Conference Hound-Up May 16, 2012: A Refreshing Digital Smoothie

Sweet delicious technology.

Welcome to the middle of the week, where most of the awesome stuff happens.  Oh wait, I was thinking of the weekend.  Nevermind.  Anyway, there’s at least a few cool things kicking off with us this Wednesday, not the least of which is one of the biggest and most widely respected film festivals in the world.

The Cannes Film Festival in France dates back to 1946.  Over the years it has become a symbol of artistic quality and a mecca for celebrity back-patting.  The buzz and influence of Cannes seems to grow each year as they continuously attempt to cram in more A-Listers and blockbusters.  It will run clear through next week, concluding with an awards show and LOTS of standing ovations.

MediaPost is offering up the OMMA Social event today in NYC.  This one, as the most savvy readers have already guessed, is designed to provide brands and marketers with insight into how social media is best used to build their voice and hopefully, profits.

The two-day TechFuse Conference in Minneapolis throws all kinds of computing terms together into a blender and whips up a nice digital smoothie.  They’ll be discussing cloud computing, development, SQL, SharePoint, Security, how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop and much, much more.

The SmartStart Venture Forum is a friend to the entrepreneur, providing opportunities for venture capitalists to meet their newest investment each and every year.  Hundreds of companies have attributed more than $72 million in funding to their participation in this event.  That’s a lot of scratch.

WebVisions Portland dedicates itself to being the “creative conference for the web.”  With a zesty spirit of innovation friendly to designers and entrepreneurs and a neat logo featuring a boxing robot, they certainly seem to have the attitude that an open-minded funnel for new ideas should.

In dork news, the gaming world lit up yesterday with the release of Diablo III.  Apparently this has been a widely-anticipated release.  Tech sites and social media streams are buzzing with it.  Many gamers will not see the light of day for weeks.  But that’s probably not that unusual.

Rumor has it (rumor being scientific study) that man and dog have been best friends for many eons, and that our friendship may have been a key factor in the evolution of the human race.  That’s cool, but I’m still a cat person.