Tech23 showcases the rising tide of outstanding Australian tech

I’m at Tech23, probably the biggest and best showcase so far of Australian upcoming tech companies. After creating the list of Top Web 2.0 Apps in Australia list last year and in 2007 and organizing the associated Web 2.0 in Australia events, I had originally envisaged that we would organize a broad information technology showcase event this year. However this did not manage to fit into our very packed priority list, and as it happens others are taking on the task of bringing attention to the best of emerging Australian tech. Rachel Slattery of SlatteryIT, who has long been running events for Australia’s tech community, has done a great job in creating Tech23.

Frankly, one of the challenges in running tech showcases in Australia is finding a sufficiently deep and broad pool of excellent early-stage companies. Overall I have been very encouraged by the pace at which new companies have emerged over the last two years, though there is still further to go. There were some great companies at Tech23, but I imagine that it would be harder to find another 23 hot emerging companies. By the time this event runs next year, and hopefully other tech showcases emerge, the signs are that the pool will be considerably deeper.

Unfortunately I am not able to spend the whole day at the event, but below are some quick notes from some of the more interesting companies that I managed to catch this morning. [UPDATE:] See also my notes from the SaaS/ In the Cloud panel and presentations.

CultureAmp is about scaling corporate culture building. Resonance (not yet launched) is a tool to give better ongoing feedback to people, done daily. It’s a SaaS offering launching in December, which will be priced at four tiers . Founder Didier Etzinga says that he sees that generational change is resulting in people being often more comfortable giving feedback through online channels rather than in face-to-face meetings. The name refers to amplifying culture – the idea is to build on positives rather than fix what’s broken.

Hiive Systems. Underlying premise is that the software for running professional services firms really sucks. They have created an integrated system targeting professional firms with 5 to 50 professionals. SaaS model starting at $50 per month. Have 400 users and 16 paying clients. Looking to go the US market and are looking for capital. Hiive was previously covered by Technation along with a mention of me as fellow travellers in the Enterprise 2.0 space .

I have written before about bug finding platform RedLizards.