If it’s September, it must be DEMOfall, in which I get another opportunity to see what’s hot in the world of start-ups and innovation. While there are lots of new products and services for the enterprise launching at this week’s show in San Diego, for me it’s always about seeing the cool stuff. (Disclaimer: The Network World events team runs the DEMO events).
A total of 70 companies will be launching at this year’s show — here’s a quick look at the ones in the consumer or small-to-midsize-business market that I think have a shot at becoming the “next big thing.”

Vello: The company’s service lets users create instant telephone conferences without having to utilize special phone numbers or create personal identification numbers that attendees need to store in an e-mail or memorize. After a conference initiator creates a conference through the Vello.com Web site (or BlackBerry), the service automatically calls all participants at the scheduled time of the conference and automatically connects them to the call.

MyQuire: Two words that scare the heck out of me are “project management,” yet I have many projects at work and at home that require additional people to complete. MyQuire aims to bring project management (the company prefers the term “online coordination”) to the masses through a visually pleasing interface that merges social networking concepts with Web-based collaboration, real-time conferencing and Web-based file storage.

SceneCaster: If you ever enjoyed building 3-D rooms or buildings in the game “The Sims” or in the Second Life virtual world, you’ll likely want to delve into SceneCaster, which lets you build virtual “scenes” but without having to learn a complicated programming language. With easy drag-and-drop tools and a browser-based interface, SceneCaster will let users create their own virtual spaces, whether they’re representations of a real-life living rooms or fantasy landscapes.

Fluid Innovations: Online prediction markets have been around for a while, but the VirtualVentures.com “game” from Fluid Innovations takes it a step further — asking participants to predict what types of enterprise software technologies will succeed in the marketplace. Try to think of this offering like playing the game, “Who Wants To Be a Venture Capitalist?”