Image via CrunchBase
Tomorrow I say "cheerio" to London for the second time this year. And for the second time this year I'm not leaving London for home, but for an industry conference. In my mind the new year hasn't really started as I've only been home for five nights in my own bed before hopping on a plane. Well, I did create the idea of Working Anywhere so, I guess to life does imitate art of sorts. Tomorrow I head to Miami and the winter edition of IT Expo put on by the good folks at TMC. They have me moderating a few panels on Thursday and Friday, and of course there's the never ending number of meetings, briefings and impormptu catch-ups that happen at the IP communications winter fest.
But the event I'm looking forward to the most has to be StartupCamp, put on by pal Larry Lisser and his colleagues at Embrase. This years line up looks super impressive and Larry decided to enlist me to moderate the group of judges he's assembled and are they ever an illustrious group including:
Jeff Uphues, Vice-President, Cbeyond, a leading communications provider that delivers cloud services and communications to SMBs. and Gerry Dehaven, senior partner, QAdvisors, a top merger and acquisition firm deeply rooted in technology, communications and business services.
This year's group is also impressive. Larry tells me the choices were tougher this year, as the startups all seem to be upping their game even before they get to the event. The four will battle it out and then be judged by the trio.
- Flowthru extends voice anywhere. By plugging into a provider's existing infrastructure with near-zero impact, we enable their service when & where it matters most to users, on smartphones, tablets, PCs.
- Proteg-GO's "Guardian on the Go" app keeps you and loved ones safe and informed during an emergency, via its one-touch alert system, call center and social media components that together serve as a compliment to traditional 911 services.
- ThruView reduces truck-rolls and makes customer care agents more effective for large providers of services to the home. Its mobile applications stream video from smartphones directly to the customer agent, offering the visual context agents require to deliver more efficient customer service.
- VerbalizeIt delivers real-time access to human translators to make sure that nothing is ever lost in translation. We empower businesses and travelers with the ability to instantly connect with a live translator any time of day, anywhere in the world and from any device or application.
And if the competition wasn't enough, the whole night is made even more special with an appearance and fireside like chat with former Apple CEO, John Scully. Now that's really an event.
