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August 2008
Fiona Ashley
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Preparing for DEMO

Posted by Fiona Ashley Aug 27, 2008

In just under two weeks, Team TravelMuse (Kevin, Eric and I) will head to San Diego to take part in our version of the Olympics—[DEMOfall '08|http://www.demo.com/DF8PTR], a launchpad for emerging technology. Although we haven’t been working on this for four years, it’s certainly taken a huge amount of planning and practice to get ready for this prestigious event. 

 

At DEMO we will launch our latest product, the most complex release our product and engineering teams have tackled so far. With no challenge too small, they have worked diligently towards the deadline of Sept. 7. As we approach the final lock-down stage, Bugzilla has certainly been getting quite a workout! We’re really excited to show off our new product and let you try it out for yourself. 

 

Kevin and Eric (TravelMuse Co-Founders) are our demonstrators at DEMO. We joke with our PR team about how many times we can get the word DEMO into a sentence. We’re going to give you a demo of our demo for DEMO. Anyway, Kevin and Eric are doing well with learning their scripts and can be seen listening to iPods (are they getting in the Michael Phelps zone?), clutching cue cards and muttering away to themselves. Coach Nathan has them on a regular practice schedule, and Eric, every now and again, gives me impromptu recitals.

 

I think we have compared this experience to a mix of memorizing your lines for a school play, to practicing the tricky sections of your piano recital, to being in a competitive race. Basically, you have to know your game plan and practice, practice, practice. 

 

Meanwhile, I’ve been taking care of the logistics with the DEMO team, writing product marketing copy and finalizing press kits and give-aways.

 

Later this week Kevin and Eric will have a live audience with our company—definitely the toughest crowd yet! Everyone has been working hard to produce their piece of the puzzle and is counting on them to show it off at its best—which I’m confident they will.

 

Team TravelMuse DEMO schedule:

Saturday, Sept. 6: Arrive in San Diego and rehearse in the evening.

Sunday, Sept. 7: Demonstrators’ meeting and set up booth #24.

Monday, Sept. 8: Watch other demos and give demos at booth #24.

Tuesday, Sept. 9: Team TravelMuse presents at 8:52 a.m. and gives demos at booth #24.

 

If you’re attending DEMO, we’ll see you there, otherwise you can follow us on Twitter @[TravelMuse|http://twitter.com/TravelMuse], and we’ll post more to the TravelMuse Company Blog soon.

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: travelmuse, demo, demofall08, san_diego, technology, conference, travel, launch
Fiona Ashley
0

We’ve been bursting to tell everyone that we’ve been chosen to present our latest technological innovation! On September 7th, Kevin, Eric and I will head down to San Diego to showcase the great work of the TravelMuse team, along with 70 other companies.

 

In the meantime, we’re fine tuning the six-minute script and working through all the logistics from AV forms to hotel reservations. Thank goodness the DEMO handbook is so well put together! We’re working with DEMO coach Nathan Gold—he’s great and is keeping us on track. Left to our own devices, I know we’d be blowing off meetings with each other. 

 

 

DEMOfall 08 is the launchpad for emerging technology. During two exciting days of rapid-fire, six-minute presentations, DEMO attendees will be the first to see the most innovative, market-defining products unveiled for the very first time.

 

With more than 20,000 technologies reviewed and 1,500 companies selected to launch on the DEMO stage over the past 18 years, DEMO has an incredible track record of success.

 

From the first launch of Palm, Java, TiVo  , E*TRADE in the mid/late ‘90s to Salesforce.com, VMware, Six Apart, OddPost, IronPort, GrandCentral and Glam Media in more recent years, DEMO delivers real products ready for market.

 

The results have been astounding. Past participants such as WebEx, VMware, iRobot, Linden Labs, Six Apart, and Roku have single-handedly defined or redefined their industries. Companies who have launched products at DEMO over the past four years have gone on to raise over $2.5 billion. Plus, more than 40 of these companies have been acquired by tech giants, such as Adobe, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Symantec, Viacom, Yahoo, and more.

 

We invite you to join us at DEMOfall 08 to see and hear about our incredible breakthrough—before anyone else does. Take advantage of the $600 registration discount and register today for only $2,395 at www.demo.com/DF8PTR.

 

Stay tuned as we update you on our progress here at TravelMuse and get ready for our six minutes of fame!

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: travelmuse, demo, demofall08, technology, innovation
Kevin Fliess
0

Most travelers visit numerous Web sites when planning a trip, but they lack a simple way to organize their findings or share research efficiently. TravelMuse can help solve that problem. Today we released the TravelMuse Plan-It! widget for site publishers.    (Click to read the full press release.)

 

Visitors to sites that feature the Plan-It! social bookmarking widget can simply click the Plan-It! button on any page and save content directly into the TravelMuse Planner—a centralized place to collect, organize and share travel research. Content publishers can download and install Plan-It! by visiting the Plan-It! page on TravelMuse.com. 

 

 

 

This widget is perfect for travel content Web sites such as CVBs, DMOs, B&Bs, travel blogs— any quality travel site that wants to empower its readers with the ability to more easily plan trips.

 

 

Three TravelMuse partners—which all provide great trip planning content—have already deployed Plan-It!: Uptake.com, CiaoBambino.com and CompulsiveTraveler.tv.

 

  • Uptake aggregates and organizes reviews from thousands of different sites so that you can get a complete picture of a hotel, restaurant or attraction before you arrive. (You can read about how UpTake is using Plan-It! on the UpTake blog.)

  • CiaoBambino provides very rich and detailed reviews of high-end family travel destinations and properties.

  • CompulsiveTraveler has beautiful, engrossing travel videos organized by activity and destination.

 

If you’re a traveler, explore these sites and try out the Plan-It! widget. Click on a page featuring the widget, and that content is automatically stored inside of a TravelMuse trip plan. 

 

 

 

If you’re a publisher, visit our partner page to learn more. Plan-It! is free to download and use, and gives your site visitors the power to more efficiently plan trips. We hope you find this tool as cool and useful as we do. 

 

 

[ |http://www.travelmuse.com/about/plan-it.htm] 

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: plan-it!_widget, publishers, uptake, ciaobambino, compulsivetraveler, travel_planning, travelmuse
Fiona Ashley
1

It’s all go, go, go here at TravelMuse, and over the course of July we continued to get the word out about the company through blogs, consumer magazines, press, TV and radio.

 

As much as she prefers to be behind a camera rather than in front of one, Donna flew out to Miami and was interviewed by Joel Connable on NBC6 news about our Inspiration Finder and planning tools. We were listed as one of their Cool Travel Websites. Watch the video footage here:

 

The August edition of Mens Journal hit the shelves in mid-July and featured TravelMuse as one of Three New Travel Services—the added advantage is we can legitimately display the cover shot of the very fit Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in the office! I’m allowed to say that—right? In fact, why don’t I just share it with you…

 

 

 

Kevin did a couple of radio interviews, first with Travel Hub Radio and then KOMO 1000 News Radio in Seattle. He was also interviewed by Verne Kopytoff of the San Francisco Chronicle, where we were featured as a new site offering creative tools for finding and planning vacations.

 

Vani Rangachar (Los Angeles Times) in the Dallas Morning News said, “Easily its coolest gadget is the user-friendly “Inspiration Finder” … and I also liked Trip Plan, which allows you to collect disparate info in one place by bookmarking and labeling Web sites.”

 

A big thanks goes out to the blogging community too for their continued interest. Donna and I attended the BlogHer ‘08 Conference in San Francisco earlier this month, and we had a great time reconnecting with Stacy Morrison of Redbook and meeting a number of other women bloggers!

 

Christina from coolmompicks said, “TravelMuse’s original content and cool trip planning tools make it an interesting place to spend some time; I may never get to a Family Surf Camp but it sure was fun to read about.”

 

Nicole Feliciano of Momtrends covered TravelMuse and talked to me about tips for planning a vacation when bringing children aged 0-6 and what my vacation plans were.

 

We’ll have an exciting new company announcement next week … stay tuned!

1 Comments Permalink Tags: travelmuse, press, media, blogs, family_travel, travel_planning, inspiration_finder

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