Last night, over 300 (275 registered + 30 walk ins) of DC's tech savvy entreprenuers, web developers, and would-be game-changers gathered at the Washington Post building for an evening of drinks, schmoozing, and start-up presentations. Attendees who braved the rain were greeted with a badge, an app, and a bottle or glass of their favorite poison (we dug on the Coppola Chardonnay).
The Disruptathon event series, founded in 2009 by Peter Erickson, is an “open” innovation contest that provides a 2 minute platform for start-ups and tech companies to pitch their products and services to a room full of like-minded individuals and investors. A lot of focus is given to Disruptathon’s "Innovation Discovery Platform" which is a primarily iOS app that collects audience feedback on the presentations and funnels sponsor surveys to attendees. Winners in categories like (Best Presentation and Most Disruptive Potential) are chosen based on who scores highest with the audience.
Presenting companies were selected "based on their presence in the social media community and their unique social media products, as well as their model and market approach". Each company was given two minutes to pitch their product or service and hopefully convince the audience to rank them highly across areas like Design and Disruptive Potential. The companies included: AakinaTek, Angel, awesomize.me, Curia, Invensys Labs, Inc., LifeKraze, LocalResponse, MediaFriends, Mobile Dev Partners, LLC, MyTalk, Inc., Picdish, Pixable, ProConIt, Share With 911, Spinnakr, Sponto, TrendSpottr, Uppidy and Votizen.
The evening's big winner was Votizen (pictured to the right) who swept the awards, picking up 1st Place in: Best Presentation, Uniqueness, Design, Most Disruptive Potential, Most Liked Button, and of course, Best in Show. "Votizen is an online network of real voters who have expressed their commitment to be engaged citizens. A free service, Votizen allows its members — Votizens — to claim their voter profile, learn about issues and elections, and take collective action with other committed voters through social media. Backed by the original investors in Facebook and Twitter, Votizen is an independent company and is not affiliated with any political party, candidate or special interest group." - Votizen
LocalResponse scored well with 2nd place in Uniqueness, Most Disruptive Potential, and Best in Show, and 3rd Place in Best Presentation, Design, and Most Liked Button.
"LocalResponse is a social advertising platform that aggregates public posts and “check-ins” across multiple platforms to help brands and businesses reach their customers." - LocalResponse
Sponto, Angel, and Pixable also scored well, each appearing multiple times as finalists in various categories.
Sponsors of the event included: WaPo Labs (@WaPoLabs) and The Washington Post Company, Rock Creek Strategic Marketing (@rockcreeksm), Womble Carlyle (@WCSRtwit), Socialize (@socialize), iStrategy Labs (@istrategylabs), TechCocktail (@TechCocktail), TappedIn (@TappedIn_DC), O'Reilly (@OReillyMedia), Deloitte, MicroStrategy, UK Trade & Investment, Virgin Atlantic, PointAbout, TEDxPennQuarter, Social Media Club of DC, Teqcorner, iFormBuilder, SpeakerBox.
Related Links:
- Disruptathon Photo Set on Facebook
- Disruptathon's Live-Blog of the Event
- Disruptathon Social Media Event Invite and Attendee List
- Sisarina's Storify of Disruptathon
