It's Demo Time

The Fall 08 edition of the Demo Conference is commencing in San Diego as we write this blog. While Demo may have lost some of its cachet, its track record is mind-boggling: Java 1.0, Palm Pilot, TiVo, and SalesForce.com (among other products) were first introduced at Demo.

Not all products featured at Demo become hits, but being accepted to Demo certainly does not hurt. Demo-worthiness is often considered either a sign of a great product or a great PR machine -- ideally both. For tech watchers, Demo is a great showcase of what is hot; while an individual company may not make it, the Demo'd companies are a good indicator of what the zeitgeist is about.

This fall's interesting Demo debuts include:

MixMatchMusic -- a component trading place for musicians
Infovell -- a "deep web" search tool that goes where Google has not gone before
Giftag -- a social shopping tool
Accordia -- a CRM tool that visualizes client relationships
Plastic Logic -- flexible, plastic-based thin displays

You can find the rest of this fall's demo crop at www.demo.com.