Crowdsortium includes a growing list of companies and organizations, many with Boulder ties (Trada, Kapost, Napkin Labs, boulder.me, and Victors & Spoils, to name a few).  In true crowdsourcing spirit, members are sharing ideas, best practices, and more, just as their own crowdsourcing communities do.  IP protection, incentive systems, and the logistics of distributed work forces are among the topics discussed.

The list of speakers for CrowdConf 2011 was sourced from an impressive list of companies, including Amazon Mechanical Turk, Kickstarter, Quora, and Threadless.  The event will be taking place November 1-2, 2011 in San Francisco.  You can purchase tickets here, but I’d recommend reading on before you spend your investors’ hard earned money.

If you meet these qualifications, you’re eligible to enter the Crowdsortium booth giveaway:

• You’re a Crowdsortium member.  Apply to be a member if you’re not already one – it’s free, but may not be forever.
• Your company/organization is three years old or younger.
• You’ve received at least one round of funding.

To enter, write a short blog post (200-400 words) describing your company and why you should be considered the most up-and-coming crowdsourcing company in the universe.  Rev up your social media machine, because the entries with the most tweets and retweets (important: tweets must include @crowdsortium) by 11am MST on September 23 will be the entries judged by Crowdsortium and CrowdFlower.  The winner will receive a free Crowdsortium Sponsored Exhibitor Booth at CrowdConf 2011; the runner-up will receive two free tickets to the event.  Peep the CrowdConf 2011 Booth Contest press release for all the details and get your social media on.

If you’re new to TEDx, here’s the gist of it:

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations).

Check out videos from last year’s speakers.  It’ll give you an idea of what you’re in for and will get you pumped for September 24th.

This year’s list includes Chef Ann Cooper, advocate for better food for all children, Phil Plait, astronomer,  Daniel Epstein, Unreasonable Institute President, Jake Nickell, Threadless Co-founder, and six other fantastic speakers.  Co-organizer George Morris tells me singer/songwriter Kimya Dawson will be performing and more speakers will be added, so there’s more fun to come.

That’s about all you need to know.  Here’s a summary:

1. Get your ticket.
2. See you there.

Photos: Andrew Hyde

Another TechStars Boulder Demo Day, another home run.  I had high expectations following last year’s event, but 2011′s class did not disappoint yesterday.

The Boulder Theater had plenty of Demo Day energy from the start, with TechStars alumni manning a variety of posts, investors making their rounds on the first floor, and other Boulder community members heading to their seats on the balcony.

After the event kicked off with an NBA playoff-like introduction of the 12 teams,  it was straight to the action, listed here in super-condensed form:

SimpleEnergy lets utility companies engage their customers with information and game mechanics to help them save energy.  Think Mint for energy consumption.

FlixMaster lets people create videos that allow viewers to choose what happens next and interact in other ways.  Branching-path video: Choose Your Own Adventure in multi-media form.

Creative Brain Studios gives developers the ability to create a game published across a myriad of phone, tablet, and computer platforms at once, letting them focus on creativity instead of headaches.

TruantToday immediately notifies parents by text and e-mail when a student skips class, helping the schools that use it to recover thousands in otherwise lost funding.

Meal Ticket lets food service distributors partner with restaurants to create coupons and other promotions, creating more demand from their customers’ customers.

Mocavo is a free search engine specific to genealogy, allowing users to research their family tree and receive automated updates as new information is discovered.

After the 15 minute break, TechStars Co-founder/Congressman Jared Polis shared a few words, followed by Co-founder David Cohen’s introduction to a trailer for the upcoming Bloomberg Television documentary series about TechStars NYC 2011, premiering September 13th. Then it was back to the presentations:

GoSpotCheck connects brands with a crowdsourced workforce to check on their products’ in-store merchandising.  Mechanical Turk meets the secret shopper.

ReportGrid gives developers an API to add analytics and reporting features into their web applications without having to code them from scratch.

InboxFever turns e-mail accounts into mini-applications of their own, returning stock quotes, driving directions, and other information based on e-mail subject lines and content.

SocialEngine offers message-by-message advice to help businesses manage their social media communications by highlighting negative comments, influential people, and more.

Flextrip lets online travel companies market tours and activities in a vertical marketplace.  It’s Kayak extended beyond travel and accomodations into “what to do when you get there”.

FullContact‘s API takes a chunk of partial contact information, pieces it together with other data, and returns complete, updated contact records.

The rounds being raised ranged from $500k up to $1.5M, many of which had significant commitments coming into the event.  This marks an increase compared to the fund raising efforts of the previous class, which ranged from $250k up to $1M this time last year (The sign of a stronger class or an entrepreneur-friendly fund raising bubble?  Take a peek at the TechStars Results Page, then come back and discuss).

Congratulations to TechStars and this summer’s graduating class – well done.  Thank you for involving the community as you always have, and we’ll see you at Demo Day 2012!

Community members: if you’ve got ideas on how TechStars can do it even better next year, get the conversation started in the comments y’all.

The event will be on Friday, May 20th 5-7pm at Aspiringapps on Pearl St.  Take a peek at Plancast to see who’s coming, and better yet, to RSVP.

Ryan’s arranged to have a few other recent transplants talk for a minute about:

• Why they moved here
• Where they come from
• How quickly the got plugged in
• How awesome the ride has been
• What they’re up to now

I scanned the participants list to see who’s coming, and it looks like there are quite a few veterans mixed in as well.  If you’re new to town or Boulder is on the short list of places to move to, this event is a no-brainer.  See you there.

Organizer Robert Reich started the evening with a couple of announcements:

1. All teams will be mentored to improve their pitches prior to presenting; mentoring is no longer optional.
2. Before each event, a variety of topics will be suggested as potential Birds of a Feather sessions.  Any topic receiving 5 or more votes will be assigned its own breakout room.

The presenters in order of appearance:

1. Partied, presented by Drew Stachnik.  The Partied app is designed to help bar-hoppers be “more productive” during a night out.  Based on the user’s location, the app compiles a Top 10 list of bars and nightclubs in the area as determined by how many other people “check-out” the scene  (Partied lingo for “check-in at”).  Drew expects the app to be complete by the end of summer.
2. HireFlo, presented by Rudy Lacavora.  Rudy made a fairly strong case that hiring well is critical to small business success, and that most small businesses suck at it.  HireFlo streamlines the hiring process by pushing job listings out to a variety of job boards, managing incoming resumes, and creating an applicant database.
3. Table’s Ready, presented by Bill D’Alessandro and Clay Iman.  Table’s Ready is a text message replacement for expensive pager systems at busy restaurants.  The live demo lost a bit of momentum because of poor cell phone reception in the room, but the system did ultimately work, and is already being used at Cheers Boston and a handful of other test locations.  Restaurants will have live access to customer wait times, no shows, and more.
4. Napkin Labs, presented by Riley Gibson.  Napkin Labs provides a platform for companies to collaborate with their communities to fuel innovation.  The web app allows users to contribute ideas in a series of stages, each designed to move the project forward to create actionable insights.  Customers can choose public labs for all comers or invitation only labs for specific collaborators.  On a side note, this was the first time I’m aware that somebody’s been booed at BDNT.  Riley let the audience know that co-founder Warren Ng, originally slated to co-present, had opted out at the last minute (300+ gave Warren a good-natured chorus of boos and hisses).
5. Clarity, presented by Adam Sullivan and Billy Davenport.  Clarity is slated to provide the medical marijuana industry an inventory management, POS, and compliance system.  The team presented some eye opening data on how large the MMJ industry is.  While it’s clear that Uncle Sam is interested in seeing this system adopted, it’s unclear as to whether dispensaries, who are the folks footing the bill, will opt to use the system while the MMJ industry still looks like the Wild West.
6. Street Fight, presented by Laura Rich.  Street Fight is a business to business resource focused on hyperlocal.  ”Think of it as Adweek or GigaOm for hyperlocal,” Laura said.  Street Fight provides news on hyperlocal topics with several posts a day, and plans to add events, research, and subscription based newsletters in the future.
7. Mosoro, presented by Mike Stemple.  Mike ended the evening with a bang, showcasing a wide variety of uses of Mosoro’s hardware widgets and software building blocks.  Examples included crowd sourced weather information from tiny temperature gathering widgets worn on a person, tiny speakers widgets attached to stuffed animals to read to children, and gyroscopic widgets to record skateboard, surfboard, and snowboard tricks.  Developers will have a field day creating novel uses of the technology, and consumers will snap them up.

Mosoro is showing what happens when vision, creativity and cool technology intersect. Completely mind blowing. #bdnt

May 3, 2011 7:46 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Bill_Green

Bill Green

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects. It is an amazing opportunity to connect with other passionate and skilled individuals, and perhaps even find a co-founder or two to transform your idea into reality.

Featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, NY Times and more, Startup Weekend continues to make the buzz with success in more than 100 cities world-wide.

Startup Weekend is a perfect opportunity for entrepreneurs and the local tech scene to network, but also meet potential co-founders and hopefully leave the weekend with a new startup. It is a must attend event if you want to network, find co-founders or just spend the weekend with some passionate and smart people.

If you want to be a part of Startup Weekend Denver you should act fast and buy a ticket because participation is limited to the first 75 and tickets are selling fast! Tickets are $75 and include meals and beverages for the entire weekend.

To register now, click here: http://denver.startupweekend.org/tickets

When: October 15th-17th, 2010
Where: TAXI

For more information visit: http://denver.startupweekend.org/

Way Below Status Quo (http://waybelowstatusquo.com/) is a group of three prolific bloggers and entrepreneurs (@colinismyname, @TMFproject and @instigatingandi) who are road tripping across the United States this summer, stopping in cities and towns to learn more about the community and give back.

Throughout the way, they will be tweeting, blogging and video blogging about each stop, location, local business and people they meet.

Boulder is one of their stops!

Thursday, July 29th. Come join for the day at the various events we’ve hosted and planned for this group.

Schedule:

• 10:00 AM Hike
  

• 12:00 Lunch at The Med, downtown http://www.themedboulder.com/
  

• 2:00 PM Co-working at Atlas Purveyors (tables reserved) http://atlaspurveyors.com

*At 2:00 PM, a team that’s part of TechStars, http://kapost.com/ will be meeting with the WBSQ team at Atlas to discuss entrepreneurship, their new product and looking for feedback/ideas from bloggers.

• 7:00 PM The Bitter Bar is hosting a party with special drinks, mingling and get together!

If you can’t make the events during the day, come to The Bitter Bar to learn more about their project, mingle, show what a great community Boulder has and enjoy a delicious drink.

More information here: (http://social.waybelowstatusquo.com/wp-content/uploads/files/wbsq_mediakit.pdf).

See you there?

You can RSVP for any/all of Thursday’s plans here: http://statusquo-boulder.eventbrite.com/

*If you want to participate or have a good idea to be included on their schedule, please reach out to any of these three Boulder gals:

• Grace Boyle: gracekboyle at gmail dot com
• Doniree Walker: doniree at gmail dot com
• Joni Klippert: joniklippert at gmail dot com

What is TEDx you may be asking?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is call TEDxBoulder, where x=independently organized TED event. At our TEDxBoulder event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

The current lineup of speakers is here.

Tickets are $25 and available here.

When Andrew wrote that post, I agreed – it felt like Ignite Boulder was leveling off.  I wrote a lengthly comment, carefully outlining all of the things from prior Ignites that were now missing from the last two and suggesting ways to recreate them.  I never did publish it.  At the end of the day, I just couldn’t write anything that didn’t sound like a “I knew the band before they became popular” kind of a thing.

Tonight’s event wasn’t awesome because it was like the early Ignites (nor was it awesome because the presenters use the word “awesome” so many times), it had an awesomeness (it’s contagious) all its own.

First of all, there’s the change in venue.  Chautauqua and what it offered was amazing.  There was the pre-show barbecue next to the auditorium and the families picnicking out on the grass.  My wife and I chose to sit on the porch of the Dining Hall, which is always a treat.  Throw in a little sunshine, free beer, and the Flatirons as a backdrop, and you’ve already got yourself a winner.  The auditorium itself was beautiful, an all-wood building with giant doors opened to a nice breeze.  When it got darker, a bit of light peaked through the slats in the walls.  I really look forward to TEDxBoulder, if for no other reason than to be in that building again.

The speakers…yes, the speakers – the best bunch from top to bottom that I’ve seen.  Ef Rodriguez warmed things up with his usual charm, and Anna Sawyer immediately followed with the crowd pleasing How to Marry the Rich, a practical guide to marrying up.  My personal favorite Spark of the night was Josh Fraser’s Snakes and Staircases, which taught me that vending machine deaths are a very real risk and that Scottish accents are very persuasive.  The 14th and final slide deck of the evening, Justin Crowe‘s Modulate Your Life: High Fives & Livin’ On A Prayer, had 1,300+ of us high fiving and belting out the Bon Jovi chorus together to end things just so.

Andrew and I were wrong.  Ignite Boulder just keeps getting better, and there’s plenty of room to grow from here.

Here’s the methodology in a nutshell: “Stop wasting people’s time.” Ries implores entrepreneurs to stop building products and services that customers don’t want by replacing guesswork with validated learning. At a high level, this requires three actions:

• Build. For the first iteration, build the minimum viable product, as basic as is possible for customers to understand and use. For subsequent cycles, release small batches of code through continuous deployment.
• Measure. Ries recommends measuring the high level stuff, the stuff that matters. Unless it tells you something important about whether what you have built is more or less likely to make customers pay for it, don’t bother measuring it.
• Learn. Talk to customers, look at the data, and face reality. Apply that validated learning to the next cycle before building anything else.

Many of the principles are derived from lean manufacturing, made famous by Toyota, applied in the startup environment. Speed is key here, and progress is measured in how much you learn, not how much code you write.

There’s no need to recount the entire presentation line by line because you can view a recent webinar of Ries’ and hear him directly instead. If you’re curious as to whether the Lean Startup methodology has applications beyond writing code, the answer is yes. Erica O’Grady, who was also there that night, has even applied the Lean Startup methodology to dating.

The Lean Startup methodology seems to be gaining momentum, especially as of late with bloggers and the press. In April Ries held the first Startup Lessons Learned Conference in San Francisco, which was streamed into locations around the world, including Boulder’s own Rally Software.

With that said, coupled with the fact that entrepreneurs, present and future, filled The Bunker that night, it seems that the future for Lean Startups is bright in Boulder. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens.