Around here, we’re gearing up for our Leading in Local conference in San Francisco next month. It will feature the standard fare of heavy hitters from the likes of Google, Facebook, Airbnb, GoDaddy, etc.. We’ll even have California Lt. Governor (and fellow SCU alum) Gavin Newsom.

But the part I’m most excited about is our Local Liftoff competition. Branching from our Future Stars program, we offer heavily discounted rates to early stage companies to bring more startup energy into the mix. This culminates in a demo competition on stage. It’s a great peek at the future of local.

Today we opened up applications. If you are or know a startup operating in the local media space, we’d love to have you. There are a few requirements to make sure its a level playing field of early stage companies (funding & revenue caps, etc.). These can be seen on the program’s landing page.

You can apply on that same page, or email me if you have any questions (mbolandATbiakelsey.com). If you aren’t a startup but are still interested in attending the event, we’d also love to have you. Email me for a discount code to register. We’d love to see you there as competing startup or attendee.

Meanwhile our coverage of the past winners is here and here. My selfie video explaining the whole thing is embedded below. It’s within the context of our September Austin show but the spirit behind the program remains. More to come including blog coverage of our future stars as they file in.

The post Get Ready for Local Local Liftoff Awards, Third Edition appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

During last week’s SMB Digital Marketing  conference, we ran our second Local Liftoff Awards competition. Out of a field of ten early stage companies in the local media space, attendee voting limited down to 3 finalists.

Local Viewpoints

LocalBrain

UpRing

After a lively “Shark Tank” demo session on stage (or American Idol if you prefer), the audience voted in a second round to crown Local Viewpoints as the winner.  The company is helmed by local industry veteran Gib Olander.

In short, Local Viewpoints assembles data and signals from mobile and social media to better qualify local businesses. Lots of implications for sentiment analysis, search optimization, and merchant operational tools.

Congrats to Gib, the other finalists and to all who participated. We’re going to continue to run and evolve the Local Liftoff awards at BIA/Kelsey Conferences. See you in San Francisco in December.

The post Local Viewpoints Takes Home Local Liftoff Gold appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

This afternoon at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local BIA/Kelsey launched its version of the Shark Tank start up competition, the LOCAL Liftoff Awards, where three finalist companies gave a short pitch, followed by a brief grilling by celebrity judges Randy Parker, the co-founder of Constant Contact, and David Kidder, author of the “Start-Up Playbook.”

Conference participants can vote for one of the three finalists until 9 pm EST tonight. Here is the information on how to vote:

The first presenter was GoLocal24, a company started two years ago to fill the content void created by the decline of newspapers. The company produces original content which it distributes via social media and through media partners (including local radio stations).

The judges immediate jumped on the fact that GoLocal24 seems to be trying to succeed where Patch has failed. The counter was that the content is more scalable because of its social distribution and the fact that a significant portion of the content flows from one market to another.

The second finalist was Pricing Engine (the guys in the white lab coats), a company that wants to sell a digital media management solution to the segment of SMBs that is too small to be attractive to other channels.

The judges were skeptical that Pricing Engine had an original idea, given the numbers of companies looking to be the trusted adviser to SMBs confused by digital media. The counter was that Pricing Engine is aimed at the lower end of the SMB segment. “We compete with do it yourself AdWords, or nothing.”

The last of the three finalists to present was Punchcard, a mobile shopping app where consumers use their mobile device to scan their store receipts to receive loyalty credit for purchases. The judges praised punchcard for being the most polished of the three presentations, but questioned whether it can overcome the “friction” hurdle of getting consumers to scan receipts. Part of the counter was that the behavior is already developing, for example with apps that allow consumers to use smart phones to scan receipts and track their expenses.

The winner of the contest will be announced at the conference tomorrow. Winners will receive a trophy.

The post LIL 2013: Local Liftoff Awards appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.