The plan was for a Day 2 recap when I returned from DEMO last Thursday, but this was delayed thanks to a detour to Long Beach to check out Topaz client Evans Cooling Systems (exhibiting their waterless engine coolant at a convention for the waste management industry — a perfect market), some red-eye reaction (rolled in at 5 a.m. Thursday in order to make a new business meeting) and a busy final few days of the week (including negotiations with a new Topaz client). I’m hoping all of this — DEMO Day 2 and happenings late last week — point to a turnaround for tech. Cool companies and lots of activity is something we all need more of.

Now about more about those cool DEMO companies. The DEMO People Choice Winners were Emo Labs (a company I wrote about in my previous post) and Liaise, a Day 2 presenter with a solution that automatically captures and manages “key points” inside emails, helping those of us who still use email to guide our work lives, A few other companies that stood out for me: LeapFILE, which wants to make it easier and safer for us to manage files in the cloud; I.ndigo, who have an interesting collaboration tool; 80legs, which is changing the way we crawl and process Web content; Scientific Media, which has a new mobile publishing platform that promises to unleash the power of mobile messaging; Weels Corp, a company founded by a bunch of Massachusetts high school and college kids out to improve our web browsing experience; and Zorap, which is working to monetize social networks by enabling live social interaction around content.

These are just a few highlights. There was much more that impressed me, including the energy and enthusiasm I saw among many who attended — again, something we need more of in a tech space that has struggled along with the rest of the economy for too long.

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The first day of presentations and conversations at DEMO made for some encouraging signs for the tech community. We saw an interesting mix of companies and an impressive showing of industry-watchers/influencers. Some of the DEMOstrators that I thought stood out: Emo Labs, a MA-based company with high-end “zero-footprint” speakers for flat panel TVs and monitors; Freeddom Tecnologia, a Brazil-based company with a very cool mobile payment platform; Third Iris, which has a high-quality yet affordable video surveillance system; Twirl TV, providing a browser gateway for online TV viewing; and Micello, a company doing “Google maps inside a building”. There were a lot of other cool products and services — and I’m sure others have their favorites. One thing we can all agree on — the innovation we saw overall bodes very well for the tech industry.

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DEMO began yesterday, kicking off 2+ days when the tech industry gets a glimpse of some of today’s most exciting, interesting and innovative companies and developments. I attended my first DEMO back in the late 90s, and while the buzz is the same, I have to say, the introduction of social media has added a new and exciting element (in terms of fueling the community dialogue and providing a backdrop for tech developments). Over the years we’ve seen an impressive parade of companies pass through — many of which launched here. We’ll get to see many of these alumni over the next few days — particularly on Wednesday, when DEMO brings together a hall-of-fame roster of DEMO winners as it marks the exit of longtime exec producer Chris Shipley, who’s moving on new adventures. I’ll report back on what I see/hear in terms of companies and chatter — there’ll certainly be a lot to focus on.

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