WebInno 33 Wrap Up

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Royal Sonesta for WebInno 33! We had an excellent turnout, lively presentations, an interesting discussion with Steve Papa and an AngelHack winner! Here’s a rundown of the evening.
 
After some networking we kicked things off with our Main Dish presentations. First up was MediaMob. They’re working to simplify ad development and improve advertising integration into mobile games; or, as they put it, to “transform advertisers from villains into heroes.” MediaMob allows advertisers to appear in mobile games in ways that add value for the publisher, advertiser and player. Their demo showed Sears Auto Center appearing in the landscape of a driving game, with additional features and rewards unlocked by stopping in. Coming up with ways to deliver meaningful impressions to mobile gamers is a challenge and MediaMob is taking an interesting and sensible approach.
 
Next was Lifeables, a content curation company geared to families. Lifeables allows people to aggregate content from across the Web to “collect, share and safeguard the precious memories, the Lifeable moments,” in the words of CEO Karen Macumber. That content can then categorized to tell stories around a theme, person, event, interest, etc. The demo showed how Lifeables could be used to curate content about co-founder Jeremy Daly’s family. He was able to drag and drop content into collections – for example, focused on his daughter’s gymnastic events – to be shared with her grandmother. Lifeables offers a broader - yet more controlled - approach to collecting, consolidating and sharing content.
 
Last of the Main Dishes was education and collaboration company GatherEducation. Their platform uses Microsoft’s Kinect to capture a teacher’s movements, which are then displayed in a virtual classroom where the teacher and students can interact, answer questions and write on a shared digital chalkboard. For the demo, Greg Schwanbeck – a physics teacher from a local school – walked two remote participants through an abbreviated physics lesson. There have been a number of educational startups at past WebInno events and GatherEducation continues that tradition with a really hands-on twist.
 
After a poll of the WebInno audience, GatherEducation was recognized as the audience choice winner!
 
Back in the networking area, the Main Dish and Side Dish companies were kept busy chatting with everyone and showing off their technologies. Here’s a quick word on each of the Side Dishes:

• Abroad101 provides a slick platform for students to share and discover study abroad programs. Schools and universities can collect program evaluations, data and information and then share that information with students to direct them to approved programs.
• Cangrade aims to “take the uncertainty out of hiring” through an automated candidate management and screening platform for recruiters, employers and job candidates. With more people reentering the workforce, Cangrade helps predict job fit and performance even before an interview.
• Mosaic allows professional photographers to manage, access, sync and store their images both online and offline. The program also integrates the archiving process directly into the photographer’s existing workflow and will offer tools to automate the image review process.
• OnTheBar is an app that lets users search and find drinks by specific bars and bartenders. “Consider this app a real-time window into your local cocktail scene.” Liquor and location – what could be better?
• Zoora provides access to discounted designer clothing, which can be personalized by altering colors, hemlines, sleeves, necklines or detailing to create a custom garment. Some items can even be ordered according to an individual’s measurements.

Diverging a bit from past WebInnos, 33 had a special session with Steve Papa, founder and chairman of Endeca, which was sold to Oracle for a rumored $1B. Papa took us through stories from his days starting up in Kendall Square and leading to the sale. And finally, the AngelHack Hackathon held its award ceremony at WebInno and live-streamed the proceedings to the AngelHack event in San Francisco. Congratulations to Grand Prize winning Tabber – another Boston local!
 
Thanks again to all of our presenters and attendees for making this a fun and interesting evening! And one final thanks to the evening’s sponsors: Microsoft, Drund, GesmerUpdegrove, Softlayer, TripAdvisor, Wayfair, Litle, Constant Contact, NDT and InkHouse.
 
Hope to see you at the next WebInno!