TechCrunch Party - sign of the Boston 2.0 times?

As someone who goes to a large number of local tech events here in Boston, last Friday night’s party with the people behind TechCrunch was definitely one of the most buzzed about events this year. Perhaps not to the casual observer, but for those who have been involved in - or keep an eye on - the local startup scene, many web startup entrepreneurs note that industry coverage of Boston-based startups (and East Coast startups in general) is relatively weak when compared to the buzz about startups along the West Coast. Therefore, having the web tech industry’s largest and most popular blog, TechCrunch, come to town to throw a party might be a sign that things are slowly changing for press about startups in Boston, and that the rest of the industry is taking notice. Well good for us, first the World Series and perhaps now Boston 2.0.

The event itself was held at The Estate, a club located near the Boston Common referred to as “The Alley” and most well known under one of it’s previous names, The Big Easy. With around 700 people in attendance and an open bar, the dance floor/demo area was packed with all kinds of VCs, entrepreneurs, bloggers and industry observers (watching demos, not dancing). Demos were given by a number of startups present at the event including Moola, WineLibrary, and SnapYap, among others.

Having been a TechCrunch reader for the past couple of years now, I was always on the lookout for when TechCrunch would stop by to hold a party/event over here, as they do so frequently out West. Although we have our own variety of tech events seemingly gaining more and more popularity over the last 18 months (WebInno, Ignite, TastyBytes, TechCocktail, etc.) having Boston play host for another future TechCrunch event would be fantastic.

Check out some additional coverage of the event from Jeff Bussgang, Don Dodge, Chris Herot, and Doug Levin, as well as some party photos on Flickr.

Thanks go out to hosts Michael Arrington, Michelle Harde, and Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch for putting it all together, and IDG Ventures Boston for sponsoring the event.

UPDATE: Michael says TechCrunch Boston may become a yearly event.

Cooley Godward Kronish LLP celebrate new Boston office with style

Last Wednesday (11/14), the law firm Cooley Godward Kronish held a very special Open House to celebrate the opening of their new office here in Boston. Held on the 50^th floor of the Prudential Center, and with 300+ in attendance, an open bar, and great food, the night turned out to be fantastic time. The crowd was quite energetic with in-depth conversations and introductions taking place throughout the evening. The event was so well put together in fact that many didn’t want to leave - even as the midnight hour was fast approaching.

Although the office has been open since July, the night was planned to serve as an official welcoming/introduction to a select group of local clients and colleagues. Attendees had a chance to meet many of the people making up the Cooley Boston office - including Boston’s Regional Partner In Charge, John Hession - and were able to get a first hand account of the firms’ growing national presence, their new upcoming advertising campaign, and other insight into what has brought Cooley such success and industry recognition over the years.

With the opening of the Boston office, Cooley now operates in nine cities across the country. The firm’s practice areas include Life Sciences, Venture Capital, Technology, IP, Commercial Litigation, and Tax and Bankruptcy, among many more. Visit the Cooley.com website to learn more about additional areas of expertise, the firm’s history, and other events taking place nationwide.

Many thanks to Mark Curran, SVP Business Development, who spends his time between the Boston and New York offices, for kindly inviting me to attend this event.

An evening in Providence with Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals

Last night was a night well spent. I, along with a few others from Boston, drove down to Providence, RI to attend an event with Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals taking place at the Bravo Brasserie. The event was a casual get together organized by the Business Innovation Factory and included many who were in attendance at the BIF-3 conference (see coverage here and here). The event was also co-sponsored by Providence Geeks, AIGA Rhode Island, Basics Group, and RI Nexus.

Jason spent about 10 minutes addressing the crowd of 100+ people with an overview of how 37signals came to be, how their business has changed over the years and where they are today, followed by a 20 minute Q&A. Having started out as a web design company in Chicago, 37signals now focuses strictly on making simple web-based project collaboration software such as Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack.

It was interesting to see/hear Jason speak, since I, along with countless others, have been using 37signals’ products for quite some time. Jason and his elite team of 7, have a really clear understanding for what works in software design, project team collaboration, and customer/user experience. Often citing influences such as nature, yoga, and art, the philosophies of simplicity, ease of use, and logical design come through loud and clear across all of their products. Check out their acclaimed Signal vs. Noise blog for further insight into their product development philosophies, and if possible, read their brilliant book, Getting Real. Also, a bit more can be found on Jason and 37signals in this MyBusiness magazine article.

Pictured in the photo above from left to right is Todd Galloway of Fafarazzi.com, Jason Fried of 37signals, Colin Nederkoorn from TopStartup.com, and yours truly. Not pictured is Andrew Mitchell of LinkSpank.com who was quite busy entertaining the crowd at the time, and couldn’t get in the lineup.

Thanks to Jack Templin, co-founder of Providence Geeks for putting us on the invitation list, and Wayne Franklin of Urban Sun Investments for putting his drink down to take the picture.

Saying “Hey” to Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com

This past Wednesday night I had the chance/pleasure of meeting Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com. He was in town for the Emerging Technologies Conference by Technology Review being held at MIT. Kevin was a panelist at the conference, which brought together business leaders, venture capitalists, technologists, and the top 35 innovators under the age of 35. Other speakers included Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, John Lester of Linden Lab, and many, many others.

To wrap up his multi-day visit to Boston, Kevin sent out an invitation on Pownce to meet at the Enormous Room bar in Central Square, open to anyone interested and up for having a drink or two. It was a fun time, with a number of people showing up (including Colin) to hang out with one of the Internet’s most popular web startup stars.

Kevin’s claim(s) to fame started back in 2005 when he was a host on “The Screen Savers” a show on TechTV that focused on computers, cool new technology, and other geekery. After The Screen Savers came to an end, he and a few others got together to build Digg, a site where people can submit links/photos/videos which are then voted up or down by the Digg community. Kevin also currently co-hosts Diggnation, a weekly podcast that covers the top stories found on Digg (Kevin mentioned that Diggnation is coming to Boston next year). Kevin’s latest project is the aforementioned Pownce, a micro-blogging tool similar to Twitter, but with the added functionality of being able to send files and RSVP to user-created events.

So why am I writing about all this? Well, quite simply, I’m a fan of Kevin, his projects, and his overall style. I’ve also been a user of Digg for well over a year and check it numerous times a day (my homepage is set to Digg.com/Science). Getting a chance to say hello and chat a bit was just a really cool moment and something I had to write about. I think a lot of people can identify and relate to Kevin, whether it be through his technical skills or personality. By playing a very open, public role in running Digg, users develop a stronger sense of familiarity with the site, making it feel more real, more personal.

For more, read the BusinessWeek article titled “Investors Digg Kevin Rose” as to what makes Kevin such a success (and have a look at a now famous cover). Lastly, thanks go out to Tom Summit for giving me the head’s up on the invite.

TechCocktail Boston huge hit with tech startup scene

How ironic (hypocritical?) is it that one of my first posts after my blogging sabbatical is me writing up another event review? Goes to show you that one should never say never!

Anyway, I wanted to post something about an event I went to last Thursday called TechCocktail. A first for Boston, the TechCocktail event is a business-tech style social mixer that has already gained much traction and acclaim in places like Chicago and DC. Although scheduled on the same night as O’Reilly’s Ignite Boston event, TechCocktail seemed to attract many of Boston’s startup entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts, and ended up being a huge success with over 400 people showing up for the party. If you were one of the lucky ones on the guest list, then you know it rocked (as far as business events go!) so be sure to thank Brian Balfour, Jay Meattle, Shawn Ward, and Peter Glyman for putting the whole thing together.

TechCocktail was started by Frank Gruber and Eric Olson with events mostly being held in the Chicago area. But with more and more startups coming out of Boston these days (up for debate, I know), setting up an event here makes perfect sense. To help bring things together, TechCocktail Boston was sponsored by Compete.com, Geezeo, ZoomInfo, and Northbridge Venture Partners.

The crowd was a great mix of smart and savvy business types, social media gurus, coders and hackers, and venture capitalists. The open bar made it quiet easy to stick around for a while and keep the conversations going, as I myself had tried to leave on a few occasions but was too easily drawn back into the crowd. In terms of meeting great people though, the night couldn’t be beat. Throughout the evening, I had the chance to take a few pictures, so check out some of Boston’s movers and shakers below (click to see them over at Flickr):

 

I hope to see more TechCocktail events in the near future, and it’s likely that we’ll get to see one every quarter or so if there is enough demand? So between TechCocktail and David Beisel’s WebInnovators - the event that kick-started Boston’s tech schmooze scene last year - I think we can all expect to see more tech startups getting the support and press they need from across the Boston/New England region and beyond.

For more commentary on the event, check out these other links:

TECH cocktail Boston Was Wicked
TECH cocktail Boston: A Wicked Good Time
Techcocktail Boston at Tequila Rain
TECH Cocktail Boston
Later last night - As much drinking as drinking
Photos on Flickr

I’m back to blogging again

50 days. Wow. That’s how long its been since I’ve written a blog post. I never would have guessed that I would take such a long break. But I’m back now. So much has happened over the last two months in both my professional and personal life that I just had to let up on some things. Well thankfully, things have settled down again to a certain degree, and I can finally get back to some blogging.

We’ve been working on the new site quite a bit over the last few months, mostly getting behind-the-scenes infrastructure things in order, but we’ve also managed to make some minor tweaks to the front end part of the site, adding a feature here and there. I’m still planning on writing up a quick post about our growing feature set, and hope to have that out within the next week or so.

Also, although many of you already know this, I wanted take a moment and say again that we relaunched the MarksGuide site a few months ago as a web based application/service with a focus on listing events, and that its no longer a blog. If you’re reading this via email, it means that we moved you over to the new “MarksGuide Blog”, which you can now find at http://marksguide.wordpress.com. And if you’re missing the weekly event notices, you can still get those – just sign up for the Events by Email newsletter at http://www.marksguide.com/Subscribe.

Ok, that’s all for now. I’ll be back in a bit with another post.

The new site is live

The evening is coming to a close here and I’m glad to say that the launch of the new site went well and without any major problems. As of Monday, July 23, 2007 at 11:54pm, the new site can be seen by going to http://www.marksguide.com, with an archived version of the old site still online for viewing at http://blog.marksguide.com.

A number of us spent the last week testing the site thoroughly, tweaking this, fine-tuning that, but as software often goes, a small bug may still pop up here or there. If that should happen to you while using the site, please drop us a line and let us know, and we’ll take care of it right away. We’ll continue to test the site over the next week and make minor, ongoing changes as needed. And in case we come across anything major, we’ll write about it here to let you know.

And Hallmark might be missing out on an opportunity here. If there isn’t already a Coder Appreciation Day, then there should be - and it might as well be today. Thanks Chris, for all of your hard work and dedication over the past few weeks and in launching the site. I couldn’t be happier with what’s been built, and I’m looking forward to watching the site grow and get even better in the coming months.

Previous site versions and Events by Email

One of the biggest changes we’ve made is removing the blog aspect of the site. So for an easy transition, we have kept an archived version of the previous site/blog. Once we switch over (late Monday night 7/23/07), the archived site will be on http://blog.marksguide.com. This blog will not be updated any longer and will be onilne for a certain number of months for reference only. We’ll put a notice on top of the archived site so that its easy to see that you’re looking at an old site.

As for getting events sent by email, we’ve setup a weekly email newsletter that will list all events taking place that week. Events by Email, as we are calling it, will be sent out each Monday morning quite early. The sign up panel will be located in the right column of the new site. Be sure to check it out Tuesday morning.

Here is a screen shot of where you’ll be able to find the previous site and the email newsletter signup:

New version of MarksGuide to launch tonight

After months of planning, designing, and code development, I’m pleased to announce that the new MarksGuide site will be launched later this evening.

As you may know by now, the new MarksGuide has been completely redesigned and rebuilt to focus more on listing professional events in Boston. But unfortunately one aspect of the site we had to get rid of to make this happen was the blog itself. Therefore, MarksGuide will no longer have written event reviews and announcements. Instead, we’ve built a totally new service, one that gives you more value than a blog can effectively deliver. We’ve added a number of features that make it easier to browse and search for events, save and forward events you find interesting, and share your event schedule by setting up your own professional profile page. If you’ve been a reader of the blog before and found it informative, helpful, and dare I say valuable, then chances are you’ll gain just as much, if not more, from using this new version.

For those of you who subscribed to the blog to get weekly events sent via email, don’t worry, that isn’t going away. But since the site won’t be a blog anymore, we’ve had to make a small change. If you would like to get events sent to you via email from now on, then once the new site is up, just enter your email address into the form in the panel called “Sign up for Events by Email” located on the right-hand side, and click “Subscribe”. Then each Monday morning, you’ll get a listing sent to you for events taking place that week. Events will still be listed on the website itself, but offering an email version might be a convenient alternative for some. Something else not to worry about - we will never sell or rent your email address. Period.

Finally, even though MarksGuide won’t be a blog any longer, we decided to setup a new and completely different blog (this one) that will focus on topics such as new features, announcements, and other general news related to the site itself. This new blog will be located at http://marksguide.wordpress.com. Those of you who are subscribers to the original blog will have your subscriptions automatically transferred over to the new company blog and there is nothing that you need to do. But please note that this new blog will have a different kind of content - if reading about new features and enhancements isn’t why you subscribed to MarksGuide, then please adjust your RSS/subscriptions accordingly.

Additionally, once the new MarksGuide is launched, you can still access an archived version of the old site/blog at its current address, http://blog.marksguide.com. The new version of MarksGuide, once ready late Monday night, will be accessible via http://www.marksguide.com.

Welcome to a new kind of MarksGuide blog

This blog will talk about what’s going on with MarksGuide. No event reviews. No local business articles. Just updates on new features we’re working on and other news as it relates to the site. I expect the tone of this blog to be different than how the original MarksGuide blog was written simply because here I’m journaling and writing quick posts as compared to putting together factual/informative summaries of local events and news. It will be interesting I’m sure, and one thing I’m looking forward to is blogging in a more spontaneous and free-form style.

I’ve decided to keep this blog as open as possible to allow for as much creative/blogging freedom as possible. Meaning, that some posts may be about features we’re working on, cool new technology, and/or what other websites are doing - while other posts may be about a picture I saw at the airport that inspired me. Even though I’ve always preferred blogs to be relevent to their chosen topic, I’ve decided to - on occassion - post something here that has absolutely nothing to do with MarksGuide. I hear that it works for some so I’m willing to give it a shot.

In the next few posts I’ll summarize a few things that have changed and what you can come to expect from the new site.