SOMEWHAT FRANK

Tis The Season For 2 More TECH cocktail Events

It has been a rather eventful year for TECH cocktail, a community building media startup, that I co-founded in 2006. We are wrapping up another year with two more TECH cocktail events one in DC on Thursday, December 3rd and our final 2009 event in Chicago on Thursday, December 10th. We have some great sponsors like Intel and Winamp and more and about 20+ never before seen start-ups showing off their products or services in an expo style.

Wow, these events will be our 10th and 11th events this year. Hope you can make it to DC or Chicago for one of these events - tis the season to TECH cocktail.

26 Startups In 30 Days Demo at TECH cocktail

It has been a busy last 30 days as we hosted three TECH cocktail events in Chicago, DC and Boston respectively. Starting in Chicago in early August we drew a humongous crowd and showed off 9 new Chicago area start-ups as I previously explained. We did not stop with just Chicago, we continued to plan and host TECH cocktail events the past two weeks in DC and Boston. Both events were very well attended and showcased 17 more start-ups. The events attracted over 1400 guests and showcased 26 startups in 30 days. Not bad as we roll into our fourth year, with the same mission as when we started of "amplifying the local technology signal in local tech communities" while "having fun doing it." 

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for coming out to support the last three events in Chicago, DC and Boston. We couldn’t do the events without the support of the local technology community and our fabulous sponsors which included AOL’s AIM & Going.com, BOALT, Saper Law, Jess3, Shiny Heart Ventures, TransFS, SproutBox, Total Attorneys, Chicago Micro, OVAL Vodka and iStrategyLabs. We also had 26 great start-ups demoing at the events. 

When.com: A Hyper-Local One Stop Shop

What? Where? and When? That is precisely what you can find out when you visit When.com the fairly new hyper-local site created by AOL. When.com can help you to cut through the clutter and pinpoint restaurants, events and activities in your neighborhood. It also offers the ability to buy tickets and save on dining out with dining deal offers. When.com enables anyone to add an events to extend city event coverage. For example, check out the listing for TECH cocktail DC 5 in Washington, DC today. I recently got a chance to talk with Abha Dasgupta about When.com in episode 78 on SOMEWHAT FRANK adventures in personal technology. Also check out the full TECH cocktail DC 5 preview.

TECH cocktail DC 5 Coming Soon

I am happy to share that I will be co-hosting another TECH cocktail in DC. In case you missed the last DC event it was well covered by the Washington Post and other media outlets. Check out photos from TECH cocktail DC 4. This is our 5th event in the Nation’s Capital and I hope you can make it out to the fine venue, LeftBank digital bistro in the Adam’s Morgan neighborhood of DC. 

TECH cocktail will offer a handful of start-ups an opportunity to show off in an expo-style to the rest of the community.

Here is the important information:

When: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 - 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST

Where: LeftBank in Adams Morgan (venue photos)

What: A “cocktail of TECH people”

If you are interested in supporting TECH cocktail please sponsor our events as we cannot put them on without your support. If you are interested in demoing a product or service please comment on this article or reach out to us at TECH cocktail. Look forward to seeing you there.

Talking Start-ups, Bootstrapping & Lifestreaming

It was a pleasure as always to get a chance to sync up with Greg "The Trend Junkie" Cangialosi the CEO of Baltimore-based Blue Sky Factory in San Francisco today. I had him swing by to do his Thursday afternoon live show BlueSkyFactory.tv from the Bebo office.

We discussed a number of topics including start-ups, shiny objects of the Web, bootstrapping, entrepreneurship, building community anywhere, TECH cocktail, SOMEWHAT FRANK and my recent work at AOL as part of the People Network group which includes AIM, Bebo, ICQ and Socialthing and life-streaming products. We are also were joined by Jean-Paul Cozzatti the Development / Product Engineering Lead at Bebo to talk about the updates for Bebo that went live this past December and February as well as a hint as to what is to come in the coming months.

Tune into the video above to watch episode #7 of Blue Sky Factory TV (above).

First Quarter Full TECH cocktail Schedule

I cannot believe we have been at TECH cocktail for going on three years now. It has been a pleasure to see so many great people, startups and products rally around TECH cocktail in their local community and we hope to continue that in 2009 with a full schedule of events. We also have some other things on the docket for 2009 and will be happy to share them soon. In the meantime, check out the four events we have planned in the first quarter:

2/19 - TECH cocktail Chicago 10
2/26 - TECH cocktail DC 4
3/12 - TECH cocktail Champaign 2 (more details coming soon...)
3/26 - TECH cocktail Ann Arbor 1 (more details coming soon...)

So I look forward to seeing you all soon. If you would like to be a sponsor for an upcoming event please feel free to contact me as we are always looking for additional support to keep our events free and accessible to all the community. Check out the TECH cocktail song, it is a catchy little jingle if I don't say so myself. :)

TECH cocktail Chicago 9: Big 2008 Finale Event

Last Thursday night I co-hosted our last TECH cocktail of 2008. This wrapped up a 2008 TECH cocktail season that included 8 mixer events spread across Chicago, DC, Boston, Boulder and Champaign and one full day conference. We were pleased at the consistent growth of TECH cocktail and TECH cocktail Chicago 9 pulled in our largest crowd of the year with over 700 attendees. The event showcased six startups. Check out the photos from TECH cocktail Chicago 9.

21 Hour TECH cocktail Day

21 Hour TECH cocktail Day from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

I have been co-hosting TECH cocktail events in local technology communities for over two and a half years now. In that time I have hosted events in Boulder, Boston, D.C. and Chicago. Recently, we hosted our first event on a college campus by hitting the road and heading down to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for a "Big Ten Conference" style event which I mentioned previously. It was a lot of fun but it was a LONG day.

I captured our 21 hour day on video and you can follow us along as we woke up at 3:30 a.m. in the morning in Chicago and returned some 21 hours later. Follow along as episode 54 on SOMEWHAT FRANK shares our adventures in the video (above).

Gyminee Social Workout & Food Tracker

I have been on the road quite a bit this month and with that it is difficult to stay consistently doing something to stay in shape and maintain your health. So to help get back in the swing of things I thought I would check out Gyminee. Gyminee is a site devoted to helping you stay on track with your health by tracking your workouts, diet and connect you with motivational workout buddies. They are based in Boulder and were part of the this years TechStars program.

I chatted with the Gyminee team as they demoed at TECH cocktail Boulder 2. Check out episode 51 on SOMEWHAT FRANK as I chat with Andy Smith and Steven Blankenship from Gyminee.

Gyminee Social Workout Tracker from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

TECH cocktail at Champaign Big Ten Style

Today I traveled to Champaign, Illinois to host our first ever campus TECH cocktail event at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).  With the support of the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation and Fox/Atkins Development, LLC we are pleased to be hosting TECH cocktail Champaign. For those who don’t know UIUC, is arguably the birthplace of the modern Web.  Mosaic (later called Netscape), TCP/IP, apache and various other internet technologies we take for granted were pioneered at UIUC.  Also, the founders of PayPal, YouTube and other top web companies are UIUC alums.

This morning we were on the CBS Network affiliate WCIA 3 Morning Show with Amber Jenne, Jennifer Ketchmark and Rob Collins as we looked to preview the event.

TECH cocktail DC 3 Is Coming: Sign Up Now!

I am excited to announce TECH cocktail DC 3! We hosted our last TECH cocktail DC in the spring and since then have hosted a conference in Chicago, as well as mixer events in Chicago, Boulder and Boston. In case you missed these events you can check out the TECH cocktail photos.

Here are the important upcoming event details:

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Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008

Time: 6:30pm - 9pm

Venue: MCCXXIII: 1223 Connecticut Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20036  (Map)

RSVP: tech-cocktail-dc-3.eventbrite.com

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If you are interested in sponsoring TECH cocktail DC 3 you can purchase a sponsorship online. Also if you are interested in demoing your startup product or service please contact me. See you there!

Video: Talking Blogs & Book Writing With "Blog Mother" Amanda Watlington

A "blog mother" is a person that inspired you to start a blog. For me, it is was a session which covered blogging led by Amanda Watlington and Jeremy Zawondny which inspired me to start Somewhat Frank, and the rest is history. I ran into Amanda while hosting TECH cocktail Boston 2 a few weeks ago who I had not seen since ad:tech Chicago back in the summer of 2006.

I was able to sit down with Amanda Watlington and chat with her for a bit about search,blogging and the book writing process for episode 38 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV. Check out the video (below) as I chat with my "blog mother" Amanda Watlington.

Thanks to David Dalka for filming the episode.

Yep, It's True, AOL To Acquire SocialThing

A few weeks ago Mike Arrington gave me a call asking me if, my employer, AOL, had acquired SocialThing. Though it struck very close to home, I had to bite my tongue since the deal had not yet closed and did not comment on the matter. Now that is has been officially released, I can. It is true, AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire SocialThing, the Boulder, Colorado based social aggregating lifestream startup. The terms are not disclosed and the acquisition is still subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

I met founders Matt "indiekid" Galligan, Ben Brightwell and the team as they demo'ed at TECH cocktail Boulder on March 6th. Matt is originally from Illinois, like I am, and moved to Boulder to create SocialThing as part of the TechStars incubator program. I got a preview of the SocialThing private beta at TECH cocktail (shown in the video below) which was a few days before they launched at SXSW Interactive and were written up favorably on TechCrunch as being easier to use than FriendFeed. I was impressed by what this startup had created as it offered a wrapper for all your social activities making it easy to post to multiple networks at once. SocialThing is integrated with 13 social media properties including Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Flickr and is currently still in private beta.

Six Boston Startups Demo at TECH cocktail

I headed to Boston yesterday and after a long day of hectic travel due to some nasty summer storms I co-hosted TECH cocktail Boston 2. The event attracted a couple hundred dedicated Boston TECH cocktailers. Thank you to everyone that made their way out through the rain. Six Boston area startups demoed at TECH cocktail Boston 2 and they are highlighted in this article.

Join Me On Jonny's Par-Tay

JOIN ME ON JONNY'S PAR-TAY!

I will be talking about startups, Web 2.0, social media, SOMEWHAT FRANK and TECH cocktail on the video show, Jonny’s Par-tay on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9pm EST. The show is hosted live by DC TECH cocktailers Scott Stead and Jonny Goldstein so tune in. Here are the details:

What: A rollicking conversation with Jonny Goldstein, Scott Stead, and you! You get to interact with everyone else via live text chat.

When: Wednesday, June 18, 9-10PM EST

Where: jonnyspartay.com

Be a part of the live conversation as we talk about TECH cocktail, technology startups and more. It should be a lot of fun!