Democamp 8 quick sum up
I probably won't be doing the event justice, but Democamp 8 was held last night, and there's a ton of stuff going on tech-wise in Toronto that I clearly had no idea about. Some major props to David Crow who has started something very special here. For a better review of the presentations, Olivier seems to do a much better job of keeping notes than I ever will.
Wild Apricot
Aiming to be an easy-to-use web site builder and application aimed at associations and non-profits, it seems to succeed, though I'm probably not a good judge, since I'm not in that group. Looks killer easy to use though, so at least they've got that right
Jobloft.com
In my opinion the hands down winner on the night. Fresh out of school, they win not because of the "wow" of their app (which is quite nice), but for their sharp focus on serving a niche audience in the job search market, and nailing it. The proof is in their customer base. Not two months old, they've got 30 customers paying to list retail and foodservice jobs on their site. These aren't mom and pop companies either: Blockbuster, HMV, Cara Foods.
Filemobile.com
This really needs to be seen to be believed, because it looks like a fantastic media sharing and storage application, but there seemed to be so many features that the presenter couldn't decide what to show first. An unbelievably slick app that I can't describe because there was too much to take in. You'll need to decide whether too many features is a good thing or a bad thing.
Languify.com
Seemed in a pretty nascent state, and also, I'm not a developer, so I think I don't have a handle on how useful it is. The beginnings of a system to assist in what many developers dread: Translating app's into another language.
Freshbooks.com
Mike from Freshbooks gave a presentation on the importance of metrics and measurement in judging the success of web apps. A good message, if a slightly rambling presentation. I think Mike volunteered to fill a spot that was vacated.
Overall, these events have been tremendous in fostering a sense of community among Toronto's software companies. I wouldn't be aware of most of these companies were it not for these events, and they are clearly up to some exciting stuff. Hopefully, I can include us (Democamp7 presenters) in that group ;-).
