Using kiosks in your marketing mix – and a Vertisi response

Just a quick update on my opinion on Vertisi and its potential (regarding this post here where I described Rick Schwartz introducing the new product at TRAFFIC). My intent was not to doubt the utility of the product, it was just to call attention to the fact that the technology has been there for a few years.

Owen Frager tracked back to my original post in his column today entitled “Rick Schwartz’s Vertisi- Not As Dumb As You Think“.  With regards to the product’s usefulness, I do believe it is right up there with advances in retail or point-of-presence businesses like the now pervasive gift card [there is a reason that nearly every supermarket now has a rotating display cross-promoting gift cards for other companies right at the point of sale].

I believe that kiosks–or in the case of Vertisi, the “kiosk-less kiosk”–provide a natural integration between the online and offline. In fact, I had visions of an integrated network of kiosks when I founded a “universal gift registry concept for online and offline merchants” circa 2000 [no longer operational]. Also, you only have to look back at the writing that Chris Anderson did on his research into The Long Tail to see how it would benefit someone like HMV or Barnes & Noble to expand their physical inventory by dedicating a percentage of their physical store space to a kiosk promoting additional inventory.

I also think that Vertisi as a design concept is very sound (why invest in a whole Kiosk, when you can turn your display case itself into a kiosk with a strategically positioned projector). I’ve had some conversations with Vancouver-based ePortSystems and while their kiosk is very striking, takes up little footprint, and provides a value-add for any partner who uses it in their facility–it obviously makes sense that if you can provide the same functionality without having the kiosk at all (and probably be more cost effective in the long-run as well). Though, with something like the unite promoted by ePortSystems, a Castello Brothers Kiosk (or a kiosk promoting Kevin Ham’s Vancouver.com in my own backyard) strategically positioned in a local hotel or tourist makes a lot of sense. Imagine a kiosk in a Palm Springs hotel with a big PalmSprings.com graphic front and center, allowing all those who use the kiosk to browse restaurants nearby and book their reservation for dinner (using an affiliate relationship with OpenTable). Such a presence can not only generte revenue for the location, for the kiosk owner, and the services being promoted, but the value of branding for the person that wraps the kiosk itself cannot be ignored [though it is harder to measure].

In any case, do I think that Vertisi is a revolutionary product? Not in the sense that it is not the first, but could it be the start of a revolution for retail as more and more wake up to the fact that they have an easy opportunity to integrate their online and offline marketing channels (and grow their revenues in the process)? Absolutely.

New Ventures BC Competition – And then there were 30

In my post from yesterday, when I mentioned that the announcement for the New Ventures BC Competition was “coming soon”, I didn’t believe that this meant within 12 hours of the post being published they would publish the complete list of 30 BC startups that made it to the next round for the New Ventures BC Competition.

In any case, here is the complete list with the links from my “Who’s who” series:

First Name	Last Name	Name of business or idea
Alan	Cornford	TeraTek Inc.
Amber	Hayes	Adventure Engine: Powering Adventure Travel online: with excellent profit projections
Andrew	Fursman	CloudTel [ aka NothingNetworks ??... interesting looking technology, but all the Flash on the website makes search engines ignore you.]
Ben	Sparrow	Solar Desalination [There was a Ben Sparrow who used to work for BC Hydro... I wonder if it is the same guy...]
Bruce	Sharpe	Singular Software
Camilo	Rostoker	Scalable Analytics [UBC spinoff. This one looks interesting. "Follow the money" is always a good business model.]
Cynthia	Roney	PneuVation Medical Inc
David	Gratton	Project Opus Technologies
David	Vogt	Crowdtrust Technologies
Dawn	Bowles	DreamBank [I like this idea, and have met Dawn over the past couple of weeks. I will probably have a separate post about them later]
DeJon	Costello	“Rain Renewer” Storm Water Pollution Remover [RainRenewer.com is not and has not been registered. Grab it now DeJon!]
Derek	Dunfield	PLASMID AUTOMATED ROBOTICS [Once again, I can't confirm that it is the same guy, but there was a PHD student at UBC a couple of years ago who wrote "Crystallographic Analysis of Complex Multiphase Powder Systems: A Synthesis of Theory and Experiment". Sounds deep.]
Florence	Leung	PeerFX [Hey... These guys were on Dragon's Den and raised $200k. I wonder if it is a change in direction from their old plan found here]
Geoff	Wensel	GR Building Materials Limited [Geoff was listed as the COO of Pitt Meadows' RoofRoc. I'm not sure if it is a related venture or one in the same.]
Gordon	Thiessen	Heavy Tool Support Arm [As featured in the Vancouver Sun earlier in the month]
James	Sherrett	AdHack Media Inc. (AdHack)… Their exec summary was delivered to the VEF here
Jamie	Stephen	TorchLight Bioresources
Jeff	MacMillan	Charge It! Payment Solutions Inc. [I think this is the site. It looks like it is related to Richmond’s Aubretia Software, currently being rebranded as Boscana.
Matt	Ferguson	Progressive Health Innovations Inc.
Max	Fanderl	BookingCalendar.com
Philip	Caines	Rezgo – Internet Tour Booking
Saxon	Shuttleworth	ClicVue
Sean	Hodgins	QCDocs Systems Inc.
Shawn	Pedersen	Echoflex Solutions Inc.
Steven	Jones	Small Energy Group
Timothy	Webster	Genist Systems Inc.
Todd	Winship	Primisyn
Tom	Koftinoff	Portable Logging Trailer Attachment and Clean Energy Engine
Trong	Hoang	Innisoft – Intellegent Investment Software
Vladimir	Savchenko	SoundOfMotion
Lani	O’Flynn	Pure Lignin Environmental Technology Ltd.

New Ventures BC Competition – Who’s Who (Part 4)

Well it has been nearly a month since I posted part 1, part 2, and part 3 Who’s Who of the Round 1 companies for the New Ventures BC Competition. I figured that with the announcement coming soon as to who has made it down to the final 30 for Round 3, it would be good to finish the list.

As such, without further adieu, here are the remaining emerging startups who applied to the New Ventures BC Competition:

Malcolm	Kendall	Indel Therapeutics Inc.
Matt	Ferguson	Progressive Health Innovations Inc.
Matt	Holme	ForumTrak [behind SoccerGaming.com as well]
Max	Fanderl	BookingCalendar.com
Mehrdad	Gharibnavaz	Kimiatech Specialties Inc.
Michael	Alexander	Crown Skis Ltd.
Michael	Jeffs	PerformanceObjects Inc.
Michael	Johnston	Duo [check out their YouTube video explaining Duo and what they do here. Interesting possibility to mesh the social web with Geo-based marketing]
Michael-James	Pennie	goodboog Global Virtual Catalog Inc.
Montgomery	Bondy	Brilliant Lighting Products Inc. [here is their US Patent Application for "Energy saving extra-low voltage dimmer lighting system" ... it sounds like the kind of thing that
Morgan	Lam	Pensito [Here is Morgan describing the Pensito concept on YouTube for his SFU business class]
Nancy	Lee	Personalized Genomics
nicholas	goossen	The Painters Edge
Nicholas	Mckenzie	Filmryder Technology [Nicholas... I registered FilmRyder.com.... contact me]
Nick	Bouton	Protagonize
Nicole	Reader	The Modern Mirror Inc.
Nigel	Malkin	Brand2hand Media Inc.
Nikki	Layton	Volo Innovations Inc
paddy	kamen	CPlates Inc.
Paul	Ruskay	The Chronicles of Aveon
Peter	Tingling	Amadeus Decision Making Software
Philip	Caines	Rezgo – Internet Tour Booking
Pierre	Lapointe	Sharing Books
Randy	DeLuca	RCOTECH WASTEWATER SOLUTIONS inc.
Ray	Walia	Razor Technology Inc. —- FireTonic mobile content distribution platform [I had coffee with Ray a couple of weeks ago. Very interesting technology.]
reaz	baraty	reducing GHG by reducing excessive use of vehicles and gradually reducing speed of cars chased by police to full stop
Reno	Gajo	End-user application software creator/cloner (software tool) [...I think this is GenRe Software]
Rian	Bowden	DailySplice
Richard	Schultz	100Watt Solutions Ltd.
Richard T.	White	Prospero Media Group Ltd.
Richard	Tennant	Vanport Ecologies Inc. – VASH-ACCESS Model; Vanport Artificial Soils, Hydrogen and Advanced Carbon and Clean Energy Storage System
Riel	Roussopoulos	StrataXL Software Inc.
Rob	Lo	Ubiquitous Discussion Forum
Robert	McCrea	Zebra Logic Inc.
Robin	Hiet-Block	Vsiant
Ron	Zaitsoff	custom pipeline Welding Tractor with unique track suspension system
Roy	Suzuki	Clean electric power generating system
Ryan	Rigby	PeerMint – Online Peer to Peer Lending
Saxon	Shuttleworth	ClicVue
Sean	Hodgins	QCDocs Systems Inc.
Sean	Simmons	Map Manager
Sean	Young	Greendex
Shawn	Burns	Greenhouse Gas Management Business Solutions [this is the Carbon Credit Corp as featured here in the Vancouver Sun]
Shawn	Pedersen	Echoflex Solutions Inc.
Shoji	Kanamori	Cooling Device for HTS Industries
simon	backer	Wireless Image [I'm pretty sure Simon is the same Simon who was the SVP for Wireless Services for MDSI]
Sorin	Pasca	Beetlecrete Products [Sorin... this is a great concept and something the province needs; however, I would recommend a different product name modeled after the success of "Denim Pine" of a couple years back. If you are stuck on Beetlecrete, Beetlecrete.com is still available.
Sreekant	Sreedharan	MyOlive Small Business Portal [my guess is you can buy the family portal for the dot com version of the domain. This would be marketing dollars well spent]
Stefan	Avall	UniversitySolutions
Stephen	Jacura	PAC RES GRU – Pacific Research Group Inc
Steven	Jones	Small Energy Group
Tanis	Steward	iSociety Networks Inc.
Thomas	Steiner	Etalim Inc. [I am intrigued by this company and their involvement in trying to manufacture a Stirling Engine, something I've read about since that infamous "IT question" first mentioned them back in the day ...which of course became the Segway. The chairman is also Amos Michelsen (ex-CREO)]
Thomas J.	Seitz	BAIT-CAR.COM PRODUCTS
Timothy	Webster	Genist Systems Inc.
Todd	Caldecott	Chakra Cola
Todd	Winship	Primisyn
Tom	Koftinoff	Portable Logging Trailer Attachment and Clean Energy Engine
Trong	Hoang	Innisoft – Intellegent Investment Software
Valerie	Harrison	Destinations Multimedia
Vladimir	Savchenko	SoundOfMotion
wahiba	chair	PortaReader [Wahiba... PortaReader.com is still available. I would recommend you register it ASAP if this is your company or product name]
Weilin	Zheng	Online English Education
Will	Huggett	ALTEN Energy Solutions Inc. [I know these guys well, and I like what they are doing]
William	Choi	CB Williams Bio-Energy Group – has a Disruptive Clean Energy Catalyst Technology
William	Edmondson	Transphat Imports
Willy	Ferstl	Mechanized Shrinkage Jumbo
Zheng	Tan	Twicebright Lighting Ltd.