flashy rooftop fetes – a la the Industry Standard – in S.F. during the first Web boom. Sipping on vino and cocktails, a few colleagues and I hobnobbed with CEOs, VCs, bloggers and editors, PR pals and other technorati, like next-door neighbors Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life. We made merry to honor editors’ picks for Web 2.0 companies that stand out as best bets to strike it rich in 2007.

The Bay Area definitely represented for companies least likely to end up in TechCrunch’s DeadPool. After surviving one dot-com crash and the multiple rounds of agency layoffs in its wake back in the late ’90s, it’s natural to be a bit skeptical of the current enthusiasm. However, there were new business models and trends that caught our attention. Most of them focused on ways to mash up advertising and entertainment into innovative offerings, and new ways to deliver video content through a variety of channels and devices.

One of our clients, Joost, was among the companies honored at the event – as was Spot Runner, a one-stop online shop for low-cost 30-second TV ads that our parent company WPP invested in last year as part of its new digital initiative. A company that I’d personally put money down on is SimulScribe. Last month, I read David Pogue’s unusually enthusiastic N.Y. Times “State of the Art” column on the company’s pioneering service that lets you “read your voicemail.” Through advanced voice recognition software, you can now quickly scan info via online text, search for it and never have to listen to annoyingly slow or long VM’s ever again. How cool!

Like SimulScribe, another Web 2.0 client of ours, Fabrik (profiled in Business 2.0 last November) gets the majority of its software revenues directly through subscriptions, in addition to license fees via large international brands’ CE devices. With last week’s global stock market slide and Greenspan’s speculation about a potential recession ahead, it’s hard not to wonder which of the Next Net 25 will make it for the long haul – especially the ones betting it all on eyeballs and ad revenues.

But in the meantime, it’s surely a fun and exuberant ride!

If you’ve been around more than a random seven years in marketing and have worked with big companies, you’ve heard ‘em all say, “Oh we can’t do that! It’s like turning the Queen Mary! It’ll take forever. No, it’s impossible.”

Yet, in our very own spectacular San Francisco Bay, they turned the Queen Mary - the Queen Mary 2.0 that is. Beautifully did she turn, with a navigational margin for error of less than 70 feet and just 28 feet worth of clearance under the Golden Gate Bridge. (And if you don’t know our Bay, it’s grounded many vanity toys of far less consequence.)

So I grabbed my camera and headed to the bay to see it for myself (photo above). Cuz frankly, I am super sick of hearing that cliché.

But Captain Tom Miller, for whom docking the ship was “the challenge of a lifetime,” modestly said that while she was big and heavy, “she’s a good ship and maneuvers well with all the latest technology.”

Isn’t that like the best companies in the world? They might have started out like the original Queen Mary, near impossible to turn, but they reinvent themselves using new technology, often a modest, new captain, and hopefully end up as light on their feet as our new grande dame the QM2.

So the next time I stare down a bunch of nay sayers whether they’re in start up chaos or orderly corporate sterility, I will channel the spirit of Cap’n Tom. Because yo’… I know that dame can turn.