I recently started a new business development and marketing consulting project with a startup called Alminder, Inc., maker of the “smart calendar” app, Mynd Calendar… I’m enjoying the project and finding Mynd Calendar really helpful for juggling my busy calendar of meetings.  So, I thought I’d share my love with the rest of you on my own blog…

Mynd Calendar is an intelligent mobile calendar that acts like a virtual assistant, making your life easier at home and work and saving you time.  It learns where you spend your time and who you meet along the way, becoming increasingly helpful the more you use it.

Unlike other “smart calendars,” Mynd’s sophisticated algorithms identify the places you’re going within the content of your calendar events and accurately predict (even far in advance) how much buffer time you need to schedule between meetings, given the typical traffic at that time of day.  As you get closer to your appointments, Mynd tells you when to leave, based on current traffic conditions and launches your favorite navigation app to get you to your appointment on time.

Mynd Calendar also:

• Notifies you when you’re running late and lets you easily email, call or text the people who need to know from within the calendar.
• Automatically identifies conference call numbers and facilitates easy, one-click dial-in… No need to fumble for dial-in numbers or access codes!
• Discovers the people listed in your calendar events and looks up their LinkedIn profiles and information from your address book, so you know who you’re meeting with and can get in touch with them directly from your calendar.
• Pulls in your relevant Evernote notes so that you’re always prepared for your next meeting.
• RSVP to meeting invites.
• Tells you the weather at both where you are and where you’re going.

The “smart calendar” app market is heating up, and there are plenty of start-ups playing in this space – Tempo, Sunrise, Donna, and others. Having tried the others, I find Mynd Calendar works best for me, given the amount of time that I spend traveling between appointments, meeting new people and juggling life’s logistics.  I’ve been really impressed with my experience with Mynd Calendar so far.  The only downside for me is that it’s not on Android yet. Unfortunately, that’s par for the course with cool calendaring apps at this point.  Mynd Calendar gets great reviews from users (4.5 stars on the app store!) and press including CBS News, BBC, Wired, GigaOm, LifeHacker, Business Insider, The Next Web, LifeHack, CNet, TechRepublic, readwrite, TUAW and others.