Benjamin Kuo’s Blog

Tony Perkins (who founded Red Herring Magazine and now heads AlwaysOn) gave a great keynote at the Technology Council’s annual Technology Awards in Los Angeles last night, talking about how he got the idea for his first magazine (Upside) — from the late William F. Buckley, in the back of a limousine, while working for Silicon Valley Bank — as well as about six trends he saw happening in the world today in the technology area. Among the trends, Perkins showed a well-received video of 12-year olds talking about what is important to them in the world, and ranking the Internet, cell phones, iPod, and other technology in their world; he also talked about how instant messaging and cell phones are more important than email to the “under 25″ generation. (Interestingly enough, I heard the same exact trend cited by Marc Zionts in an interview we ran yesterday on Ortiva Wireless.) Perkins also talked about the effect technology is having on the entertainment industry, and also showed an HD clip of “Lost” using broadband streaming technology from Move Networks. (Unrelated to this blog, but by coincidence Techrockies, our site covering the Rocky Mountain technology industry, ran an interview with John Edwards, CEO of Move Networks last week.)

Photos from the event:

Below: Venture capitalist David Cremin (of Draper Fisher Jurvetson) with Tony Perkins before the event.

Below: Alex Quilici of YouMail and Luis Villalobos, founder of the Tech Coast Angels.

Make It Work’s “Guitar Hero” setup in the reception area.

The Los Angeles Business Journal’s Booyeon Lee writes on the newspaper’s “Who’s Who of Banking” in their latest issue, with a focus on the “movers and shakers” who are helping to shape the Los Angeles high tech industry. Good quotes from, and profiles of Randy Churchill at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Greg Martin at Redpoint Ventures, Jim Armstrong at Clearstone Venture partners, Dave Berkus and Richard Morganstern of the Tech Coast Angels,Todd Gitlin of Safire Partners, Scott Alderton of Stubbs Alderton & Markiles LLP, Stephen Hughes of Silicon Valley Bank (among a few others).

(PwC, Redpoint, Clearstone, Safire Partners, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, and SVB are all sponsors of socalTECH.com).

Awards season continues here in Southern California, and Ernst & Young has just announced they are taking applications for their annual Entrepreneur of the Year awards event being held in June. The deadline for applications is March 28th. E&Y’s awards are a national program, and honor entrepreneurs across all sectors–not just technology. Last year’s winners included Errol Ginsberg of Ixia, Lawrence Ng of Oversee.net, Li Yu of Preferred Bank, Ming Hsieh of Cogent, Edward Wedbush of Wedbush Morgan Securities, and Isaac Larian of MGA Entertainment. To apply, contact Sandra Feldner Vandergriff at sandra.feldnervandergriff@ey.com.