“The Internet can be a daunting challenge for advertising firms. There are hundreds of blogs filled with praises and rants, widgets on websites bustling with tweets and mobile videos that can cloud a consumer’s perceptions about a company.

How does a business take back control of its own marketing message? Minneapolis- based Curation Station aims to address this problem.”

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“The great challenge of the Internet is coping with information overload. Never in human experience has so much information been available so effortlessly. The phones we carry in our pockets and purses are actually mini-computers with processing power that mainframe engineers of earlier generations could only dream of.

They link us to a web containing more than 125 million active sites and more than 25 billion pages of information. Meanwhile, companies are becoming publishers, offering their own branded content directly to consumers.”

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Over the past two months, ten judges have reviewed the detailed plans of ten semifinalists and trimmed the list down to the three that will advance to the next stage — pitching the review board.

In no particular order, the 2010 Minnesota Cup High Tech division finalists are:

“Open Preferences is a consumer web service for media (starting with movies and television) that facilitates personalized discovery and empowers word-of-mouth.  Users can discover new content, receive highly personalized recommendations (based on their custom taste profile), and share with friends. We are revolutionizing personalization online, by using data to improve people’s lives.”  Update September 2010: Open Preferences is now Inveni.

“Curation Station is software which enables brands to gather, select and share the best content on any product, subject or category—the kind of marketing effort that makes your customers smarter. It’s easy to implement. And the results are remarkable.”

“GeaCom Inc. is committed to breaking the language barrier in critical communication. To improve service, reduce costs and to save lives we are developing an innovative new solution…Phrazer.”

The Minnesota Cup High Tech division winner, to be coronated on August 31st, will receive the following awards and benefits prior to competing against the winners of five other divisions for the grand prize on Sept 13 (and  an additional $20,000).

• $20,000 in seed capital

• Business organization (or services of similar value) from the law firm of Gray Plant Mooty

• Accounting assistance from Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP

• Scholarship to The Collaborative’s 24th Annual Minnesota Venture & Finance Conference on October 14, 2010

• Video production and 3 months of hosting via Startupshoppe’s Minnesota Startup Showcase

The Minnesota Cup was Founded by Scott Litman and Dan Mallin in 2005 through a collaboration with the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management and Wells Fargo bank.  What is now largest statewide business plan competition has since engaged 1000′s of Minnesota entrepreneurs across 6 distinct divisions:  Student, Social Entrepreneurship, General, High Tech, Clean & Renewable Technology and BioSciences.

Last year, Alvenda won both the High Tech division as well as the overall Cup.

Congratulations to the three Minnesota Cup High Tech division finalists as well as the initial semi-finalists! This is an intensely competitive division full of many solid plans and early-stage ventures with great potential.

Congratulations to all these ventures in passing the first test; with over 1,000 entries again this year – what a feat to make it this far!

Having a familiarity with many of these early-stage companies, no doubt the Tech Division is hyper-competitive and we look forward to meeting new faces so as to share their stories on behalf of the Minnesota tech community. Let’s take home the overall grand prize on behalf of Minnesota Tech (again)!

2010 Minnesota Cup Tech Division Semifinalists:

• CRAM Worldwide – Daren Klum
• Crick Information Technologies – Jason Caswell
• Curation Station – Jennifer Iwanicki
• Evolve - Adam Sellke
• GeaCom – Amanda Little
• InSight Solutions – Steve Johnson
• Mobile On Services – Scott Pearson
• Open Preferences – Robert Bodor
  Update September 2010: Open Preferences is now Inveni.
• Rushford Hypersonic – Daniel Fox
• VeraTech Aero – Dean Tangren

From the general division:

• MinuteBids – Jon Coudron
• Sportrabbit.com – Cale Loken

From the student division:

• Juxtapose – Owen Imholte
• HaulsMedia – Mackenzie Fletche

“Joseph Rueter’s answer to the “tsunami of information,” which he says has become a part of the human condition, particularly in regards to the Internet, is the Curation Station. Rueter bills the Web-based tech tool he created as “the most flexible digital content curation tool available.””

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Other Minnesota Tech “movers” we’ve identified include:

ARAnet President Scott Severson [Scott Severson on the move]

Reeher Founder and President Andrew Reeher [Andrew Reeher on the move]

ID Insight Founder and President Adam Elliott [Adam Elliot on the move]

Wade Gerten from Alvenda

Mat Johnson from GeaCom

Steve Nielson from PartnerUp

Troy Peterson from Nibi Software

Zach Steven from Monkey Island

Anyone missing?

“Local developers of a new Web-based tool believe they have come up with one that will make the lives of corporate marketers and public affairs executives much easier.

Launched in late January, Curation Station LLC aims to automate the process of gathering and distributing social media content whether it is blogs, online video and audio, photos, Twitter feeds or just plain old news. Curation Station — the product and the company share the same name — was founded by some employees at Hello Viking, a Minneapolis marketing agency. Hello Viking is a reseller of Curation Station, which currently has a couple of customers using its product.”

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