Check out the TECH cocktail Champaign 3 Photos

Last Thursday night, TECH cocktail Champaign 3 attracted a couple hundred attendees as local technology was showcased from companies like Wolfram Research, EnterpriseWorks, R Systems, Mimosa Acoustics, The Australian Semiconductor Technology Company (ASTC) and IllinoisRocstar. Thanks to our sponsors and guests for making the event another success. Check out the TECH cocktail Champaign 3 photos.

If your going to be in the Champaign area you should attend Startup Cafe. Our very own Frank Gurber and Eric Olson will be keynoting the event. They will be discussing  social media and how it has changed the way business and people communicate.

The event will be from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m., at EnterpriseWorks, 60 Hazelwood Drive, Pizza and soda will be provided.

Please email your RSVP to Tony Millenbine

Hey TECH cocktailers we are excited to bring TECHcocktail back to Champaign.  This is the third time bring the event to Champaign  and you can read about the last event here and see the pictuers here. 

TECH cocktail Champaign 3 will take place at Houlihan’s in the Research Park on June 25.  Local technology based firms will be showcased in the bar area from 5:30 to 8:30.  Attendees are welcome to enjoy complimentary drinks and appetizers as they learn and network with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts from across the region. 

TECH cocktail Champaign 3 sponsors

Wolfram Research, headquartered in Champaign, IL, will feature Wolfram|Alpha, the world renowned computational knowledge engine released last month.  Wolfram|Alpha is a free web service that aims to make the world’s systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. 
 
The knowledge engine is useful on a wide range of topics that include engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, units & measure, dates & times, and much more!  Log onto www.wolframalpha.com to view examples, read blog posts and see firsthand why Wolfram|Alpha is revolutionizing how people all over the world research the Internet!

One of the supercomputers currently supporting Wolfram|Alpha is R Systems‘ “R Smarr” ( named after Larry Smarr, the founder of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications).  R Smarr is the world’s 66th fastest supercomputer built entirely out of custom made Dell servers.  

R Systems NA, inc., located in the Illinois Research Park, is a privately held corporation that provides high-end computing resources for research. 

Within the University’s Research Park is its business incubator, EnterpriseWorks, a 43,000 square foot facility that has spun out over 70 startup companies from University of Illinois technologies since opening in 2003.  EnterpriseWorks provides an ideal environment for starting a high-growth technology venture with 24 full wet-chemistry labs, furnished office space, an extensive array of shared equipment, server co-location facilities, and conference rooms with complete presentation facilities and high-speed wireless Internet access.

TECH cocktail Demoers

 Dr. Patricia Jeng created Mimosa Acoustics in 1994 to take advantage of research done on cochlear nonlinearity by the Acoustics Research Group of Bell Laboratories, from 1985-1992. Dr. Jeng and her collaborators (including Etym?tic Research) developed one of the earliest available Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission (DPOAE) measurement systems, CUBeDIS™.

Through technical advancements, Mimosa has condensed the original CUBeDIS™ system into a lightweight probe and PC-card assembly. The PC-card fits into a laptop computer and is highly portable. The DPOAE measurement is now a standard audiological tool, and is especially useful for infant hearing screening because the tests are quick to perform and do not require an active response from the patient.  For detailed information on Mimosa’s products and services, vist their website. 

IllinoisRocstar (www.illinoisrocstar.com), based in Champaign, Illinois, uses the Rocstar
simulation software suite to analyze fluid flows, combustion, materials, structures, and their interactions while solving engineering and scientific problems for commercial clients and government agencies. Employing integrated software, IllinoisRocstar staff utilize first-principles based physics for highfidelity numerical analysis in complex changing geometries.
 
IllinoisRocstar brings a depth of experience in micromechanics, combustion modeling, and granular material pack modeling, using Rocpack, Rocfire, and other proprietary software. The principals and members of the company are highly qualified technical and business leaders and senior scientists using advanced computation and simulation techniques to understand the implications of three dimensional fluid-structure interactions on the design and application of materials and engineered devices. IllinoisRocstar seeks to commercialize, extend and implement simulation software, and use these tools in commercial engineering analysis and as a product line of stand-alone software.

The Australian Semiconductor Technology Company (ASTC) is an independent design, research and development company specializing in the provision of leading edge, specialized technology and design to order services for software, development tools, intellectual property, semiconductors, and embedded systems.
 
ASTC commenced operations in 2006 and employs around 80 staff based in Adelaide (Australia), Champaign (US), and Tokyo (Japan). Though the ASTC venture is new, the founding team builds on over 12 years of working together as one team servicing multinational companies at the forefront of these industries.

From organizer Hope Bertram:

Windy City Social is hosting a very cool Social Media/Online Marketing Summit that you’re TC group is going to want to hear about.

It’s Tuesday, June 23^rd from 1:00 pm – 5:30 pm with evening networking and panel from 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm at the beautiful Blackstone Hotel.

Guests will connect with other marketers and learn about the latest trends in Social Media and Online Marketing from leaders in the industry.  People will leave the event with new, innovative ideas about how to leverage Twitter, Facebook, SEO, E-mail Marketing and Experience Marketing.

Several of the speakers and sponsors will be on hand for 15 minute consultations where they’ll give attendees immediate steps they can take to improve their actual site or campaigns!   AND our speakers are going to pick a few emails and websites submitted by attendees in advance to critique during presentations.

Event Highlights
*  Creating an Experience They Will Remember (in a good way!) Cereality Founders
Rick Bacher and David Roth
*  E-mail Makeovers Reagan Taylor, NCR eCommerce Consultant
*  Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Natural Search Rankings
*  Tips on How to Get the Most out of the New Fan Pages From Brad Keown from Facebook *  Panel on Using Twitter to Promote Big Business

Check Out the Full Line-up

I’ve sent up discount code for $10 off of the full ticket price for TC members who enter TC10 when they register at http://wcssummit.eventbrite.com

My friend Dave Schappel (not the comedian) has been building up his latest company, TeachStreet, over the past year and I was happy to hear from him that the Chicago portion of the site is now live.  TeachStreet is a place where people can come to find teachers for anything and everything that are based in their city.  Want to learn drums?  Check out TeachStreet.  Want to learn Mandarin? There are probably some teachers on TeachStreet that can help you out. If there is something you want to learn, check out TeachStreet.

As many of you know, or maybe not, I am a huge fan and proponent of Amazon’s Web Services. A couple of years ago, Amazon started its offering with S3 (Simple Storage Solution) and has continued to add another great service after another. Back then I even went so far as to dream up a startup idea based around S3 and created my own web service on top of it, MyDropBin. Since then I have gotten much more involved with many of their other offerings and now do some consulting to help other small startups in the area build an utilize these cloud platforms.

Some of there other offerings include

• EC2
• SimpleDB
• CloudFront
• CloudWatch
• DevPay

and so on. If you are not familiar, make sure to head over to aws.amazon.com to check them all out, and if you need any help, just let me know. In any case, I was excited when I saw they were doing a startup tour around the country. Talking about the products and also showcasing small, and large companies that are utilizing their products to build really cool companies. The great thing about the products that Amazon is offering, is they allow the smallest of businesses and individuals the ability to become large, or seem that way, without the hassle and huge costs associated with that. Withing 15 minutes if I wanted to, I could have over 1000 servers up and running at 10 cents an hour for each. 3 years ago this would have never been possible. Then when I am done, they shut down and I pay for only what I used.

It was a really great event with a lot of really smart people there to learn and share. Below are some videos of the event, including Adam Selipsky the Vice President of Amazon Web Services, Matt Corgan Co Founder of Hotpads.com and others. Pay particular attention to Matt’s talk as he really breaks down the numbers and shows how Amazon helps out him and his developers.

Special thank you to When.com, our premier sponsor for TECH cocktail DC 5. When.com is the hyper-local guide for your hyper-active lifestyle. When.com helps you to pinpoint restaurants, events and activities in your neighborhood. Its unique tools for Hot Tickets and Dining Deals can help to save you time and money. When.com also throws user-generated events into the mix for extended coverage of everything that’s going on in your city. For example, check out the listing for TECH cocktail DC 5 in Washington, DC today.

Watch the video (above) as I chat with When.com’s Abha Dasgupta. Also be sure to check out When.com next time you are looking for something to do and if you are in the DC are be sure to see them tonight at TECH cocktail DC 5.

The newest installment of TECH cocktail here in the DC area is right around the corner, and as usual we have an incredible set of local companies, in and out of beta, who are going to be showing off their products for everyone there to see. That is what TECH cocktail is all about, getting people out and amping up the local tech scene and giving these local companies the opportunity to show you what they have been working on. Remember, we are switching it up a bit from our regular Thursday night setup and hosting the event this Wednesday, May 20, 2009. While the regular tickets are sold out you can still donate any amount to the cause and get into the event - RSVP.

Last time, we had a great set and this time is no exception. So take a few minutes to look through a quick preview of the companies you will be seeing on Wednesday night at the Left Bank in Adams Morgan.

We want to first take the opportunity to thank the main sponsor of TECH cocktail DC 5, When.com. When.com is the local search engine to discover things to do! when.com helps you quickly find out what’s going on, wherever you are. Find local events, movies playing nearby, the perfect Indian restaurant, or where your favorite band is playing next. Not sure what you want to do? That’s okay - browse by category, date or location and we bet you’ll find something that grabs your attention!
If you’re an event promoter or organizer, when.com is a great (and free!) way to distribute information about your events.

When.com will help you realize how much is going on right on your doorstep… and quickly give you all the information you need to find something you want to do! So, no more “There’s nothing going on tonight” excuses.

Our demoing startups are as follows:

Think of tweetmart as classifieds for Twitter. It is a free an easy way to buy and sell “stuff” on Twitter. We had ease of use in mind when we created tweetmart. Have something to sell? Login, click on “List an Item” and in a minute or two you are finished. Your item will remain active for 7 days. We will send a tweet out to all your friends letting them know you have listed something and at any time you can re-tweet the item (to your heart’s content we might add). If one of your friends likes what you are selling, they can send you a direct message letting you know they are interested. Even better, for those that are not on Twitter but like what you have to offer, they will be able to send you an e-mail letting you know they are interested.

FitFeud is a competitive wellness platform that gives individuals,
groups, and organizations the ability to harness their competitive
nature as a motivational tool for weight loss, wellness, and a
healthier lifestyle. With FitFeud, you can challenge friends, family,
and co-workers to a weight loss competition without having to worry about tracking spreadsheets and weigh-ins.

FitFeud is based on the idea that what most folks really need to reach their goals is a kick in that ass rather than a pat on the back. With FitFeud, competition and the desire to win serves as that motivational kick.

Diditz is a new photo sharing application on Facebook, where users share their coolest experiences of their lives: their “Diditz”. Diditz allows Facebook users to discover the best Facebook albums in the topics they are passionate about and watch those albums in a beautiful slide show. Users can also convert their albums to blogs by embedding videos or writing notes, and share their “Diditz” using widgets, twitter, digg and other social bookmarking websites. Diditz also provide brands a new tool to engage their fans by putting a ‘Diditz” tab on the public profiles.Link: apps.facebook.com/diditzapp

Arlington Soho has developed InSide Job, a Facebook application that now allows users to contact people who have interviewed, worked, or are currently employed at the places you want to work at next! They have created a tool that replicates the best features of business sites like LinkedIn.

InSide Job users can also:
• Get the inside scoop on their prospective employer before the interview;
• Network with people in similar fields; and
• Find the right people to hire as service providers.

PointAbout wraps robust web applications with a thin-client springboard to harness the power of a native application while maintaining the flexibility of the web, creating mobile applications across multiple phone platforms without any ramp-up time, no need for proprietary programming expertise and little or no re-development of your current site.

Wegora is Creative Darwinism.
People come to wegora to read, write and remix posts. Remixes compete against the original and other posts for the attention of users. Interesting posts, whether originals or remixes will continue to be read and remixed. They will be rated well by users and they will survive. Less interesting posts, whether remixes or originals will find themselves moving ever farther into the ether until one day, by random chance, they are read and remixed into something more interesting.

messagepub is a web service to allow communication from your application to your users. It provides a simple API to communicate via email, IM, Twitter, SMS, and phone. With messagepub, you can start sending multichannel messages in minutes with a single interface across many platforms. It lets you save a lot of development and testing cycles so that you can focus on your core business and competency.

Messagepub provides client libraries in many programming languages: Ruby, C#, Python, Java, PHP… It supports escalating messages, scheduling of messages for future delivery, and automatic handling of replies.

BuddyCast is a virtual theater that allows people to program their viewing and to watch movies and TV shows together simultaneously over the Web. Founded: January 2007 We bring people together! BuddyCast is a platform enabling a new business model that offers a Social Networking and Community Collaborative service to view Premium Video content. People work together to program their Internet Theater and they get together to watch it and interact among themselves. Our service offers paid as well as free movies and TV show, whether they are Hollywood Blockbusters or Niche-Foreign content.

MPowerPlayer is the leading provider of online mobile game trial and merchandising solutions to mobile operators and publishers, allowing consumers to easily try, buy and share mobile content on any website or social network. Our web-based technology platform enables the rapid deployment of online app stores, social networking strategies and integrated marketing programs designed to help our partners drive mobile content sales. We partner and offer white label solutions for carriers, MVNO’s, mobile game and application developers, OEM’s and mobile content providers to engage consumers more effectively.

Earth Aid has developed a free service that measures your monthly energy use and pays you based on how much you save.

1. We review your household’s energy use from your utility company and use it to create a “baseline.”
2. Earth Aid then provides you with customized advice to become more energy-efficient, and then measures your next year of energy use.
3. Last (and most importantly), Earth Aid sends you a check based on the amount of energy you have conserved.

Consumer Healthcare Advisers Inc. is a Maryland company that offers consumer-oriented health management products and services to large self-insured employers. The focus of the enterprise is maintaining a robust flow of reliable information to employees and their dependents, who now face a new set of expectations about financial responsibility and self-management of their health and health care benefits. In this new environment, consumers need help to make better healthcare decisions for their families and themselves.

The foundation of the firm is a web-based technology platform called the Consumer Health Data Center (CHDC). CHDC is directly licensed to plan sponsors as an employee benefit.

A unique aspect of the enterprise is the availability of a wide range of on-demand coaching and counseling services in conjunction with CHDC. The on-demand advisory services will be paid for by the consumer.

Well I know it’s a lot but I know you will all have a great time networking and checking them all out. See you soon!

What a name, right?  I was honored to be invited as a member of the panel (with such an exciting name!), talking to local businesswomen about social media last night at the TRAK office in downtown DC. Here’s a recap of the experiences I relayed, some pictures (yes, I whipped out my extra-large camera while on the panel to get some shots of the event) and links to my fellow panelists who were all fantastic. Big thanks to Deborah Agor and Deanna Mcneil for organizing the event and to Jill Foster for creating this direct link to all the twitter posts around the event (we used #smExtra): http://bit.ly/Xmba6.

Social Media from the Corporation to the Scrappy Startup

My history is working in product development. I’ve worked on building social media/community tools but also leveraged social media for other products I’ve worked on.

Story:

In 2006 I was mananging RSS products at AOL, trying to advise others on syndicating content and beginning to build out a new myAOL product.

• We had an innovative team, including a new hire who was already known in the blogosphere
• Our team was at the forefront; we charged forward and asked for forgiveness later if we needed to (with great support from our direct management)
• We started with blogs - our own and participating with others - getting involved in the space well before the launch. We did the Facebook page, videos on YouTube, got great coverage across the blogosphere, which then led to traditional media coverage such as the Washington Post. It was great for awareness and trial and internally it led to more friends in CorpComm and across other product teams within the company.

I left AOL at the end of last year to start work on Shiny Heart Ventures as well as some photography and writing projects. The variety of tools out there has made this transition very successful and comfortable for me:

• Linked In and Plaxo were like announcement to the world of the changes in my job status
• My personal blog is where I showcase my various projects and make myself accessible to others
• Through Facebook and Twitter I’ve been able to stay in touch with all my old coworkers and industry friends
• I’ve slowly introduced SHV to my network to begin building supporters and advocates
• We just launched the SHV blog and are planning to use it for communication about our company but also to start a dialog about building a company with great values. We want to use it to highlight other companies we admire, share our discoveries and challenges and hopefully get some good input from the community.

Takeaways:

• mportant not to just charge into conversations but to observe, introduce yourself and then join into relevant conversations
• Excitement can lead to dozens of accounts across social media tools - and the downside can be lack of follow-through and ownership. Abandoned blogs and conversations.
• In a large company it’s easy for those details (which sites are we on, account access, etc) to get lost but if it’s your business, you must own all the accounts and be responsible for them.
• Don’t begin to build a community area and then leave it. Bad bad bad - but very easy to let happen.
• As a company you must decide how transparent you want to be.
• Within a company, if the boundaries aren’t clearly defined, people are left to make up their own rules
• Have seen some companies empower their people on Twitter to use it for promotions (like Kodak, Starbucks, and several others)
• There’s always a challenge between the “brand” and the “individual” - what’s right for you?
• Just like a door to door salesperson, every online social media interaction is real human to human contact. Powerful opportunity - people always remember how you make them feel. We’ve seen brands erode because people don’t feel connected anymore. The opportunities to make people feel heard, important, appreciated are endless! Be responsible for your interactions and how you treat them online. Figure out where you need to be, how often, develop your plan and follow through - make it part of your daily operations.
• Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO who has been all over the media lately, has talked about the importance of having greater purpose in life (person and company) and ultimately tying it all back to happiness (my favorite topic!). Zappos interactions with customers have a goal: to make the best impression possible. You can watch him in action here.

I ended on the happiness note because I truly believe when your motivations are right and paired with a great business, you can’t go wrong.  My talk was live-streamed - here’s the video if you missed it!

You can find my fellow panelists at their sites - make sure to follow them on twitter too.

• Beth J Bates at BethJBates.com @bethjbates
• Jill Foster at Women Grow Business @jillfoster
• Terri Holley at Creative Blog Solutions @creativeblogs
• Mayra Ruiz-McPherson at MayraRuiz.com @marketingMisfit

It’s that time again and we’re ready to TECH cocktail in DC. In case you missed our last DC event it was well covered by the Washington Post. This is our 5th event in the Nation’s Capital. Hope you can make it out to LeftBank digital bistro in the Adam’s Morgan neighborhood of DC. Here is the important information:

TECH cocktail will offer a handful of startups an opportunity to show off in an expo-style to the rest of the community.

When: Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday, May 20, 2009 - 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST

Where: LeftBank in Adams Morgan (venue photos)

What: A “cocktail of TECH people”

If you are interested in supporting TECH cocktail please sponsor our events as we cannot put them on without your support. If you are interested in demoing a product or service please comment on this article or reach out to us at TECH cocktail. Look forward to seeing you there.