Throughout the Fall, Carla Thompson and I spent uncountable hours sifting through DEMO applications, turning over stones, and interviewing hundreds of companies to come up with the 77 who will launch products next week at DEMO [...]]]> It can now be said…at least in part.

Throughout the Fall, Carla Thompson and I spent uncountable hours sifting through DEMO applications, turning over stones, and interviewing hundreds of companies to come up with the 77 who will launch products next week at DEMO 2008.

At one point in those intense 90 days from late September through Christmas, Carla asked, “Is this just a better group of applicants? There are so many great candidates.”

We did have a tough choice. After all, when you cast the net as wide as we do — looking at every type of product from core components to consumer entertainment — you find yourself weighing the market impact of, say, an advance in enterprise application development against an implementation of a unique consumer search algorithm. Then again, that’s what makes DEMO unique and exciting . . . there’s something for every interest and often, these interests intersect in serendipitous ways leading to unexpected results.

Now, though, the DEMO organization has released the names of the 77 companies introducing products next Monday. The envelop please. . .

2Win Solutions, Ltd.; Raanana, Israel

800 PBX, Inc.; Fremont, CA

Acesis, Inc.; Mountain View, CA

Asankya, Inc.; Atlanta, GA

Aternity, Inc.; Westborough, MA

atlaspost.com; Taipei City, Taiwan

Avistar Communications Corp.; San Mateo, CA

BitGravity, Inc.; Burlingame, CA

blist, Inc.; Seattle, WA

Buzka, Pty Ltd.; Subiaco, Australia

Capzles, Inc.; Culver City, CA

Catalyst Web Services, LLC; Alexandria, VA

CellSpinSoft, Inc.; San Jose, CA

Celsias, Ltd.; Wellington, New Zealand

CHALEX Corp.; Grasonville, MD

Circos.com, Inc.; San Mateo, CA

Citiport, Inc.; Taipei City, Taiwan

Citrix Systems, Inc.; Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Cozimo.com, Inc.; Berkeley, CA

Ecrio, Inc.; Cupertino, CA

Education.com; Redwood City, CA

Eyealike, Inc.; Bellevue, WA

Fabrik, Inc.; San Mateo, CA

Flypaper, Inc.; Phoenix, CA

GoldMail, Inc.; San Francisco, CA

good2gether, Inc.; Melrose, MA

Green Plug, Inc.; San Ramon, CA

HealthPricer Interactive, Ltd.; Vancouver, BC

Hubdub, Ltd.; Edinburgh, Scotland

Huddle.net; London, England

Iterasi, Inc.; Vancouver, WA

iVideotunes, Inc.; Alpharetta, GA

Jodange, LLP; Yonkers, NY

Kaazing Corp.; Mountain View, CA

LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.; Emeryville, CA

LegiTime Technologies, Inc.; Westport, CT

LiquidPlanner, Inc.; Bellevue, WA

LiquidTalk, Inc.; Chicago, IL

Liquidus Corp.; Chicago, IL

Livescribe, Inc.; Oakland, CA

MANDIANT; Alexandria, VA

MOLI, LLC; West Palm Beach, FL

Movial; Helsinki, Finland

Nirvanix; San Diego, CA

NotchUp, Inc.; Los Altos Hills, CA

Notebookz.com, Inc.; Berkeley, CA

Pathworks Software Corp.; Mountain View, CA

Redux, Inc.; Berkeley, CA

Review2Buy, Inc.; San Francisco, CA

Ribbit Corp.; Stanford, CA

Rove Mobile, Inc.; Ottawa, Ontario

Santrum Networks, Inc.; Taipei, Taiwan

SceneCaster; Richmond Hill, Ontario

Seesmic; San Francisco, CA

Semingo, Inc.; Herzliya Pituach, Israel

Silobreaker, Ltd.; London; England

Skyfire; San Jose, CA

SpeakLike, LLC; New York, NY

Sprout, Inc.; Honolulu; HI

Squidcast; San Francisco, CA

StackSafe, Inc.; Vienna, VA

Standout Jobs, Inc.; Montreal, Quebec

STEP Labs; San Jose, CA

Sterna Technologies, Inc.; San Mateo, CA

support.com; Redwood City, CA

SupportSpace, Inc.; Redwood Shores, CA

Symantec Corp.; Cupertino, CA

TimeTrade Systems, Inc.; Bedford, MA

Toktumi, Inc.; San Francisco, CA

TubeMogul, Inc.; Berkeley, CA

Vidyo™, Inc.; Hackensack; NJ

Visible Measures Corp.; Boston, MA

Voyant, Inc.; Austin, TX

xtranormal, Inc.; Montreal, Quebec

Yoics, Inc.; Palo Alto, CA

YouChoose, LLC; Thornton, PA

Zodiac Interactive; Valley Stream NY

It’s not to late to join the conference in person (register with this link to get the “Friends of Guidewire price”) or via Web video (check out demo.com for information on live streaming).  We’ll also give you a “backstage pass” to the event, posting behind the scenes stories as the event unfolds.