It was probably just a simple understanding, but wouldn’t life be more exciting if we really did have a mole in the midst? However, rest assured that having lived through that experience once, we don’t ever plan on letting it happen again. We’ll be calling in to confirm our reservations from here on in!

So, apologies to everyone for a less than optimal experience. Then again, there were lots of smiles and some great discussions in the crowd – could it have anything to do with the beverages?

After a late start, the audience of 50 or so attendees saw 4 company presentations and one special project presentation. First, the companies:

• Mob4Hire: Paul Poutanen presented this crowdsourced platform for testing mobile applications. Participants from every region throughout the world are encouraged to register the model of their phone, their location, and their service provider. Developers of mobile applications can tap into the crowd and seek testing on specific phones in specific locales on specific carriers, or test their applications across the entire Mob4Hire network.

• Aviary: I presented Aviary, an outrageously cool set of online design applications. Think Photoshop, Illustrator and 14 other applications, all of them working within your browser – no downloads required. The system tracks every version that is saved, and allows sharing of source files – allowing the community to collaborate on design projects with ease. Drop me a line if you’d like a beta invite.

• Xtreme Technologies: Chris Becker presented the XLink, a cellular phone gateway that allows you to answer cellphone calls on your home phone. The device connects to your cellphone through bluetooth, and has an output jack that you plug your home phone system into. Calls to your cellphone will ring through to your home system whenever your cell is within bluetooth range of the XLink. It allows you to use all those unlimited evenings and weekends minutes while your cellphone is charging. If you’d like to try it out, go to their online store and type “barcamp” into the coupon code field for 20% off.

• Ph03nixNewMedia: Jon Lam presented “Curse of the Pharoah”, a casual game which is currently hosted on Big Fish Games. It was an instant success, and Big Fish promptly ordered up two more titles.

Matt Beck, a student from the University of Calgary presented Alberta’s entry in the Solar Decathlon. Along with students from MRC and SAIT, the team is the first-ever Western Canadian team to gain entry into this international competition. They must compete in 10 separate contests, from designing and building a solar home, to creating enough energy to power an electric vehicle for a day. The competition will be held in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2009.

There are at least two reasons why you would attend a DemoCamp – the first one is to see the latest and greatest stuff from fellow technology entrepreneurs; the second one is to meet some interesting people with common interests and goals. Last night, we succeeded in both areas for many, if not all attendees. Be sure to give us your feedback, as the organizing committee continues to work on making these events even better!

Here’s a wrap up of the companies that presented last night:

Casey Pechet of IVOXX demonstrated the ultimate iPod accessory – it was a voice-recognition device that attaches to the back of an iPod. Still in prototype form, he first gave the command “play some stones” to the device – and a Rolling Stones song played. He gave it a command to “play some Led Zeppelin”, and it did. Then, he asked it to “play more like this”, and the device played a somewhat similar song. The final production version will also be able to accept commands such as “play something higher energy” or “play something slow”. This has huge implications for those of us who aren’t organized enough to categorize our music libraries. The device is slated for an August release, and will retail at $129 as an official “made for iPod”, Apple approved product.

Lino Ramirez of Aranducorp showed us what appeared to be an early build of a predictive analytics engine for charities. The product, when released, will help charities raise more money by helping them to predict and target those most sympathetic and generous to the cause.

Lorand Szojka of JIT Resources showed a customer site developed on their video streaming platform, which delivers private training and corporate messaging videos to enterprise clients.

To round out the evening, Matt Cox and Sarath Samarasekera demoed Shopster, which was described as a fully-networked retail e-commerce solution. For companies and individuals looking for an alternative to advertising-based revenues, Shopster offers a fully-customizable e-commerce store site template, complete with over 1,000,000 items in inventory.

———

Mark your calendars for the next event:

April 8th 6:30pm – April 8th 8:30pm, 2008
DemoCampCalgary 8– at Melrose Cafe & Bar – Calgary, AB

Tags: democampcalgary democamp

Sign up here.