by Julie Blaustein

What is a start up company to do that is on a limited marketing budget or perhaps even overseas planning to launch? Why not enter to win the Web 2.0 Expo’s Launch Pad where they will receive instant and incredible amounts of exposure of their products or services to the Web 2.0 market. That is exactly what over 80 companies did but only 6 finalists were chosen to present before a panel of judges and were voted by the audience to be the winner. On Wednesday, May 5th. at the Web 2.0 Expo, the six finalist had just five minutes to present their company and if they went over that time they were gonged. Three judges included Ellen Park, VP of Marketing at Elance, Brian Singerman is a Principal at Founders Fund and Marshall Kirkpatrick is the lead writer at ReadWriteWeb.com and previously with Tech Crunch provided instant feedback and questions on the spot. Brady Forrest, Web 2.0 Expo Co-Chair, hosted the program.

Based on the people’s choice as determined by the audience’s clapping volume, the winner was Rhomobile. They create cross-platform native applications for all major smartphones with Rhodes, the open-source smartphone app framework. Along with RhoHub, the first hosted development as a service for mobile and RhoSync, a standalone server that keeps enterprise application data current and available on users’ smartphones, Rhomobile’s suite of products provide a complete mobility solution for businesses of all sizes.

The Finalists:
AskYourTargetMarket.com is the web’s first self-service online survey tool that includes a built-in consumer panel to fulfill all your market research studies on demand. No phone calls no delays, this pay-as-you-go service starts at only $29.95 and takes just a few hours to get delivered. This is an an offer that will save you or your company major money and will gather you serious market research.

Pearltrees came all the way from France to compete, is a social curation and discovery tool and that gives users a social way to organize, discover and share stuff they like on the Web.

Strings is an online service that empowers users to effortlessly discover interesting and relevant content. Users of strings.com automatically track their interests, share their tastes with friends, and discover new content based on their expressed personality. The Strings platform enables a new generation of discovery applications that can leverage the power of Strings to help users discover content both on and off the web.

Stupeflix is an automated video creation web service. It is unique in its ability to create highly produced video in real-time, at high volumes, with a highly programmable R/W API. With the Play Platform, Stupeflix makes it easy for any website to instantly transform its content into broadcast quality videos.

EnglEasy is the winner of StartUp Weekend which impressively only came into existence a few days before the contest. This is an Online Game solution that helps teach children English. Through advanced analytics and Fun games, they hope to Improve Learning through Play. With a little bit more time to develop their strategy they may have gone further in the contest.

More Pictures of Launch Pad here!

The Winner of Launch Pad: Adam Blum of Rhomobile

Mike Courtney of AskYourTargetMarket.com

Francois Rocaboy of Pearltrees

Edward Balassanian of Strings

Jeff Boudier of Stupeflix

Ahmed Siddiqui of Engleasy

The Web 2.0 Expo Hall features over 75 exhibits, a Non-Profit Pavilion, a Long Tail Pavilion and The Solutions Showcase Theater that will have 10 minute presentations from the sponsors and exhibitors. I walked, talked and took pictures of  folks on the floor. There is tons of FREE schwag from branded cups, T-shirts and cups to incredible give-aways such as photo & video shoots, iPAD’s and even cash prizes of up to $10,000!

iStockphoto Photoshoot

iStockPhoto offers royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash files through advanced search. They also pay out royalties to artists. They are offering free portraits from the photographer Tyler Stallman available for viewing here. They will be presenting on Wednesday at 2:35 pm in room 2016 to share lessons learned in the image industry.

Lights, camera action! You can win up to $10,000 by entering the contest How do YOU.com,  sponsored by VeriSign.  You will be videotaped for up to 2 minutes to share your story of how the Internet has changed your life.  It was a ton of fun when I shared my story. What is yours? They can be found in the Long Tail Pavilion at Kiosk 27.

Have you been trying to get a cool domain but you just are unable to be cause they are all taken? .CO offers an alternative. It is the new domain extension approved by the ICANN that gives you a truly global, recognizable, and credible web address for branding your online presence. Stop by Booth 714 to learn more about how you can secure the domain of your dreams.

An International flavor is very present on the floor with companies traveling to the Expo from Berlin, Spain, Germany and Brazil eager to chat with you in the language of your choice.

So many great companies and so little time! Fortunately the Expo Hall is open on Wednesday from 10:30am – 6:00pm and don’t miss the Booth Crawl from 4:30pm – 6:00 pm.

.CO

Mashery

Neustar

80legs

Microsoft Tag

Pearltrees

How Do You.com

By Julie Blaustein

Speaker Aliza Sherman

Web 2.0 Expo has arrived! It is the annual event that brings together the people, ideas, products, and companies that shape the next-generation web and mobile apps at the Moscone West in San Francisco held this year from May 3-6. If you are able to attend in person, there is a schedule full of engaging content to choose from with over 75 sessions, workshops and intensives with well represented speakers from the industry.

Part of the excitement of being at the Expo in person is you can participate in silly but fun networking games. You will need to download the Microsoft Tag to your smartphone for The Scavenger Hunt. Clues are provided for you to locate  and tag throughout the conference. Great prizes are awarded too such as Xbox games and HD Zunes! Another game to play is the Paparazzi Photo 2.0 contest where starting on Tuesday May 4 -6 the Web 2.0 Expo Team will tweet 5 photo-related tasks from @w2e each day. The tasks involve you taking pictures with other attendees and you MUST be in each photo. Cash Cards up to $50 each will be awarded each day.

If you are not able to attend you can feel as if you are there by following the vibe of the conference through its Twitter tag #w2e or follow the Web 2.0 Team @w2e. There will be a Live Stream of the Keynotes. Also most speakers will provide their slides as found here from 2009.

Aliza Sherman’s workshop Create a Successful Social Media Plan: The Seven-Step Program provided a great overview of how to get started with the right objectives and tools to reach your target audience. Most importantly she stressed that social media is not about sales but rather about the conversation to make conversions to make the sales. Her numerous presentations on Social Media are available, not surprisingly, online. Once you get your community up and running you will want to to track it and you will need analytics to provide that data. Applied Communilytics provided great data including leading vendors of analytics – BitCurrent, ForSeeResults, HootSuite, CrazyEgg/KISSmetrics, comScore, Omniture and others.

Applied Communilytics Panel

There are tons of events happening at the Expo.  Monday night Ignite was held at Mezzzanine where speakers have five minutes on stage to present 20 slides that are rotated automatically after 15 seconds. Check out this past Ignite presentation by Justin.TV.

The Expo Hall opens on Tuesday at 10:30 am and closes at 3:30 pm. Wednesday the hours are from 10:30 pm to 6:00 pm. Don’t miss the booth crawl on Wednesday from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm. There is lots of free stuff at the Expo including a free Expo Pass by using the discount code EXPOPASS.

By Marissa Louie

Ok my fellow Young Grasshoppers, we need to fly. Let’s close deals, chomp on some revenue, and raise cold hard liquid cash. My Dot2Dot family and my NYC Nerdsters, I can be your connection to Silicon Valley who will get you in with the right people. But to actually cut the deal in SF, you need the right venue, with the right mixture of old school (for historical context), understated class, and worldliness (so you can think about the possibilities outside of the room). The point is to focus on the people at the table, the deal, and your future partnership together. Just be strategic about your bathroom breaks and watch your toes. Here’s where I’ve cut deals from $1000 to $24m.

Marissa Louie and Nalin Mittal at Cafe de la Presse, by David Gelles of Financial Times

These work for me:

Seasons Four Seasons

• I always get deals done here. I got my biggest deal done here.

Carnelian Room

• Ask for longtime General Manager Philip Ip and tell him I sent you. He pays 100% attention to detail and knows exactly what to do.

Hyatt Regency

• Before you go, take a ride in the speed elevator while you watch everything beneath you shrink. Now take that soaring feeling straight into your meeting.

NOPA

• It’s best to come late at night with a cheery spirit and with no intention of cutting a deal.

Masa’s

• Do your deal in a hushed voice. And wear something conservative unless you want men gawking at you during your deal.

Café de la Presse

• This is the social media, PR, and communications hub of SF, so cut your deals related to those arenas here. According to superstars @dgelles, @nalin, @rafer, @dayo, @dipw0nder, and more.

The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton

• Bring your East Coast colleagues here.

Kokkari

• I took control of a client dinner where everyone was twice my age by talking about how consulting executives cannot sell, even though 90% of top executives have a background in sales.  We got the deal, celebrated, and then I bumped into Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown on my way out.

The Palace Hotel

• It’s where you make history.

Sugar Cafe

• It’s where my company, AD-Village, was born. I’ve taken that energy into cutting multiple deals, and have been a loyal customer for 2 years.

You’d think these would work, but they don’t for me:

They’re great dining places, but for me, the settings are uncomfortable, the people tend to stare rudely, or the waitstaff is stiff and awkward. The chi is just not right.

Aqua

Gary Danko

Fleur de Lys

Boulevard

Jardiniere

Silks

The NYC version is on its way!

Marissa is the CEO and Co-founder of AD-Village. On the job, she handles, sales, PR, customer service, community relations, marketing, speaking at conferences, strategy, recruiting, coding, text messaging, Twittering, and returning calls and emails.

She is a frequent conference speaker and will make a keynote speech or presentation at Web 2.0 Expo New York, Wharton West Entrepreneur Club, LeadsCon Las Vegas, and the Mobile Marketing Summit.

Marissa blogs at BusinessWeek, Adotas, and here at Bub.blicio.us.

Find her on Twitter: @malouie

Contact her at (510) 375-1941 or Email her at marissa@ad-village.com.

Post and video by Miiko Mentz

Today concludes our video coverage of Web 2.0 Expo with a final interview with IBM. Of course IBM is certainly not the first company you think of when you think Web 2.0, but like last year’s Web 2.0 Expo, the show was filled with many startups and sprinkled with a few big players. This year’s big companies were IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce.com and a few others. And much of the buzz was around ‘doing more with less’ through collaboration and cloud computing.

Cloud computing is all the rage these days and IBM is trying to get in on the action. At the end of last month, IBM announced an initiative dubbed “Open Cloud Manifesto” that calls for open standards to promote cloud computing. There’s a host of companies backing the manifesto, but oddly, the pioneers and leaders in cloud computing are absent.

According to Reuters, Amazon is reviewing the plan, Google has decided not to support it and Salesforce.com hasn’t publicly spoken on the matter yet. Also, Microsoft has publicly criticized IBM’s efforts.

On a lighter note, Bubblicious Reporter Jolie O’Dell spoke with Kathy M. Mandelstein, marketing director at IBM Software Group, IBM Rational Software and WW Programs, Events and Web, about cloud computing, LotusLive, and Rational AppScan. IBM’s overall theme at Web 2.0 Expo was “Smart Work” and helping people and businesses to work smarter through collaboration and collective intelligence. Hear what Mandelstein had to say:

In addition to IBM, the Bubblicious team talked with a few other companies offering social computing applications and services. If you missed any of our interviews from earlier this week, check them out: ooVoo, MindTouch, Topix, chi.mp, and our Web 2.0 Expo highlight reel.

Post and video by Miiko Mentz

Chi.mp launched into public beta last week during Web 2.0 Expo, and in the true spirit of lobbyconing, we caught up with Chi.mp’s CTO in the halls of San Francisco’s Moscone Center where Web 2.0 Expo was held. Bubblicious Reporter Jolie O’Dell spoke with Anthony Eden, CTO of chi.mp, about their launch.

Chi.mp helps you manage your online identity and enables you to bring together your digital life into one place. So instead of having invite people to each of your online accounts, such as Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo, etc., Chi.mp enables you to pull all those services into one place that’s owned by you under your own domain name. This makes it easy to share and control your online identity.

In addition, Chi.mp enables you to have different personas, such as one for work, one for family and friends, and another for the general public. This allows you to control what others see and helps you better protect sensitive information, such as your home address, or images that you may only want your friends or family to see and not your boss, co-workers or the general public.

To learn more watch our interview with Chi.mp’s CTO Anthony Eden and grab your free .mp domain name before somebody else does. See Eden’s .mp site at anthony.mp and if you want to check out mine, I’m at MiikoMentz.mp and I also grabbed Miiko.mp. Now I just need to decide which one to populate and promote.

In addition to Chi.mp, the Bubblicious team talked with a few other companies offering social computing applications and services. If you missed our other interviews earlier this week, check them out: ooVoo, MindTouch, Topix and our Web 2.0 Expo highlight reel. Stay tuned tomorrow for our final Web 2.0 Expo interview with IBM.

Post and video by Miiko Mentz

At Web 2.0 Expo last week, Bubblicious Reporter Jolie O’Dell spoke with Topix CEO Chris Tolles. Topix is a leading Internet news community that connects people on a local level to the news and events in their towns and cities, and it provides a place for people to discuss the news that matters most to them. With newspaper advertising shrinking and becoming less effective, local businesses are turning to other sources, such as Topix, to connect with customers.

Topix is becoming a great avenue for businesses that are dependent on local customers, such as restaurants, salons and spas, car dealerships, attorneys, doctors and other neighborhood-type businesses. However, many of these small business owners aren’t well versed in SEO practices or search advertising, but need to advertise online to drive customers into their stores, restaurants and local offices.

At Web 2.0 Expo last week, Tolles talked about Topix’s newly released services that are helping these types of businesses connect to a local audience in a local context. Check out our interview with Tolles:

In addition to Topix, the Bubblicious team talked with a few other companies offering social computing applications and services. If you missed our highlight reel or other interviews, check them out: ooVoo and MindTouch. Stay tuned all week for the full interviews with each company. Tomorrow’s video interview is with chi.mp.

Post and video by Miiko Mentz

In the spirit of Che Guevara, MindTouch rallied the crowd at Web 2.0 Expo last week with its social enterprise collaboration revolution. Bubblicious Reporter Jolie O’Dell caught up with the MindTouch team to learn about the newly launched MindTouch 2009, an enhanced developer platform for building rich collaborative applications and communities, and a new bi-directional message bus that further extends MindTouch’s powerful collaborative capabilities.

MindTouch Marketing Manager Sarah Carr explains how MindTouch is revolutionizing the way people and businesses collaborate using MindTouch’s open source enterprise collaboration platform; and MindTouch Sales Engineer Mike Diliberto talks about the new MindTouch 2009. Check it out:

In addition to MindTouch, the Bubblicious team talked with a few other companies offering social computing applications and services. If you missed yesterday’s video, watch our interview with ooVoo and our highlight reel. Stay tuned all week for the full interviews with each company. Tomorrow’s video interview is with Topix.

Disclosure: In addition to being a contributor to Bubblicious, I also work at FutureWorks where one of my clients is MindTouch, which I’ve chosen to include in my coverage of Web 2.0 Expo due to them being an exhibitor and fitting the focus of our coverage.