I am at reporting from DEMO today (the 17th year). This is an amazing conference that showcases new launches of products, technologies and companies. There are 69 companies participating in the event at San Diego. Each demo is under 6 minutes while they present to a group of about 500+ attendees.

So what does DEMO have to do with Facebook you are asking yourself? A lot…

I spent yesterday talking with over half of the companies; and do you know what a large percentage (over 50%) had in common? They are planning on building a facebook application.

It was amazing to have conversations with some really smart people and discuss their products and technologies. Only 2 companies have a facebook application live (reviews coming). Quite a few actually are close to launching their facebook apps. The greater percentage were planning on building facebook applications but really need a clearer understanding of what does and does not work in the facebook eco-system.

Many of the companies still struggling to still figure out how to leverage a facebook application… Needless to say my voice is almost shot after 1 day of talking and a full day ahead of me today. I had several execs stop me and tell me they recognized me from the blog, and that they were active readers of this blog and looked at it as a learning tool. The bottom line is that there is a genuine desire to engage with the facebook audience in an engaging and useful way.

None of these companies wanted a “Widget”. They wanted to get in facebook in a meaningful way. It was a very smart group of people at this event… The coolest thing I saw at the event was a company that invented a technology that actually allows your thoughts to be turned into speech. This is mindblowing technology that is potentially life changing for people with speech difficulties!

I have included for our readers benefit these DEMO Videos. Enjoy these 3 videos: Organizer Chris Shipley talks about the social web and engagement and how it is impacting business.

There were tons of companies worthy of being included here(more to come)… But CoComment is one that I really liked around social media and a new way to follow conversations.

Another interesting company whose concept and execution I really liked was PeopleJam.com They will translate well into Facebook with a great application.

Technorati Tags: facebook, demo, facebook business, technology

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