Talkative Chef 

 

Talkative Chef comes out of the women’s hackathon Hack the Gap just a few weekends ago. And here they were already demo’ing in front of the tech community. It’s a good tool to be able to interact with recipes through voice commands so that you don’t have to touch your laptop, tablet or phone. Yes… hands free. So cool.

VennPT has a platform for those in physical therapy that allows for a video or series of videos to be set up for patients.

Inkit allows for companies to produce direct mail faster and cheaper while incorporating tracking and analytics that marketers use to track online campaigns.

EnduraData 

 

Unfortunately EnduraData had an issue with the Internet connection and was unable to do the live demo with a machine in another country. That was a bummer as this was one of the demo’s a lot of people were looking forward to. They have a suite of tools that allows for file syncing, transferring, backup and protection. They say they can do it faster and more cost effective.

Newt One 

Newt One is a friendly non violent 3D game. A character “wakes up” from a slumber and as it moves on the lights become brighter and the music more fun. You are rewarded for doing things… not for killing people.

Trout Spotr 

Trout Spotr is an app that shows all the trout streams in Minnesota including location, roads to take, season, species and most important… public and private land. Stu says he built it for his dad. For me between the story, the technology and his personality this was the best demo of the evening.

Player’s Health 

 

Player’s Health has been interesting to me for a long time. During my youth sports days I was very fortunate to never get injured. An ankle sprain here and there was it. But I saw friends break a bone, have a concussion and get mono. And that was back in the day when we only played each sport a few times a year. Today kids are playing 1 or 2 sports year round and that takes a toll on a growing body. This tool helps kids, parents, coaches and doctors better communicate what is going on, how to treat injuries and when to allow a kid to practice and play again. Pun not intended… I am a BIG fan of this group.

Additional thoughts…

Sponsor

News for Minnesota Headhunter (me) is that I am a sponsor of MinneDemo and MinneBar this year. I can count on one hand the number of events that I have missed over the years and gladly support a group that supports the Minnesota tech scene. Click minne* to see how you can be a Supporter and/or Sponsor. And click minne* Board to see who makes all of this possible.

minne* Tickets

If you are not a Supporter or Sponsor of minne* you know that tickets to events are hard to come by. It’s a “good” problem to have and one that needs some attention. Jamie Thingelstad, minne* board member, has a post about it. Click A Minnebar Ticketing Proposal. I like his take on this.

Networking And Inclusion

I mentioned at the top of this post that MinneDemo is one part networking. I’ve mentioned this in many posts before that I am an introvert by nature. At MinnDemo I was more so than usual. I have had a busy few weeks of business development and meetings and by the time I arrived my “people tank” was on empty.

I only spoke with my friends. I found myself staying near the walls versus the center of the room. I don’t think I met anyone new. And the size of the crowd had me feeling a bit overwhelmed. That sounds weird for a recruiter I know. But I excel at small groups and one on one conversations that lead to deep conversations. That’s just how I am wired.

But… as a community connector it also my job in a way to help people meet new people. Make quality introductions and get out of the way. I didn’t do any of that. I recognized all of this after the event on the walk home.

And then I saw this on the Twitter stream My MinneDemo Experience: The Continuation of Feeling Alienated and my heart sank. I am disappointed in the rudeness they were given. That makes me angry. And that they were ignored… that’s on me, you and others in our community. We need to do better.

I need to do better.

If you see my name on an attendee list or find yourself at an event and you do not know anyone… tell me. Say hello. Don’t be shy about it. Seriously, just jump right in.

And I’ll try to keep my Gopher football, fishing and recruiting ramblings to a minimum.

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