One day of DEMO07 and a couple of things became clear – the I’s definitely have it. For those of you who may not have heard of DEMO, it is a conference which brings together some of the hottest startups and venture capital. Each startup has 6 minutes to demo (hence the name) their product or service in addition to a very active pavilion floor. This year yielded 68 startups with 68 different and yet not so different offerings. Click here to see videos of the demos.

The I’s have it. Imagination, innovation and, of course, the shift to Individualizing content. Late in 2005 I was part of a trends workshop where one trend we identified we labeled “individual inc.” The shift from top down, one size fits all to completely customizable by the end user. The ability to do this has spawned new businesses now able to succeed by going after the long tail or meganiche

We see this happening for consumers; we see this happening in the enterprise. And the direction has reversed. Where the latest technology used to flow from business to consumer, we now see it flow from consumer to business. Marketers have even tried to name the hybrid professional and consumer – prosumer.

But let’s talk about what makes this conference so unique, so special: coolness abounds.  These are only a few - will add more tomorrow.

Inkless printers that you carry in your pocket or integrated with your cell phone using technology that the founder labels “magic.” Video messaging that is easy and seamless, enabling a kind of face-to-face communication that has been missing from our technology laden world – and of course I would be remiss if I didn’t point out it is running on top of java and java .

Video discovery and search, creating and embedding multimedia channels in your social networking page (pick any or all of them), creating personalized stories with diverse embedded content from multiple sources, all of which leverage 2.0 abilities to change dynamically without page reloading and create composites easily – no engineering degree needed.

Individuals. But individuals participating in communities that fit their interests, sharing their thoughts, lives and creativity with others in those communities. Human communities where the whole truly is greater than the sum.