Software 2007--Day One

Attended Software 2007 yesterday. Much better and bigger than last year. MR created a new showfloor area for smaller companies from around the world. Saw a couple of very interesting companies in the India, EU and Israel sections.

The first day featured a keynote presentation from salesfoce.com’s Marc Benioff. A bit more of a sales pitch than I was hoping for but he is such a good presenter that you don’t realize you’ve just spent an hour watching a product demo. Interesting to see where salesforce.com AppExchange and our WebEx Connect are similar and where they differ. Salesforce.com is focusing on a web-based platform to buy and build applications beyond CRM and we’re focused on building a platform and collaborative mashup client. iTunes vs. iTunes + iPod. Different but I think complementary visions (some may not think so).

Attended a great presentation on marketing and PR from David Meerman Scott. He says a lot of nice things about WebEx marketing in his book (will write a blog piece on it soon), and he has created a bit of a stir (here and here) in the marketing/PR world. Smart guy and I learn something every time I hear him present.

Good show for WebEx. Lots of interest in our WebEx Connect Developer program. Rumor is that there are some changes planned for next year as CMP begins to get more involved. MR has built a great show and CMP is king of the event circuit right now so I have high hopes for 2008.

Colin Smith
Dir, Corporate Communications, WebEx
colin.smith@webex.com

Comments

[David Meerman Scott]

Colin, it was great to finally meet you in person. Thanks for allowing me to put you on ths spot during my presentation.

All the best,

David