I love Scott Kveton, the CEO of Urban Airship. He and his team are building an amazing company in Portland. If you do anything mobile-related and use push notifications of any sort, or real-time location targeting, you need to be talking to them. But even more impressive is how Scott leads his company.

The other day, I got an email from my partner Jason with a photo of the Urban Airship Meeting Rules posted on the wall. They are so logical as to be rules that should apply to every meeting at every startup from now until forever.

0. Do we really need to meet?

1. Schedule a start, not an end to your meeting – its over when its over, even if that’s just 5 minutes.

2. Be on time!

3. No multi-tasking … no device usage unless necessary for meeting

4. If you’re not getting anything out of the meeting, leave

5. Meetings are not for information sharing – that should be done before the meeting via email and/or agenda

6. Who really needs to be at this meeting?

7. Agree to action items, if any, at the conclusion of the meeting

8. Don’t feel bad about calling people out on any of the above; it’s the right thing to do.

I particularly love 0, 1, and 4. I rarely walk out of a meeting when I’m not getting anything out of it. I’m going to start paying more attention to this one.

This post originally appeared on Brad Feld’s blog, Feld Thoughts.

---

Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

---

That’s up 50 percent from last year, and it represents 8,100 companies booking 47,000 meetings. The company still has room to grow: Its event-booking system includes more than 200,000 hotels and venues worldwide.

I spoke with CEO Reggie Aggarwal in June just after the company’s Seed Labs acquisition, when he told me that Cvent was “the walking dead” from 2001 to 2005 after a high-flying dot-com bust. The company has battled hard since 2005, building itself into “the number one marketplace for group meetings.”

One of the company’s key competitive advantages is technology that helps both meeting planners and hotels quickly create and respond to requests for a quote. The goal: faster, frustration-free event selection.

Cvent vice president Bharet Malhotra says the company has ”invested heavily in technology revisions and trained tens of thousands of hotel employees with a goal of making the request-for-proposal response process a very manageable process of responding in just minutes.”

In mid-2011, Cvent announced a monster $136 million round of funding that has helped the company expand quickly and make strategic acquisitions. At that time, an IPO was not on the table — at least not for another six months, Aggarwal said.

One has to wonder if now, with growth like this and press releases being sent out to ensure the world knows, Cvent is starting to think about going public.

With Palo Alto Network jumping 31 percent and Kayak seeing a nice bump on opening day as well, perhaps the time is getting to be right.

Losevsky Photo and Video / Shutterstock.com

More and more technology is driving business. Whether it’s the bring-your-own-device movement, cloud computing, or video conferencing, business is adapting and advancing as quickly as it can.

Video calling and teleconferencing are now so commonplace that actual travel for business is now just one of many options. However, much like social networking and using your smartphone, video conferencing comes with its own set of etiquette rules. Here are seven big Don’ts to avoid when dialing in.

DON’T be late

This is a central tenet for all meetings, really. However, online meetings have the added element of unpredictable technical problems that might pop up. You can compensate for any potential issues by logging in a few minutes ahead of time, which will also help keep the meeting starting and ending at its scheduled times.

DON’T be unprepared

Before you even get to the log-in point, some preparation is in order. Make sure you have any necessary directions for the meeting easily accessible to all participants. Likewise, any digital or physical documents should be ready at hand.

DON’T get off track

The best way to make sure that online meetings stay on track is to provide an agenda before the meeting begins, and to keep the agenda at hand in case the conversation starts to stray away from the planned topics. It’s also a great resource for anyone who arrives late to the meeting, or is accidentally disconnected.

DON’T multitask

Sure, it’s tempting to try to handle email or other tasks while the meeting is happening, but doing that means you’re not paying close attention to what’s actually happening in the meeting. That can lead to some awkward moments when you’re asked a question and have no idea what’s actually going on. Also, running multiple programs can cause your computer to run slowly or disconnect from the meeting. Additionally, and this should really go without saying, don’t eat during the meeting. No one wants to hear you munching away during a discussion of next quarter’s forecasts.

DON’T forget you’re in a professional meeting

Many online meetings are taken outside of a traditional meeting room, so participants often feel more casual about the process. However, make no mistake: This is a real meeting. It’s just taking place in a virtual environment. That means extending everyone in attendance the courtesies you would if you were meeting in person.

Mute your line when you’re not speaking so no ambient noise disrupts the call. Make sure your location is clean and presentable (if you’re video conferencing). And don’t interrupt others — aside from being plain rude, it also makes it difficult to understand what everyone is saying. It’s also a good practice to introduce all participants at the beginning of the meeting, and if there are a lot of attendees, to announce your name before you begin speaking.

DON’T reference unavailable materials

If some of the meeting’s participants are attending virtually and only have an audio connection, they may not be able to view the PowerPoint presentation you have up on the screen or the sales sheets you’re handing out. If you can’t make documentation available to everyone beforehand, make sure you’re explaining everything fully for those who may not have eyes on the situation. Don’t discuss documents or items they can’t see, unless related to the meeting, or hold side conversations about things that virtual attendees do not have access to.

DON’T forget to follow up

Once the meeting has adjourned, type up a quick follow-up document that covers what happened in the meeting, what will be happening next and who is responsible for what. Sending out notes from the session helps to minimize miscommunication and also provides actionable items (and time frames) so everyone who was in attendance understands what is expected of them.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Forget the company conference room. Coworkers no longer need to be in the same office space — let alone the same time zone — to hold a productive progress reports or brainstorming session. We asked nine young entrepreneurs about how they conduct virtual meetings between their startup teams, and actually get things done while doing so. (Share your own thoughts in the comments.)

Stick to the agenda

Since it’s incredibly easy to get off task in a virtual meeting, it’s important to have an agenda, listing only a few goals of the meeting and complete with an overall time limit. Designate someone to lead the meeting and hold that person accountable for making sure everyone stays on topic to move the meeting along.

Nick Friedman, @NickFriedman1, College Hunks Hauling Junk

Start the meeting beforehand

Sending supporting information before the meeting can often help save you time in the meeting, since everyone is already briefed on the basics. If the meeting is just about making a decision, it can often be fast and productive.

Jason Evanish, @Evanish, Greenhorn Connect

Remember, the clock is ticking

For even more efficiency, put a time limit on each subject of the agenda and ruthlessly cut off rambling. Virtual teams are just as susceptible to unfocused meetings, so having an impartial, third-party reference makes it easier to transition topics and stay focused.

Kelly Azevedo, @krazevedo, She’s Got Systems

Try to shut up

I speak too much. One thing I am constantly trying to work on is asking better questions, and then just listening and letting my team interact. Virtual meetings can be productive if everyone comes together to express what is going well and what they need help on. Also, using the group to throw out potential solutions often reveals a great idea.

Patrick Curtis, @WallStreetOasis, WallStreetOasis.com

Follow up afterwards

Make sure to end the meeting with a list of followup tasks and owners, and have someone distribute by email to the entire team.

Michael Tolkin, Merchant Exchange

Set a schedule of speakers

The main reason for meetings is to give different people a chance to speak. That means that you need to make sure that attendees know that they’re expected to do just that. When you’re planning out your agenda, assign a few speaking slots and make sure that your speakers know what they need to cover. Of course, you do want to have some unstructured time, but balance it out.

Thursday Bram, @thursdayb, Hyper Modern Consulting

Peer pressure turns off multitasking

Without fail, people zone out on conference calls. Have your team use Google+ Hangouts (or another group video chat) so that everyone is actually “present.” Seeing everyone’s face will bring extra energy to the meeting and, of course, it will help you make sure that no one is on their phone or emailing so that you can get the most out of the important virtual chat.

Aaron Schwartz, @ModifyWatches, Modify Watches

Ask yourself, do we really need to have this meeting?

Your first question should always be: Do we need this meeting at all? If a meeting is not necessary because you have nothing substantial to discuss or you could accomplish your goals just as well through another faster method, cancel it.

Elizabeth Saunders, @RealLifeE, Real Life E®

Try weekly reports instead

I manage my virtual team by outlining and sharing the following week’s worth of tasks and projects on Sunday night. For the more urgent projects, I then require daily updates at the end of each day. For everything else, each team member must submit and share their progress at the end of the week. Then, it’s up to the team to analyze everyone else’s work and collaborate for the next week.

Logan Lenz, @loganlenz, Endagon

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization composed of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment and underemployment and provides entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of their business’s development and growth.

Virtual meeting photo via dpstyles/Flickr

Working team via Flickr

Much like public speaking, the very idea of video conferencing can fill us with anxiety. Any number of things can go unexpectedly awry, leaving attendees dreading what should be a quick and easy experience.

Video conferencing isn’t going away any time soon, especially with the popularity of video-enabled smartphones and tablets. Used in business, medicine, education, and media, video conferencing not only helps connect us to people around the world, it provides a green solution for interviewing long distance job candidates, conferencing with colleagues, or keeping tabs on a classroom.

Most woes about video conferencing can be solved with the simple edict of practice, practice, practice. Here are seven more tips to get your company happy and enthusiastic about video conferencing.

1. Know your system. This cannot be understated — there is nothing more frustrating, embarrassing or unprofessional than having to wait fourteen minutes to start a meeting because no one figured out they didn’t have the right cables to hook up the web cam. Have your system, whether it be a high-definition desktop application or a simple smartphone web chat, set up beforehand, and give it a test run at least 24 hours in advance. Know how your webcam works, what kind of login you need for the videoconferencing software, how loud the sound system is, and if your firewall or security software will conflict. Have this all settled in advance so you can jump right into it.

2. Test connections ahead of time. This is a bit of a reiteration of Know Your System, but it’s important enough to merit its own number. What kind of connections do you have available? 3G? Fiber Internet? Speed is important, but not nearly as important as having a connection that isn’t going to stall out on you. Astronauts in space are still using Windows XP because it’s a solid system they know won’t fail on them. Be like the astronauts and opt for a simpler, but more solid and dependable connection.

3. Look the part: Video conferencing can make anywhere part of the public arena, even the living room, so make it professional. Dress as you would were you in the office, clean up the background where your video conference will take place, and make sure there is sufficient lighting. Make sure you won’t be sitting too close, or too far away. Reduce background glare and, even more importantly, background distractions. Mute cellphones, turn off music, make sure your cats or kids won’t interrupt (just hand them an iPad). Likewise, if you’ll need to refer to documents or details during the meeting, have those open and ready to go when the conference begins.

4. Have a trial run. Heck, have three – the more you run through the process, the less nervous you’ll be when it’s actually go time. If you’ll have multiple employees appearing in video conferences, type up a few beginners tips to pass out, and include them in the trial run as well. If you’re using a system that requires participants to create a login or dial-in, skipping this step will guarantee confused emails the day of your meeting asking how to get on the call.

5. Pay attention. Give the video conference your full attention. That means no texting in your lap or opening up web browsers instead of looking at the meeting attendants. While you’re speaking, look into the web camera as though it were the eyes of the person you’re speaking to. When it’s not your turn to speak, look at the window that displays meeting attendees. It may help to email an outline to attendees beforehand in order to keep the conference on track — video conferencing is best when kept short and to the point anyhow.

6. Work around weaknesses. One of the biggest issues with video conferencing is the delay between participants replies; it is quite easy to cut off other speakers or have a jumbled discussion with everyone speaking at once, as there may be some delay between when someone starts speaking and when it reaches your screen. Allow time for replies and speak clearly. Also, be aware that even if you have a high-def solution set up, the person you’re video conferencing with may not. Some systems get grainy when they attempt to process quick movement (blame the slow refresh rate), so try not to fidget. If you’re using a smartphone or cellphone, find a sturdy stand to avoid shakiness.

7. Take advantage of strengths. Low refresh rates and poor sound quality aside, video conferences do allow you to share documents and information over the Internet, and have other added bonuses like recording. There are several pieces of software available that do this, and many conferencing clients will provide such a service if needed. Likewise, video conferencing has come a long way in the security realm. Users who need a more secure setting now have options such as meeting in a virtual room with a moderator, requiring PINs or moderator approval to join the discussion, and data encryption for information that is being shared during the conference.

Video conference image via ShutterStock

Microsoft Research is at it again: The wily folks who created Kinect, among other cool projects, have put together a project that could redefine the way we approach meetings.

Dubbed Code Space, the project allows groups to collaborate using air and touch gestures with Kinect sensors and touchscreen devices, thereby “democratizing access, control, and sharing of information across multiple personal devices and public displays.”

While still a very early concept, Code Space shows the potential uses for Kinect beyond gaming. With its motion tracking capabilities, the Kinect sensor could be the key that makes Minority Report-style computer interaction commonplace.

Why the need for so many input devices, when a simple whiteboard would do for most meetings? Code Space was created with developers in mind, so having a way to share information across devices could ultimately make meetings more efficient. For a simple PTA get-together, where there’s not much data to share, Code Space would likely be overkill.

The project’s design principles offers up some insight on what Microsoft Research hopes to accomplish. “Everyone can interact with the shared display, from anywhere in the meeting space, with any device they bring,” reads the first principle. That’s certainly a meeting I wouldn’t mind booking.

Check out a video of Code Space in action below:

Via: MSDN, Engadget

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Noteleaf, a contact information aggregator for Google’s Gmail and Calendar apps, launched a number of new features for its text-messaging notification service today.

Noteleaf’s edge is that it doesn’t require a whole lot of extra work to use the contact information aggregator, co-founder Jake Klamka said. The online service automatically imports contact information about a name when a user types it into a Google Calendar entry. Noteleaf also sends a text message to the user with a link to relevant contact information 10 or 15 minutes before a meeting. That page pulls information from the contact’s LinkedIn profile.

The online service still requires users to sign up on the Noteleaf website. But after that, Noteleaf handles everything through Google’s oAuth application programming interface (API), which can access the user’s Google accounts. The company is also launching two new features for its program that come up on the text message profile page today. The profile page will show mutual LinkedIn connections as well as the three most recent tweets from the contact.

Noteleaf works in the background after a user signs up by using information stored in Google’s Gmail email service. Noteleaf browses the user’s Gmail and contact accounts for additional information about names typed into a Google Calendar entry. While it doesn’t work with Microsoft’s Exchange email and contact storage program, that might be coming in the future if Noteleaf is successful, Klamka said.

While Noteleaf is free for now, and will remain free for the foreseeable future, there are a number of ways that it could make money, Klamka said. That includes starting with a freemium-style model that has become popular among enterprise 2.0 applications like Yammer, an enterprise-style social network, and Huddle, an online collaboration network. The most realistic revenue model is a monthly subscription for premium features, Klamka said.

Klamka and Wil Chung, Noteleaf’s other co-founder, have been working on the service since December and launched the service officially two weeks ago. The company launched as part of startup-incubator Y Combinator’s Winter 2011 class.

Noteleaf is also one of the first companies backed by angel investors Yuri Milner and Ron Conway’s new Start Fund. Each company in the winter 2011 Y Combinator class has the option to take a $150,000 investment from Milner and Conway (which caused a bit of a stink among angel investors who might lose the chance to invest in promising Y Combinator companies). Y Combinator typically invests between $15,000 and $20,000 in each company for the first several months.

Calling all mobile executives: This April 25-26, VentureBeat is hosting its inaugural VentureBeat Mobile Summit, where we’ll debate the five key business and policy challenges facing the mobile industry today. Participants will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. The invitation-only event, located at the scenic and relaxing Cavallo Point Resort in Sausalito, Calif., is limited to the top 180 mobile executives, investors and policymakers. Request an invitation.