Ideas on Tap at the Commodore June 2009

Ideas on Tap is happening tonight at the Commodore Ballroom from 5:30pm until 8:30pm.

Correct me if I’m wrong but with 800 tickets scooped up already this may very-well be the largest social media-type gathering this town has seen (I’m thinking Northern Voice say numbers up to 400 so this could be the case).

Regardless, it should be a great event with the following companies lined up to give 60 second elevator pitches:

Rilli
Adam Bognar
http://rilli.com

QuickMobile
Patrick Payne
http://quickmobile.com

Mobify
Igor Faletski
http://mobify.me

Conquer Mobile
Angela Robert
http://www.conquermobile.com

Virtual LockBox
Presenter: Sanjay Maharaj
http://www.sharemylife.com

6s Marketing resurrected the Ideas on Tap event model after it lay dormant for years. With the rise of the tech sphere once again happening in Vancouver, they have picked a prime time to bring it back.

I’ve been commissioned to liveblog this evening so I’ll be setting up around 5:00pm. If you’re not one of the 800 people at the event you can tune in here for my live coverage, photos, and updates as things unfold. The official Twitter is @IdeasonTap and my updates will be on this post and @Miss604.

Update: Arriving at Ideas on Tap tonight I came across the Elastic Path ‘martini luge’ – which is essentially an ice sculpture through which drinks are poured. They’re offering up special blue martinis for purchase this evening along with a few contest prizes that have clues you’ll first need to de-code.

Update: I’ve been chatting with some of the presenters already and it seems like a great lineup. A few 6S Marketing folks are dressed up as DK (yes, man in gorilla suit) and Princess Peach. I’m not sure of the significance just yet but this should be an interesting evening. Hat tips to Amuse Consulting for helping with the event planning tonight as well.

Update: It’s great to see some of the faces from last night’s yacht cruise once again, such as Kate and Grace from Invoke, and the Biehlers. The room is filling up and everyone is crowding the bars (and the martini luge). There’s also a pretty extensive food menu so there’s no need to leave hungry.

Update: Our friendly neighbourhood dotcom and blogging mogul, John Chow, just stopped by and shot a quick video of me. I’m certain he’ll have a montage up after the event so I’ll provide a link to that when he’s posted it.

I chatted briefly with Jason from PDFTron, who is attending his first Ideas on Tap, and met up with the lovely ladies from Jive Communications. The speakers should be taking the stage in about 10 minutes, following an intro from Chris Breikss of 6S Marketing.

Update: There’s a 50/50 draw going around with proceeds benefiting the Canary Derby. Taking place June 27th it’s a soapbox derby that will see 100% of its funds going towards the Canary Foundation and the BC Cancer Society.

Update: Adam Bognar from Rilli is the first speaker with 60 seconds. He says he’s concerned about everyone’s social life because we’re all too busy on Facebook and Twitter. He says Rilli is “all about the things you do in real life… … it’s about seeing more of your city and more of your friends and sharing those experiences.”

Update: Sanjay Maharaj says that he has a system to store videos, images, and personal digital effects with Virtual LockBox from ShareMyLife.

Update: “We’re the best damn mobile marketing company in BC if not Canada,” says Patrick Payne from QuickMobile. They do text campaigns, iPhone and smartphone applications and other mobile marketing tools. They are also hiring PHP and Linux programmers, designers, and more.

As a side note, Elastic Path is also hiring and if you’re in attendance tonight you’ll get a “cheque” that is good for a referral. If you refer someone they end up hiring you can cash that cheque for $1,000 with Elastic Path.

Update: Igor is up next to talk about Mobify.me that is a free “SEO-friendly, Twitter compatible, and easy to monetize” tool for your website.

Update: Angela Robert from ConQuer Mobile which “uses iPhone application technology to push unique and exclusive content,” in order to customize the way people with your website, destination, or event.

Update: Now that the speakers are done, it’s time for the crowd to vote for their favourite presenter and company of the evening. It’s between Igor and Sanjay so there’s a tie-breaker… the winner receives $500 cash TONIGHT.

Update: And the winner is… Sanjay from ShareMyLife! The formal portion of this evening is over and now it’s time for super uber networking. The “after party” will take place at Doolins, just down Granville Street.

Update: I ended the evening by hanging out with the good folks from Bluefur and Think Referrals as well as Kimm (who is @PaddlingGeek on Twitter). The event was a success and it was really encouraging to see so many new faces out at an industry event. Entire companies were coming up and introducing themselves to me (shout out to C-Dot Networks and lokl) so it was great to see them out in the “real life” space after knowing them only from the online sphere. I hope everyone was able to network and make some connections this evening and I’m looking forward to the next Ideas on Tap coming up in September. If there’s anything you’d like to see then, or if you have any feedback, just let me know and I’ll pass it along to the good folks at 6S.

Update: John Chow’s video is now available (above).