SFNewTech Recap

I wrote this piece after attending an event for SFNewTech. It's a little more freestyle than I usually go with my posts, but I was hoping it would help the organizer draw some looks with innovation.

So you finally decided to pull the trigger and come to this SFNewTech thing, huh? You've heard thing from friends about how they saw some amazing new ideas which sparked their own creativity and got them out of their rut at work. You remember hearing about your friend who met a man there who ended up helping her start her own business. You couldn't ignore it any longer; there must be something to the events there that keep people so interested and coming back, so you decided to attend the event on the 21^st, and how did it go?

You showed up around 6, which was as quick as you could get there from work, but luckily the event was geared around people scrambling from work, and there was even a taco truck waiting and people were enjoying drinks. You caught your breath and strolled in to be greeted with a smile and a nametag to make introductions easier. Waltzing to the bar somewhat nervously, you were greeted by a software engineer from AT&T who wanted to know all about what you do. You explained your situation, and asked about his. He admitted this is was first time here too, but he'd already met some great people who swore by these events. You found out you share a love of social networking and exchanged business cards, twitter account names, and added each other on linkedin. You had already made a friend within 5 minutes, and you had your ear on several other conversations going on. There were well dressed venture capitalists, bright eyed innovation scouts, and charismatic product managers eager to share all about whats going on in the technology world with you. Before you know it, the event started.

You found a seat next to the man you met earlier, and began listening to the talks. First you heard about Doochoo, which aims to be a building platform for opinion-related apps. They talked about Couchin, which allows you to ask your friends opinions on movies, television, and other media through a Nielsen-lite rating system, and you were already intrigued. Before you know it, a man from Lunch.com talked about how their new community feature lets you further personalize your social networking by allowing you to facilitate opinions from people who are similar to you. You agreed that you'd rather one opinion from a friend then 800 opinions from the masses, and vow to sign up later. Next a man from Crisp talked in a no-nonsense manner about how they plan on helping companies weed out garbage from online communities through profiling their chat behavior. Then MotherApp raved about how they'll allow folks to make apps that span across multiple mobile devices, instead of restricting themselves to just the iPhone or the Android. Finally, Sococo aimed to solve your problem of having meetings with your branches across the country and the world by selling virtual meeting rooms where you can chat, share media, and network in a secure environment.

There were even people like you, who got a turn on the mic to promote their new startup, or were looking for connections having moved to town just recently. You were amazed at how it seemed like so many people were just like you—trying to find that one spark to catapult them up the chain in Silicon Valley. This was more than a think tank you realized. SFNewTech is people helping people make their careers and lives better. It's no wonder that people keep coming back. You walked out the door with 5 business cards, a great new idea for your product, and a vow to pencil in the next three events, because this is too good a resource to pass up.