e27 UnConference Summary

Overall, I think it was a pretty good turn-out for this event. It was my first time, turning up for an e27 conference and I feel very positive for the future of Singapore start-ups. The keynote that was represented by Daniel Ingitaraj started very slowly, plagued with technical failures. That didn’t dampened his enthusiasm. I would say that Daniel is somewhat a seasoned speakers, used to having questions thrown at him, especially when faced with either Open Source or Mac-biased participants.

The pitching session by 10 local companies ensued. A few companies attracted my particular attention.

http://gothere.sg is an excellent application, utilising Google maps, but without the baggage. The loading speed is very fast, even compared to Google Maps itself. GoThere went astep further so as to include ERP gantries to AVOID in its results. Do have a look at the application if you will.

Another application which attracted my attention is http://www.hibernater.com. This utility allows you to save working documents and opened internet links online (pseudo-hibernation) and resume doing as before at another computer. A chat with fellow participant, Edvarcl Heng, points to SugarSync and DropBox as other alternatives to Hibernater. Still, it is a worthy application to look into.

During the breakout sessions, I attended two different rooms. One dealt with investing in internet companies and the vagarities that comes with it, while the other discusses interoperability that Microsoft provides for Internet Startups. While interoperability is an ironic term when placed against Microsoft, the effort shown by Microsoft for the past 5 years points to a healthy competition for the tech industries.

References:

• http://unconference.e27.sg/
• http://www.zopim.com/
• http://www.hibernater.com/
• http://www.microsoft.com/startup
• http://gothere.sg/
• http://autodj.i2r.a-star.edu.sg/
• http://homespace.sg/
• http://widgeo.us/
• http://www.phlook.com/
• http://podfire.sg/
• http://geekgoddess.tv/
• http://sgba.tv/
• http://podfire.sg/dogslivetv
• http://qweki.com/
• http://patsnap.com/
• http://yum.sg/
• http://www.microsoft.com/interop/
• http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/blogs/globalstartups/default.aspx
• http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/contentpage/FreeSoftware.aspx
• https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/
• http://www.plurk.com/p/1abma
• http://shoplette.com
• http://nuffnang.com.sg
• http://microsoft.com
• http://www.google.com