SXSW Virgins: Norfolk Startup VinylMint

This week starts our 12th South By Southwest, the last four have been spent as a tech journalist and before that I attended the music portion during my radio career. SXSW can be intimidating for a first timer, especially a first time startup, that’s why we’re featuring some great SXSW Virgins, seek them out, find out more about them and help them out if you can.

VinylMint is a cool startup in Norfolk part of the Hatch Norfolk accelerator program. As a startup in the music business, SXSW is two fold for them.

What is your startup?
Vinylmint has crowd-sourced the sound design and recording process and
organized a new marketplace for transactions between sound creators.

Where are you based?
Vinylmint is based in Norfolk, Virginia

What do you do?
Vinylmint is built for creative directors and musicians. Vinylmint delivers a contest
sourced pre-production utility for sounds for on-the-go users through both web-
and mobile-based apps. Vinylmint functions as the collaborative front-end for the
users to integrate apps that increase the speed of productivity, better organizes data
and social connections, and decreases the cost of production adding convenience to
the process overall.

Vinylmint meets the following needs of the creative directors:

Simplifies project management and centralizes communication with
freelance musicians to a reliable, standardized process
Creates a fixed cost in creative budgets by organizing an open-bid contest
system in a global community of talented, competitive musicians
Quick and endless access to a marketplace equipped with a variety of sounds,
effects, voiceovers, and translations from around the world
Digitizes the process of signing and submitting legal documents, which
streamlines transactions.

Vinylmint allows musicians to:

Socially connect with music talent around the world.
Rich, near-time collaboration
Simplicity and user friendliness
Mobility and portability
Introduces the music production process to the amateur musician
A low cost solution for cash strapped educational institutions

Is this your first time to SXSW?
This will be Vinylmint’s first time at SXSW.

What are your plans at SXSW?
Our plan is to connect with key tastemakers in the music and film business to
expose them to Vinylmint in unique ways. We will blend the use of Vinylmint in the
performances of some of the DJs in unique ways, so that they may test the product
and become product evangelist of the brand. SXSW’s Music and Film week presents
a premier opportunity to grow Vinylmint’s brand.

How can people connect:

Website: www.vinylmint.com

Twitter: @vinylmint

Facebook: facebook.com/vinylmint

Check out more of our SXSW 13 coverage here

Boston Augmented Reality Startup PAR Works Gets Two Big SXSW Honors

Augmented reality has been a hot space for startups for the last three years. Now in 2013 it’s starting to expand outside of just cool games. One Boston startup, PAR Works, has done some amazing things with augmented reality and for that they’ve received two pre-show honors from SXSW.

First off the company was selected as a finalist for the mobile technology category at the 5th annual SXSW accelerator competition. The competition is one of the biggest events as part of SXSW Interactive’s Startup Village. Startups showcase some of the most impressive new innovations to a panel of handpicked judges and a live audience. More than 500 companies submitted to present at SXSW Accelerator, where PAR Works was selected out of 56 finalists in seven different categories.

The company’s MARS mobile application, which will be unveiled for public beta for the first time at the SXSW Trade Show, also was named a finalist in the SXSW Interactive Awards. This competition uncovers the best new digital work while celebrating those who are building the interactive trends of the future. The ceremonies for both awards will take place at the SXSW 2013 conference in Austin next month.

MARS is the first technology to offer instant 3-D recognition for products and places, allowing companies to offer content to consumers the instant they take a simple photograph. Available to operate on either Android (version 2.3 or above) or iOS (version 5.0 or above), MARS quickly and precisely delivers on-demand branded content to users, a technology that has become increasingly important as more consumers and businesses adopt, and become dependent on, mobile devices. The speed and millimeter-level accuracy of the image detection and content overlay in MARS is unparalleled.

“Businesses and consumers will be able to experience for the first time at SXSW the power of our MARS technology, which will allow brands to find even more ways to engage with their customers through any mobile device, anywhere,” said Dr. Jules White, co-founder and Chief Scientist for PAR Works. “We would like to thank SXSW for the unique honor of being nominated for both awards this year.”

The three-day Accelerator competition will be held Monday, March 11th – Wednesday, March 13th. As a key event of SXSW Festival’s Startup Village, the Accelerator competition will take place on the 4th floor of the Downtown Austin Hilton and will feature finalists across categories including Innovative Web Technologies; Social Technologies; Entertainment and Gaming Technologies; Mobile Technologies; Health Technologies; News Technologies; and Music Technologies. On March 12th, judges will announce a selected winner in each of the categories presented except Music Technologies, which will be revealed on March 13th

“Some truly ground-breaking and disruptive companies once stood where this year’s 56 SXSW Accelerator finalists will pitch to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and press,” said SXSW Accelerator Event Producer, Chris Valentine. “I am confident that this year’s SXSW Accelerator finalists will bring equally exceptional and unique products and services to the table, with high potential to impact their respective industries.”

See more of our team coverage of SXSW 2013 here

SXSW Virgins: Columbia MO Startup Digital Talent Agents

Digital Talent Agents, a startup based in Columbia Missouri has a rockstar team all working on an awesome goal, to help build credibility for experts through thought leadership and content marketing by getting them consistently published in online reputable publications.

In addition to being an agency for credible content the crew at DTA are passionate about startups and often write themselves on things that matter most to startups. In fact it was DTA’s John Hall, who called everywhereelse.co a “Must Attend” startup conference at Forbes.com.

Kelsey Meyer, the company’s Senior Vice President, offered these tips on promoting your startup.

DTA is making their way across the country and networking with startups of all kinds every chance they get. They were in Memphis for everywhereelse.co and several events in between then and SXSW. This is their first time at SXSW.

1) What is you startup? Digital Talent Agents is an agency that builds your credibility through thought leadership and content marketing.

2) Where are you based? We’re headquartered out of Columbia, Missouri but have remote locations in St.Louis, Mo and Dallas, Tx.

3) What do you do? We help clients leverage their expertise by getting consistent content placed in reputable online publications through by-lined articles and interviews to build thought leadership and credibility for the client and the companies their representing.

4) Is this your first time to SXSW? Yes, its our first time.

5) What are your plans at SXSW? It’s always exciting to see what other startups, brands and varied artists are doing. It’ll be a great place for us to network, create relationships and see what cool things companies are doing. I can’t forget to mention the amazing parties and concerts that are being held at SXSW that I’m sure you’ll see several of our team members. :)

6) How can people connect:

Twitter: @DTAgents

Website: www.digitaltalentagents.com

Natalie Stezovsky (Vice President): natalie@digitaltalentagents.com

We’ve got even more SXSW13 coverage here at nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else.

See These LAUNCHedu K-12 Startup Finalists At SXSWedu

South By Southwest’s education event, sxswedu, continues to grow. This year they have four full days of programming beginning today and running through Thursday March 7th. SXSWedu takes place at the Austin Convention Center and surrounding hotels, and is quickly gaining popularity.

While many startups are participating in SXSWinteractive, EdTech or educational startups are launching at sxswedu as part of the new LAUNCHedu event. Startups in the LAUNCHedu finals will be presenting at the Hilton Austin Downtown in room 404 throughout the event. The complete schedule of presenting startups in the LAUNCHedu Startup Showcase can be found here.

Here are the 2013 LAUNCHedu K-12 Finalists from the SXSWedu website:

Actively Learn

activelylearn.com
Reading is the bedrock of education, but two-thirds of eighth graders cannot understand what they read. Actively Learn has created a reading environment to teach students to be advanced readers. Educators are empowered with tools for personalized instruction and analytics of student learning within the context of Common Core standards.

Classroom, Inc.

classroominc.org
Classroom, Inc. prepares struggling middle and high school students for success in and beyond school. Acting as bankers, editors, and lawyers in our workplace simulations, students use their academic, critical-thinking, and 21st century skills to solve authentic problems.

Clever

getclever.com
Founded by a teacher tired of chaos in the computer lab, Clever solves a common frustration with educational software: logins. Clever automatically syncs student accounts from a school’s information system (SIS) into programs students use. Over 50 companies and 3,000 schools use Clever to make their classroom software “just work”.

Common Curriculum

commoncurriculum.com
Common Curriculum is building the Google Docs of education. Our free site lets teachers collaboratively plan units and lessons while aligning them to the Common Core. Teachers and districts will be able to sell their work through our online marketplace or purchase new material by dragging it into their plans.

DigitWhiz

digitwhiz.com
DigitWhiz is all about making sure kids master foundational math skills in a fun and effective way. We evaluate, prescribe individualized games and guide kids to master the skills they need. Play on desktops or iPad. Teacher-built and kid approved!

Duckie Deck

duckiedeck.com
At Duckie Deck we provide smiles. Over eight million toddlers played our games and smiled. We teach things that are important for their future, things that matter to their parents. We explain why sharing with others is so important. Why we should brush our teeth and what does friendship mean.

instaGrok

instaGrok.com
instaGrok is a research engine: we make it incredibly simple to discover, learn, and share information. Users explore graphical concept maps that show how ideas connect. They can also customize the maps (with key facts, links, and images) and then share them with friends, colleagues, and classmates.

Learnsprout

learnsprout.com
LearnSprout simplifies systems integration and reveals key insights on student performance and engagement with the first universal API to pull live data from leading student information systems. Free to schools and districts, LearnSprout is the easiest and most secure, FERPA compliant method for integrating an SIS within the edtech ecosystem.

Slate Science

slatescience.com
Slate Science is transforming mobile devices into interactive, adaptive learning platforms for K12 STEM education. Our platform enables rapid, multi-platform development of modular learning units, designed to offer performance-based, student-specific learning experiences. The SlateMath CC-compatible portfolio includes hundreds of recombinant learning units, each imparting a specific mathematical skill or concept.

Teaching Channel

teachingchannel.org
Teaching Channel is a community of educators focused on self-improvement that attracts 250,000 users/month. Visitors to the website find a high-quality video library – featuring exemplar teachers – paired with intuitive annotation tools. With TchTeams, Teaching Channel’s private collaboration platform, schools and districts can now enable their teachers to learn together.

ThinkCERCA

thinkcerca.com
ThinkCERCA is a Chicago-based company passionately committed to improving the quality of K-12 education. Developed by a team of nationally recognized literacy experts, the online platform allows teacher teams to design, deliver, and assess lessons using the CERCA argumentation framework. The expert lesson library delivers rigorous, personalized learning across disciplines.

zondle

zondle.com
A games-based learning web and mobile platform grounded in neuroscience that enables teachers and students to create, play and share games to support teaching and learning. User-created questions (multiple formats, any language, any age group) can be combined with multiple casual games for students to play and practice.

We’ve got much more SXSW13 coverage here!

Learn From Everyone You Can At SXSW, Advice From Joseph Kosper CEO Of RideScout

Tuesday we posted the twelve finalists of the HatchPitch competition who will be pitching at SXSWi this year. Last year’s contest saw some great startups. One of those was GoingMyWay which has now changed their name to RideScout.

There’s an abundance of great transportation app startups out there. There are services like Uber and Hailo which allow you to use your phone to hail a ride via sedan or taxi. There are ride share apps out there like SideCar and there are apps out there like RideScout. RideScout aggregates ground transportation ride options which allows users to compare and then book transportation or link to it in real time.

“Our goal is to provide ground transportation information and connectivity so intuitively and efficiently that consumers experience the same on-demand flexibility and reliability that they do driving their own car.” RideScout CEO and Co-Founder Joseph Kosper said on the hatchpitch blog.

RideScout came in second place in last years HatchPitch contest. This year rather than spend time talking about how great RideScout is Kosper posted this piece, to help give some best practices to startups braving SXSW.

Through my radio career and then as a tech journalist I’ve had the privilege of attending a dozen or so SXSW events. If this is your first, or even second time attending it can be an overwhelming experience. Tuesday we posted these tips, most of which came from SXSW seasoned veteran Robert Scoble.

Kosper gives his best practice which really amounts to learning from anyone you can. See I’m not going to sugar coat it for you, SXSWi is a cess pool of ego maniac hipster founders. Everyone has the best everything out there period. In that piece on Tuesday we talked about the big reality that come next year at SXSW 14 not even a quarter of the startups we see this year will be around.

Swallow your pride and gel off everyone you can. You’ll undoubtedly have people that can learn from you, and in turn you will be able to learn from other people. If you knew everything you wouldn’t need to go to SXSW, right?

“Your startup isn’t going to “accidentally” succeed. RideScout and my other endeavors get better each day because I’ve spent time learning from those around me. Most of that learning has been experiential and in the shadow of others, so it is only natural that I try to pass it along. People will be what they can see– and I have been fortunate to learn from a lot of different people in the start-up ecosystem.” Kosper said in his piece on hatchpitch.

Get more wise words from a SXSW alum who’s a) startup is still up and running b) who finished second in last years Hatch competition, here.

SXSW is part of our Sneaker strapped nationwide startup road trip part DEUX, help us out if you can.

Tech Cocktail Hosting SXSW Startup Celebration Saturday March 9th

Tech startup blog and event powerhouse Tech Cocktail is hosting a startup celebration at South By Southwest 2013. If you’ve ever been to one of TechCocktail’s events you know they do a fantastic job of connecting startups with the public, the press and investors. The SXSW Startup Celebration won’t be any different.

This year TechCocktail is teaming up with CEA (the folks who put on CES) and .co.

The event kicks off Saturday March 9th at 7pm and runs until 11pm at The Stage on Sixth (508 East 6th Street, Austin TX). It runs until 11pm.

Frank Gruber and the team at TechCocktail know how to throw together an event and they also know how to find some of the best startups in the world. This years event will feature 30 great startups that will be named shortly.

This is the fourth year for TechCocktail’s big event at SXSW. Some of the startups that have showcased in years past at this event include: FitOrbit, Foodspotting, Khush, Mobile Roadie, Personal, Storify, Udemy, Tango, SaneBox, Sawbuck, Sifteo, Sonar, Sphero, Stitch Labs, Votizen, and many more. So you know this years event will be equally as epic.

Don’t take our word for it though, click here to reserve your ticket.

Startup America Bring’s Steve Blank’s NEXT Program To SXSWi

Back in October, Startup Weekend, Startup America and Steve Blank teamed up to give an uber intensive startup program on customer discovery to startups across the country. The curriculum in the NEXT program is a kin to the courses taught at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, Caltech,Princeton, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech.

Ten startups attending SXSWi will have the chance to go through a condensed version of the program taught in person by top industry veterans.

“In just the few short months since its launch, NEXT has enabled hundreds of startups across the country to refine their customer development process, a critical component for any young company trying to reach their goals,” stated Scott Case, CEO of Startup America. “We’re excited to partner with Startup Weekend and Steve Blank to introduce this curriculum at one of the leading startup events in the country: SXSW Interactive.”

Participating startups will receive hands-on feedback throughout the four-day period, including morning program sessions and one-on-one mentoring. In addition, the teams will then spend their days engaging potential customers, honing their business model, participating in office hours and receiving invaluable feedback from investors, media, and large corporations.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for startups attending SXSW to learn from the man who literally wrote the books on Customer Development,” said Marc Nager, founder of Startup Weekend. “We’ve put together an incredible schedule for the startups and can’t wait to see what they can accomplish in four short days in Austin.”

This is just one of a number of great events hosted by Startup America at SXSWi. For the full schedule visit Startup America’s SXSW page, here.

SXSW13: Hatch Finalists Announced

While there will be hundreds of startups vying to pitch anyone with a pulse during SXSWi 2013, Hatch, the official pitch contest as part of Startup Village has announced the finalists. Each company will present a four minute business plan to a panel of corporate, angel, and venture investor judges in front of the SXSW audience on March 10, 2013 from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM at the Hilton Austin Downtown in Austin, TX. The audience will also weigh in with comments and votes using mobile and web tools.

These twelve companies were chosen from around the world to participate in the competition. Each will receive one-on-one coaching from mentors to refine their presentations in preparation for the competition. Applicants were evaluated based on factors such as: How revolutionary the idea is. The impact it will make on the world. The problem it solves and for whom. The market opportunity. The unique advantage of the startup founders and team.

Founders compete to win prizes and gain recognition to take their startup to the next stage. The judges will determine in which companies they would invest their virtual $1M. Last year’s winner, Distil, announced a substantial seed investment led by HATCH judge Frankel of ff Venture Capital.

The finalists are:

Future Ad Labs
GeriJoy Inc.
Ginkgotree, Inc.
Lynx Laboratories
MobileX Labs
Molecule
Pervasive Group Inc.
Reactor Labs
Reality Mogul
SnapHealth
Socedo
Taskbox

Hatch is presented by the Houston Technology Center, one of Forbes’ “Twelve Business Incubators Changing The World”. It’s a collaborative effort between Houston and Austin’s thriving startup communities.

You can find out more about the Hatch Pitch Competition here.

Did you see the startup pitches at everywhereelse.co 2013? Don’t miss eveywhereelse.co 2014, tickets on sale now at 2013 prices, click here

Don’t Launch At SXSW, Accelerate!

In the video above, Nashville Technology Council’s CTO of the Year Marcus Whitney candidly discusses the dumbest thing he’s ever done as an entrepreneur. What was it? Launching at SXSW.

His company MoonToast, has bounced back since that tragic sxsw launch and brought on huge clients for their social media and engagement platform, like Universal Music Group.

MoonToast actually has a great product but it’s not one for the masses of hipster startup junkees that are headed to Austin Texas in less than two weeks. It’s more of a B2C play with huge potential upside.

Moontoast lost over $100,000 dollars launching at SXSW. The real problem was the fact that prior to SXSW it appeared that they had all of their ducks in a row. They were ready to make a huge splash. Once they pulled the trigger though, they signed up three new users.

There are countless stories of startups that launch at SXSW simply because it’s the trendy thing to do. But even RackSpace’s celebrity statup guru Robert Scoble says not to launch at SXSW. In a piece on Quora that he originally published two years ago, and his since updated, he says don’t launch at SXSW, use it as an accelerant.

You want to launch ahead of sxsw and create an ear piercing buzz by reaching out to key influencers like Scoble, Leo Laporte, MG Siegler, Mike Arrington, or any of the other high profile journalists you can find on Scoble’s Twitter list or his Facebook list .

Scoble offers a great list of tips too for accelerating at SXSW and you can find that here on Quora (account required)

I’ve personally been to SXSW 16 different times. The first 12 years I attended the music festival during my radio career. The last four years have been as a tech journalist. I know how bad most startups want to launch at sxsw but unless you’ve got buckets and buckets of money that you’re willing to lose you may want to reconsider. Whitney humbly told us that going into their first investor meeting after sxsw was an experience he wouldn’t’ wish on anyone.

These gigantic balloons were part of Trover’s presence at SXSW12 (photo: NMI)

We saw some great startups in 2011 and 2012. At least year’s SXSW we saw Trover, while they’re still in existence they dumped over $50,000 into street team promoters, gigantic orange balloons, real estate at the foodtruck village and Tequilla infused walking tours of Austin. Rain basically ruined most of their promotions. Today, most people I talk to have no idea what Trover is.

Make people talk about your product and talk about you. Do something to stand out but don’t be obnoxious. Don’t forget to put your big boy pants or your big girl pants on and realize that there’s thousands of people just like you competing for the exact same thing.

Read Scoble’s tips here.

Nibletz & The Everywhereelse.co Team Are Looking For A Few Good Sponsors

As many of you know prior to putting on everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2013, we are on the nibletz, sneaker-strapped startup road trip. We stopped in over 60 different cities across the country, went to startup meetups, startup weekends, startup weeks, incubators, accelerators and anything with a startup pulse. We made some awesome friends and met some great startups, many of whom came to Memphis for everywhereelse.co.

Well right after the conference we had to get right back on the road in order to finish our book in time for a December ’13 publishing (that seemed like so long ago when we first struck the book deal). We’re no officially on the road for the next 100 days. Our immediate next stops are Cincinnati, Columbus, St. Louis, Austin (sxsw), an outreach trip in San Francisco, Kansas City, Portland, Baltimore and more.

We can’t do this alone. Last year in 4 campaigns we raised around $5,000 on indiegogo. For this leg of the trip we’ve got some interesting things we can offer our sponsors and we’re doing it directly below. Thank you so much for your continued support and let us know what city and state you’re in so we can connect on the road trip.

Sponsorship levels

Attaboys (The Extra Value Meal) $6.00 (face it $5.00 doesn’t get you an extra value meal anymore)

This is our “attaboy” sponsorship feel free to get us as many extra value meals as you’d like. We’ll gladly thank you with a link in a thank you weekly wrap up on nibletz.com and give you a shot out on our twitter accounts.

A Taco, from Moe’s Or Chipotle $10.00

This sponsorship will help get us a taco from Moe’s or Chipotle, food is fuel, fuel is good . Feel free to get us as many taco’s from Moe’s and Chipotle as you’d like we will be extremely grateful.

For this sponsorship we will give you a paragraph shout out with your link, description and Twitter handle in a per stop thanks for the Taco’s post. We’ll also give you a shot out on Twitter (info captured in the butto below).

Bus Ticket $25.00

We take the Bolt Bus, Megabus and other regional cheap bus services everywhere we can because we boot strap to the point we call it sneaker-strapping. Your $25 donation can get us a lot more places than you would ever imagine on Megabus and Bolt Bus.

For this sponsorship you’ll receive a new “nibz” short form story about your startup (identified as a sponsored nibz) along with a linkback in the logo and at the bottom of the story you’ll also get 2 shout outs on Twitter.

A Tank Of Gas and A Tank You! $50.00

For the stops on the trip that we can’t make by bus we have to drive and your $50.00 sponsorship for gas comes in quite handy.

With your $50.00 sponsorship you’ll get a nibz featured post on nibletz.com as well as a thank you mention in our weekly thank you post with linkbacks. You’ll also get 4 tweets with your Twitter handle and link.

Hotel Money $120

You’ll breathe easier knowing that the nibletz crew will get most likely 2 nights out of this hotel money. We may not sleep, but rather stay up and work all night, but that’s ok with you because we’re all startup founders.

With your hotel money sponsorship you and your startup will receive a “sponsored” nibz feature story about what you do. We’ll tweet the story out on our regular tweet schedule to nearly 150,000 followers and share across all of our social networks.

Sneaker Strapped Patron Sponsor $550.00

The nibletz sneaker strapped patron sponsorship includes one “startup village” booth package for everywhereelse.co 2013, February 17-19th, 2014 in Memphis Tennessee. The Startup Village booth includes booth space, wifi, a chance to pitch for over $10,000 in cash and several other contest opportunities, name in program, description in virtual village and 3 attendee tickets.

As part of the road trip patron sponsors your website will be mentioned in a rotation with other sponsors on our youtube videos from the road trip (not including SXSW).

You’ll also get a sponsored feature story. Which will run in our social streams.

Also, if you choose, you can send two t-shirts one XL and one M and we will wear them in videos from the trip.

Sneaker Strapped Saint $1000

With the sneaker strapped saint sponsor package you will get everything in the Patron package including the startup village booth for next years conference. You will also get your logo prominently featured on the 2014 everywhereelse.co conference SWAG bag.

Provided it fits in the tour schedule we will also stop by your startup for an event or meetup.

If you choose we will wear your t-shirt in our videos as well.

SXSW 2013 Nibletz/Everywhere Else Saint Sponsor $1800

This sponsorship includes everything in the Saint sponsorship however the perks will be included during the SXSW 2013 coverage. This is an excellent opportunity for startups that can’t be at sxsw but still want added exposure.

At $1800 Nick or Kyle will wear your startup t-shirt for an entire day and an entire day’s worth of on camera videos. Your startup will also be featured in all of our AOL Radio coverage as demonstrated here.

Finally, we will write two stories about your startup and tweet them out over the course of SXSWi 2013. We will also give you 20 additional Tweets during the course of SXSWi.

SXSW 2013 Platinum nibletz & everywhere else sponsor (3 Available) $2700

This sponsorship includes everything in the SXSW Saint sponsorship however the perks and more.This is an excellent opportunity for startups that can’t be at sxsw but still want added exposure.

Your startup will be featured in every video that we do during the “outro” see this link for an example.

Your startup will be featured all day long on AOL radio, listen to this for an example.

At $2400 Nick or Kyle will wear your startup t-shirt for one entire day and an entire day’s worth of on camera videos. Your startup will also be featured in all of our AOL Radio coverage as demonstrated here.

Finally, we will write two stories about your startup and tweet them out over the course of SXSWi 2013. We will also give you 40 additional Tweets during the course of SXSWi.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

SXSW Eco 2012 – Interview with DJ Spooky [Video]

Paul Miller better known as DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid was at SXSW Eco 2012 with his session The Intersection of Art + Sustainability

Media is the new medium for conservation. Using art to impact the planet, causing a global shift: Academy Award Winner, Grammy Winners and Artists speak on altering awareness on a global scale through media, film, music and design.

He was also on-hand to sign his latest book “The Book of Ice”

“What I have done with this book is to unpack some of the issues that drive my artwork and its relationship to the constantly changing facets of contemporary life in our information-economy dominated, post-everything twenty-first century. Looking back over the last several centuries, an intense amount of energy has been expended all over the world exploring and unraveling the meaning of humanity’s condition on the planet. Much of this energy has been spent in perverse and self-defeating ways. Our vision of modern life is tinged by events like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which makes former disasters like the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident or the 1986 release of radioactive steam in Chernobyl seem quaint and self-contained. More than ever, we are interconnected, and interdependent. In the future, regardless of any human action, the planet will be here – we as a species, might not.”

We had a chance to tape a quick interview with Paul Miller/DJ Spooky where we covered the book, his work with Saul Williams and the role that startups play in regards to the environment. (I apologize for the poor lighting conditions and Paul being so dark. This was 100% operator error and a lack of working knowledge to fix this).

DJ Spooky traveled down to Antarctica with his recording studio to record the ice. Out of this trip grew Terra Nova Sinfonia Antarctica a multimedia art project. As described on his site:

Sinfonia Antarctica transforms Miller’s first person encounter with the harsh, dynamic landscape into multimedia portraits with music composed from the different geographies that make up the land mass. Miller’s field recordings from a portable studio, set up to capture the acoustic qualities of Antarctic ice forms, reflect a changing and even vanishing environment under duress. Coupled with historic, scientific, and geographical visual material, Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica is a seventy minute performance, creating a unique and powerful moment around man’s relationship with nature.

This is his third book, following Sound Unbound: DJ Spooky Explores Remix Culture and Rhythm Science both published by MIT Press. Like The Book Of Ice and Terra Nova, Rhythm Science also included a piece that accompanied it entitled DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation.

SXSW Eco 2012 – NJ Startup: Staxxon Dynamic Container Systems

New Jersey/Ohio startup Staxxon is working to address one of the largest inefficiencies in the logistics industry – the empty shipping container. Every year hundreds of millions of shipping containers are shipped empty taking up space, using valuable natural resources, and wearing out equipment.

According to Tom Stitt, Staxxon’s corporate development director, the company’s founder was inspired to begin working on a new container design while driving one of his daughters to college. “George [Kochanowski] kept seeing piles of containers [along the roadway] and thought there had to be a better way to deal with them than stacking them high,” says Stitt. ¹

Staxxon has created an “accordian-like” shipping container that can be folded to 1/5 it’s size. This allows 5 empty containers to take up the space of just one container. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this could significantly alter the practices of logistics companies. Each container takes up space on trucks, trains, and container ships, as well as shipping yards. In April of this year they received a CSC Certificate for its 20′ container design and was issued the BIC registration code STXU for its test and trial containers. Below we have an in-person demonstration of the benefits via legos:

More details regarding Staxxon’s Dynamic Container Systems from their FAQ:

What technology and products is Staxxon developing?

Staxxon has developed, patented, prototype and obtained certification for a shipping container design that allows up to 5 empty containers to be folded, nested and moved in the same space as 1 container. In addition, Staxxon is developing an integrated system to support high speed folding/nesting and unfolding/un-nesting at terminals and depots that includes support for space/slot optimized freight bookings and related terminal/depot/ship/rail/truck workflow information technology.

Who will be Staxxon’s customers?

Staxxon will license its container, folding nesting system and related information technology to its customers. This means that a container fleet owner/operators – carriers, leasing companies, governments – can continue to work with existing container vendors/manufacturers. Terminal/depot operators will be able to source the folding/nesting system from current suppliers. leading freight booking and terminal operating system providers will be able to integrate Staxxon’s information technology.

How much does Staxxon’s technology cost? How much will a container with Staxxon technology cost?

Staxxon’s business model is based on licensing its intellectual property, designs and know-how, not manufacturing. Container fleet owner/operators will continue to source containers from their current vendors at prices negotiated by the fleet owners/operators. Staxxon will support existing container manufacturers with assembly line configuration, sourcing, training, inspections and certification services. Staxxon’s target cost for a container that includes Staxxon technology is in a range that provides the container fleet owner/operator a 100% return on the total investment, including operating costs unique to Staxxon’s technology, over a 24-30 month period. *Emphasis mine

LINKAGE

Staxxon homepage

The official Lego Video

Startups from Everywhere Else finally have a conference for them

New York Startup: Hashable Shutting Down

Hashable was destined to become the best way to save and remember where and when you met someone. That’s why they debuted at South By Southwest Interactive in 2011. In fact we saw them at the Androidandme party that year where they pitched before a crowd of die hard Android fans. The technology was actually pretty good.

Hashable wasn’t people discovery, more of a way to do a virtual business card exchange in person and then take it from off-line to online.

The backbone to Hashable was the on-going history that the app kept for everyone you may have met and used Hashable to remember since their launch 18 months or so ago.

Well this evening they sent out their “lights out” email to users, saying that they are shutting down on July 25th.

Dear Hashable Users,

We regret to inform you that the Hashable mobile apps and Hashable.com will be shutting down on July 25th. The service will be unavailable after this date.

While we are still very passionate about making better connections and meeting new people, the time has come for us to focus our energy elsewhere.

Some of you have stored valuable information in Hashable, and we want to give you the opportunity to save that data for your own records. If you’d like to receive a file with your complete history, please log onto Hashable.com, navigate to the “Profile” tab, then to the “Your History” section on that page. You can download the file by clicking “Export full history to .csv” and accepting the dialog that pops up.

We are incredibly grateful for all the people we have met through Hashable. Thank you for all your support, and we hope to connect with you again in the future.

All the best,

The Hashable Team

No word on what the next project is, but if you’re a Hashable user at least you can save your history, which is the best part. It’s too bad, this was a great idea and had a lot of thunder at the 2011 sxsw.

Linkage:

Hashable.com

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else”

Make sure we stay around, help this startup with our sneaker-strapped, nationwide startup road trip

Calgary Startups Prepare To Pitch In Pitch Rodeo By June 18th

Calgary area startups are invited to submit their 80 second pitch videos to Podium Ventures by June 18th. Startups submitting videos for this contest will be judged on ideas, execution and entertainment value.

The event is part of Calgary Stampede. Startups will have 80 seconds to “rope their way to the top” in hopes of winning the Pitch Rodeo trophy. There are three great prizes available to pick from for the top three pitches:

Two tickets to Canada House at SXSW 2013 to pitch internationally
Opportunity to pitch your startup in front of Venture Alberta to get funding
Visual business model session with Business Instincts Group to hone your business plan

“We are very excited to sponsor an event in which the Calgary startup community has the opportunity to pitch their ideas” says Adam Joyce, Executive Vice President of PODIUM Ventures.

If you think you’ve got what it takes you can submit a summary outlining the idea and a YouTube link to your 80 second practice pitch. Submissions are due by June 18th and should be emailed to pitchrodeo@podiumventures.com