 | | May 30, 2008
The May Report: 05/30/2008: Great Tech Cocktail conference & TC 8 party; CaptainU and CureParticle win UC GSB B Plan comp.; Heart Sounds wins Biomedical Consortium & 4 cos. win '08 iVentures10 awards
Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com 773-525-3944.
If you missed an article, go here: http://www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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Do not miss Chicago's Well-Known Entrepreneurs Networking Event
of the Year 2008
The Midwest Entrepreneurs' Forum Monday June 2nd Networking Event
Date: Monday June 2nd, 2008
Time: 5:30 - 9:00 PM
Location: Union League Club - 2nd Floor Lounge
65 West Jackson Chicago, IL.
Cost Online Registration with Credit Card before May 26th will be $20 for
MEF Members and $30 for Non-Members.
For Online Registration, Please go to:
www.MidwestEntrepreneursForum.Org
AND CLICK ON CALENDAR OF EVENTS AND SELECT NETWORKING EVENT
Reservation fees are non-refundable! By registering on line you agree that
you have read this and that you agree.
Admission at the Door and after May 26th will be $30 for MEF Members and $40
for Non-Members.
We are asking you to please preregister so we can better plan on the food
and other services we must order ahead of time in order to have a successful
event.
For further information send an email to:
info@midwestentrepreneursforum.org
Or call the MEF Headquarters at 630-305-0005)
Hope to see you at our event.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Scoop section:
-- CaptainU and Cure Particle tie for first place in the University of Chicago business plan competition on Thursday
-- The companies competing in the Biomedical Consortium competition, Friday, May 30th and the winner is Heart Sounds
-- The 2008 and 2007 companies that won the iVentures10 competition sponsored by Illinois Ventures (I believe) where each firm receives $25K as part of an intern program for computer science students
-- Briefly noted, by Ron May
-- tvCompass and ESPN Product Launch; Macrovision-TV Guide Agreement
-- Hammond's Thunderclap Recording Studio
-- A China charity from the MEF
-- Layton Olson: May 12 Follow up Broadband Planning Resources - Casey Jones Broadband Initiative
-- WrestlingGear.Com - Golf Outing Fundraiser Info
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The Scoop section:
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CaptainU and Cure Particle tie for first place in the University of Chicago business plan competition on Thursday
Subject: Re: Matt, have they announced the winner yet for the U. of C. B. Plan competition?
Date: 5/30/2008 11:15:06 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: mccall@dfjportage.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
1st Place (tie)
$25,000 award to each team
CaptainU LLC
CaptainU, LLC provides a college sports recruiting web-platform that connects high school athletes and college coaches, facilitating the management of the entire recruiting process. The service allows coaches and athletes to market themselves, search for compatible matches, interact, and utilize a recruiting toolkit to manage all recruiting tasks.
GSB Students: Michael Farb, Umar Haider, Paul Hamilos, Nicole Shariatzadeh, Bryan Wetta GSB Alumnus: Avi Stopper
CureParticle*
With patented Laser-induced Nanoparticle Technology (LiNTEC), CureParticle provides pharmaceutical companies a platform technology for reformulation of existing drugs. LiNTEC helps to dissolve drugs in water, enhance the therapeutic efficacy, and reduce side effects.
GSB Students: Rui Hong, Naonori Kurokawa, Isamu Oh
*CureParticle also won the award for most innovative business plan.
--------------------------
3rd Place
$15,000 award
Nursync
Nursync is a unique supplemental hospital staffing agency focusing on delivering the seamless integration of contingent labor into host organizations. Nursync partners with its hospital clients to develop proprietary, comprehensive on-boarding and training resources to enhance the quality of agency staff.
GSB Students: Amy Karfeld, Gretchen Speakman, Jessica Volk
----------------------------
4th Place
$10,000 award
SoCore Energy
SoCore Energy is a solar energy system developer. The company markets integrated solar photovoltaic systems installed on customer rooftops that offset electric power from the grid.
GSB Students: Eric Bielke, Peter Kadens, JS Roy
------------------------------
Global NVC Winner
$5,000 award
eSpace
eSpace offers basic services, such as online registration and promotions, to effectively reach target conference and exhibition audiences. The company is a next generation web portal aimed at primarily connecting organizers, exhibitors, and visitors, and offering value-add services.
GSB Students: Ibrahim El Bitar, EXP13 – United Arab Emirates
Yang Gao, EXP13 – China
Sergey Yakovlev, EXP13 – Russia
Mark Byron, EXP13 – United Kingdom
Vera Calasan, EXP13 – Germany
Nadir Belarbi, EXP13 – USA
Matt
Matthew B. McCall
Managing Director
Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage
(c) 847-305-1970
mccall@dfjportage.com
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The companies competing in the Biomedical Consortium competition, Friday, May 30th and the winner is Heart Sounds
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: UIC's HeartSounds Wins CBC Business Plan Competition
From: "Shrader, Rod"
Date: Fri, May 30, 2008 4:16 pm
To: ron@themayreport.com
Cc: jasculca@uic.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Ron,
I think your cell phone lost its signal when we were talking earlier.
Didn't want you to think I hung up on you.
As I mentioned on the phone UIC's HeartSounds team won first place and
$10,000 in the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC) Business Plan
Competition. The competiton was sponsored by the CBC and hosted at UIC.
The CBC's mission is to support the development and commercialization of
biotechnology in Chicago. Its member institutions include University of
Chicago, Northwestern, and UIC. The competition was open to graduate
students from the three member insitutions who had written business plans
to commercialize biomedical technologies.
The Illinois Venture Capital Association helped recruit the panel of
judges, which included:
Tom Churchwell, Arch Development Partners
Jim Macdonald, First Analysis
Judy Meyer, DFJ Portage Venture Partners
John Banta, IllinoisVENTURES
Caralynn Nowinski, Arch Development Partners
Kirk Ziehm, Seneca Partners
Ron Kirschner, Heartland Angels
Ken Bradley, Arch Venture Partners
Dennis Serio, Illinois Business and Investors Forum
Donna Williamson, Ceres Venture Fund
and Harry Arader, Centromere Group
Other competitors included:
Proxima Therapeutics (Northwestern)
Biotic Labs (Northwestern)
BioRegenix (UIC)
Cure Particle (UC)
Passaggio (Northwestern)
Etoh Parmaceuticals (UC)
A brief description of each competitor follows:
BIOREGENIX
BioRegenix is an early stage biotechnology company committed to the
development of natural tissue regeneration platform technology.
Darius Kaulius: dkaulius@gmail.com
Gokul Kumar: gokul.n.kumar@gmail.com
Thomas Triantafillou: ttriant@yahoo.com
BIOTIC LABS
Biotic Labs presents PromericOnco, a nano-scale patch implanted at the
time of tumor removal surgery that elutes chemotherapy to lower cancer
recurrence.
Craig Lan: clan2008@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Dean Ho: d-ho@northwestern.edu
Genghong Cheng: genhongc@microbio.ucla.edu
Andrew Chen: achen2008@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Erik Pierstorff: e-pierstorff@northwestern.edu
Edward Chow: echow310@gmail.com
CUREPARTICLE
With Laser-induced Nanoparticle Technology (LiNTEC), CureParticle provides
pharmaceutical novel means to reformulate existing drugs and extend the
drug patent by enhancing water-solubility and improving therapeutic
efficacy.
Rui Hong: rhong1@chicagogsb.edu
Naonori Kurokawa: nkurokaw@chicagogsb.edu
ETOH PHARMACEUTICALS
Etoh Pharmaceuticals’ plan to commercialize Aidanase, a proprietary triple
combination therapy for the 17M people in the US alone who suffer from
Alcoholism.
David Martinelli: dmartin1@chicagogsb.edu
Steven Fausch: sfausch@chicagogsb.edu
Murray Propes: mpropes@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu
Ira Weiss: piweiss@chicagogsb.edu
HEARTSOUNDS, INC
HeartSounds is a start-up, platform medical device company specializing in
computer-aid auscultation. HeartSounds utilizes patented sound-separation
technology to provide more accurate, non-invasive, diagnostic cardiac
devices.
Amir Bastawrous: bastawrous@gmail.com
Matthew Norris: mwnorris@heartsoundsdevices.com
Michael McCoy: mmccoy@heartsoundsdevices.com
PASSAGGIO
Passaggio transforms the clinical experience in neurosurgery with
NeuroPass(TM), a compelling platform of surgical tools enabling easier
navigation and placement of implanted shunts and devices.
Amy Ng: ang2008@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Brian Flyg: bflyg2008@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Varun Kshettry: vkshettry008@md.northwestern.edu
Louise Giam: louise@northwestern.edu
Blake Levine: b-levine2@northwestern.edu
PROXIMAL THERAPEUTICS
Our company (in the process of incorporation), Proximal Therapeutics, is a
drug delivery company focused on developing and commercializing novel
biodegradable polymer-based technology for local, sustained drug release.
Bin Li: bin-li@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Dan McCarthy: dmccarthy008@md.northwestern.edu
A.J. Noronha: a-noronha2008@law.northwestern.edu
Bhawani Singh: bhawani@gmail.com
--
Rod Shrader, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship
Director, UIC Technology Ventures Program
University of Illinois at Chicago
Associate Editor, Journal of Small Business Management
rshrader@uic.edu
(312) 996-8732
www.Concept2Venture.org
--
Rod Shrader, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship
Director, UIC Technology Ventures Program
University of Illinois at Chicago
Associate Editor, Journal of Small Business Management
rshrader@uic.edu
(312) 996-8732
Concept2Venture.org
______________________________________
The 2008 and 2007 companies that won the iVentures10 competition sponsored by Illinois Ventures (I believe) where each firm receives $25K as part of an intern program for computer science students
Congratulations to the winning companies of the Summer 2008 iVENTURES10 program. Information on last year's teams can be found here
Class of 2008:
Athena Advertising: Athena Advertising is building a platform that leverages both social and contextual information to provide more relevant advertising across various social networking platforms. Leveraging the team's skills in designing highly scalable advertising systems and applications for Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Google, the platform will give social network users the means to monetize their pages, as well as give social networks as a whole better tools to monetize their traffic.
Fusion.IM: Fusion.IM is instant messaging that makes sense. The company is designing a global messaging platform which will keep contacts synchronized with and between different social networks, e-mail and IM platforms. This means that there will be no need to manage your buddy list with contacts that have real names and information. A lightweight version of the fusion client on these social networks will be made available for both browsers and mobile devices.
Vision Assisted Fashion Search (Real name TBA): Online shopping currently provides the advantage of quicker querying over multiple catalogs as compared to conventional means of shopping. For some items (e.g. electronics), a text query is appropriate, whereas for clothing a visual description is more suitable. The company will use its expertise in machine learning and computer vision to design better visual search for fashion.
News Aggregation and Categorization (Real name TBA): The company is designing a service that aggregates news articles and blog posts and classifies them based on various factors such as referenced companies, article type, and target audience. The team will use a proprietary algorithm that is able to extract the general sentiment of the article based on a variety of features. The news feeds can be accessed and searched quickly through both a browser interface as well as through subscribed e-mail and RSS alerts.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Congratulations to the winning companies of the inagural iVentures10 program!
Class of 2007:
iBud: iBud will has created a social network geared toward the Chinese traveler. It is a place for everyone to share travel experiences, explore real-people-reviewed travel information, and connect with others like them. status: public beta
Oh...There!: Oh...There! will allow users a unique way to save and share real places and locations as easily as they can with web-sites. OhThere! will blend traditional social bookmarking, with social networking and mobile technology to make it easy to "bookmark" their favorite locations. These locations can then be viewed and shared from any device around the world. They will initially target the South Korean market. status: private beta
Snap and Buy: Snap and Buy is designing an intuitive mobile application that will allow a customer to receive immediate access to price-comparison, coupon availability and other product information simply by taking a picture of the barcode image of a product using their cell phone. Advertisers can use the knowledge of a customers’ location and intent to purchase to target advertising and promotions. status: private beta
________________________________________
Briefly noted, by Ron May
* I have a decision to make. the biomedical consortium started at 8:30 this morning and it goes until 1:30 on the campus of UIC.
Yesterday, I got up at 5am and actually made it to the Tech Cocktail conference early. It was a very long day. When I left the party at John Barleycorn's about 10pm, I was major league exhausted, but also exhilarated from a very full day of meeting tons of new people and learning.
I will spend most of the weekend going over what I learned and the people/companies I met.
Let me give you about twenty things very quickly off the top of my head.
1. At 9:30am, I counted 160 people in the room at the Tech Cocktail conference. Throughout the day, there were easily 250 people, but many did not stay for the whole day.
2. My list of the top panels and speakers, and mind you, I did not see a number of talks because there were some competing sessions.
Number 1 has to be Gary Vaynerchuk if for no other reason, he is so captivating to listen to and watch. Gary has become quite the national celeb of late with appearances on Conan, Ellen, Nightline, the front page of the WSJ and much more. But he is at 32 an old hand at business and he has taken a $50MM tradtional retail biz and transformed it to a budding community on the net. His expertise and passion is wine and community. www.winelibrarytv.com
Number 2. On this, I would give it a tie between Dick Costolo who had some interesting things to say and again, was passionate about it and maybe Harper Reed and Scott Van Den Plas for their talk about Threadless. Scott is new to Threadless and he quit his job at The Field Museum to go there. Also, Threadless appears to have a new CEO, Jake Nickell, and old CEO Jeffrey Kalmikoff is now listed as the CCO, whatever that means and Harper Reed is the CTO. What I liked about Harper's talk is that he did not try to cover everything, but he did give us a glimpse into their decision making process. One of their big problems is printers and how to process 150,000 shirts a month and as many as 10,000 in an eight hour period. Scalability and printers was one issue they had to tackle and do it without spending the $300K that one vendor proposed when Harper said that they could do it for $30. Yes, I think that is what he said, $30. www.threadless.com and www.skinnycorp.com
Now, to be fair, I really enjoyed Adrian Holovaty's talk about www.everyblock.com which is an outgrowth of his crime site. But now, he is including much more info. from building info. and licenses for businesses to restaurant inspection info. A wealth of information on the site and available in many ways. Adrian said that they are just now exploring ways to commercialize what they are doing. At the moment, they are operating with revenue they received in a grant from a foundation and they have one year and one month of money left, he said. That is a site I plan to study much more carefully.
The other inside talk was Mike Domek of TicketsNOW. (www.ticketsnow.com) and I missed the talk about Squidoo.com (www.squidoo.com).
I liked the panel on women because it explained some things to me about women that I knew but had not given much thought to. The point there was that women do research as do men on the net, but they do it in a different way. They are first and foremost concerned with trust and relationships and they may ask their friends what they think, but they also want to know why their friends think what they do. Blagica (and you better not mispronounce her name or she will correct you on the spot, it is not Blag-- eeka, it is Blag --eetza as in pizza) Bottigliero was considering switching blogs and she decided to stay with the blog that Mina Trott likes which I think was wordpress. Mina, I gather, is with Six Apart and she and Ben Metcalfe, her husband, developed Moveable Type. Do I have this right?
I thought that Genevieve Thiers of www.sittercity.com had some interesting perspectives and she even brought in some anthropological data from a Harvard study that she promised to send me. She said that women are Platial. www.sittercity.com and www.condoperks.com and www.galsguide.com
Look, I have much to say about the conference and the party, but let me get something out now and get down to UIC for the biomedical consortium. Forget it. It is now 3:39pm and I missed the program. I called Rod Shrader who is the business school advisor down at UIC and he told me that the competition went quite well and was the best he has seen thus far. He also said that the winner was Heart Sounds out of UIC and he is sending me a note with all the contestants. It is now 5:32pm and still no word from Rod. But Heart Sounds did win the $10K and there was no second place winner. Oops, Rod did send the notice but I did not get it and he just sent it again. www.heartsoundsdevices.com
The tech media report, www.arstechnica.com was sold for a reported $25MM recently. They have 5 million viewers a month, I was told and they have eight full time and about 50 contributors.
Rob Schultz told me that he does have a blog after I suggested that Matt McCall is the only VC in Chicago who has one. Rob's blog is http://robschultz.typepad.com/rob_schultz/
Look, in the interest of time, here are a few sites you may want to check out. BTW, there were quite a number of out-of-towners at both the party and the conference. Frank Gruber brought in a number of people from Washington, D.C. and not just AOLers. The AOL folks, while a sponsor, were low key and not in your face.
www.nudgen.com Dominic DeMarco
www.ratespring.com John Limbach, CEO and I don't believe the site has launched yet.
www.bricabox.com Nate Westheimer, CEO and Gary V. said that Nate may not be doing too well right now -- as he pointed out that they are buddies. Nate can also be reached at http://nateslist.bricabox.com
www.awayfind.com and this is a site associated with Jared Goralnick, one of the speakers on the subject of productivity. The parent firm is www.setconsulting.com.
www.coolstandings.com, Greg Agami, CEO, and this firm does for all baseball teams what Billy Beane tries to do for his team. They have a 2% error rate in predicting regular season success of MLB teams using a Monte Carlo statistical method factoring in variables such as away/home and about fifteen to twenty other variables. The problem is that his system suffers from the same issue that has plagued Billy: it falls apart in playoff predictions where he has only a 70% hit rate.
www.upguppy.com, an Arlington VA firm.
www.mspoke.com and www.feedhub.com which are two of the firms tied to Sean Ammirati, one of the moderators in the conference.
www.pimpmynews.com run by John Atkinson and the firm has a 513 area code so it is not Chicago.
Here's a Madison, WI firm: www.sharendipity.com
www.coloring.com run by Carlos.
www.cumulatelabs.com with David M. Falck.
www.adaptiveblue.com
Three or four take-aways.
1. The panel with Keith Schact and Troy Henikoff, Nick O'Neill and Alex Bard left me wondering what business models will work. What is a widget anyway? was one question that got some debate, by the way. I liked Nick's skepticism and Troy's ideal of bringing all the social networks together at some level paralleling DNS. He harkened back to 1990 and the problem you would have emailing someone on the net back then outside of your own office system. Yes, folks 1990! I had not even heard of the net in 1990.
Well, Troy thinks it will be a few years before we get there, but he definitely believes that we must head there.
A term everyone seems to throw around with ease these days is social graph. I assume that it is a model of who connects with whom. That sounds like this report in a more informal way over many years. Who goes to what events, who talks to whom, who is connected to whom. At every conference, I come across one or two new terms and that was one of them.
Another discussion of the social media panel was what constitutes a large enough group to care about. Much was made of www.rockyou.com and www.slade.com because they have gotten a lot of traction. I don't even know if those are the correct URLs. The founder of one of these sites is the same guy who started PayPal, Max.
A few more take-aways. Dick Costolo told the audience a few things they probably already knew, but coming from an entrepreneur it may have had more impact than it would have had coming from a VC.
http://www.burningdoor.com/askthewizard/
-- Forget about NDAs. Every entrepreneur thinks his idea has to be protected. And there are already fifty firms out there like it.
-- Don't hire sales guys until you really need them. Otherwise they are sitting around with nothing to do.
-- Forget about titles and roles. In the very early stages of a firm, focus on hiring the best available athlete. A good all around utility player and don't pigeon hole people. Also biz dev. is a waste of time. You don't need to focus on partnerships that much in the early stages. I am not sure that I heard Dick right about that.
-- Provided that the contribution of the founders is equal, split the equity equally. Dick said that the four founders did that with FeedBurner and it saves a lot of aggravation. The guy with the most equity will always take the most crap. Even is better, he said.
-- Forget about financial projections. Also just focus on doing one or two things very well and on customers.
-- Also, when you want to sell your firm, the VCs who invested in you can be your best friends in a good cop, bad cop routine. They will force the valuation up.
-- And the VCs can also help you in figuring out what your firm is worth.
-- Dick also said that board meetings should be every six weeks not every month.
I liked some of the comments from the VC panel. Brad Feld and Matt McCall in particular.
Feld, for those of you who don't know, is a kind of cult hero among VCs and entrepreneurs for his very well-known blog. http://www.feld.com/blog/
Matt McCall's blog is www.vcconfidential.com.
Feld said that most VCs probably roll your financial projections page and smoke it. McCall repeated that Don Valentine quote he likes about how Don wants a market so big that even a CEO can't screw it up.
This brings up a point which is not often discussed. Market size and scalability does matter.
A firm like FeedBurner was scalable and so is a firm like Threadless. A firm like SitterCity may not be. Matt feels that you as the entrepreneur need to know if your business is appropriate for angel money vs. venture money and it not just a stage of development issue.
In the age-old question about whether a VC would fund an A idea with a B team vs. a B idea with an A team, most VCs come down in favor of the A team and the B idea in the hope that an A team will make corrections along the way.
But for me the most unusual comment came from Feld who said that most of these platitudes don't hold up in real circumstances. I detected a bit of contradiction in what these guys were saying. McCall said at BarCamp last year (speaking of which, Jason Rexilius what on earth is going on with this year's BarCamp?) that he would have funded Dick Costolo if Dick said he wanted to sell bean bags (or something like that) on the internet. That reinforces the management issue.
But Matt also told the audience yesterday to research the VCs they talk to and find out their investment preferences and parameters.
So, my question for Matt, if they had given for time for Q&A, would have been what Performics, Imago, FeedBurner, and TicketsNOW have in common? These are all firms he invested in. He might say it is that he liked the management. But my question is how does that help the entrepreneur do his research?
Also, related to this, it was stated that for a second round, Brad Feld and Fred Wilson were the logical choices to invest in FeedBurner and they took a rifle approach (as opposed to a shotgun approach) to getting them. Well, that would imply that specific market expertise played a role.
Do you see the semi-contradiction here? I think it comes down to this: McCall is largely a relationship investor and he relies on his network for the technology assessment.
Other VCs may be a mix as well and the conclusion I come to is that management vs. market is a false distinction. It gets way too much attention and play.
* Recall that I mentioned that there would a number of people added to the civil lawsuit being filed in Philadelphia against some Efoora board members, brokers, etc. Well, I have gotten the list of those added and here it is:
Dr. Jose Bardelas
Dr. Eric Bazilian (Board member Stan Bazilian's son)
Dr. Stan Bazilian (Efoora board member)
Fiona Bazilian (Stan Bazilian's wife)
Steve Bryant
Daniel Caravette (broker who made millions selling Efoora stock and good friend to Larry Irwin)
Adam Feinberg (Larry Irwin's brother)
Alan Guggenheim (Grosky friend)
Teena Harriott
Howard Issacs
Dr. Razzak Jabbur
William Milles Jr
Brendan Range
Lisa Schwab
Steven Wit (This is the very same guy that Ira Bodenstein and Judge Holderman have agreed to pay $460K)
Howard Lucas (Efoora board member)
___________________________________________
tvCompass and ESPN Product Launch; Macrovision-TV Guide Agreement
From: Edward Zylka [ed@tvcompass.com]
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: tvCompass and ESPN Product Launch; Macrovision-TV Guide Agreement
Sent: Wed 5/28/2008 3:31 PM
Hi Ron, More good news from tvCompass -- Chicago’s best new wireless start up.
Regards,
Ed Zylka
May 2008
Dear tvCompass Partners and Friends,
It's been an exciting week for tvCompass as we officially launched our next generation product with ESPN - on Tuesday, May 20! ESPN The Ultimate Remote is now available for order by consumers worldwide through our initial retail channel partner, Amazon.com. Not to be overlooked is our partnership news release with TV Guide on May 18. This partnership will enable TV Guide to put their brand back on the coffee table, delivered wirelessly to the second screen of our ESPN digital media remote. Consumers recognize TV Guide as one of the most trusted brands in TV entertainment.
Please read on to learn more about our partner and product launches, and be sure to visit www.espnremote.com .
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ESPN The Ultimate Remote Launches for Father's Day
Advanced Home Theatre Remote adds Internet Connectivity for Armchair Sports Enthusiasts
NEW YORK, NY and CHICAGO, IL, May 20, 2008 - ESPN Consumer Products, in conjunction with tvCompass, a provider of digital media solutions, announced the release of ESPN The Ultimate Remote, an internet-connected Wi-Fi device that combines advanced home theater control and one-touch real-time access to sports, standings, team information and news.
ESPN The Ultimate Remote manages home theater components, set top boxes and IP equipment with intuitive "location-free" setup and one-handed operation, using a standard wireless connection - unlike other products that require cumbersome programming and a personal computer - in order to set even the simplest home theatres.
"ESPN The Ultimate Remote is a great example of how ESPN continues to extend its brand into innovative products that serve sports fans everywhere," said Steve Cipolla, vice president and general manager, ESPN Consumer Products. "Our Wi-Fi remote control is the ultimate enhancement to our fan's at-home sports experience by providing real-time/simultaneous sports news and information while watching any TV programming."
With ESPN The Ultimate Remote, fans can get one-touch access to Internet content in the palm of their hand with an electronic program guide (EPG) for TV listings, one-touch access to a weather widget, mobile Internet browsing, email and text messaging, mobile Internet and entertainment search content.
"This ground breaking Wi-Fi device design, based on tvCompass's patented wireless technology, removes coffee table remote clutter with one device," said Edward J. Zylka, CEO of tvCompass Inc. "The versatility of our design and the second viewing screen opens the door to different ways fans can enjoy sports in real time, using a familiar handheld universal remote."
ESPN The Ultimate Remote is aimed at simplifying advanced home theater equipment operation, providing fans with one-touch wireless access to their favorite Gamecasts, ESPN.com fantasy leagues, news, stats, scores.
ESPN The Ultimate Remote is available immediately for pre-sale orders at Amazon.com - www.amazon.com/ESPN-Ultimate-Remote-Universal/dp/B00198LRPE - just in time for Father's Day. For additional information on ESPN The Ultimate Remote, go to www.espnremote.com.
ESPN Consumer Products
ESPN Consumer Products serve the fan and reflect the assets and equity of ESPN. ESPN Consumer Products oversees the development of product lines under the company's vary brands including ESPN, X Games, and BASS. Product lines include apparel & accessories, sporting goods, toys & games, stationary & gift, and home products.
About tvCompass
tvCompass Inc. offers a white label service and technology platform for branding by consumer electronic product companies, satellite, cable and IPTV operators, content distributors and OEMs. Through its click365(SM) interactive wireless content network, users can access an electronic program guides TV listing service, Internet content and other interactive applications. The company's second product is a Wi-Fi/internet connected digital media remote control device with QVGA LCD display, wireless content capabilities and TV control function. Based in Chicago, IL, tvCompass is privately held and maintains a strong patent portfolio.
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MACROVISION AND TVCOMPASS ANNOUNCE LICENSING AND BRANDING AGREEMENT
Agreement Puts a New Interactive TV Guide-branded Experience
in the Hands of Consumers
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and CHICAGO, May 18, 2008 - Macrovision Solutions (NASDAQ: MVSND) and tvCompass, a provider of digital media solutions for the broadband home, today announced they have entered into a patent license agreement supporting tvCompass's Wi-Fi handheld devices and its click365(SM) wireless content network. The multi-year agreement includes a license under MacrovisionŽ's interactive program guide (IPG) patent portfolio and also allows tvCompass's click365 content network to integrate Macrovision's TV listing data and provide tvCompass with the ability to use the popular TV Guide brand on its IPG application.
"Through our second screen solution, tvCompass's goal is to offer consumers a great new way to control their home theater equipment and deliver wireless internet into the palm of their hands - enhancing their overall TV entertainment experience," stated Edward J. Zylka, CEO of tvCompass Inc. "We are very pleased to be working with Macrovision to enable one-touch access to television listings, sports content and more. Macrovision solutions provide our customers with the flexibility to create elegant new products and services for digital home entertainment, providing consumers exciting new ways to discover, acquire, manage and enjoy their digital entertainment content."
The first tvCompass product targeted for licensing is expected to be an internet-connected Wi-Fi device that combines advanced home theater control and one-touch real-time access to sports, standings, team information and news.
"Macrovision is a leader of TV listings and IPG technology, and the agreement with tvCompass will provide consumers with the quality digital entertainment experience they seek," said Steve Shannon, executive vice president, product management, Macrovision. "Our agreement with tvCompass is a demonstration of our commitment to innovation and technologies that meet the demands of our diverse customers."
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Hammond's Thunderclap Recording Studio
From: John C. Carpenter [thunderclaprecording@comcast.net]
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: Re: The May Report: 05/28/2008: A variety of quick items: Some possible news on Al W. and his wife Joy; Tech Cocktail conference and party Thursday....
Sent: Wed 5/28/2008 3:49 PM
Hi Ron,
I wanted to pass this info along to you.
Thank you,
John C. Carpenter
Thunderclap Recording Studio
7122 Madison Avenue
Hammond, Indiana 46324
Bus 219-932-6111
Fax 219-932-9311
info@thunderclaprecording.com
www.ThunderclapRecording.com
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: John Carpenter
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOCAL MUSIC HAS A NEW OUTLET
Thunderclap Recording, Northwest Indiana’s premiere recording studio, has teamed with The Towle Community Theater to sponsor a series of musical events that will occur in downtown Hammond in June and October of this year .
The series, known as Local Music Showcase, is the brain-child of John Carpenter, owner and chief engineer/producer at Thunderclap Recording. "I hear so many great bands and artists coming through the studio that I’ve always wanted to sponsor a series of events to bring attention to these wonderful singers, songwriters and musicians," Carpenter states.
"I approached Jeff Casey at the Towle Community Theater in Hammond with my idea and he agreed that the shows would be a welcome addition to the growing downtown arts scene. Jeff has been a great partner in putting this series together. His experience in producing shows and events has been invaluable."
Local Music Showcase will spotlight mostly, but not entirely, original music. The inaugural event takes place on Friday, June 13th with a lineup that features Urban Twang and John Vezmar and the Dreamers. Showtime begins at 8:00 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $8.00 in advance or $12.00 the day of the show and are available at the Towle Theater’s box office. The first 50 tickets sold will receive Urban Twang’s current CD, Vintage for free. Refreshments will be served during intermission. The shows will be recorded and videotaped for future release.
Urban Twang has released four acclaimed CDs that have garnered both local and international airplay. Their song, "If Liquor Were a Woman" can be heard in the movie "Almost Salinas", an independent film staring John Mahoney (Frasier), and Virginia Madsen (Sideways). Urban Twang has performed live on WGN Radio and TV as well as "190 North" (ABC 7 Chicago) and have opened for such prestigious and diverse acts such as Dave Matthews, Dave Alvin, Marshall Tucker Band, Webb Wilder, the late, great Johnny Paycheck, The Samples, and the Waco Brothers.
John Vezmar and the Dreamers have been described as Alt-Country with a Beatle-esque feel. Influences include, among others, The Beatles and Ryan Adams. They have played The Blue Room’s annual Beatles Fest as well as many other local venues.
Carpenter says that the plan is to expand the series to four shows in 2009. He also said that they will soon begin to accept demos and promo packs from bands for next year’s series. Performers will not be limited to artists that record at Thunderclap Recording. For information on how to submit your demo visit localmusicshowcase.com
For more information call the Towle Theater at 219-937-8781or Thunderclap Recording at 219-932-6111 or visit www.localmusicshowcase.com
XXXX
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A China charity from the MEF
Subject: The Midwest Entrepreneurs Forum
Date: 5/30/2008 12:16:39 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: MEF@mail-list.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com
I am sure that most of you know that The Midwest Entrepreneurs Forum has a
very strong relationship with China and with the Chinese Consul here in
Chicago.
Last year we were able to present Consul General Huang Ping a special
presentation at our December networking event for the work he is doing to
build bridges between our organization and entrepreneurs in China.
He made a great speech that night clearly defining his desire to work with
Americans wishing to do business with Chinese companies. Many of you
introduced yourself to him and exchanged business cards.
Personally Consul Huang and I have built a very strong relationship and I am
very proud to call him my good friend.
The recent 7.9 magnitude quake that hit Chinas Sichuan Province has now left
67,183 dead, 361,822 injured and 20,790 missing. More than 45.61 million
people have been affected by the earthquake.
As if the quake destruction wasn't enough for the country to deal with right
now, the Sichuan Province is dealing with the next potential natural
disaster-floods. China has experienced torrential downpours this week, and
weather forecasters were predicting thunderstorms in the quake-stricken
region.
Despite over two weeks passing since the natural disaster struck, rescue
efforts continue unabated. The Chinese are persevering through this tragedy,
hanging onto hope and working hard to find survivors and rebuild their
lives. Much of this hope and determination is being driven by the country's
leadership.
Chinese premier Wen Jua-bao, who personally led rescue efforts for the first
five days following the quake, told rescue workers: "Even if there is only a
1% chance (of survival), we must apply 100% effort."
Even in the two weeks since the earthquake, rescue workers have still
managed to find survivors, including children, buried under rubble living on
raindrops.
Thousands of victims, including children, are still barely surviving in
appalling conditions where food and water are scarcely provided.They need
your help to provide help to thousands of survivors who have lost their
homes and loved ones. Please give today.
Donate now to help provide emergency relief to survivors of the recent
earthquake in China. Your gift will help deliver life-saving assistance,
including food, water, and shelter, to desperate children and families.
Donations can be made through American Red Cross in support of the China
Earthquake relief efforts, They accept credit cards.
Please go to the Red Cross China Earthquake Relief below.
You may need to copy it into your browser because of its length.
http://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=11163847&df_id=3198&3198.donatiofo
https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=823891334&df_id=3198&3198.donation=form1
The need is urgent! Thank you in advance for your generous support and
prayers for China quake survivors.
Or
Make check payable to:
Chinese Consulate General in Chicago
100 West Erie St,
Chicago, IL 60610
Write on your check: For Earthquake Relief Donation
__________________________________________
Layton Olson: May 12 Follow up Broadband Planning Resources - Casey Jones Broadband Initiative
From: Layton E. Olson [leo@howehutton.com]
To: Layton E. Olson
Cc: ronthom@ameritech.net
Subject: May 12 Follow up Broadband Planning Resources - Casey Jones Broadband Initiative
Sent: Wed 5/28/2008 3:54 PM
CASEY JONES BROADBAND INITIATIVE
"PLANNING FOR SAFETY AND SPEED"
Resources for
ILLINOIS BROADBAND PUBLIC AWARENESS
UNIVERSAL BROADBAND & DIGITAL SKILLS FOR ILLINOIS
Follow up to Introduction to Broadband session May 12, 2008 at APA Chicago
Layton Olson 312-263-3001
May 27, 2008
A. Awareness of opportunities for improvement in quality of lives, communities and Great Lakes role in global digital economy
May 12 presentation on Chicago and 21st Century Advanced Communications: Applications, Technology and Facilities, Joe Mambretti, International Center for Advanced Internet Research, Northwestern University at American Planning Association, Chicago offices as introduction for planners and community leaders,
Video by Digital Workforce Education Society There are three links, the Introductions of everyone, Joe's Presentation and the Q & A Session. All three links are found at www.digibridge.org "101 + Events" navigation link at the top or you can simply click on this link: http://www.digibridge.org/id12.html .
B. Building Blocks of community life area and content catalog resources
Illinois Broadband Deployment Council resource wiki of national, state, regional and local initiatives, including model state economic development-focused report of California Broadband Task Force (January 2008) and reports of 3 committees of Illinois Broadband Deployment Council (May 2008). www.illinoisbroadbanddeployment.pbwiki.com
• Policy Committee
• Infrastructure Committee
• Demand Committee
C. Connecting via calendar for community-business-learning-health-public leaders
ILLINOIS BROADBAND PUBLIC AWARENESS CALENDAR May – October 2008, May 19, 2008
For Communication of Illinois Broadband Initiative Report to public policy leaders in communities-business-learning institutions-public agencies
Layton E. Olson, co-chair Consumer Demand Committee,
Howe, Hutton LTD, Chicago
Additions, updates 312-263-3001 leo@howehutton.com www.howehutton.com
May 22 National Summit on American Competitiveness, Chicago,
Sponsored by US Department of Commerce
May 29-30 (target) Adjournment regular session Illinois General Assembly
June 2 Meeting Broadband Deployment Council 2-4pm, Chicago,
Springfield and call-in
June 11 Annual Illinois Leadership Conf. UIUC extension, Champaign
June 12 Digital Media Update Roundtable, 3:30-5:00 1104 S. Wabash
Free closing event at Community Media Workshop’s Making
Media Connections event for community media, Chicago
Mid-June to Several policy discussion sessions in Illinois and nationwide
Mid-August on national broadband policy and national infrastructure policy
August 8-17 Illinois State Fair, Springfield Tech Town
August 11 DCEO EDD Advisory Committee quarterly meeting
September 8-13 ‘Jump in Tech Pool’ events for young persons at International
Manufacturing Technology Show, McCormick Place,
Chicago (90,000 attendees, including 6,000 students) and
location for "Technology Policy" press events and speeches
September 15-16 Digital Government Summit, Crowne Plaza, Springfield, IL.
Mid Sept-mid Oct. Illinois Century Network Regional meetings across Illinois
September 30- Oct 2 WiMax World Americas conference, McCormick Place, Chicago
October 5-8 National Rural Telecommunications Congress, Smuggler’s Notch,
Vermont.
_______________________________________
WrestlingGear.Com - Golf Outing Fundraiser Info
From: Jeffrey Pape [jeffpape@sbcglobal.net]
To: jeffpape@wrestlinggear.com
Subject: WrestlingGear.Com - Golf Outing Fundraiser Info
Sent: Wed 5/28/2008 2:33 PM
I just wanted to make sure you saw the information about the golf outing I am putting together to raise money for both the Smile Train, an organization that helps kids with cleft lips and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame - Illinois Chapter. July 29, 2008 is the date of the event.
I am trying to finalize some details for the event and need to know if you are likely to join us and if you are a potential donor - what items you might be able to donate to the raffle or auction. Bears, Bulls, Sox, Cubs tickets make great auction items. I recently started The Pape Foundation, NFP and have applied for 501 c (3) status. This allows us to hold ourselves out as a non-profit while our paper work is pending.
We'll be posting a list of raffle prizes we have committed either late this week or early the following week. So far we have over $4,000 worth of stuff to give away. Also, we'd like to publish our list of hole sponsors as well. If possible, give me a call this week at the office to talk about if you can play golf, sponsor a hole, or donate a prize.
You can send checks made payable to The Pape Foundation, NFP and mail them to the WrestlingGear.Com address below.
For more information you can follow this link to our blog - http://wrestlinggearcom.blog.com/3122082/ for those of you that might travel we have a hotel near by that will take you back and forth to the golf outing while your in town...more info on the blog posting.
Jeff Pape
WrestlingGear.Com, Ltd
Pape Lax, LLC
Owner/President
655 W. Grand Ave, Unit 140
Elmhurst, IL 60126
http://www.wrestlinggear.com
(P) 630-832-0500
(F) 630-832-0505
Visit our newest web store for all your Lacrosse needs
http://www.papelacrosseequipment.com
Join us for our golf outing and fundraiser to benefit the Smile Train and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame - July 29, 2008. $125 a golfer. $125 hole sponsor.
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END OF REP |