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Southern California

101 People You’ll Meet At Twiistup 007

by Brian Remmel on January 18, 2010

Los Angeles’s largest technology event (and arguably the most stylish event in the world of tech), Twiistup, is returning on January 27th and 28th, 2010.

Last July we showcased a list of 101 of the top entrepreneurs, investors, media, celebrities and influential personalities attending Twiistup 6. The conference turned out to be one of the most talked about technology events (and parties) of the year.

The lineup for Twiistup 7 is more impressive than ever. It kicks off with demos from 10 hot startups, followed by sessions from the top names in technology and media, and finishes up with a dangerously fun 007-themed party.

Without further ado, here is the list of 101 people you’ll meet at Twiistup:

1. Robert Scoble

2. Sarah Lacy (TechCrunch, BusinessWeek)

3. Paul Carr (TechCrunch)

4. Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug n Play, Investor, Co-founder of Amidzad Partners

5. Wil Schroter, CEO of Go BIG Network, serial entrepreneur

6. Rick Calvert, Founder of Blogworld

7. Dinesh Ravishanker, CEO of CallFire

8. Isaac Garcia, CEO of CentralDesktop

9. Sanjay Sabnani, Chairman and CEO of CrowdGather

10. Ben Parr, Co-Editor, Mashable

11. Pete Cashmore, CEO, Mashable

12. Cyan Banister, CEO of Zivity, investor Facebook, Slide etc.

13. Merav Knafo, Founder of iJoomla

14. Adam Zbar, CEO of Zannel

15. Marc Mertes, CEO of Seso.net

16. Jeff Haas, Co-founder of Ringorang

17. Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo

18. Tom Dare, COO of Tsavo

19. Brian Solis, Author, Founder of Future Works

20. J.R. Johnson, CEO of Lunch.com

21. Adam Bernhard, CEO of Hautelook

22. Andy Sack, General Partner/Angel Investor Founders Co-op

23. Scott Sangster, Investor/President of Organic Startup

24. James Montgomery, CEO of Montgomery & co. CEO of Digital Coast Ventures

25. Vince Thompson, Managing Partner at MiddleShift

26. Afsoun Yazdian, CEO of Gogolingo

27. Brooke Burke, Television Personality, co-CEO of ModernMom

28. Brian Deagon, Investor’s Business Daily (Media)

29. Umair Mufti, Founder and CEO of Sparcq

30. Christian Gammill, co-Founder of The Graph

31. Brad Feld, Founder of Mobius Venture Capital

32. Scott Seward, President of Tuesday Creative

33. Alec Shankman, Head of Reality at Abrams Artists

34. Chamillionaire, Grammy Award winning Musician

35. Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin Media

36. Ben Huh, CEO of ICanHasCheezburger

37. Michelle Robbins, Director of Technology, Third Door Media

38. James Andelman, General Partner, Rincon Venture Capital

39. Dave McClure, Investor The Founders Fund

40. Chris Redlitz, Partner Transmedia Capital (VC)

41. Lee Fox, Founder of KooDooz.com

42. Steve Beauregard, Managing Partner at Regard Ventures

43. Eric Sikola, CEO of Expensebay

44. Charles Proctor, Los Angeles Business Journal (Media)

45. Robby Berthume, President Epsilon Concepts/ LA Digital Directory

46. Stuart Halperin, CEO of Ultimate Movie Site

47. Quincy Jones III (QD3) Music Producer, Entrepreneur

48. Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix

49. Jason Nazar, CEO of DocStoc

50. Adam Weinroth, VP of Strategic Marketing at Demand Media

51. Firas Bushnaq, CEO of Boxador

52. Sheila Marmon, CEO of UrbanAdserve

53. Don Mosites, CEO of Streamy

54. Justin Kan, Founder of Justin.tv

55. Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs

56. Eric Hung, CEO of Educator

57. Michael Schneider, CEO of MobileRoadie

58. Paige Craig, Angel Investor, Founder of the Lincoln Group

59. John Morris, Partner GKM Ventures

60. Krisztina Holly, Vice Provost for Innovation at USC

61. Nick Braun, Partner NCT Ventures

62. Brett Butterfield, CEO of PixelPipe

63. Mark Suster, Partner GRP Partners (VC)

64. Jennifer Van Grove, writer for Mashable (media)

65. Jolie O’Dell, writer for ReadWriteWeb (media)

66. Dmitry Shapiro, Founder and CEO of VEOH

67. Lisa Rosenblatt, Co-founder of iMall, co-CEO of ModernMom

68. Beau Laskey, Managing Director of Steamboat Ventures

69. Babette Pepaj, Founder and CEO of BakeSpace

70. Jeff Yasuda, Founder and CEO of Blip.FM

71. Andy Liu, co-Founder of Buddy.TV

72. Trey Shelton, CEO of Music Interactive

73. Mohamed Alkady, CEO of After 10 Studios

74. Mike Prasad, CEO of GirlGamer

75. John Trickett, President of Immergent

76. Taryn Southern, Producer, TV host

77. Andrew Lee, CEO of JamLegend

78. Ben Kuo, Founder and Editor of SoCalTECH

79. Marty Poulin, CEO of ShadyLogic

80. Rob Angarita, co-Founder of Cramster

81. David O. Sacks, CEO of Geni and Yammer

82. Mike Macadaan, VP of Product at MySpace

83. Will Chow, CEO of Mobophiles

84. Jodee Rich, CEO of PeopleBrowsr

85. Richard White, Founder and CEO of Uservoice

86. Micah Baldwin, VP of Business Development, Lijit Networks

87. Neil Patel, Angel Investor, co-founder of CrazyEgg and KissMetrics

88. Brandon DiMassa, VP Digital Media Syndication, TVGuide

89. Efren Toscano, CEO of TechZulu (media)

90. Marsha Collier, Host of Computer and Technology Radio KTRB (media)

91. Erin Broadley, LA Weekly (media)

92. Dave Waldman, VP or Business Development for Twistbox

93. David Holifield, President of Interfuel

94. Ed Ludic, CEO of Diddit

95. Rich Rotzang, Founder of SocialToddler

96. Mark Gibbs, writer Network World (media)

97. Mark Yawitz, co-Founder RealityWanted

98. Hiten Shah, co-Founder CrazyEgg and KissMetrics

99. Michael Abraham, CTO Circle Limit Media

100. Ryan Born, CEO of AudioMicro

101. Ben Widhelm, CTO of Elephant Drive

Register for Twiistup 007 here.

Photo credit

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Is Our Quality of Life Compromised Due to Technology?

by julieblaustein on September 17, 2009

By Julie Blaustein

His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

Rather than write about a company launch, a new service or yet another conference, I wanted to write about technology itself and what it does to our quality of life. A friend of mine sent out a group email to alert all her friends and family that she had eliminated Text from her life as she “wasn’t enjoying how some people text vs. call these days and she was receiving lots of unnecessary texts. The world doesn’t need more ways to stay disconnected.” At first I though, that is a bit drastic and unnecessary as it does provide a purpose of sorts to quickly reach out to folks when needed. Then I read the quote below that she included from His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dali Lama reflecting about technology.

It is ironic that the more serious problems emanate from the more industrially advanced societies. Science and technology have worked wonders in many fields, but the basic human problems remain. There is unprecedented literacy, yet this universal education does not seem to have fostered goodness, but only mental restlessness and discontent instead. There is no doubt about the increase in our material progress and technology, but somehow this is not sufficient, as we have not yet succeeded in bringing about peace and happiness or in overcoming suffering.

We can only conclude that there must be something seriously wrong with our progress and development, and if we do not check it in time, there could be disastrous consequences for the future of humanity. I am not at all against science and technology-they have contributed immensely to the overall experience of humankind; to our material comfort and well-being and to our greater understanding of the world we live in. But if we give too much emphasis to science and technology, we are in danger of losing touch with those aspects of human knowledge and understanding that aspire towards honesty and altruism.

It made me realize I too am guilty of losing touch with the simple things in life that make us human due to my never ending use of technology. Although technology can provide a better, faster, smarter and even more productive society; it can also take away from what makes us and our lives so special. Our curiosity. Our interactions with one another and our willingness to help each other. Below are some of the thoughts I had about the technology and services that I and others seem to have become distracted with these days.

We live vicariously through virtual games such as Mafia Wars and via other people’s lives through Gossip Sites.
Using Twitter has become a popularity game; let’s see how many followers we can have following us on Twitter. And when did it become necessary to share every single thought with others?
Companies and celebrities are bombarding us with contact as they gather audiences at no cost from Twitter, Facebook and other social network sites.
Anyone can promote themselves on LinkedIn and call themselves an expert without needing proof other than providing content that just may have been taken from other’s work.
As useful as many sites are, they also require vast amounts of time constantly updating, reading and watching such as with Plaxo, LinkedIn, YouTube, Delicious, Bebo, Hi5 and countless others.
Pressure on Facebook to continuously read and update one’s whereabouts, doings and witty thoughts is exhausting to keep up with.
Reporting where one is at all times on FourSquare makes me wonder if people are seeking their own personal stalker? Another example of how isolated people have become because of technology and the need to let people know where they are to counter it.
An epidemic of ADD has taken over our lives with the need for one to check email not once in awhile, but constantly, even if its in the presence of others.

I only hope that as technology continues to evolves, we will flourish with all the good it provides. One doesn’t have to take the “drastic” step of cutting off one’s Text Service, but one may want to be mindful of how one uses and contributes in life through this wonderful gift of technology that has been bestowed upon us.

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FourSquare – Where Art Thou?

by julieblaustein on August 3, 2009

By Julie Blaustein

Tom Murphy's FourSquare HomePage. A Mayor of 21 Places and 16 Badges

What is it?
FourSquare is a location based social media service available from a website or via mobile that has become the rage in 21 cities so far. It appeared to me to be strangely similar to a service called Dodgeball, a text based social networking software for mobile that was bought by Google in 2005 and killed in 2009 when it was replaced by Google Latitude. Turns out, Dennis Crowley is the founder of both FourSquare and Dodgeball and fortunately for him, there is huge interest still brewing in location based services. FourSquare’s unique visitors, according to Compete, is taking off like a hockey stick.

How do you use it?
Like most social networks, you will want to connect with your friends. You can do that the usual ways – Inviting your friends or importing via your Facebook, Gmail (interesting that there is no HotMail or AOL importing offered) or friends you follow on Twitter. Once you have a posse, you can then update your locations, letting them know where you are. And they can let you know where they are if you are interested in knowing.

The premise behind FourSquare is its a game similar to loyalty rewards but without the annoying cards. By updating where you are, you can be awarded points but only on weekends and non-business hours. Your Twitter accounts can be synced up and there is also an iPhone application to keep you in the know. Now for the really fun part – Badges can be earned by checking into locations with tags or if you check in frequently. You can even become “Mayor” if you are the one who has checked in the most frequently for a number of day at a particular venue. There is more to learn about the ins and outs of playing with FourSquare on their Help Section.

Do I recommend it?
FourSquare is a tremendous opportunity for local businesses to offer some type of reward for users to “Check In” to their venue and to gain some real traffic in the form of real people. I would not recommend it if you don’t want to share with your friends where you are at all times or be stalked by “friends,” I haven’t quite gotten into the swing of “Checking In” with FourSquare yet either. But, I know once I rack up some badges and become the “Mayor” there is no doubt that I will be letting you know where I am at! Tom Murphy, the Mayor of 21 places and 16 badges, shared his interest in using FourSquare as, “Having recently moved to San Francisco, FourSquare is the easiest, fastest, and best way to learn what’s happening in The City. Not only do I find what my friends think is cool, but I make new friends who like exploring San Francisco as much as I do.”

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101 People You’ll Meet At Twiistup 6

by SarahTownsend on July 27, 2009

By Sarah Townsend

On the fence about attending Twiistup 6 this year? Allow me to make up your mind for you. Twiistup is shaping up to be one of the biggest social media and tech conferences of the year! Not only is the schedule jam-packed with valuable sessions and panels, but the social scene is going to be one you won’t want to miss (hello, 80s Tech Prom? That alone is reason to buy your ticket now.)

Let’s get to the meat and potatoes, though. Perhaps the most enticing reason to attend is the opportunity to rub elbows and chat with some of the most influential people in the game. And so, here is a list of the 101 People You’ll Meet at Twiistup:

Saeed Amidi

2. Wil Schroter, CEO of Go BIG Network, serial entrepreneur

3. Rick Calvert, Founder of Blogworld

4. Dinesh Ravishanker, CEO of CallFire

5. Isaac Garcia, CEO of CentralDesktop

6. Sanjay Sabnani, Chairman and CEO of CrowdGather

7. Dimitry Ioffe, Co-founder and CEO of The Visionaire Group

8. Mike Walsh, Founder and CEO Leverage Software

9. Cyan Banister, CEO of Zivity, investor Facebook, Slide etc.

10. Merav Knafo, Founder of iJoomla

11. Adam Zbar, CEO of Zannel

12. Marc Mertes, CEO of Seso.net

13. Jeff Haas, Co-founder of Ringorang

14. Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo

15. Tom Dare, COO of Tsavo

16. Brian Solis, Author, Founder of Future Works

17. J.R. Johnson, CEO of Lunch.com

18. Adam Bernhard, CEO of Hautelook

19. Andy Sack, General Partner/Angel Investor Founders Co-op

20. Scott Sangster, Investor/President of Organic Startup

21. James Montgomery, CEO of Montgomery & co. CEO of Digital Coast Ventures

22. Vince Thompson, Managing Partner at MiddleShift

23. Afsoun Yazdian, CEO of Gogolingo

24. Brooke Burke, Television Personality, co-CEO of ModernMom

25. Brian Deagon, Investor’s Business Daily (Media)

26. Umair Mufti, Founder and CEO of Sparcq

27. Christian Gammill, co-Founder of The Graph

28. Brad Feld, Founder of Mobius Venture Capital

29. Scott Seward, President of Tuesday Creative

30. Alec Shankman, Head of Reality at Abrams Artists

31. Chamillionaire, Grammy Award winning Musician

32. Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin Media

33. Ben Huh, CEO of ICanHasCheezburger

34. Michelle Robbins, Director of Technology, Third Door Media

35. James Andelman, General Partner, Rincon Venture Capital

36. Dave McClure, Investor The Founders Fund

37. Chris Redlitz, Partner Transmedia Capital (VC)

38. Lee Fox, Founder of KooDooz.com

39. Steve Beauregard, Managing Partner at Regard Ventures

40. Eric Sikola, CEO of Expensebay

41. Charles Proctor, Los Angeles Business Journal (Media)

42. Robby Berthume, President Epsilon Concepts/ LA Digital Directory

43. Stuart Halperin, CEO of Ultimate Movie Site

44. Quincy Jones III (QD3), Music Producer, Entrepreneur

45. Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix

46. Jason Nazar, CEO of DocStoc

47. Adam Weinroth, VP of Strategic Marketing at Demand Media

48. Firas Bushnaq, CEO of Boxador

49. Sheila Marmon, CEO of UrbanAdserve

50. Don Mosites, CEO of Streamy

51. Justin Kan, Founder of Justin.tv

52. Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs

53. Eric Hung, CEO of Educator

54. Michael Schneider, CEO of MobileRoadie

55. Paige Craig, Angel Investor, Founder of the Lincoln Group

56. John Morris, Partner GKM Ventures

57. Krisztina Holly, Vice Provost for Innovation at USC

58. Nick Braun, Partner NCT Ventures

59. Brett Butterfield, CEO of PixelPipe

60. Mark Suster, Partner GRP Partners (VC)

61. Jennifer Van Grove, writer for Mashable (media)

62. Jolie O’Dell, writer for ReadWriteWeb (media)

63. Dmitry Shapiro, Founder and CEO of VEOH

64. Lisa Rosenblatt, Co-founder of iMall, co-CEO of ModernMom

65. Beau Laskey, Managing Director of Steamboat Ventures

66. Babette Pepaj, Founder and CEO of BakeSpace

67. Jeff Yasuda, Founder and CEO of Blip.FM

68. Andy Liu, co-Founder of Buddy.TV

69. Trey Shelton, CEO of Music Interactive

70. Mohamed Alkady, CEO of After 10 Studios

71. Mike Prasad, CEO of GirlGamer

72. John Trickett, President of Immergent

73. Taryn Southern, Producer, TV host

74. Andrew Lee, CEO of JamLegend

75. Ben Kuo, Founder and Editor of SoCalTECH

76. Marty Poulin, CEO of ShadyLogic

77. Rob Angarita, co-Founder of Cramster

78. David O. Sacks, CEO of Geni and Yammer

79. Mike Macadaan, VP of Product at MySpace

80. Will Chow, CEO of Mobophiles

81. Jodee Rich, CEO of PeopleBrowsr

82. Richard White, Founder and CEO of Uservoice

83. Micah Baldwin, VP of Business Development, Lijit Networks

84. Neil Patel, Angel Investor, co-founder of CrazyEgg and KissMetrics

85. Brandon DiMassa, VP Digital Media Syndication, TVGuide

86. Efren Toscano, CEO of TechZulu (media)

87. Marsha Collier, Host of Computer and Technology Radio KTRB (media)

88. Erin Broadley, LA Weekly (media)

89. Dave Waldman, VP or Business Development for Twistbox

90. David Holifield, President of Interfuel

91. Ed Ludic, CEO of Diddit

92. Rich Rotzang, Founder of SocialToddler

93. Mark Gibbs, writer Network World (media)

94. Mark Yawitz, co-Founder RealityWanted

95. Hiten Shah, co-Founder CrazyEgg and KissMetrics

96. Michael Abraham, CTO Circle Limit Media

97. Ryan Born, CEO of AudioMicro

98. Ben Widhelm, CTO of Elephant Drive

99. Richard Blakely, CEO of Influxis

100. Peter Lee, Partner Baroda Ventures

101. Michael Jones, COO of MySpace CEO of Go BIG Network, serial entrepreneur

There are only a few days left to secure your spot, so don’t waste another minute. Head over to the official registration page to see the full schedule and get your tickets.

See you there!

____

Sarah Townsend
E-mail: theoneinpink[at]gmail[dot]com
Twitter: theoneinpink
Blogs: TechDarling, The Vibe

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Twiistup Bumps Showoffs To 12, You Pick Final Two

by SarahTownsend on July 13, 2009

By Sarah Townsend

Say hello to the ten winning Showoff startups that will be exhibiting at the upcoming Twiistup 6, an event that is sure to make its mark on the Los Angeles tech and social media community for years to come. The team of judges, including bub.blicio.us’ own Brian Solis, certainly had their hands full – but they’ve narrowed it down to a list of ten startups that are as impressive as they are diverse.

Oh but there’s more! Event producers have also upped the number of Showoffs to twelve, and are putting the choice in the hands of the public, allowing you to vote on which two startups you think are most worthy of the opportunity to “show off.” Stay tuned for voting information!

Congratulations to the Showoff winners:

BakeSpace

www.bakespace.com

Los Angeles, CA

Bantam Live
www.bantamlive.com
New York, NY
Bantam Live is an online service for business teams to collaborate in a workspace and build business relationships across the Web.

diddit
www.diddit.com
San Mateo, CA
The sites lets users keep track of what they “wanna” do, share stories about their life experiences (“diddits”), and meet new people.

Educator
http://educator.com
Los Angeles, CA
Educator.com is a pioneering venture aimed at equalizing education by assembling the best teachers in the country and making their lectures affordable to everyone.

EQAL
www.eqal.com
Sherman Oaks, CA
EQAL (pronounced “Equal”) is a social entertainment company dedicated to redefining the way users interact with content and each other.

ExpenseBay
www.expensebay.com
Santa Monica, CA
ExpenseBay was created to help business employees automate their expense reports, turning stacks of receipts, unpaid credit card bills and lengthy hours of data entry into a few short minutes.

JamLegend
http://www.jamlegend.com
San Francisco, CA
JamLegend is changing the way music is played online. Like the games Guitar Hero1 and Rock Band2, JamLegend simulates the thrill of rocking out for a sold out crowd while enabling features never before available in console games.

Mobophiles
www.mobolize.com
Los Angeles, CA
The Mobolize solution from Mobophiles offers people the freedom of a Web that they can count on, regardless of where they are.

PeopleBrowsr
www.peoplebrowsr.com
San Francisco, CA
PeopleBrowsr is a simple visual dashboard that adds more power to Twitter, other online identities and those of your friends.

Streamy
www.streamy.com
Manhattan Beach, CA
Streamy focuses on social networking as a core aspect of the site. Users can drop their favorite links into a Streamy IM window and chat about the sites they care about.

UserVoice
http://uservoice.com
Santa Cruz, CA
UserVoice adds structure to feedback and reduces the overhead of an honest dialog with our users. It creates a market around good ideas for more quality than quantity.

For more information about Twiistup 6, taking place on July 30 and 31 in Los Angeles, CA, go to Twiistup.com. To purchase tickets before they sell out, visit http://twiistup6.eventbee.com/.

____

Sarah Townsend
E-mail: theoneinpink[at]gmail[dot]com
Twitter: theoneinpink
Blogs: TechDarling, The Vibe

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101 People You’ll Meet At Twiistup 007

Is Our Quality of Life Compromised Due to Technology?

Twiistup Bumps Showoffs To 12, You Pick Final Two

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