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GraemeThickins
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Brand journalist, content marketer, startup advisor, technology writer/analyst, blogger, PR/communications professional, social media strategist...and surfer.
Interests: venture capital, innovation, entrepreneurship, it/software, cloud computing, mobile apps, community, marketing/branding/pr, angel investing, Internet/web technology, blogging, entrepreneurship, consumer electronics, technology conferences (including all the DEMO events), and, of course...surfing! I also like photography, especially surfing and beach related. Many of my photos are at flickr.com/graemethickins, including a favorite set called "surfing, san clemente, sunsets." The surfing photo in my blog banner is one I shot in perfect conditions in December 2005 at San Clemente's Poche Beach, with the sunset over Catalina Island in the background. It's an awesome place -- my favorite spot on the mainland!
Recent Activity
GM Throws Money at Hackers at #Gluecon
During the reception after Day 1 of the Glue Conference, I stopped at the GM booth to learn more about their big push for apps in cars, and the hackathon they're sponsoring here. Sound quality starts out bad (sorry), but gets better. Watch for announcement about the winners later today,... Continue reading
Posted 9 hours ago at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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I'm at #Gluecon 2013 - Preparing for My Brain to Explode :-)
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Sitting in the big room -- largest Gluecon ever, and I'm back for my fourth! As you can see from the agenda, it's packed with hot topics... even six-across breakout sessions this year, as event organizer Eric Norlin told me in a brief interview just before the kickoff of Day... Continue reading
Posted yesterday at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Spark Devices Launches ‘Spark Core’ to Enable Wi-Fi for Everything
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[Note: This post first appeared earlier today at Minnov8.com.] Minneapolis-based Spark Devices today launched a new project on Kickstarter in a major reboot of the company. The new Kickstarter comes as the cofounders are about to complete an accelerator program in China called HAXLR8R (“hack-celerator” – get it?). It’s described... Continue reading
Posted May 2, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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What Comes First in Fargo - the #MidwestMobileSummit or the Spring Floods?
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They're both coming soon! And they may actually be arriving about the same time. But, no worries, the first-year Midwest Mobile Summit will be held April 28-29 in downtown Fargo ND, which I'm told is a pretty safe area of town from the rising waters that come every spring to... Continue reading
Posted Apr 14, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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W3i Rebrands and Launches New 'Native' Ad Platform; Names Trip Hawkins as Senior Advisor
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(Note: This news appeared earlier this morning on Minnov8.com.) W3i, one of Minnesota's largest and fastest-growing Internet companies, with headquarters in St. Cloud and offices in Minneapolis and San Francisco, just made a major announcement today. The company has changed its name to NativeX and completely rebranded around a new... Continue reading
Posted Mar 20, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Punch Through Design, a Startup with Roots in Minnesota, Is Making a Name for Itself in SF
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Some pretty amazing tech entrepreneurs come out of Minnesota. I can attest, as I've worked with way more than one hundred of them, and written about my fair share. Colin Karpfinger is an excellent example, one whose story inspired me to want to tell more people about him. It all... Continue reading
Posted Mar 19, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Four Minnesotans (and One Transplant) Form the Core of New VC Firm Icon Venture Partners
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News broke today about the founding of a new venture capital firm composed mainly of Minnesota names, including partners from a firm with a name familiar to many here in Minnesota that is now being retired. In a story just published a few hours ago, Icon Ventures Forms from El... Continue reading
Posted Mar 15, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Thoughts from a Google event in #Minneapolis ...
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Google and CoCo are cohosting a day-long event today on entrepreneurship and innovation in Minneapolis, including speakers, workshops, and panels -- and I'm hanging out here right on through to the closing happy-hour reception. It's just past lunchtime now, and I thought I'd punch out a post. The afternoon sessions... Continue reading
Posted Feb 20, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Kedrosky: Venture Capital Contraction Has Ended, But Accelerator Contraction Looms
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Paul Kedrosky, an investor, CNBC commentator, and a fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, sees a train wreck coming. In a post published Febuary 4th, entitled "Venture Capital Contraction Has Ended, But Accelerator Contraction Looms," he first says: "After arguing a few years ago in a Kauffman paper that the VC... Continue reading
Reblogged Feb 9, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Thanks, Daren! Good to hear from a CES veteran... :-)
Toggle Commented Jan 18, 2013 on What Kind of Press Coverage Can a Minnesota Startup Get at CES? at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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What Kind of Press Coverage Can a Minnesota Startup Get at CES?
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Well, plenty if its name is Canopy and its product is a revolutionary, touch-sensitive iPhone case, which adds touch technology to the back and right side. The Sensus™ case drew huge interest at the 2013 International CES show in Las Vegas last week -- as you can see from a... Continue reading
Posted Jan 16, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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An Interview with United Healthcare Group's Head of Innovation
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On the lookout for hometown companies at CES, I had a chance to swing by the very impressive United Healthcare Group booth in the South Hall. Actually, calling it a booth would not do it justice! A "massive presence" would be a better description... :-) While there, I had the... Continue reading
Posted Jan 9, 2013 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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It Was Tech-Conference Heaven This Week in Denver for #Defragcon and #Blurcon
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But if you follow me on Twitter, I guess you, uh, knew that... :-) Because it was nonstop, crazy, hair-on-fire tweeting from me Tuesday through Friday!! These back-to-back events were fantastic -- I got to see many old friends, make some important new contacts, learn about lots of cool new... Continue reading
Posted Nov 18, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Two Minnesota Startups Are Showing Their Cool Products at #Blurcon
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The Blur Conference -- all about the human-computer interface -- just kicked off. It's taking place November 15th and 16th in Denver, right after the Defrag Conference. It's at the same venue, the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, CO. Two startups based in Minneapolis are previewing their cool, new products... Continue reading
Posted Nov 15, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Defrag Conference 2012 Kicks Off in Denver Today #defragcon
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I'm back again at Defrag -- my sixth straight year, since inception! Looking forward to an awesome event. Check out the agenda here, and watch for more from me later here, and on SoundCloud, where I'll be posting some audio interviews. Continue reading
Posted Nov 14, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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'Fly by feeling, not thinking' - 3D Multi-Player Aerial Gaming by @QFOlabs ... #Kickstarter
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Maybe you caught the talk by the Kickstarter cofounder at the Walker Art Center here in Minneapolis the other night? If so, perhaps you ran into one of the team members of local startup QFO Labs — the latest Minnesota product gurus to launch an ambitious project on Kickstarter. The... Continue reading
Posted Oct 28, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Blogger Pitch: Wow, Best Buy Is Trying to Buy Me for $100...
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Okay, not just me -- probably hundreds of bloggers got the pitch. I thought my friends from the early days of the BestBuy.com team would especially get a kick out of this. Let's start a little contest: how many bloggers do you think will do it? 20? 30? 50? I... Continue reading
Posted Oct 12, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Minnesota Startup Kidblog Returns from the Valley, Wiser and Richer
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(Note: This post first appeared earlier today on Minnov8.) Well, let's say nicely funded, anyway -- a fully subscribed seed round that fulfills their near-term capital needs. I wanted to write a post to report the latest update on this amazing Minnesota tech startup: Kidblog. You've seen me write about... Continue reading
Posted Sep 7, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Marissa Mayer's Minnesota Connections
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Unless you were totally off the grid in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for the past few days, you surely know by now that Yahoo! has named former Google exec Marissa Mayer as its new CEO. But what you may not know is that two of our fellow MInnesota techies... Continue reading
Posted Jul 19, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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My pleasure, Adam - PW does such an excellent job reporting on the state of the API. Keep up the great work!
Toggle Commented Jul 11, 2012 on API Adoption And The Open Cloud: What Is An API? [Infographic] at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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API Adoption And The Open Cloud: What Is An API? [Infographic]
I really like this infographic from the Rackspace blog. Very helpful for people to understand APIs. It also cites some great data from my frends at ProgrammableWeb. Quoting from the post: You probably use application programming interfaces (APIs) multiple times a day and aren’t even aware of it. They make... Continue reading
Posted Jul 11, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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@beaker takes a pool shot at the #gluecon VIP...
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@beaker takes a pool shot at the #gluecon VIP reception... Continue reading
Posted May 23, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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My Live Blog of the 2012 Glue Conference - #gluecon
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The third annual Glue Conference was held May 23-24 at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, Colorado. (Pre-events were held May 22, including a Cloud Camp.) This live blog began at 8:30 am Mountain Time May 23, and continued throughout the event and beyond, capturing tweets until about 7:00 am... Continue reading
Posted May 23, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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MinneAnalytics Forum Attracts Big Crowd
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Close to 600 attendees! My Flickr set from the MinneAnalytics Forum on May 21 is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/graemethickins/sets/72157629845302404/ (For more on the event, search on the Twitter hashtag #bigdataMN -- it was active! Also see the Eventbrite page, which has a list of the attendees and also now contains links to... Continue reading
Posted May 23, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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Minnesota: A Great Place to Be for SaaS Companies
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(Note: this post first appeared at Minnov8.com.) I had the pleasure of attending a workshop event held this past Saturday at the awesome CoCo coworking space at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. It was called SaaSCamp 2012. Note the year is part of that title, because it fully intends to be... Continue reading
Posted Apr 23, 2012 at Graeme Thickins On Tech™ (formerly Tech~Surf~Blog™)
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