Last night, about 120 people converged upon Google Ann Arbor for a new, regular event that has emerged in Ann Arbor. Dug Song put together the Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup. Leaders from 5 Companies took the stage, spending 10 minutes however they wished to talk about their companies, products, etc.  This was NOT limited to software, although each of the companies had some software in their product.  The companies were:

Care Evolution provides secure Health Information Exchange solutions.  I liked how the speaker (Vik Kheterpal) described it as the Expedia of Health Care records.

Crowd Clarity is based on ideas from Wisdom of Crowds. They have an application that allows employees from organizations to "place bets" on which of their products will be a hit in the marketplace, and rank them. This feeds back to the company and can be used to project sales (and thus, target incentives for items that aren't selling well).

InstaTell Diagnostics is a UM spinoff that's commercializing the speeding up of diagnosing bacterial infections and improving on the more targeted use of antibiotics.

TheGenerationProject gives donors (in education) full control over how their funds are used. The founders are former educators from the Bronx, currently living in Ann Arbor.

URTURN is a Web2.0 project that pays you for activities that you already do on Facebook.  Rewards are paid in Uros (its own social currency). They also give away prizes.

StartupDrinks at Bar Louie followed the event, where conversations continued.

I'm already looking forward to the next event, which will be in a different format. March 26 will be Ann Arbor Tech Cocktail #1 at 7 pm.  TechNow 09 will be held April 23 in Royal Oak at the Royal Oak Music Theater.

These events are great for our area, showcasing what's going on! I'm thrilled that Dug, through a2geeks, has taken this on!