Montgomery Technology Conference

I spent the better part of the week up in Santa Monica at the Montgomery Technology Conference where 94 private and 50 public technology companies presented to packed rooms during the 2-day event…so I thought I’d share some observations from my pilgrimage North of the Orange Curtain.  First, Sheraton Delfina spent significantly more renovating their lobby and common areas than they did on their rooms.  I don’t usually pan hotels - because I’ve stayed in some real hovels around the world over the years - but I was very disappointed with the hotel as a SPG member.  Second, either WalkJogRun is a bit off on its calculations, I ran the wrong route, or I really am starting to get old as my “5 at 5″ routine stayed with me all day on Tuesday…  My third observation was that this year’s theme was either “new media” or “digital media” - take your pick - given how many of the companies were in the space and the number of network execs I ran into during the conference.   Finally, I was pleasantly surprised that Tech Coast had such a strong showing.  If my memory and math serve me correctly (a big IF), 21 of the 94 private companies that presented (22%) were from the Tech Coast… and 5 of those 21 were from right here in beautiful OC (24% of the Tech Coast presenting companies and 5% of all the private presenting companies)!!! And who said we don’t have tech start-ups down here???  Given the theme of this blog, I’ll give a shout out to the OC companies that presented (alphabetically,  so as not to offend anyone): Aristos Logic, DATAllegro, iStor Networks, Networks In Motion, and Quartics.  If I missed anyone, let me know and I’ll be happy to set the record straight here.  I also was proud to see the OC VC out in full force with most of our local funds in attendance.

I’d like to wrap this post by circling back to the “new media” theme and simply point out that the consensus among the 500 or so attendees and presenting companies seems to be that what UGC (user generated content)  began with respect to on-line video PPC (professionally produced content) will finish and the race is on between the studios…  To this point, Michael Montgomery led an excellent panel on “Advertising in a New Media World” that included Michael Benson, Wes Nichols, Chuck Davis, Alex St. John, and Michael Yavonditte that discussed the coming tsunami of Internet advertising (yes, we’ve only just seen the tip of the iceberg thus far) and the “hows” and “whys” of the phenomena and I’m excited to see how this plays out both as a consumer and an investor.  So, as they said in traditional media, stay tuned next week…