Post DEMO

Briefly summarize the first week at work after DEMO. We got a lot of media attention because of the award, so I had a chance to talk to many reporters. Unfortunately, most of them were disappointing to me in terms of their background knowledge or even basic writing skills. I wonder where good reporters are doing., chasing political news maybe. However, I met two really good ones from magazines, so there is still hope.

On business side, I received inquiries from countries I'd never expected. There was one software development service company based in Ukraine, and a IT company from Burkina Faso in West Africa. These names only exist in my geography books, and now we are connected by internet.

Personal note on my DEMOfall experience

In one word, awesome! It's a great place for product launch because the media attention is huge, and lots of great people to meet and talk to there. And then, I'm going to say something I hope my boss will not see.

I'd like to thank Shan for bringing us to DEMO, putting her own credit at risk for that we (or I) actually fell in the IDEAS Show. When we were invited to the IDEAS Show, we had no idea what it was for, nor the importance of DEMO Conference. So basically I was appointed by my boss to do a usual "demo" as we do every day, following the instructions from him and deliver what he has in mind. The only adjustment was to make it into six minutes - a rule we heard for the first time. And you should have known that I failed if you are a regular reader of this blog. However, Shan had a strong confidence on our product, so she actually talked Chris into inviting Awind to DEMOfall.

With the experience of failure, plus the fact that my boss and anyone else were extremely busy on daily jobs, again I was assigned to take care of our preparation for DEMO. But this time I have better position to speak since I was the only one who actually did a six-minute demo and knew the response of the audience. So I started writing a script based on the concept of Xiang Sheng (a Chinese duo comedian talk), similar to the Get-a-Mac Ads familiar to the western people. With the help from Shan and Chris, I finished my script and revised it like six times before my boss had any response to the scripts I sent him. Since he was too busy for this, I did all the conference calls with DEMO staff and preparing the stuff with the help of my colleagues. I became the writer and director of our demo.

Finally it was one week before DEMO, and my boss was able to work with me to practice and revise the script -in the spare time of making the demo sample ready before we depart. And, after about 10 times practice, we were on the plane heading for USA.

Then, a could-be disaster. When we arrived the Grande Ballroom for the only one rehearsal, we found the camera for mobile phone screen could not fit into our script at all. I decided to change the script at the last minute, and thanks to the help from the professional DEMO staff, we kind of finished the rehearsal, despite the mess of video transition because no one could follow the new script.

And, you know the rest. We won a DEMOgod Award. But the best part of it was that people came by and said how they liked our demonstration on stage. A guy from Boston who works in Shanghai approached me and asked me if the demo was in the form of Xiang Sheng, and I was like, "Geez! They get it!" It was unbelievable that even in the afternoon of the second day, when the audience had seen dozens of demos, people still recognized us and cheered for us. Thank you to everyone who helped me on the way to the first DEMOgod Award of Taiwan!

Media Coverage on Awind's DEMOfall Presence

We got a lot of attention and coverage attending this DEMOfall. It was an amazing experience to talk to people from important media like CNET or Mercury News, among other journalists or bloggers from around the world. Here are some of them:

http://twitter.com/cshipley/statuses/914021524
Chris Shipley
12:36 AM September 09, 2008 from web
Awind is charming the audience with its wireless high-definition display technology. www.awind.com

http://twitter.com/dgmandell/statuses/914021875
the AWIND demo from #DEMO is THE video to watch. Trust me!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10034909-52.html
September 8, 2008 9:45 AM PDT
Awind takes controlling presentations mobile
Posted by Daniel Terdiman
SAN DIEGO--If you're the kind of person who runs a lot of PowerPoint presentations, you probably are very familiar with trying to connect your computer to a million different projectors.
But a Taiwanese company called Awind showed at DemoFall today a product called MobiShow which is designed to take the difficult and complex connection problem--what if you don't have the right cables--folks like this face on a regular basis.
MobiShow is a mobile-phone and Wi-Fi based projection controller.
The idea is that with MobiShow running on your mobile phone, you can use that device as what amounts to a remote control for the presentation.
You would run MobiShow--which would be connected to your computer via Wi-Fi--and then use your mobile phone to set the proper screen resolution, as well as to easily click through various slides in a PowerPoint presentation.
This would be extremely useful for the road warriors who until now have been forced to try to always remember to bring the various cables and connections they need to hook up to clients' projection systems. Instead, they can rely solely on their computer and their mobile device.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/11865/print
DEMOfall '08: Back to the (paper-enabled) future
By Frank Hayes
Created Sep 9 2008 - 1:06am
* Awind had something that got these presentation-oriented business users oohing and aahing: MobiShow, a box that lets a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone display presentations or even video on a full-size screen in full-size resolution. The phone can display its desktop in the usual itty-bitty size, but can do full-size PowerPoint displays. The streaming video was especially impressive, even when a demonstration video of fireworks took a while to download and made the crowd think the demo had crashed. (It started up eventually, and looked very sharp.)

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_10415773?nclick_check=1
DEMOfall conference highlights innovation
By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
“Taiwan-based Awind is developing a device called the mobiShow, which will allow users to send video and presentations from a smart phone to a TV or digital projector. The idea is that instead of lugging around a laptop, jetsetters can store their PowerPoint presentations in their phones. The device not only connects with smart phones; it also upconverts the video stored on the phone for display on larger screens.”

http://etech.eweek.com/content/mobile_and_wireless/live_from_demofall_08.html
Monday, September 08, 2008 3:26 PM/EST
Live from DEMOfall 08
“Drawing the most applause from the crowd (full of people who probably do their fair share of presentations), was MobiShow from Awind. This was a small wireless projector that made it possible to drive fully functional and decent resolution from a mobile phone.”

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1815927645;img;9629;ssid;1
15 cool new technologies at DEMOfall 08
Jon Brodkin (Network World) 09/09/2008 10:55:00
Company: Awind Technology: mobiShow connects your PC or smartphone to your television set using a wireless transmitter, allowing you to stream high-definition movies, your desktop or any video format to your big screen. "Born of expertise in delivering high-definition, PC-based presentations to the television screen, mobiShow makes it easy to discover and watch IP-based video," DEMO organizers say. "But it's the transcoding of PC-based video into high-definition video scaled to fit the television screen that makes Awind's offering remarkable."

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3770116/DEMO+Web+20+Is+So+Yesterday.htm
DEMO: Web 2.0 Is So Yesterday
A sneak peek at a flexible display; power presentations from your cell phone and how to save your DVD collection.
September 8, 2008
By David NeedlA company from Taiwan called Awind got the crowd's attention with mobiShow, a book-sized hardware device that lets you use a cell phone to give presentations via Wifi. In its demonstration, Awind showed how the mobiShow can stream a presentation, wirelessly, or an IP-based video for that matter, to a big screen with a range of transition effects typical of a Powerpoint presentation. The technology can also sharpen the image from what appears on the cellphone display to high definition on a big screen.
We can bring anything you want to a TV screen," said Richard Chen, program manager of Awind, who claimed that it's a much more effective way to access and manage video than Apples TV, for example. And yes, he said, mobiShow will work with the iPhone.
No word on when it's coming to the U.S. market, or price. Chen did say the company is opening up the software to developer and Web designers to further tap its potential.

http://www.dantynan.com/2008/09/08/demo-live-continued/
A-wind MobiShow
MobiShow box about the size of a Palm connects video from iPhone to projector — no wires required. Increase resolution to show at large sizes with “presentation to go” (PTG) software on phone. Transition effects, simple animation. These guys are total geeks (and they know it), the slides are Dork City, but this one looks pretty damned cool. Turns phone into media server. Not clear what wireless technology they’re using. Oops, video demo crashed. But still, impressive.

http://www.giiks.com/?2008/09/12/1423-demofall-08-xumii-et-awind
DEMOfall 08 : Xumii et Awind
par Sophie dans General
Awind est une sympathique start-up taïwanaise qui a fait forte impression avec sa box MobiShow de streaming mobile vers un écran TV.
La box d’Awind se connecte en WiFi ou Ethernet au réseau et crée un point d’accès pour le mobile.
Connecté en VGA ou HDMI à la TV, l’application mobile permet l’affichage intégral de l’écran du mobile sur le téléviseur.
Le mobile devient alors un vrai media center qui streame vidéos, musiques et photos.
Awind propose un format adapté de présentation mobile streamée sur TV : le Powerpoint To Go (.PTG).
Une fois formatée à partir du PC au format .ptg, le mobile se transforme en télécommande de diaporama en grand écran.

http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/blogs/yi-jian_ngo/archive/2008/09/11/top-6-startups-at-demofall-2008.aspx
Top 6 Startups at DEMOFall 2008
Had a blast at one of the startup world’s biggest shindigs, getting to know lots of interesting companies and the fiercely passionate entrepreneurs that run them. Here are my favorites:
Awind allows mobile phone users to wirelessly transmit content (slide presentations, video etc.) from their phone to a standard monitor, projector and certain TV sets. Their solution consists of a modem-sized box that connects to the display plus software that lives on the mobile phone.
Even as the compute power of mobile phones increases exponentially, the mobile user interface is still constrained by the size of the device. Awind’s solution represents part of a broader ecosystem of technologies that can liberate the mobile user interface from its physical constraints, opening up new use cases that could enable mobile phones to become the primary personal computing device of choice in the future.

An Unusual Journey

I had an unusual trip flying home on BR015 from LAX to TPE. The first sign I noticed was that there were three people required wheelchair assistance when boarding. Actually this was the first time I had wheelchair passengers with me on the same flight instead of the more common people with infants. But, l didn't realize that it was only the beginning.

The flight seemed normal. Smooth takeoff, terrible airplane meals, and soon it was time for sleep. When we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I heard someone cried out loud in the back. I thought it was a child who felt boring or uncomfortable during the long flight. Several minutes later, the cabin crew broadcasted and asked for medical professionals - just like in the movies. A male Caucasian two rows in front of me stood up when went back with a flight attendant. After a while, he came back with the flight attendant and the flight attendant was taking notes and asking questions for a long time by the man.

Later - I could not tell for how long because I did not wear my watch - the Captain announced that due to medical situation, we will turn to Haneda Airport (HND) in Tokyo. I suppose all the cabin crew are too young so that they have never heard of this airport before and confused it with Narita (NRT). We landed in Tokyo around four o'clock local time. Emergency crew of Tokyo came on board and performed CPR or other measures necessary for a short while, according to passengers in the same cabin with the ill man. Then, they took him down to a hospital. It seems the man who travels alone had a heart-attack, and perhaps died before any of the doctors examined him -while the cabin crew was calling his name and shaking him for several minutes. I wonder if they will have nightmares when they realized that the time wasted may have killed the man. He left on the plane gifts he bought for his family or friends, who were still in bed and expected to welcome him when they woke up. But, it will never happen.

It took more than two hours in Tokyo to finish paper works and refuel, and another three to fly to Taipei. Life is unpredictable. Attached is a new video of my son. Cease time when you still can, friends.

Vote Awind for Best of the Show

There is a new Best of the Show award for DEMO, beginning this DEMOfall. It is no more than a popularity contest if you look at it this way, since there is no regulation on how you vote. You can just go to the vote page and select one without even watching any of the videos. But still, if you're reading this blog and you know me or Awind, please go to the vote page and vite fot Awind Inc. Ask your friends to do it if possible, thanks!

Awind demo video on DEMO.COM

Here is the demo video, and here is the official page of us on demo.com.

We Are DEMOgod

We won DEMOgod. Unbelievable. DEMOgod awards are chosen by the DEMO staff. 10 companies are chosen from the 72 demonstrated, and 2 teams out of three from Taiwan won DEMOgod award. I think that helps on promoting Taiwan in someway.

DEMO is a really cool conference not like any other trade shows. However, the internet in Sheraton sucks. It costs 11.95 a day for room guests but the speed is like a 33.6K dial-up.

A Hunch?

Sometimes I feel that my son has a hunch when someone is leaving for several days. This week, he always wants to make sure that I am beside him before he sleep. If I am in the living room, he asks me to go to bed with him otherwise he does not sleep. This is unusual because he only sticked with his mother when he felt sleepy in the past few months. So, I wonder if he knows I will not be home next week. I'm not making this up because it happened twice when Allie had business trips. I have no idea why he knows, since I have not packed my luggage or something. Maybe he can sense the atmosphere in the air.