Friday, June 19, 2009

Tech Networking in the South Sound

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a tech meet-up organized by Erik Hanberg and hosted by the WTIA (thanks for the pizza and beer Lew). This was the second casual meet up that I have been to over the last few months. The first was at the Matador with Mark Briggs and a number of bloggers, dev types and journalists. About fourteen or so came to that first meeting. That was a good number and a fine start at an effort to bring folks together.

I was surprised and thrilled by the turn out at Meconi's. At one point Erik counted twenty four folks in the room and I believe a few more arrived a short time later.

It was a good mix of people too. Sagem Morpho, Internet Identity, Sitecrafting, GridWorks, Topia Technology, REI and even Russell were represented in the crowd. Best of all, with just a short thank you and welcome from Lew McMurren for the Washington Technology Industry Association, it was just an occasion for shop talking and catching up on what was happening in the tech arena. I took a couple fuzzy photos with my camera, but Keven Freitas has some great shots on his blog that he took with a serious camera.

It was also an opportunity to talk about other networking and tech gathering opportunities which are coming up. On August 8th a Barcamp (the unconference) is being held at Suite 133. No doubt more information on that is on the way. I know several folks from the Institute will be attending that. UPDATE: Here is more info in the Tacoma Barcamp.

Also, the South Sound Technology Conference 2009 discussion is under way. Tacoma Tech Connect has a blog on that as well.

Finally, interest is building for a 72 Hour Startup weekend, which is being targeted for Sept 25th, 26th and 27th. More info on that will be posted here over the next few weeks.

1 comment:

Robert Peaslee said...

Thanks for the shout out for Barcamp! We're really excited to kick one off in the Tacoma area :D I had a lot of fun at the tech meetup, I can't wait for the next one :)

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