It is time once again for the annual (25th Annual) Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference. Many of the sessions seem like sequels to prior year blockbusters: Meg Whitman of eBay interviews Warren Buffet, Barry Diller (IAC) and Howard Stringer (Sony) interview each other and Bill Gates tells us about the Digital Revolution.
What is new each year is a showcase of the latest hot start-ups disrupting the media/technology world. Last year featured Sling Media (maker of the eponymous Slingbox), Linden Labs (Second Life) and FON. A conversation with CEO Philip Rosedale after last year's presentation led to Reuters oft-mentioned participation in Second Life.
This year's presentations included Joost, the new peer-to-peer video over the internet service; Ning, a toolkit to create white-labeled social networks; and Spot Runner, a service which allows small businesses or any size business to create professional looking video ads and target them to local viewing markets. So far, Reuters is only working with Joost, run by the talented Mike Volpi, ex of Cisco.
More tomorrow when Tony Blair and Mayor Mike appear.