DemoCamp 21

Toronto’s 21st DemoCamp was held last night in the Rogers Theatre. I enjoyed it: it was good to see friends, and great to see what’s going on in Toronto’s tech community. Here’s my rundown:

• Venue: better than the pub we were in the last couple of times, but banked seating (and no beer) just doesn't feel right either.
• Jon Udell: I think his ideas about syndicating calendar information are a big deal; I was surprised there were so few questions (maybe because he was first up?).
• Saul Colt/Zoocasa: I was expecting a demo; we got slideware.
• Christine Renaud/ArtAnywhere: very polished Ignite presentation on a new web-based art rental business.
• Brian Sharwood/HomeStars: another Ignite about bringing social media to contractors. Enjoyed it—he clearly likes what he's doing.
• Alan Lysne/Cascadia: live coding to show off a cross-platform app library for mobile devices. Very cool.
• Shaun MacDonald/MashupArts: in-the-web editor for birthday cards, greeting cards, etc.
• Dan Wood/WeGoWeGo: another "what's on where" search engine; good demo.
• Ben Vinegar/Guestlist: best demo of the night—guest lists have been done before, but Ben (a former project student) has done a really nice re-think with some cool GUI features.
• Jason Roks/GuiGoog: the other best demo of the night—Jason coped with technical problems (including having to run on IE6) with good, if acerbic, humor.

Overall impressions: several A-grade presentations and good conversations. Our undergrads are doing their demos this morning (Wednesday, July 29) from 10-12 am in Room 1200 of the Bahen Centre at 40 St. George Street; everyone’s welcome to come and see them try to repeat last night’s success.