I had a fantastic time tonight at SFWIN. I met up with several familiar faces and was introduced to some new ones as well. Thank you to the SFWIN team, Adaptive Path, and all of the other sponsors.

Tonight was demo night for Feedlinx. I had expected to give a 15 minute presentation and then have the rest of the night to mingle. However, the format was changed so that demo tables were setup around the room and the demos were going on simultaneously; all night long! It worked out fine — just had to adapt. The downside was that I didn’t get to see any of the other demos and I didn’t talk with anyone unless they came to me. On the upside, I had a lot more time to show off my product.

I can’t comment on the food since I didn’t get a chance to try any. The drinks were flowing as usual, but I talked so much that I nursed the same beer for three hours. Now that’s a first for me.

I caught up with Andre at EarthCode.com and he mentioned that he’d made a sale on his Rails project. Congrats!

The demo going on next to me was the only demo that I learned anything about. The product is called 1-800-411-metro. It’s a free 411 service, paid for through short contextual ads. It sounds like a pretty cool concept. I’d listen to a couple of ads to save a couple of bucks on 411 service. I’m starting to show my age. When I was a kid, 411 was free, and dammit it should always be free.

The reaction to my demo was very interesting. Some people liked the product and said they’d give it a try. Some people listened nicely, but I don’t think they were really all that interested. Some people wanted to school me on some of the technical points. Well, I’ve been schooled before, and I’ve also schooled some people in my day. I’m not above learning something new, but there always seems to be someone who wants to prove how much smarter he is than you. Again, I must be getting older, because I still see it as a learning opportunity.

On another note — I had a loose end to tie off. Someone mentioned to me that I was using the “old” way to link to RSS. If he happens to read this, could he please comment on the “new” way. I didn’t understand what he meant, and I’d love to learn.

Technorati Tags: SFWIN, Feedlinx, demo, technology, San Francisco

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1. 1000 Flowers Bloom
   

   SFWIN – Thank you for coming to the May Event

   Thank you to everyone who came out to the event at the Adaptive Path Offices last night. We changed up the demo presentation a little and we think it worked a lot better. Lots of good feedback from folks about

2. SFWIN » Blog Archive » SFWIN 1.7 - Thank you for coming to our May Event
   

   [...] Shannon Whitley blogs about his experience at the event. [...]

3. Shannon Whitley » Back On Track
   

   [...] I woke up this morning and realized that I’ve been letting myself lose sight of my original software development goals. Feedlinx has been a primary focus for me for the past few months, and I’ve been adding features like crazy, but I realized that Feedlinx is just an interface. It has a lot of useful features, but it’s sort of like the body of a Camaro. It’s the thing you see — the part that draws you in — only because it’s sometimes hard to visualize the real attraction under the hood. [...]