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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Men’s Health came out with a study determining the top 100 socially networked cities. The magazine started by calculating the number of Facebook and LinkedIn users per capita, and then determined the overall Twitter usage. The study also included Myspace, Friendster, Reddit and Digg. As a final point, after factoring in the number of households that tend to use chat rooms and blogs, Men’s Health came up with the results.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What started out as a job fair for startup founders seeking sweat equity and full-time, paid employees has evolved into a more inclusive event for debuting companies as well as networking with others in respective and cross-fields of interest. With two years of events for the startup community, Social Matchbox is moving its event to a new location and kicking off the autumn season with a renewed sense of encouragement for professionals out there.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s almost time for TECH Cocktail DC 4. Coming up later this month, the 4th TECH Cocktail in DC will be held on Thursday, February 26, from 6:00 – 8:30 pm. The location for TECH Cocktail DC is at LeftBank wired bistro lounge in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.

This is a new location for the TECH Cocktail DC event, but it’s got a laid back vibe to match the casual and welcoming theme that TECH Cocktail is known for. The event is free to attend, as usual, but you’ll still need to RSVP. Get there early enough to grab a drink before it gets too crowded.

The TECH Cocktail series has grown a great deal in the past couple of years, starting in Chicago and making its way across a number of cities, including DC. Hosted by Eric Olson and Frank Gruber, the TECH Cocktail events have proven to be a great way to meet others on the tech scene and get the word out about your company. If you’re interested in sponsoring the event or learning more about TECH Cocktail DC, click here for more details.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Aside from the company being based in the D.C. area I’m not quite sure what makes this different then existing text-based ad networks. The critical partnership which the company is touting is with the National Newspaper Association. Currently the company has a number of locally-based content providers and advertisers. It’s clear that this company is at the extremely early stages but it’s great to see another company in the D.C. metro area giving it a shot.

The company has a lot of work to do on their design but then again when your company is dealing with text links, I don’t think design really matters that much. In an already saturated market getting the attention of publishers requires networks to generate high CPM rates. Only the large ones in addition to a few niche players have been effective at generating great CPMs.

I think BrandClik is going to need to find some big advertisers before they hit it big. Additionally it makes sense to focus on a specific industry. Rather than discount them before they’ve had a chance to succeed, I’ll give this company a few months to see if they can put together an impressive list of publishers and advertisers.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s only one component though as it truly takes a community to build the ecosystem. I’m hearing about more and more events and slowly we are beginning to see signs of an emerging hotbed of technology and entrepreneurship. I also believe that we are slowly witnessing the meshing of what was previously distinct sub-communities. There are still serious challenges facing the local environment though.

Entrepreneurship & Technology Education

In the D.C. metro area there are a number of leading universities but when it comes to entrepreneurship and technology, none of them have the national exposure of universities like MIT & Stanford. That’s not to say that the local universities aren’t capable. The University of Maryland for example has the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship dedicated to creating a healthy environment for startups and has a great group of venture advisors as well.

The biggest problem is that many of the people filtering through the local universities are not gaining much experience as it applies to technology. In an article yesterday, Howard Anderson highlighted some of the primary factors that help germinate successful tech startups: “sophisticated money; first-rate technology universities; and a few template successes (a Google or a Facebook, and so on) to”.

D.C. has plenty of sophisticated money, at least one template success: AOL, but no leading technology universities. So this is something that local universities need to focus on.

Conclusion

I would list off a number of other factors but I honestly believe that we have everything else in place. The local media is becoming more active in what has become a highly active community, a local startup incubator has succeeded in getting their first company a Series A (I’m assuming more will come in the near future) and the local events are getting bigger and bigger.

While D.C. is filled with extremely intelligent individuals, many of them are coming here with jobs already filled. Many of them aren’t young enough to take ridiculous risks and learn from a series of failures. Not that you can’t launch a startup at any point in your life, it just becomes harder when your responsibilities increase.

What do you think the next steps should be to build a thriving ecosystem? How can we get the universities building more technical programs?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It started off with New York and then Boston but has since expanded to D.C. Among those that are active in the new media crowd here in D.C. there is another site that many of us turn to for event information: DC Tech Events. Ross Karchner has been running the site as a hobby for the past couple years and has kept it extremely simple. Every time he posts out an event, the information is distributed via Twitter and via email thanks to Feedburner.

That’s as far as it goes. Gary is taking it one step further by providing daily and weekly newsletters that highlight events as well as new job postings on the site. The only problem as of now is that Gary doesn’t have much of a reach in D.C. That may soon change as people become familiar with the site. It’s well designed and constantly maintained making it equally reliable to DC Tech Events with the addition of job postings.

When it comes to design and usability, Gary may have the upper hand but Ross Karchner currently has the reach. Across all of DC, I would argue that there is nobody that has completely dominated the event directory when it comes to leveraging all the distribution channels possible. Did Gary just bust open the door for competition? Who will win? Who do you support?

Update
It’s clear that I jumped the gun on this one and should have looked into this more. Apparently Gary is an aggressive spammer. While I think the design of the site is great, it’s clear that D.C. supports Ross Karchner and DC Tech Events. As a policy from now on Social Times will do the same thing given Ross’ thorough coverage of tech events taking place in D.C. Hopefully my week ending sensationalistic headline didn’t do too much to harm D.C. Tech Events!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over the past few months I’ve been in countless discussions about the future of D.C. technology and ways that we can contribute to making this area a thriving technology scene. One of the conclusions at SocialDevCamp this past weekend was that we need more media coverage from blogs because nobody is doing it in the mainstream media. The Washington Post furthers its disconnect from the bubbling D.C. technology community with a post entitled, “A Tech Stable, But Hardly a Staple“.

I’ve ranted about the trouble facing the Post in the past but this article highlighted my complaints. Steven Pearlstein, a 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner, suggests that “now may be a good time to redefine our [Washington's] aspirations and reconsider our strategies.” Honestly, he provides a great contrarian perspective to counter the arguments held by a number of local residents that voiced their opinions at this weekend’s event in Baltimore, Maryland.

As Pearlstein emphasizes in his article, in the technology market in D.C. “the premium is on reliability, not cutting-edge innovation.” This is one of the reasons why you will meet a lot of conservative investors. If you want to find high-risk investors you might want to head out to Silicon Valley. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t local investment, it’s just not in fresh new web startups.

So where do we go from here? Well it’s obvious that the Washington Post is not a supporter of the 500 or so people that are trying to make this area a center for innovative internet technology. All we can do is continue to blog about the events we participate in and the companies that surround us and perhaps one day this will become a center of thriving internet startups. Until then, all we can do is talk about it and execute on our own business plans.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

I was chatting with Keith Casey of Casey Software and WhyGoSolo a little while back and he was telling me about this business plan competition coming up in the area, and he said it would be a great opportunity for the local tech communtiy to stand up and be seen and heard.

The competition Keith was talking about is the Mid-Atlantic Business Plan Competition

That day is the no-holds-barred deathmatch of entrepreneur vs entrepreneur. There are presentations in the morning, a round of eliminations, and then the culmination of the entire contest… the finalists get to present in front of a public audience affectionately called the STARTUP SMACK DOWN.

The panel will include several VC’s, professors, and other local entrepenuers. Keith makes a great point when he states :

I think it’s time to put up or shut up. If we storm the place… if we completely pack the final presentations with the best and brightest from the DC Tech community, people will notice. The VC’s will do a double take. The professors will take note. The students competing will reconsider immediately leaving for friendlier places.

I am all in as they say in Texas Hold’Em. What about you ? We would love to get everyone we can in that auditorium as Keith says to make people take notice that we are here and ready to flourish. If we can start the create a minor shift in the perception of some of the panlists, they may take that back with them and start a little buzz. And that would be good for all of us.

So here are the details:

Date: Saturday, April 26 2008

Time: 1-5 PM

Where: ICC Auditorium, Georgetown University (Building 26 on this map)

So what do you say ? Stop by and join the Facebook Group I created: DC Technology Business Plan Competition Crashers if your interested.

This post was orginially posted on East Coast Blogging. Jimmy Gardner is founder of 2Plus11 Technology, a technology consulting firm, and a local entrepreneur. He writes the blog, East Coast Blogging and is a avid advocate of the local DC area technology community.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This event is sure to be jam packed with web professionals from around the area. This is a reverse take on the Ignite events which have been popularized out west. Companies that are looking to hire are limited to 2-3 minutes for verbal presentations and 3-5 minutes for presentations with audio and visual elements. It’s a great opportunity to find potential job seekers and also a great opportunity to find out more about the numerous local companies that are active in the web industry.

The event is being held at TeqCorner, a community office center for technology companies based out in Tysons corner. I highly recommend the event and am hoping to actually show up later in the evening tonight. If you want to attend go register via the Social Matchbox DC registration form.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Recently a blog post I wrote about twitter sparked a discussion on The District of Corruption, an audio blog hosted by Geoff Livingston and Aaron Brazell that I love, about the tone that The Social Times writes in.

To be honest Geoff and Aaron were spot on when they said that I write with a certain level of indifference and I think I do it for the good of all who read this blog. I have been a PR professional for a few years now, and before that I was a sailor in the Untied States Navy.

If anything those two professions have taught me one thing, playing the devils advocate is a good thing. Having a moment of pause can mean the difference between failure and utter successes. I try to be as objective as possible to allow others to think before they leap.

While in the Navy I found that everyone quickly jumped on board to a good idea. One person has a spark and everyone falls inline. I was successful in the military, very successful, by offering my shipmates a second opinion; a chance to think before they swam. I was never objective to be out of line and I think my thoughts were appreciated.

While working in PR I have found that everyone thinks their idea or business venture is the greatest thing in the world. As a communications specialist I remind them to take a moment before they commit to anything, I offer an objective opinion.

For the last few months that is what I have done with this blog. Many of you have meet me in person at social events and as a professionals. I absolutely love the technology scene is Washington, DC and social media in general. I offer my opinions as an alternate opinion.

Too often I see professionals jumping the bandwagon because it is easy. I offer my opinions as a chance to see your world from the outside. Ask me about your business model, ask me about the great tool you have created; I will provide you with something you will not find anywhere else… The cold honest truth.

My opinion is here to help create a community and is as valuable as all of the yes men out there. We all serve our purpose and all are equally important. If everyone in the room says yes I feel it is my duty to offer a simple and concise no, just to get everyone talking.

I could be wrong, but I think offering an outside opinion is one of the most valuable services I can provide. I could be wrong, do any of you out there think I am being overly critical of social media?

I think this is a very exciting time for DC, the convergence of technology and people gives us a chance to not only cover but shape the future of media, social technology, and what services we might be using 5 years from now.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For those of you not in D.C. I’m sorry for continuing to talk about this so much but trust me when I say that it has future implications for your city as well. The supposed lack of funding and the inefficiently organized entrepreneurial community is something taking place around the country. If everybody was blogging and Twitter I think we’d all be good to go but unfortunately that’s not the way it is.

The Social Times will be launching a new platform over the coming weeks to enhance the community and help things grow. We have already seen a disconnected set of services online and events offline. What many have discussed is an “overreaching organization.” I don’t think this requires significant management by the participants, it simply requires one central location that can be referred to when anything is taking place.

Additionally, when entrepreneurs are in need of investors, or new startups are in need of lawyer or an number of other circumstances that take place in an entrepreneurial community, all the participants can reference one location. What I’d like to see happen is this D.C. technology meme end and we all simply become participants. Not just in D.C. but in entrepreneurial communities around the country. D.C. is just the first place where we prove that such a system can be developed.

Over the past few weeks I have been browsing around, calling people and attending events to find out what already exists in the community that we believe does not already exist. Additionally, I’ve been looking for services that actually don’t exist. What I found was a number of resources that most people simply didn’t know about. With this in mind I ended up revising the vision of the Social Times to “leveraging social technology to build local entrepreneurship communities.”

My theory is that most of the resources already exist we just need to make them more accessible to the community. That’s why I am working to build a platform that will help build this community. I’m hoping that others can help build it and benefit from it. My goal is not to promote our services but instead promote the members of the community. All for free. This will take place in a matter of weeks, not months.

I also believe that providing valuable media about leveraging social technology for entrepreneurship is important and as such we will continue to produce articles on a daily basis. You will see a number of new media channels on this site and new services to accomplish these goals. Media is no longer one-way, it is participatory and as such I believe the Social Times can succeed at accomplishing its goals.

I will give out details about the features of the platform in the near future but look for the services to be rolled out quickly. What features would you like to see? Is there something bigger that you think I’m missing here?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

I’ve been to at least three of the Refresh DCs and they are definitely a great time. The last one filled a room with easily one hundred fifty people if not more. Due to the miscommunication, this month’s Refresh DC will be occurring as a happy hour. If you want to attend (which I highly suggest you do), go add your self to the upcoming event page. If you are looking for numbers though, look no further then Tech Cocktail DC.

The idea of Tech Cocktail is simple: help amplify the technology signal in under served markets and have fun doing it. I co-hosted the first Tech Cocktail in D.C. last May and we attracted over 200 people to the event. This is the second time Tech Cocktail is taking place in D.C. and it attracts a diverse crowd all looking to network. After speaking with Frank Gruber, this event may attract double the number of attendees. At each of the events there are demos of local technology startups.

Tech Cocktail D.C. 2 is being hosted April 24th at 1223. It is sure to be a good time so go register for the event and I’ll see you there. If there are any other events that I’m missing, please let me know and I’ll be sure to get them on this site. I’ll also be updating our calendar in the events section of our site.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

LaunchBox Digital, the local early stage investment fund, was a welcomed addition to the D.C. community. Unfortunately not everyone who applies gets selected and this has been discouraging for a few applicants. We are on the verge of something big. There is more buzz surrounding D.C. technology, there are an increasing number of investors and there is also more vocal participants than ever before.

There are still parts of the community that are learning though. As we all know, D.C. is not your traditional web startup community in that we don’t have a local university that is known for technology and we don’t have the risk taking environment. In order to build this environment I think we need a few additional things beyond the things I’ve previously mentioned.

Entrepreneur Education
If we are going to get a thriving group of entrepreneurs we need people to be educated about what it means to take risks, how to approach getting funding and how to know when to quit. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from a number of people about what’s lacking but I also think that there is plenty here and sometimes it is not the community. We read in Techcrunch about new startups getting funding everyday (well frequently at least) and it leads a lot of other people to think that they deserve funding for their crazy internet idea.

I’ve had crazy internet ideas and so far none have received funding but I have learned something from the people that do receive funding: it’s not about the idea, it’s about the team. Also, if you are going to get funding you better start networking like crazy because locally there are a lot of investors that think and act like Warren Buffet. Check out the following video and you’ll know what I mean:

Active Leaders and Educational Events
There are a lot of big named business people in the D.C. area. None of them are at any events. While I don’t expect them to attend the average happy hour, we need to have events where inspirational people can speak. When I saw Mitch Kapor speak at an event with Facebook developers out in California last year, I saw what was different about Silicon Valley. There are leaders that are at the events and are acting at mentors to the community.

I’d like to get a series of events where we have speakers talking to the local entrepreneurs. I’ve already begun planning on one but that hasn’t been announced yet. What events do you think would help build this community further? What else do you think would be helpful to continue building the community?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.