Holiday recipe for 2009

• Yaron Samid and NY Video
• A hearty startup competition
• A month of preliminary online voting
• Approximately 200 Online Video Professionals in one room
• Live online demos
• Mobile SMS voting

Take the ingredients and shake ‘em up. Throw in the coldest night of the year. Place them comfortably in the Columbia University Business School. Let the ingredients fight it out for 90 minutes. When you’re all finished, you’ll have a rockin’ good time.

Shout Outs!

Shout outs of the night go to Israel Drori, Founder of Zixi who, after his demo froze, came back strong with a live performance of “Stairway to Heaven” by his neighbor’s son some 250 miles away. And to Mike Sommers of KickApps who, when questioned, gave some good ole fashioned smack-talk; claiming Brightcove’s customers would one-day come walking through their door.

How The Contest Went Down

Yaron Samid welcomed professionals and newcomers and introduced the top six competitors: Kaltura, 5min, Adotube, KickApps, Popscreen, and Zixi. Each company presented an online demo. And then attendees voted from their seats via SMS. Despite a couple of minor technical glitches, all six companies demoed their products and responded to two questions. The audience spoke—and 5min came out on top. Congrats to 5min, and to all the finalists, for their excellent work, products, and presentations.

Rocket’s Tail condensed the night into 10 minutes of video. Meet the contenders here: