DEMO :: Executive Producer

Meet Chris Shipley

Chris Shipley Fortune Small Business Magazine named her in its “Top 10 Minds in Small Business.” The San Jose Business Journal calls her a “Woman of Distinction.” She has often been cited as a leading influencer by Marketing Computers magazine. We call her our Executive Producer.

Covering personal technology since 1984 as a writer and editor for a variety of technology and consumer media, Chris Shipley is also co-founder and chairman of the IT market intelligence firm Guidewire Group, Inc. As a leading technology and product analyst, she has been instrumental to the success of many technology entrepreneurs.

Today, Ms. Shipley focuses exclusively on identifying market opportunities and accelerating the most promising companies and products to market. As the executive producer of the DEMO Conferences, she has helped technology companies bring more than 1,500 new products to market.

Ms. Shipley meets with about 500 companies each year, logging a lot of air miles and even coming to know the names of the flight attendants she frequently comes into contact with globally. With a critical eye, she examines how the product affects market dynamics, its unique value proposition, and how the company is positioned for success. Then she invites just a fraction of those companies to launch at DEMO.

Is it difficult to find 70 significant technologies every six months? “In a word, no,” says Ms. Shipley. “I look at technology not with an engineer’s zeal for elegant code, but with a human eye for usefulness, practical advancement, and social change. I prefer the most human aspects of computing—user interface, social impact, business dynamic. But I can still get jazzed by significant technical innovations that simplify and enhance the lives of corporate, mobile and personal users.”

Ms. Shipley holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Literature and Communication Arts from Allegheny College, and pursues knowledge and understanding relentlessly. You can learn more about her at www.guidewiregroup.com or e-mail her at chris@demo.com.