• The Ultimate Guide To TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2011

    Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

    Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

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    disrupt_d3-2952-1

    TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco has just wrapped. In the feverish air of anticipation we carefully cultivate during the Disrupt season, you may have missed some of the talks, panels, launches, or startups that have taken place here at this incomparable conference. Don’t worry. We’ve collected all the content by our writing and video teams here in this handy omnibus post. If you only share one item today, make it this one.

    Almost everything that happened on stage was captured by the unblinking eye of TechCrunch TV, so there is video at the bottom of most posts and many even have crowdsourced transcriptions. More video can be found here at the TCTV archive for the event. Literally thousands of photos from our capable photographer can be found here, including most of the companies in the startup alley, and my photos (which appeared in the posts) are free to download from the TechCrunch Flickr page. And of course, all news relating to this and other Disrupt conference can always be found at disrupt.techcrunch.com. Read on for links to the rest of our coverage.



    Launches, panels, and Fireside Chats

    Battlefield

    Session one: Disrupting traditional markets

    Tonara: a tablet-based sheet music program that listens and adjusts as you play
    Farmigo: community-based growing and selling of fresh local produce
    HouseFix: tracks home repairs and enriches relationships with home contractors and services
    Openbucks: cashless and bankless payment using major gift card providers
    CakeHealth: sophisticated but user-friendly tracking of insurance costs, claims, etc.

    Session two: Moving the web forward

    Spool: saves full webpages for mobile consumption later using an intelligent content scraper
    Verious: a marketplace for mobile app middleware
    Pressly: HTML5-based, tablet-friendly, quick-deployment web apps for online content
    Bitcasa: infinite cloud-based storage for all your data with predictive syncing and caching
    Everpix: collects all your photos online and offline into a single online meta-album

    Session three: Entertain us

    Shaker: a social, network-agnostic mingling environment
    YouNow: crowd-rated live web broadcasting
    Amen: an opinion-rating engine of sorts (simple to grasp, difficult to explain)
    IdleGames: developing next-generation games for social networks
    Quest.li: gamifying everyday life (startup alley audience pick)


    Launches, panels, and Fireside Chats

    Battlefield

    Session four: Customer-friendly enterprise

    TalkTo: contacting local businesses for appointments, feedback, etc. via text message
    Rewardli: lets companies do group purchasing by leveraging the social graph
    SizeUp: provides rich local metrics for small businesses to help them grow
    Trello: a universal workflow and task management platform
    Prism Skylabs: processes security footage to produce powerful analytic information on physical spaces

    Session five: Local networks

    Postmates: a sort of ad-hoc courier network for excess bike messenger capacity
    Trippy: friend-sourced travel planning and trip sharing
    LocalHero: finds people around you who can help with things you need now
    Grow the Planet: a sort of real life Farmville that helps you grow your own vegetables
    Meexo: gamifies online dating and tries to solve some of the persistent problems in that space

    Session six: Increasing understanding

    JiffPad: a platform for facilitating useful communication between doctors and patients
    Vocre: mobile app that provides near-instant translations of spoken speech
    PlaySay: a language-learning platform using Facebook that has you translate status updates and comments
    GoInstant: simple, instant browser sharing between two or many people
    RentLord: suite of (very useful) tools and rich data tracking for landlords and tenants
    CardFlick: rich, clickable “cards” on mobile phones that can be traded by flicking them (startup alley pick)


    Launches, panels, and Fireside Chats

    And the winner is…

    Our hundreds of applicants were reduced to 29 battlefield companies (plus two selected day-of by the audience) then to the last six, who were given an extended period in which to re-pitch their companies to a new set of judges. After an hour’s retirement and consideration, they returned, with the news that Shaker would be awarded the $50,000 prize and prestigious TechCrunch Disrupt Cup. Prism Sky Labs, the runners up, received a gilded shoe.

    Congratulations to the winners! We would also like to extend our thanks to everyone who applied, attended, sponsored, or supported Disrupt this year. We look forward to seeing you all again here in San Francisco next year, or earlier, in New York or even Beijing.

    On another note, this summary wouldn’t be complete without an acknowledgement of Mike Arrington and his contributions to tech journalism. For years TechCrunch has grown bigger and better under his leadership. I’d like to extend a personal thanks to Mike, but I think the standing ovation prompted by Ron Conway’s closing comments is more eloquent:

    Best of luck, Mike.

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