Judging Startups at TwiistUp 5 This Week

I am excited to be headed back to Cali, Cali next week as I am a judge for the Twiistup 5 event in Santa Monica. It has been awhile since I have been to southern California as I attended the first Twiistup event on my birthday back in 2007. It was a great event but this event is going to be 5 times as big and is actually taking place at an airplane hangar.

I am judging the Twiistup Showoffs which include 10 startups as follows (in no particular order):

Causecast, dubbed "a one stop philanthropy shop" by TechCrunch, is a platform where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose.

Cogi
Cogi set out with a simple goal - give professionals a way to effortlessly recall and track everything in their important conversations through the use of an intuitive, browser-based service that seamlessly transcribes the important parts of conversation - the 'COGent Ideas' or Cogi.

eHow
More than 27 million people visit eHow.com each month to search more than 300,000 articles that are professionally written with clear and concise directions on how to do things. It also has a rapidly-growing library of articles created by eHow's members and a large library of professional instructional videos .

FixYa
FixYa empowers individuals to repair and improve upon their already-purchased possessions. The company also offers business services to manufacturers and retail businesses through its custom partnership opportunities.

GoGreenSolar
GoGreenSolar is global group of professionals dedicated to improve the distribution of renewable energy products, services and financing for people everywhere.

Meebo
Meebo is a new communications and media company that's re-writing the way people have conversations and communicate on the Web.

RoboDynamics
RoboDynamics is built by passionate people who want to use technology to shift the status quo and leverage state-of-the-art technology in robotics to change the way people live and work.

TheScene
The Scene connects individuals to the hottest places, people and events in their area. The Scene's trendsetting community is on the pulse of nightlife and entertainment in various cities throughout the world.

Viewdle
Viewdle is a facial-recognition powered digital media platform for indexing, searching and monetizing video assets.

Yammer
Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: 'What are you working on?'

I am pleased to be joined by Sarah Lacy, Brian Solis, Jackie Peters, Peter Pham, Andrew Warner, Richard Wolpert, Will Jessup and Devlyn Steele as judges for the startup competition. I got a chance to chat with my pal and Twiistup founder Mike Macadaan over iChat the other morning and talk about the upcoming event (below). Also check out this preview of Twiistup 5 on ZDNet .

Feb 6, TwiistUp 5...Getting Ready to Land at Santa MonicaAirport

LAist

http://laist.com/2009/02/06/twiistup_5_getting_ready_to_land_at.php

Get your cyber punk, Blade Runner and SciFi geekery from 1982 out of your closet because starship Twiistup 5 is getting ready to touch down at Santa Monica airport next Thursday.

Twiistup is a semi-annual conference, expo and all-around bash for the tech, entertainment and social media communities in LA. It brings together players from all these industries as well as those in the job market for same. Or you could just go for the food ( KogiBBQ will be on site, for one), open bar, dating game, robots, holograms, swag or geek CEO dance-off. Like, you know, the typical boring LA night. All that for less than a hands-free cellphone driving violation.

Next week's Twiistup features 11 startups selected by judges to showoff their wares at the event. You can check them out and vote for your favorite here. Internet startup culture is trending strong in LA for '09, according to a study by the organizers, so get on board.

Lest you think that Twiistup is pure debauchery, the event also offers opportunities to get involved with two worthy local organizations, LA's Best and LA's Best Friends. LA's Best supports educational and recreational opportunities for the most needy and underserved children in the City of LA. LA's Best Friends provides mentoring and matching programs between LA's diverse professionals and children. Both will have tables and representatives at the expo.

All four previous Twiistups sold out. Last we heard, there were fewer than 100 out of 1000 total tickets available for Twiistup 5. Those curious but not committed can follow the latest buzz and rumors on Twiistup's Twitter stream.

Twiistup 5 will go from 7 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, February 12 at Hangar 8, Santa MonicaAirport. This year's showoffs include:Causecast,Cogi,eHow,FixYa,Go Green Solar,Meebo,RoboDynamics,TheScene,TotSpot,Viewdle, and Yammer.

Tickets are $75 through Eventbrite.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHxBrbNjqhQ