First of all, the new website has a fresh look and feel, which I think is a nice reflection of the vibe of the community and the WebInno events.  Secondly, the design integrates in all of the external web services so that they’re now directly incorporated onto the site – event registration, the job board, and a main & side dish demo application.  And lastly, there’s modular power underneath, so we can include additional functionality as we develop it.

I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Nat Jabbawy of NeueTuesday, a local digital creative studio, for generously donating his firm’s time to create the new WebInno website.  I really appreciate their help, and their contribution to the Web Innovators Group should be widely recognized.  As a quick plug, working with Nat and his team has been great – I’d highly recommend their services to anyone looking for branding / multimedia / and web design work.

If you have a chance, take a spin around the new site and let me know what you think.  I’d welcome your feedback on twitter @webinno or via email at david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com.

And don’t forget – registration for the December 7th Web Innovators Group meeting is now open.

It’s hard to believe that we only have one more Web Innovators Group meeting here in 2009! We’ll convene again soon after Thanksgiving on December 7th.

WebInno24 will continue with the same format of self-/angel-funded startups presenting to the crowd as “main dishes” in the grand ballroom with “side dishes” demoing informally throughout the night from nearby skyline suites room in the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge. The doors officially open at 6:30pm with presentations starting at 7pm, including the “Audience Choice” award given to the crowd’s favorite company as determined by mobile voting. I’m also exploring an additional break-out session, but more to come on that to be announced later.

If your early stage startup is interested in presenting in either forum that evening, just reach out to me at david at web innovators group dot com. Please include the name of your company/site/product, a brief overview and description, and a link to a live site or password-protected beta demo site.

Please sign up on our registration page so we can print nametags and get a sense of the turnout.

And from the feedback I’ve heard from folks, the special panel session was well received by the entrepreneurs in the audience, offering some practical/tactical advice for those endeavoring on bootstrapping their media relations.  Our all-star participants of Mike Troiano, Scott Kirsner , Wade Roush , Peter Kafka, and Bob Brown certainly engaged the crowd… although not without some vibrant reactions and opinions, especially from the public relations practitioners in the room.  The next couple days the blogosphere was teeming with thoughts about the role of PR.  Lora Kratchounova, Bobbie Carleton, Jason Evanish, John Wall, Chuck Tanowitz, Nathan Burke, and Kellye Crane all weighed in their thoughts, with panel moderator Mike Troiano and panelist Wade Roush responding.  The entire conversation is definitely worth a read, especially if you were in attendance.

Mark you calendars that the next WebInno event is on December 7^th.  I’ll be creating a registration page in the next couple weeks.

As announced last week at the WebInno large group event, I am continuing my series of WebInno Dinner Groups – gatherings of a dozen or so entrepreneurs and managers who want to connect to discuss and share experiences about a specific topic.  In contrast to the larger regular large WebInno events, these are more-intimate less-structured sessions with an opportunity for in-depth discussion. The first eight dinners have been devoted to the topics “Widgets and Advertising,” the “Intersection of Mobile and the Web,” and “Virtual Items and Virtual Worlds,” “The Secrets of Social Network Platform Apps,” “eCommerce 2.0,” “Monetizing via Ad Networks,” “Harnessing the Entire Realtime Web,” and “Payments 2.0.”

The next one I am planning is to be focused on the topic “Subscription Business Models on the Web″.  If this discussion-area sounds like a gathering which you would want to participate, please reach out to me (david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com) sharing a bit of your relevant background and interest.  Depending on response and availability, I’ll then organize an evening for us to get together in upcoming weeks (likely in November).

We are just two weeks away from our September 29^th Web Innovators Group meeting and I wanted to announce our set of demonstrating companies.  The doors officially open at 6:30pm at the Grand Ballroom in the Cambridge Royal Sonesta, with the “Main Dish” presentations to the entire crowd starting at 7pm:

• Book of Odds – Pre-launch Sneak Preview – Amram Shapiro
• Epernicus – Eric Silberstein & Mikhail Shapiro
• BatchBlue Software (BatchBook) – Pamela O’Hara

Following those presentations, each of our “Side Dish” demonstrators will have an opportunity to give a quick 30-second overview of their service to the audience followed by a showcase of their company at tables spread throughout the periphery of the skyline suites room during the unstructured networking portion of the evening:

• Clickframes (by Beacon16) – Vineet Manohar
• BetterLesson – Alex Grodd
• Baydin – Alex Moore
• TheIdeaStartup.com – Matt Chepeleff and Ray Di Nizo
• Happn.in – Jay Boice
• Tripleseat Software – Jonathan Morse

All of the above companies were selected amongst dozens of applicants looking to participate in the program.  Unfortunately there was not space for other qualifying startups; if yours was not chosen, I’d encourage you to reapply for the next event in December.

And as a reminder, we also have a special breakout session at 8pm entitled, “An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Bootstrapping PR.”  It will feature entrepreneur and marketing/media executive Mike Troiano hosting a discussion with a media panel including Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe, Wade Roush from Xconomy, Peter Kafka from AllThingsD, and Bob Brown of Network World.

With both a great set of presenters (including a pre-launch sneak preview) PLUS the optional breakout session, this September WebInno will be a special one.  Everyone who is interested in web and mobile innovation is invited to attend the free event.  Please RSVP (and find additional details) on the event page (http://webinno23.eventbrite.com/) if you plan to join us so we are able to print name tags and appropriately size the room.

Entrepreneur and marketing/media executive Mike Troiano will host a conversation with a panel of media reporters/columnists/editors including Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe, Wade Roush from Xconomy, Peter Kafka from AllThingsD, and Bob Brown of Network World.  Despite the fact that media coverage is as an essential component of any web start-up’s marketing mix, full-blown PR support may not be in the cards.  This on-stage discussion will provide the inside scoop on engaging with the media – everything from how entrepreneurs can generate awareness of their company through the media to what do you need to know before you connect with the press.  In addition, panelists will cover questions like “What’s the best way to engage with reporters?”  “What do reporters care / write about?”  “What could entrepreneurs learn from PR people?” and “What really ticks reporters off (pet peeve)?”

WebInno23 will begin with the doors officially opening at 6:30pm in the Cambridge Royal Sonesta Hotel.  At 7pm in the Grand Ballroom we’ll hold our traditional format of self-/angel-funded startups demo’ing to the audience in Main Dish showcases, and select an “Audience Choice” winner of the crowd’s favorite.  After a brief intermission, at 8pm we’ll begin the above strictly-optional special entrepreneur’s PR breakout session.  During the entire evening’s event, Side Dish startup companies will provide informal demonstrations to the networking crowd from the Skyline Suites room.

If your early-stage startup is interested in demo’ing that evening, just reach out to me at david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com.  Please include the name of your company/site/product, a brief overview and description, and a link to a live site or password-protected beta demo site.  I’ll likely begin to make decisions sometime next week.

Remember, everyone who is interested in web and mobile innovation is welcome and encouraged to attend the free event. Please RSVP (and find additional details) on the event page (http://webinno23.eventbrite.com/) if you plan to join us so we are able to print name tags and gauge attendance (especially for this new breakout session).

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Don’t forget that the next WebInno event is going to be held on September 29^th.  We’ve already started registration on our event page.

“Can you be part of the NE [New England] innovation economy and *not* have been to #webinno? I think not. Kudos to @davidbeisel of Venrock for organizing.”

Scott also had a nice writeup on his blog:

“Web Innovators Group has turned into not just a great place to see demos from early-stage companies, but also a bit of a see-and-be-seen schmooze-fest among developers, entrepreneurs, attorneys, investors, and PR folks. The 22nd edition of WebInno tonight was especially good…”

Many others also commented on the event.  Bob Brown wrote a piece that showed up on Network World and The Industry Standard.  Greg PC resumed his usual demo-by-demo review.  Tom Lewis of the Bostonist conducted a number of Dish interviews worth watching.  Kevin Kosh over at CHEN PR evoked his memories of – of all things – Sesame Street to highlight a Side Dish, the Tor Project.  And of course there was plenty of chatter all over Twitter.

Congratulations again to Todd Garland of BuySellAds for winning the Audience Choice award for the evening.  He’s accomplished quite a bit on limited resources, and the crowd really picked up on his success.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next WebInno on September 29^th

As announced last week at the WebInno large group event, I am continuing my series of WebInno Dinner Groups – gatherings of a dozen or so entrepreneurs and managers who want to connect to discuss and share experiences about a specific topic.  In contrast to the larger regular large WebInno events, these are more-intimate less-structured sessions with an opportunity for in-depth discussion. The first seven dinners were devoted to the topics “Widgets and Advertising,” the “Intersection of Mobile and the Web,” and “Virtual Items and Virtual Worlds,” “The Secrets of Social Network Platform Apps,” “eCommerce 2.0,” “Monetizing via Ad Networks,” and “Harnessing the Entire Realtime Web.”

The next one I am planning is to be focused on the topic "Payments 2.0".  If this discussion-area sounds like a gathering which you would want to participate, please reach out to me (david at webinnovatorsgroup dot com) sharing a bit of your relevant background and interest.  Depending on response and availability, I’ll then organize an evening for us to get together in upcoming weeks (likely in early August).