PALM DESERT, Calif. -- So many startups, so little time. That's how I felt after pitches from 77 companies during the three-day DEMO Conference.

The last presenter just wrapped up, so I thought it might be a good time to share some quick insights on the show.

BEST GIMMICK: Talk about putting trust in your canine companion. Jason Wolf, president Americas of Sterna BPS, a San Mateo, Calif., business analytics company, appeared on stage during his six-minute pitch with one very well trained dog. The pooch at one point retrieved Wolf's slippers and remote control so he could give the product demonstration in the comfort of a lounge chair. Not bad. In fact, several of the afternoon presentations included visual hooks to attract the attention of audience members. To prove a point about online storage, an executive at Nirvanix took a sledgehammer to an old storage box. And executives at Squidcast did a spoof on the popular Apple commercials. More videos on the DEMO Web site.

BEST PITCH: I didn't have the chance to watch every company, but one that really hooked me was London's Silobreaker. Described as a "current affairs search engine," it shows visual representations of how news makers or news events are connected. For example, you could see how Barack Obama or Bill Gates are connected to other people in the news.

You can also analyze trends -- for example plotting the press mentions of Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 over the course of a month, three months, six months or a year. Powerful stuff. In a way, the tools remind me of Seattle's IntellectSpace, though Silobreaker draws news clips from the public Internet. It also showcases the top news of the day.

This could be the best friend of every public relations firm or news junkie.

OVERHEARD IN THE LUNCH LINE: "He's Mitch Kapor. He's got a lot of money. And he collects people."

RANDOM MEETINGS: I bumped into Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, Monday night. His organization sponsors a dinner at the conference each year, with Heesen saying that DEMO provides an easy way for venture capitalists to see a lot of cutting-edge technologies in a short amount of time.

But these technology companies won't have any place to go unless the public markets start to pick up. After a decent 2007 for initial public offerings, Heesen was concerned that only one venture-backed company had completed an IPO in January. It is a trend that Heesen and most venture capitalists want to reverse.

SEATTLE CONNECTIONS: Of the 77 companies at DEMO, only four are from Washington state. But Circos.com, the San Mateo, Calif., product search engine, has some strong connections to the Pacific Northwest. The three co-founders -- Morris Sim, Mario Jobbe and George Mitchell -- all spent time working for Microsoft. Asked why they didn't create the company in Redmond, Sim said that family reasons took him back to the Bay Area.

MEETING WITH VCS: Greg Heuss, president of Bellevue's Eyealike, was one of the last companies to present today so nervousness built up over the past three days. "I feel a lot better walking off the stage, than walking on," he said shortly after the pitch. Overall, he was happy with the reception for the company's video copyright search technology.

"We've talked to 14 different VCs," he said. "Having those guys come to you first is so much better than me knocking on the doors."

GET PAID TO INTERVIEW: There was a lot of buzz around NotchUp, the Los Altos Hills, Calif., startup that allows people to set a price to do job interviews. (For example, a software developer in Seattle could post a fee of $500 for any job interview.)

The company could barely keep up with demand, with more than 75,000 registrations pouring in on the first day of DEMO. Co-founder Rob Ellis told me that more than 1,000 people from Seattle's high-tech industry had signed up, noting that it is interesting to watch how the service spreads virally in some organizations.

Maybe Microsoft, Amazon and some of the other big players need to block this Web site.

And what about a recession? Ellis said a tool like NotchUp becomes even more important because it is harder to recruit people out of stable companies during hard times. NotchUp is trying to address the "passive job candidate" issue -- meaning that the most talented people often are firmly planted in established organizations. That's an area that Seattle's Jobster also is trying to address, though Ellis doesn't think anyone has cracked the market yet.

HELPING KIDS READ: Another hot product at DEMO didn't come from a startup, but from the educational toy company LeapFrog. Dubbed the Tag Reading System, it includes a small "reader" device that interacts with words and graphics in hardback books in order to help kids between the ages of 4 and 8 read. Touching the device to icons in the book allows kids to hear spoken words or text. Parents can follow along with the progress online.

The $49.95 reader along with 16 books -- costing $13.99 each -- will be released in June. Based on the buzz at DEMO, it might be a hit.

MICROSOFT'S ROLE: Microsoft continues to reach out to the startup community, with a large presence at DEMO that includes sponsorship, booth presence and free product giveaways during sessions. (Anyone want a Zune?)

There are also a number of Microsoft employees buzzing around. I've bumped into Microsoft's Don Dodge a few times, who was feeling exasperated as he attempted to blog about every company at the show.

THE DEMOGOD AWARDS (UPDATE): None of the Seattle area companies took home a DEMOgod, the awards for the best products at the conference. Here are the 11 winners: Xtranormal, Flypaper, LeapFrog, Education.com, Vidyo, Ecrio, Sprout, GreenPlug, LiveScribe and BitGravity. Atlaspost, a map-based social network from Taiwan, won the People's Choice award.