Some of the biggest mobile and social platforms of the past decade create their own traction by becoming movements among consumers. Marketers and executives trying to reach large audiences in these new environments need to understand these platforms. As an early investor in companies including Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, and StackExchange, venture capitalist Bijan Sabet has seen these growth dynamics at work first-hand. He will discuss the behaviors that are native to these platforms, how good product design can win big markets, and which areas he will invest in next.

Learn how one of the fastest-growing enterprise startups tapped into a new market using big data and the cloud to solve a hard problem. A founder will tell his growth story through Traction slides and an onstage interview.

Bitcoin could be to finance what the internet was to information. Serial entrepreneur Jeremy Allaire (former CEO and founder of Brightcove) is now taking the plunge into finance with his new startup, Circle, which recently raised $50 million from Goldman Sachs and IDG Capital Partners. Circle is building a new consumer finance company with radically different unit economics, leveraging mobile and social trends to drive global adoption. This deep dive into one entrepreneur’s journey will shed light on a phenomenon we all need to better understand.

Global marketing organizations are under pressure to become intensely technology, mobility, and connectivity driven. And, needless to say, more security sensitive when it comes to protecting customer privacy, data, brand assets and marketing supply chains. The latest research from the CMO Council will reveal which technologies top marketers are deploying now—from social CRM and predictive analytics to lead qualification, conversion, and retention.

Marketers increasingly control a bigger part of the technology budget. What are they spending it on and what is working? Our panel of practitioners digs into the latest marketing technologies from branding and communications to retail and product analytics. They will share what technologies they are using and which ones are delivering the largest ROI.

Five Traction companies in the Marketing Technology category (including social CRM, mobile, and video) present for 4 minutes each, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from a panel of judges.

• BlueConic
• Shoppable.com
• Emotient
• Docurated
• Blue Triangle Technologies

Five Traction companies in the Big Data + Analytics category present for 4 minutes each, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from a panel of judges.

• Treasure Data
• Dextro
• First Mile Geo, Inc
• iCharts, Inc.
• SocialRank

HP's rich culture of innovation and roots in Silicon Valley is pervasive within the very fabric of our culture. As the technology industry pivots to mobile, data, cloud and security, learn how you might be able to steal innovative strategies, business models or participate in technology ecosystems to accelerate your organization's journey.

IT leaders are on the hot seat to find new technologies that can drive innovation and meet the rapidly changing demands of tech savvy executives and employees. But how do you separate the critical new products from the flood of wannabe offerings hitting the market? We talk to savvy IT executives about how they find and assimilate new tech and assess the viability of new partners. We also explore how new companies gaining Traction are working with enterprises in new ways.

Three Traction companies in the Enterprise category present for 4 minutes each, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from a panel of judges.

• Cohesity
• Twistlock
• LiquidPlanner

Three Traction companies in the Cloud/SaaS category present for 4 minutes each, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from a panel of judges.

• Vennli
• Khorus Software
• Survata

Three Traction companies in the Hiring category present for 4 minutes each, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from a panel of judges.

• Entelo
• Plum.io
• Greenhouse Software

What are the newest technologies gaining traction in the enterprise and how are they changing the customer experience? IDC Chief Research Officer Crawford del Prete digs into the latest research to highlight the technologies with the most transformative impact in this eye-opening presentation.

Data drives business processes and results. Those with power over data have power over markets. How have the fundamental data technologies driving businesses changed over the past decade, and capabilities will they be opening up over the next decade? Steve Papa—data pioneer, founder of Endeca (sold to Oracle for $1.1 billion), DEMO alum, angel investor—will lay out where he sees the data revolution going next.

Startups with billion-dollar valuations used to be so rare they were called unicorns. But now there are so many private company unicorns—more than 110 worth a total of over $400 billion at last count—that they seem commonplace. Anand Sanwal keeps track of them all at CB Insights. He will share the latest data on startup valuations, how fast the billion-dollar startup club is growing, and which startups might fill its ranks next.

More and more growth companies are pushing off IPOs as long as they can and raising massive rounds in the private markets instead. It is not unusual to see companies raise mega-rounds that previously would have only been possible through an IPO. These "private IPOs" are the new normal. Why are they happening and what does it mean for the companies involved, their investors and their customers?

Traction companies in the Security category present for 4 minutes each, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from a panel of judges.

• Resilient Systems
• PierceMatrix
• PSC
• Dashlane

Traction companies in the Mobile Work category present for 4 minutes each, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from a panel of judges.

• Foko Inc.
• MobileSmith
• chat.center

These on-stage demos will showcase new technologies coming out of the MIT Media Lab, which are sprouting startups around supply-chain visualizations, on-demand logistics and using cameras to communicate with computers.