D.C.

Looking to do some networking tonight in D.C.? Social Matchbox DC is the event you should attend. The event is an open mic hiring event for local startups. The event is three hours long with two hours of networking and an hour of startup introductions. The event tonight has a whole slew of startups including: TinselVision, ClearSpring, MobilePosse, Razoo, Webs.com, Intridea, FolioFN, ThreeSpot, Hungry Machine, Investors Without Borders, WhyGoSolo, Siteworx, Viget Labs, Zadby, Positive Energy, comScore, Publi.us, Loladex, FamilyOven, 100dimensions, Qloud, nClud, xyoom, BrowserMedia, Ozmosis, Searchles, and more!

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.

Wow, the past few post I have written have generated some amazing traffic. People have been reading my post and talking amongst themselves. Nothing makes me feel better than knowing I have started a discussion to help people think about social 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.

The future of D.C. technology meme has spread across all of the D.C. blogs and discussion is taking place in all the comments and on Twitter. One thing is for sure, there is a strong presence of social media professionals in D.C. I would argue that this segment will continue to grow naturally and doesn’t necessarily need management, unless of course you group it with the entrepreneurs which appears to have naturally occurred.

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?

There are two upcoming events in D.C. that you should be attending. Unfortunately due to a miscommunication (or lack thereof), there has been a reshuffle of events for April. The first event is Refresh DC. If you don’t know what Refresh DC is, then you are definitely missing out. According to the event’s website, Refresh DC brings “together the best and brightest new media professionals in the DC metro area so that we may learn from one another.”

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.

Last night I attended the D.C. New Media Meetup. I got into a conversation with a number of people about this drive for building the D.C. technology community and more than building the community (which already exists), building an environment that is supportive of web startups. We already have a number of local web startups that are doing well but there appears to be a significant disconnect from these companies the community and the investors.

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?

For those of you in the D.C. area looking to get in on the networking action, I have a great event for you tomorrow. There will be a combined event at Lotus Lounge at 6:30 P.M. It is being hosted by the New Media Meetup and NextDC and is being sponsored by Voxant.com, an increasingly active company in the D.C. web community. I hope to see you at the event tomorrow!

There are also a number of other events coming up in the approaching weeks. There will be SocialMatchbox DC 2 out in Tysons. That event is a recruiting/networking event for local tech startups and potential employees. While I didn’t make the first event I’ve heard great things about it. I will also be announcing the first SocialTimes pitch event in the coming weeks. Right now I’m aiming for April but I am also organizing a number of other events.

If you are hosting any other D.C. events please be sure to let us know! For those of you not in D.C. be sure to come visit!

Last week I wrote a post that got a lot of buzz going about the D.C. technology and entrepreneurship community. I’ve been thinking heavily about what the best next steps are and I think I’ve come up with a pretty good first step. The Social Times is going to launch a monthly pitch event. At the event, one entrepreneur will be chosen to do a 7-minute pitch to a board of local entrepreneurs, executives and technologists. That entrepreneur will take questions from the board for 15-minutes and then receive questions from an audience of no more than 150 people for another 10 to 15 minutes.

There is the potential to expand this to more than one pitch per event but we are limiting it for now. I will also be partnering with the entrepreneurship clubs at local business schools so that MBA students also have the opportunity to pitch. This is simply a first step to building the buzz around D.C. It is our duty to attend these events and foster an environment in which risk taking and failure is accepted. While that community may not be for everybody in D.C., it still exists.

Following the event there will be a happy-hour where people can network and discuss the future of the D.C. technology scene. There is one requirement of you attending this event: you must blog about it! D.C. is in need of amplifying the signal. Many people commented that D.C. will never be like Silicon Valley or “The Alley” in New York City. I agree but this doesn’t mean that we can’t have a loud voice.

The focus of the Social Times is the convergence of social technology, advertising and new media. The primary participants in this convergence is investors, entrepreneurs, journalists and advertisers. This event is focused on the investors and entrepreneurs. Of course since I’m in D.C. this will be the first city that the events take place and I hope that this contributes to building the technology and entrepreneurship community that we are all hoping to be a part of.

I will be announcing the date, time and location in the coming weeks so stay tuned. If you want to participate, we are looking for sponsors to support, entrepreneurs to pitch and experienced professionals that would like to advise. Send all inquiries to contact [at] socialtimes [dot] com. Also, if you have any location suggests or would like to host it yourself, please inquire via the email address provided!

Any suggestions? Post them in the comments and let’s keep the movement going!

On Monday, a Washington Post article was published discussing the AOL exodus effect and the impact on the local D.C. technology community. Since that article was published I’ve had a number of conversations with individuals active in the community. There are a few points that I think are critical to this conversation as I’ll outline below but ultimately it’s the participants that decide what will really happen.

Is there a lack of community?
According to the census bureau, D.C. has the second highest technology population outside of silicon valley. If there was anywhere else that would have a vibrant tech community outside of Silicon Valley, I would imagine D.C. would be it given our “tech density.” There are a number of people that have been criticized for not being highly active in the community and I still think that’s the case but it’s changing rapidly.

In Silicon Valley, company executives of larger companies attend events and brush shoulders with aspiring entrepreneurs. This exposure helps both the entrepreneurs as well as the companies that these executives work for. In D.C., many of the technology companies are multi-billion dollar companies and having the executives of these companies hanging out with aspiring entrepreneurs may not paint the right picture nor may it be necessary.

If you attended the Refresh DC event last night you would have seen that this community has grown rapidly over the past 12 months and I would imagine that this continues for at least the next 12 months as well. While we may not have the same mixture of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, developers, designers and tech bloggers as Silicon Valley, we definitely have a great mix.

What is missing?
Currently I believe that there are only a few things missing from the community that would help contribute to the growth but I also think that we are well on the way. One of the primary things is positive press about the D.C. technology community. The Washington Post is consistently critical of the D.C. technology community. In their most recent article, Kendra Marr and Zach Goldfarb describe the AOL exodus as throwing this community into turmoil.

Perhaps their article may not have been as critical as I have portrayed it but time and time again, there is negative press about this community coming from the Washington Post. I have personally spoken with writers at the company and each time I do, they speak with a tone that implies there is no chance this community will materialize into anything significant. With our without the post this community will succeed and I think that it’s going to happen through a highly active blogging community which has already begun. It simply needs to continue to grow.

The second thing missing is a culture of risk that exists out west. I don’t think we’ll ever have the same culture of risk but we can sure embrace it and encourage others to take risks. Rewarding failure is critical. Part of this risk taking includes the need for venture funding. There are already a few venture companies locally but without local universities that consistently produce entrepreneurs, this community will always have less entrepreneurs than Silicon Valley and we won’t see the influx of continuous web focused venture funding.

There is plenty of room for discussion surrounding the culture of risk in D.C. and the supposed “lack of funding” so feel free to post about it in the comments.

Where do we go from here?
As long as the local people including Jason Garber, M. Jackson Wilkinson, myself and others continue to host events, we’ll see this community continue to grow. I think involvement with the local universities would be a great thing and we have already seen a little of that with the University of Maryland but there is plenty of room for growth.

We need to keep the buzz going so if you aren’t blogging regularly, start blogging more! Seriously, this may be one of the most important things to the success of any community. Right now the tech blogs are mostly a silicon valley echo chamber. That needs to end now and D.C. needs to be one of the top participants in furthing this effort. Any other ideas about what should be done?