As you might imagine, investors and future partners are generally reluctant to have their names appear publicly in some start-up company's "trip report".
Let's just say it produced some promising contacts who expressed interest in further discussions. That's about all you can hope for when you're given a 7-minute window to pitch your company in a meeting where 18 startups are paraded across the stage.
The biggest immediate benefit was in seeing 17 other versions of what such a "pitch" should look like.
I did get to spend 90 minutes with the conference organizer the evening before and got a lot of wisdom about what investors and partners are looking for in a pitch.
Ultimately, events like this are like drilling oil wells in uncharted territory. You never know how many you need to drill before you get your first gusher.