2008 Sessions

Finding The Next Starbucks

Back in 1992, stock analyst Michael Moe predicted that a humble Seattle coffee company would become a long-term superstar. Since then he's made similar great calls in high technology and other sectors, earning a reputation as one of today's most insightful market experts.

Michael Moe, now co-founder and Chairman of ThinkPanmure, will show us how winners like Dell, eBay, and Home Depot could have been spotted in their start-up phase, how they've been disruptive (yet predictable), and how small companies become future giants.

Michael Moe, Founder & CEO, ThinkPanmure, is also the author of Finding the Next Starbucks and was formerly the Managing Director of Merrill Lynch and Director of Global Growth Stock Research.

Disruptive (yet completely constructive!) Innovation In Culture & Customer Care

In July, ABC News ran a segment on Zappos.com, saying it had the absolute best company culture in America. ABC wrote: "Zappos is headquartered in Las Vegas, where the company has office carrels similar to almost any other corporation. Right there in the middle of these cubicles, in an area nicknamed Monkey Row, sits Tony Hsieh, the emperor of shoes with no more office space than Dilbert." Learn from Tony's lifelong business partner, Alfred, how and why they have shaped the Zappos culture in this remarkable way.

As Zappos builds their breakthrough culture, a Build-to-Order phenomenon is revolutionizing e-commerce up in Chicago. At Threadless.com, artists submit artwork for t-shirts, then shoppers vote on which art should be produced, then -- voila -- the most popular art is produced in a high volume made-to-order (basically) t-shirt facility, then sold. This is a multi-million dollar Web 2.0 commerce company. The marketing of both companies feeds off their innovative cultures -- driving tremendous word-of-mouth referrals. Zappos is all about the WOW experience, while Threadless rallies a volunteer Street Team.

Controlling the World's Information

What in the world does the future library look like? How will we find important information? What about visual and audio information and information written in different languages? What does the future look like as we try to organize the world and even our neighborhood? There are eCommerce sites like eBags which haw 33,000 products - all need to be organized, categorized, easy to find. Shipping information needs to be accessed easily. Desktops and blogs need navigation. Hear from these companies making it easy to organize our worlds at work.

Giving Individual People a National Voice

How small companies and entrepreneurs are exploiting mashup technologies, APIs and guerilla marketing tactics. Why these entrepreneurs are advocates of the everyday customer and entrepreneur. Why they believe everyone has a right to speak their mind, and be heard. What hurdles have they faced? How an aggregation of "the power and quantity of smaller companies" is a really disruptively a big deal -- to the world.

Turning customers into raving fans

Giving a voice to every entrepreneur

Empowering users via mashups to use their data they way they want to

See all things that your friends are doing on all websites

Media Deconstruction and Reconstruction

Can the traditional media keep up with the Citizen Journalists and bloggers who are leveraging platforms like those created by WordPress and Associated Content? How do companies manage this upheaval? Rather than getting news delivered on the driveway each morning, more are getting it in their inbox from companies like DailyCandy. How much more prevalent will that become? How is Examiner.com changing news distribution one city at a time?

The DNA of the Beautiful - Leveraging Patterns in Music, Video, Images and Fashion

Learn how Patrick Koppula developed insight into the "social genealogy of creativity" while at iLike and is using it to make his new venture -- ffwd.com -- the buzz of the next generation of web video. Like.com's photo search has made the highly technical process of object matching in images point-and-click accessible. And, Taaz.com analyzes the relationship between makeup trends and faces to offer women virtual makeovers from the comfort of their own homes. All of these technologies eschew search for a more sophisticated level of perception. Can the ideas driving these services be applied to your business?

Top Tech Trends Changing the Landscape of Healthcare

Where are we headed with Healthcare Technology? What does it take to adopt Electronic Health Records, and what are the barriers? It's your data about your own health, should you own and control it? (personal health records) What is the technology needed to manage the quality of care our hospitals and doctors deliver? (pay-for-performance models) what new disruptive technologies promise to advance healthcare outcomes? (Wireless Technologies, Virtualization, RFID, VoIP) Industry leaders, from across the spectrum – payers, providers, and solution strategists, will discuss how technology trends are disrupting healthcare industry.

Travel and the Net

Why did TripAdvisor just purchase Virtual Tourist? What are the new ways in which the web is changing travel? And what changes are in store for airlines, travel agents, hotels and cruise lines in the future?

Video's Effect on Web-Commerce and Web-Advertising

Is YouTube becoming commercially disruptive? Is there money to be made on video? Will traditional retailers like Macy's and Wal-Mart be able to make the leap, as QVC did it on TV?

Financial Turmoil - How Far Will It Go?

How are companies taking advantage of the turmoil in financial markets? Can inventions take us out of the current situation and if so, what are they? There are new ways to manage your finances online allowing you to find better interest rates, credit card deals, etc., placing downward pressures on financial institutions. Additionally, new payment methods are also putting downward pressures on fees credit card companies charge merchants. What's in store for the world of finance?

Upheaval in Dating & Social Interaction

How Facebook widgets, text messaging and social voyeuring are shaping the future of our society. Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and mobile technologies have helped people exponentially grow their networks of friends and have created a drastic shift from one-to-one communication to one-to-many. How does this affect how people date, connect, and socialize in real life? How does this affect the outreach efforts of communities, businesses, and event-driven industries?

In What Way Is Advertising Most Changing The Net?

Online advertising is growing at a breakneck pace and many companies are innovating in this multi-billon dollar space. Google ads target consumers with clear, indicated intent while Facebook is experimenting with latent, influenced demand using social and demographic information to target multiple, subtle impressions. What's working? What's not? How is video advertising playing out? How did Denver's Thought Equity become the largest keeper of stock video worldwide?

Making the World Smaller With Mobile Apps

Getting around the legal mumbo-jumbo and privacy concerns related to people watching in Europe (and hopefully the USA soon). What is a location-based social network, and how important is it to have that in your phone? Should you be tracking your friends? Will strangers want to meet you just because you find each other via your phone?

Colorado Disrupters

Entrepreneurs and business people in Colorado are attacking the photo space, as Photobucket did a few years ago. Google veterans at RentMarketer is tackling classified advertising and real estate. ServiceMagic is the premier lead generator for contractors around the country, and now we can learn about how they are changing real estate marketing too. Come to lunch at DEMOgala and learn what's happening in our own backyard, as Colorado's disrupters are changing the economic and/or service landscape within their specific fields.

Cloud Computing, Cluster Computing ... Is It THE Future?

As ever-increasing computer power along with continuously improved storage and networking options come available, the spotlight is back on this server-based computing. Some experts believe there are only six real computer companies in the world now -- those being Google, Amazon, IBM, Sun, Yahoo! and Microsoft? Is that true?
Could the future of computer science be linked so tightly to Google and IBM's 1,600-node cluster that other computer companies get wiped out? What is Google doing with those massive datacenters they secretly build? What about Yahoo! stores? Does this represent cloud computing? How much will these companies control long-term?

Can smaller companies harness A cloud, or THE cloud, regardless of Google or Microsoft's plans? Denver's Swiftpage offers ASP email services to small businesses and ASPs like this are changing the economics of high-end application delivery by letting customers tap into a utility-type service rather than managing their own code. But will companies like Google - which owns the hardware - ultimately overwhelm the little guy?

Social Networking: fad or real revolution?

What are the next phases of this social interaction? What are the new models of sharing and social collaboration on the Internet?

As veteran entrepreneurs and celebrated trend spotters, Hans Peter Brondmo and John Kembel will talk about this new phenomenon. Hans Peter’s newest company, Plum.com, helps third party websites become social by providing hosted media sharing applications. Plum gets exposure to approximately 30,000,000 unique users per month through their partnerships. Will this phenomenal growth last?

How do MixMatchMusic and HiveLive view the Social Networking and Social Media landscape? Find out what Steven, Charles, John and Hans Peter think about SSM (Social Media Marketing) and if it’s here to stay! How do you mastermind profitability as Dogster has done within the complexities of bringing big advertisers and partners together in a way that does not hinder the community/customer experience? Does it help to have vertical communities? What are the secrets that Dogster used to build passionate customer base?

Innovation in Venture Capital, and Angels, Changing the Terms

How has the role of venture capital changed over the years, and what changes are on the future frontier? Is there a corrupt underpinning to Venture Capital? Is the entrepreneur taken advantage of? Should it change? Is it changing? Why and how did Greg Gianforte build his latest company in Bozeman, MT, and then take it public from that location, defeating Silicon Valley competitors like KANA? Why did Greg write this book: Bootstrapping Your Business:Start And Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money.

What is Techstars doing that is so revolutionary? How to find a "good" VC, as it relates to you, the entrepreneur? How would Bruce Cunningham recommend that you structure your next deal? Why did Adeo start the website TheFunded.com?

Innovation and Challenges in Green Technology

CSIA is proud to announce not only the greatest panels in technology, but those companies that are making an effort to better the environment at the same time. You will hear from speakers such as Ryan Martens, of Rally Software, Donald Lutz of Technetronics and Kevin Raasch of Dean Evans & Associates. Each of them takes a different approach to promoting a lesser carbon footprint, and incorporating different strategies to help utilize less energy. Come join us as we hear this "Green" panel discuss the most innovative ways being created to make use of energy with less of an impact and the challenges in doing so.

Disruption of Public Relations

How the world of Public Relations has changed in the era of Twitter, texting, blogging buzz and Buddy Lists. Should you be leveraging the blogospere, and if yes, how? What is available to you on mobile devices?

Using the Web to Find Inventors and Facilitate the Creative Process

It's not a new concept, but it can be effective. Will it work for you? Can you do what Dell, Starbucks and a company on the verge of bankruptcy did? The web has replace the humble, cardboard suggestion box in the company lunch room, in a big way. Discover the value of online communities and how they can drive innovation, loyalty and other business benefits.

Technology Projects Changing the Landscape of Colorado Healthcare

Patient demographic, clinical procedure, medical history and insurance information all need to be exchanged between providers and payers. Several projects in Colorado are working to make this exchange an electronic reality. Quality of care, transparency and pay-for-performance models are soon to be standard practice that must be managed by both providers and payers. Telemedicine and disease management support, which are critical for broader access to healthcare, are driven by technology. Electronic medical records adoption plays a significant role in the success of all of these instances. What technologies are being used? How is widespread adoption of these technologies possible? What roadblocks are faced? Leaders of healthcare technology projects will help answer these questions.

Open Source Revolution (or not)?

In January, Sun bought MySQL for $1 billion. In May, Microsoft's Ray Ozzie said that "open source is much more potentially disruptive" to his business than Google. From SugarCRM to Firefox to the LAMP stack, Open source software (OSS) has become big business and big news in the software industry. If you think it's not being used in your organization, think again. We'll take a look at the Open Source Census and some fascinating data coming to light for the first time. We'll discuss the evolution of open source from imitation to innovation, why OSS tools and applications have become wildly popular with development teams and IT organizations, and how OSS is likely to continue to change the software landscape.

Morphing Commerce

Kraft Foods was the first company to build a supermarket experience in SecondLife and Rick Brindle lead the effort. In this session, Rick will tell you about their SecondLife experience and other new-world marketing and merchandising efforts Kraft has tested. Sun Microsystems has four islands in SecondLife. What are their plans and how are they using them?

The New Innovative Way of Advertising

Gain insight into key companies including, as Business Week put it, Porter + Bogusky's wacky, ambitious plan to rekindle our love affair with Volkswagen. This agency, headquartered in Miami, FL and Boulder, CO, will tell us what is wacky in their world these days. How are they coordinating technology with the emotion of branding? Have they used SecondLife, Twitter or Facebook for any of their clients and has it been successful? Among CPB Group's clients: Burger King, Geek Squad, Dominos, Shimano, Volkswagen.

HSR Business to Business LLC, with U.S. offices Cincinnati, Denver, and Chicago know that technology impacts advertising in more than just the executional format and with their prowess in brand building at all segment levels, they’ll show how multi-layer creative executions are developed that ensure effective audience contact and help in building relationships between brands and products.

How Do The Web's Billion-Dollar Behemoths View Disruption?

Mircosoft, Sun Microsystems and Google, once tiny upstarts and now billion-dollar behemoths based on the West Coast, have all changed the way we live our daily lives. They are disrupters, displacing many established companies out of the Fortune Big Business lists. So, what are these companies doing now? What do they plan to displace next? Each of these businesses has a department, or people, dedicated to future disruption. Will they be targeting your business? Hal Stern, Vince Chirico, and Scott Johnson will be discussing the future of the Web (and maybe other things).