I’m not a tech guy. My colleagues at work seem to think so though, which is why they keep asking me questions about how to turn on their cell phones, download podcasts to iPods, and unfreeze their computers.

“Is it because I’m young or Asian?” I always ask.

Cue uncomfortable silence.

In truth, I wouldn’t know a Twitter from a Twizzler. One time, a friend asked me for my snail mail address. Thinking this was some sort of new Internet thing, I stammered: “I don’t think I have one.” Much laughter and ridicule ensued.

So it was with a sense of trepidation that I wandered into Intermedia Arts in Uptown Wednesday night, to check out MinneDemo, the quarterly tech gathering that’s part geek fest (picture a sea of iPhones, laptops, and flannel shirts), part frat party (free beer for everybody!!!) and part speed dating (more on that later).

I spy Graeme Thickins, local entrepreneur and MinneDemo veteran. I tell him that I’ll be blogging about the event.

“You have a blog?” Graeme asks, making me think that I should do a better job of updating Patent Pending. “I don’t really have time to work on my mine. I spend all of my time Twittering. Blogs are so 2004,”

Ouch.

I jokingly repeated Graeme’s remark to software developer and harried MinneDemo co-organizer Luke Francl.

“Well, newspapers are so 19th century,” he said. “But thanks for writing about us though.”

I’m pretty depressed by now.

The lights go down as the first MinneDemo presenter takes the mic.

“I feel that I’m speed dating in front of 300 really smart people,” said Daren Klum, president of Hardcore Computer Inc. in Rochester.

Klum showed off Reactor, the company’s high tech PC system that uses a patented liquid submersion cooling technology to limit heat and boost computing performance.

“Heat is the biggest limiting factor to computers,” Klum said.

He explained Reactor is meant for serious computer users like gamers, industrial designers, and military technologists. Good thing too. The PC’s gynormous size makes my laptop look like a calculator. The soft blue glow eminating from the cooling system resembles an oversized lava lamp.

Mike Palmquist, partner and creative director of Minneapolis-based Portage Interactive (Francl helpfully reminded the audience Portage is located between Sex World and Deja Vu in the Warehouse District), demonstrated TeamTreks: Glacier Bay.

The online interactive game tests the leadership and literacy skills of 4th to 7th graders in a Survivor-like setting. Four students are in Glacier Bay, Alaska (don’t know yet if they can see Russia) and must make it back to their cabin with limited supplies before someone calls for help. Teachers can oversee the game from their PCs and change players and rules. They can also compare track students’ performance over time and compare their reading and math skills to state standards.

“The sad fact is that nobody is playing Oregon Trail anymore in the sixth grade,” said Palmquist, the executive producer behind Oregon Trail 3 and 4.

Wow, blast from the past. The things I remember about Oregon Trail: the wheels from my carriage consistently came off, someone always got sick, and I enjoyed shooting buffalo.

Try Catch Games was kind of interesting. The startup designs simple Flash-based games like Swat, Clone, and Hey Hey Shooter that companies can use to promote their brands. I instantly thought of those addictive golf and baseball games from the Orbitz pop up ads. Nate Pacyga also spoke how Try Catch was developing games where the action, movement, and outcomes are influenced by music.

There was a lot of other interesting stuff at MinneDemo but will any of them get venture captial funding and become a sustainable business? The answer is probably no.

I may not be a techie but I do know that technology without a business model is simply technology. As Mike Gorman at Split Rock Partners once told me, MinneDemo proves there are a lot of smart guys in Minnesota. Problem is that most of them don’t have the business acumen to create companies. One entrepreneur at MinneDemo said it felt as if the VCs were scouting the junior high baseball team. Pretty telling that Split Rock, which sponsored all five MinneDemos, has yet to invest in any presenter.

Of course, MinneDemo is not an investors conference. Every quarter, techies just like to unwind a little bit, drink some beer, and show off their work to peers. But let’s face it, most of the people there were looking for VC funding.

The number one problem with entrepreneuers, an investment banker told me, is that they develop something cool and try squeeze a market around it. Shouldn’t it be the other way around- identify a market need and then create something that satisfies demand?

I leave you with the words of someone who posted a comment on my blog after reviewing the list of MinneDemo presenters in late October.

Ugh…Have these startups not realized that project management has already been mastered 50 times over. I know each has like their slight variation on it, but my god forget project management/organization apps.

Seriously, all this brain power and we’re making projects that help people spend more time entering into a computer than doing them. Can we take the programming and engineering know how and cure cancer, develop faster tox screens, blood tests, DNA analysis.

I love the ambition and I don’t want to sound negative, but put the skills to better use for kids or education.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.