v100 Show: Control4 CTO, Eric Smith, on Home Automation for the Masses
Control4 co-founder and CTO, Eric Smith, talks with Dennis Wood about how Control4 is bringing home automation to the masses. Smith is a member of vSpring’s v100 — a peer-nominated group of the top 100 venture entrepreneurs in the rocky mountain region.
Control4 manufactures a complete line of home automation products that makes sophisticated home automation solutions practical and affordable for new and existing homes. Control4’s solutions integrate home theater, music, lighting, temperature controls and home security.
Prior to co-founding Control4, Eric co-founded STSN (now iBAHN), the worldwide leader in broadband services for business travelers. Eric developed the intellectual property that made it possible to simplify Internet protocols and offer fast, convenient broadband service to travelers staying in more than 175,000 hotel rooms in 200 cities around the world. Prior to STSN, Eric co-founded PHAST Corporation, which quickly became the leading control system in the residential control systems market.
Bob Metcalfe, Mr. Ethernet, Discusses Home Automation with Control4 CTO Eric Smith
For a highly reliable and secure automated home, networking devices and systems is a core requirement. Eric Smith, a co-founder and CTO at Control4, talks with Robert (Bob) Metcalfe, the founder of 3Com. Known as a gifted technologist, “Mr. Ethernet,” a venture capitalist, and board member at Ember Corporation, Metcalfe is placing bets on a new networking technology know as ZigBee, a 2.4GHz wireless standard - IEEE802.15.4 - aimed primarily at monitoring and control rather than data transfer. In addition to Ethernet, Control4 solutions leverage ZigBee to connect systems where wires just aren’t practical.
In between making predictions for the future of the Smart Home, Smith and Metcalfe joke about the challenge of changing a thermostat to adjust for daylight savings time and the reliability of Windows and PCs compared to a stereo receiver.
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iPodv100 Show: Identity Management and Reputation-Driven Business, With Phil Windley
vSpring v100 member Phil Windley speaks with Dennis Wood about identity management and the emergence of reputation-driven business. He discusses his interest in identity management and reputation systems and the foundational roles these systems play in both the enterprise software and Internet applications spaces. Windley sees the identity management space changing rapidly as large vendors such as Microsoft and Novell and initiatives such as OpenID launch Internet identity platforms. These new platforms will create an explosion of new opportunities in reputation-driven industries such as new media, e-commerce, and social media.
Windley is currently the executive producer of IT Conversations. He’s also an associate professor of computer science at Brigham Young University, and the author of the popular Technometria blog, as well as a frequent contributor to InfoWorld and Between the Lines. He is also the author of the book Digital Identity, from O’Reilly Media. Prior to joining BYU, Phil served as the CIO for the State of Utah, serving on then-Governor Leavitt’s cabinet and as a member of his senior staff. Before entering public service, Phil was vice president for product development and operations at Excite@Home and chief technology officer of iMALL, Inc. an early creator of electronic commerce tools.
Cheryl Snapp Conner, SNG PR Partner & Executive PR Director
Social media and public relations activities are converging at different paces and in different ways for companies. Cheryl Snapp Conner, Partner & Executive PR Director at Salt Lake City-based Snapp Norris Group/SNG PR talks about this evolution and the impact of social media on PR strategy. Describing the phenomenon as ’shifting ground’ and a ‘moving target,’ Snapp Conner shares her professional insights, shares success stories from SNG’s clientele, and also comments on best practices–including how not to mix social media and public relations.
Founded in 2002, award-winning SNG PR is one of the industry’s premier public relations firms, and was voted the “Best PR Firm in Utah” by the readership of Connect Magazine.
v100 Show : Behind the v100 Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs
In this inaugural v|100 Show podcast, vSpring Capital’s Dennis Wood, Human Capital, and Gavin Christensen, Principal, introduce the reason for creating the v|100 Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs program and set the stage for future conversations with v|100 members. They discuss how as technology venture capitalist’s, finding and retaining key executive talent is key to the success of a startup. And how creating a program to find and leverage a community of executive talent has been an important initiative for vSpring.
v|100 Show : Behind the v|100 Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs [18:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadDeer Valley Resort and Park City Chamber Use Social Networking to Promote Freestyle FIS World Cup
Park City, UTAH — January 11, 2007 — When Deer Valley Resort wanted to reach the Gen Xer’s and Y’s to market the Freestyle FIS World Cup, they turned to social networking and new media distribution like YouTube. Erin Grady, Deer Valley’s Communications Manager, worked with the Park City Chamber and Visitors Bureau to create a short, 5 minute Video Podcast that could be uploaded to YouTube and linked to blogs, MySpace pages, and web sites where local skiers hang out.
“We knew that younger audiences gets a lot of their information through interactive mediums,” said Grady. “We wanted to leverage the new social media and podcasting to reach an audience that will benefit from the free concerts and great skiing exhibitions.”
In addition to amazing skiing, Deer Valley is sponsoring free evening concerts featuring The Samples (Friday night) and The Wailers — the reggae band made famous by Bob Marley (Saturday night).
“This is a great event for locals,” said Brad Baldwin, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Voices. “Social networking allows organizations like Deer Valley and Park City to reach people who are getting their news and entertainment from the web, rather than traditional media.” Video podcasting and YouTube were selected to showoff the world’s most incredible winter sports athletes whose showmanship includes amazing aerials of jumps and speed and grace through giant mogul fields. The video also highlights scenes of downtown Park City Utah which helps promote tourism for the Park City Chamber to those who want to use the web to see the destination and what is offered to those who visit.
Freestyle FIS World Cup is being held January 11 - 13, 2007 at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah. The video can be seen on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlYqW2d4-8
ABOUT ROCKY MOUNTAIN VOICES Rocky Mountain Voices serves the region by publishing audio and video podcasts and educating organizations on the benefits of social media. The Rocky Mountain Voices team reaches out to the community for stories, first-hand reports of breaking news, and local commentary on important issues. Rocky Mountain Voices launched an exclusive relationship with the Silicon Valley-based PodTech Network — forming a partnership to give technology companies in the region distribution to PodTech’s extensive community, driving greater visibility for our companies and innovators. Rocky Mountain Voices was founded by four marketing executives with over 50 years of combined marketing experience.
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For more information contact: Brad Baldwin E-mail: brad [at] rockymountainvoices.com
Rocky Mountain Voices is a trademark of mCast Productions. Other marks may be the property of their respective owners.
Deer Valley Resort Uses Social Media to Promote Freestyle World Cup
When Deer Valley Resort wanted to reach the Gen Xer’s and Y’s to market the Freestyle FIS World Cup, they turned to social networking and new media distribution like YouTube. Erin Grady, Deer Valley’s Communications Manager, worked with the Park City Chamber and Visitors Bureau to create a short, 5 minute Video Podcast that could be uploaded to YouTube and linked to blogs, MySpace pages, and web sites where local skiers hang out. “We knew that the younger crowd gets a lot of their information through interactive mediums, so that’s why we selected social media and podcasting,” said Grady. Since the event includes free concerts from The Samples and The Wailers (the reggae band made famous by Family Man and Bob Marley) in addition to the freestyle competition, the web is a perfect medium to reach out.
Video was selected because watching some of the world’s most incredible winter sports athletes perform aerials, flips, and amazing moves is something that has to be seen. The video also highlights scenes of downtown Park City Utah which helps promote tourism for the Park City Chamber to those who want to use the web to see the destination and what is offered to those who visit.
Freestyle FIS World Cup is being held January 11 - 13, 2007 at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah.
Skullcandy Links Cell Calls and Music
Rick Alden, CEO and founder of Skullcandy, created a lifestlye technology brand that integrates cell phone and audio switching so the active lifestyle can easily switch from tunes to voice calls. The patented Skullcandy Link(TM) is available in Skullcandy-branded products and is also integrated into Giro helmets, Camelback packs, Burton headwear, Sessions snowboard clothing, and more. Rick’s 15 years of snowboard event and protour planning allowed him to understand the psychographics of the Skullcandy target customer and create an authentic alternative and lifestyle brand. Alden discusses how the company name was created out of a need for a memorable web domain.
Skullcandy hosted Supernatural as a booth attraction at CES. Supernatural holds the world’s record for the longest a freestyle rap at over nine hours. Check out the video of Supernatural working the CES crowd and CEO Alden rocking with the crowd.
Naked Gadgets — Thanks to InvisibleShield
ShieldZone founder Phillip Chipping and Robert Pedersen, CEO, sit down with Brad Baldwin to talk about the benefits of protected, “naked” gadgets. Industrial designers are working hard to create the sexiest and sleekest products. Why hide the design behind a bulky, unattractive case?
Chipping took a protective film developed to protect helicopter blades and turned it into a consumer-friendly product that keeps iPod screens looking new and fragile cellphones enshrouded in a wrap-around case. With “shields” for over 600 different products — from cellphones to gaming devices to MP3 players to GPS units to laptop screens and more, ShieldZone differentiates itself by “staying invisible.”
Control4 Talks About Enabling Remote Access to Your Automated, IP-Based Home
Ed Ryan, Vice President of Product Marketing, and Fred Geiger, Product Manager, at Control4 talk about their 4Sight service. 4Sight enables remote access to your home via the web so it’s easier to interact with the automated features of your home. They talked to us about how you can lock down your Wii to only work from 5-7pm and how you can set alerts if your garage door is still open past 10:00 am. And your Contol4 dealer can remotely interact with and customize your home features. Today there are over 10k IP-based automated homes, and Control4 is leading the way by enabling the everyday homeowner to have a smart home.
Gary Kennedy, Former Oracle President, Introduces RemedyMD
Gary Kennedy, one of the first 10 employees at Oracle, has a new home as CEO of RemedyMD, a healthcare informatics and decision support solution for practitioners, researchers, and patients. Kennedy remarks, it’s crazy that retailers can tell you what peanut butter to put on the end-cap, but doctors struggle to have access to data that will allow them to confidently prescribe healthcare. RemedyMD is out to change all that.
Leveraging his experience with large data collection and enterprise applications, Kennedy and his team are creating a decision support system to automate healthcare. Delivered as an ASP and requiring nothing more than a browser, healthcare professionals and patients can search for answers and take steps on treatments that fit their unique needs.
Supernatual Rapping at the Skullcandy Booth during CES
Supernatual is an “interactive DJ” who holds the world record for longest time continous rapping (something like 9 hours). Rick Alburn, CEO of Skullcandy based in Park City Utah, can be seen jamming to the beat.
Supernatual adds a just-in-time plug after being handed a Rocky Mountain Voices sticker 1:50 into the song. If you’re at CES, stop by and see the Skullcandy booth in the South Convention Hall 4 35308.
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