After I moved to Los Angeles about a month ago, John came down and we hit up a few of the networking events here. Quick thoughts:
- Twiistup 4: $50 ticket. Some free appetizers. No free alcohol (in fact, pricey Viceroy Santa Monica prices). Sponsors that paid alot for bungalows, but still no free admission or drinks. We ended up going across the street to Cha Cha Chicken to eat dinner since the appetizers were sorta slow. For the amount of money we spent on the ticket, food and drinks, I think it would have been cheaper to fly to Chicago for the next Tech Cocktail (which I might do). The coolest thing was the free iPhone etching from Etchstar.
- Digital Drinks LA: This was at Sky Bar in Hollywood, which is apparently a pretty exclusive bar on the hill overlooking LA. $10 ticket. Nothing included. Hotel only has valet parking. Drinks were priced at $18 a shot!! Loud club music. Very little lighting.
My initial feeling is that LA events try too hard to be hollywood-ish. Too much effort is on having a trendy venue, expensive drinks, music, and really good looking and well dressed people. Don’t get me wrong, I like my share of all of those things, but not for a technology networking event. I want to be able to talk to genuine people who aren’t just there to be seen, push their products or recruit people for their free-spending startups (did you know The Rubicon Project’s office was the set of the first season of “24″?? wonder how much that costs…).
I’ll keep looking for more economical and efficient ways of networking in LA. Drop me a line if you have suggestions.
Justin
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on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Hey Justin,
There are tons of events in LA that are free. Join the I’m a SoCal Tech Geek group on Facebook and check out the calendar over at socaltech.com
Off the top of my head:
LA Mixers
Lunch 2.0
Mixergy Events
Social Media Club
Digital LA
Mindshare
BarCamp
Dealmaker LA
Exectec
Geek Dinners
And there’s tons more I’m sure, hope this helps, and welcome!
Jackie Peterss last blog post..iLike Makes Music Happen at Web 2.0 Expo NY
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 pm
BTW, I LOVE Twiistup, it’s a great event to energize and invigorate the community, a bit pricey yes, and my company sponsored, but worth every penny if you ask me. Lots of press and people ready to talk business there. And yes, we like to get a little Hollywood every now and then, but this is, after all, LA, and we like to think we’re a little Geek Sheik :-p
Jackie Peterss last blog post..iLike Makes Music Happen at Web 2.0 Expo NY