Refresh Phoenix

Last night I went to my first Refresh Phoenix meeting. Refresh Phoenix is basically a group of people who are working to improve the culture around web development in Phoenix. While web development is only a hobby for me, I thought it would be interesting. Last night's meeting was open to anyone who wanted to demo a new site, product, idea, etc. to the group and it ended up being a very, very interesting meeting to attend.

Desert Noise
A work in progress by Aaron Post, Dan Ritzenthaler, and James Britt. Desert Noise will be a directory of bloggers in Arizona. I'm so, so, so excited about this because I've wanted to read more bloggers in my area. Hopefully it will spark some socialization just like DFWBlogs did years ago. It sounds like they will be categorizing the blogs to make the directory easier to search. I'd like them to categorize by city too so you could easily pull up people in your area. Seeing as this was the first demo of the evening, I felt like it was fate. After being in Arizona for a whole year (oh yeah, July 17th was the one year anniversary of my move to Phoenix), I'm finally going to meet some people in the web world.

Prime Condition
Simon, whose last name I didn't catch (note to self, when presenting say my name over and over so people get it), has created a website which replaces the personal trainer. PrimeCondition.com creates an MP3 mix for the gym workout you choose for yourself. Basically, you put together a list of exercises like crunches, squats, and dumbbell curls indicating how many reps of each. Then it will build you an MP3 which has a person's voice telling you what to do then counting each rep for you all over a bed of nice workout music. If you keep to the beat of the music, you'll do the right speed for the workout. Awesome. This site was VERY impressive when demoed as Simon did all the work in his spare time (including the music). I wouldn't be surprised if he's able to make a nice bit of profit on this idea someday.

Best PartyEver
The business goal of BestPartyEver.com is to replace the yellow pages when it comes to being a directory of vendors needed for event planning. The site is currently up and in use, but what was demoed last night is a beta version. It was very, very impressive. While I certainly didn't understand all the technology and architecture talk, I was impressed. The team working on BestPartyEver is Joshua Strebel, Jason Ayers, and Dave Benjamin.

I only talked with a couple people at the meeting, but I certainly enjoyed the presentations. It was a wonderful night. On the way home from the meeting I rattled on and on to Chris about it. It made me realize how passionate about the web I am. Now if only I could work in it...a dream for the future.

Comments