IT Martini Hour15: State of INnovation | Presented by American Digital

Exclusive Sponsor: American Digital
Theme: Technology Driving Innovation
Panel Discussion: Panelists Mark Pugh, Nick Carter, and John Iatonna with Moderators Greg Knieriemen and Ed Saipetch
DEMOs:  Stringcan, Virtual Payment System, StatsSquared, Likedity, Emailium, Project Burndown, Tinderbox, and EatDrink.it
Top Shelf Sponsors:  Smart IT
Location: The Rathskeller, in Indianapolis, Indiana
Charities: $800 raised for Habitat for Humanity of Hamilton County

 

Right before the Colts held off the Titans on a blustery Thursday evening in December, nearly 200 members of the Indianapolis IT Community stopped by The Rathskeller to shake & stir with their colleagues at IT Martini Hour 15: State of INnovation | Presented by American Digital.  IT Pros from all over Indianapolis and beyond spent some quality time discussing technology & innovation, while raising almost $1000 for for Habitat for Humanity of Hamilton County.

Eight early-stage companies showed DEMOs with StatsSquared walking away with the IT Community Choice Award.  Congratulations to StatsSquared for taking the prize among some fierce competition.  There’s obviously quite a need for a tool that not only analyzes Twitter tweets, but one that compares Twitter accounts for competitive benchmarking.  If you missed the DEMO, use the free beta code “Martini” right here.  Also check out Indy Geek’s interview with StatsSquared to learn more about how their idea developed from their win at the recent Start Up Weekend.

Thanks to all of the other seven contenders, who offered strong early stage products:

• Virtual Payment System, a payment processor that can incorporate bank fees into processing fees at the point of sale on every transaction.

• Stringcan, a product that shows how your company’s call 'center' does not have to be in one geographic location.

• Likedity, a tool for consumers that searches the web for events that meet the user’s interests and location.

• EatDrink.it, a mobile web application built over the Foursquare API that lets people review meals at any restaurant.     

• Emailium, a filterable, sortable, categorizable, global database of email campaigns for competitive research, design inspiration and industry analysis.

• Project Burndown, which integrates to popular project management tools, and monitors your timelines more effectively.

• Tinderbox, a personal content system that maps and analyzes your notes as you create them.

Three leaders of the Indianapolis IT Community, Mark Pugh, Nick Carter, and John Iatonna, with moderator Greg Knieriemen, lead the panel discussion about technology driving innovation.  If you missed the panel discussion - stay tuned for the video highlights coming soon.  And if you didn’t get a chance to ask your question?  Our panel members would love to hear from you and help you in your efforts to use technology to move your company forward.

Thanks to YOUR IT Community, Habitat for Humanity of Hamilton County, received nearly $1000 in contributions.  These contributions allow Habit for Humanity to continue building and refurbishing homes in Hamilton County.  Congratulations to you for helping your neighbors have better homes and better lives.  If you’re handy with the tools, don’t forget that you can also support Habit for Humanity as a volunteer.

IT Martini would like to thank Exclusive Sponsor American Digital for making the event possible - with Top Shelf Sponsor Kelley | Price Technology for transporting 20+ IT Pros from Columbus and Top Shelf Sponsor Smart IT for investing in the Indianapolis IT Community.  And one more thanks to Stringcan for hosting the IT Community Choice Award.

Most of all - thanks to YOU for making the event a success!  We're looking forward to many more IT Community events in Indianapolis in 2011.