Alec Saunders SquawkBox

VON Canada finished up for me yesterday.  Immediately following the show, the iotum contingent and I high-tailed it back to Ottawa.  This morning I jumped on a plane and travelled to Boston.  Busy week!

Highlights of the last day for me:

The Deep Impact session, which explored the intersection of VoIM, Portals, and the PSTN.  We had a large group of excellent speakers, and explored a number of different topics.  For me, discussion panels are the highlight of the show.  I’d rather have a bunch of smart people debate a topic, than a group of vendors deliver a pitch.

Show Me The Money, moderated by my partner Howard Thaw, was also excellent.  Three VC’s and an accountant from Deloitte’s explaining their views on business, and raising money.  JL Albright’s Rick Segal was one of the panelists, which always makes for an entertaining show. 

Money Making Apps was an opportunity for me to show iotum in action.  Afterward, the conversation moved to a discussion, in many ways, of what Skype did right. 

Biggest takeaway: the shift to applications is finally happening.  Applications was the buzzword on everyone’s lips.  About time!

Jon Arnold’s Day 3 thoughts, and podcast are located here. 

We had another organizers meeting this morning for BarCamp Ottawa.  The event seems to be coming together very well.   It’s looking like it will be a great event.

The agenda, of course, will be very loose, as is generally the case with BarCamp events.  We will be getting together Friday night for a beer, just to meet the other attendees and loosen up a little.  Saturday, at Bitheads, we’ll have up to three tracks of conversations.  Lunch will be served, coffee provided in the morning, and anything else anyone brings will be available for snacks.

The next couple of weeks we’re going to be encouraging folks to start signing up to lead sessions.  I’ve already committed to lead one session on what makes a good demo, and another on when and how to use open source in your business.  If you’d like to lead a session, then please whip over to the wiki, and let us know.

And lastly, we’ve made 75 t-shirts, which will be given out to the first 75 attendees.  Session leaders have priority over others, though.  There may be other good swag too!

I’m looking forward to seeing people there.

An old friend and ex-Microsoftie Brandon Watson is working on a new company in the parental controls / online child protection arena.  He’s asked for a little help with market research.  If you’ve got kids, and would be willing to contribute 5 minutes of your time, please fill out his survey.