SF New Tech

Quick update on some good news, some great news… and some sad news, too.

First, the great news…

If you’re looking to hire folks, find a job, promote an event or discuss all-things-SF New Tech we’ve created some brand new forums for the SF New Tech community so we can continue to help each other out. You’re hereby invited to chime in! The SF New Tech forums can be found at our newly made-over presence at Meetup.com (what do you think?). Visit http://www.meetup.com/sfnewtech and click on "Message Board" on the left. GO!

And here’s some really good news…

SF New Tech is proud to announce we’ll be working with geekSessions, led by geek extraordinaire and all-about-good guy, Shon Burton. Stay tuned for some really great events we’re scheming for the coming months… Starting with a can’t miss event, "geekSessions 1.5: Cheaper, Better, Faster, Stronger" taking place TOMORROW (Tuesday, February 24th, 6:00pm-10:00pm) at our favorite haunt, Mighty. As a member of SF New Tech, you’ll get a hefty 50% discount on your ticket when you sign up! (See below).

geekSessions 1.5: Cheaper, Better, Faster, Stronger will look at how startups are doing more with less. How smaller teams and are getting more done in less time with less money. From development to infrastructure –nature is demanding more efficiency across the board. We’ll look at how startups using modern frameworks, automation, sane capacity planning, and solid analytics to do more with less. Way more. Panelists include Justin Kan, Founder & President, Justin.tv; Daniel Lieberman, Founder & CEO, Bitpusher; Gary Swart, CEO, oDesk; Zachery Coelius, CEO, Triggit, Richard White, CEO, UserVoice, and will be moderated by Jason Hoffman, CTO, Joyent.

6:00pm – Registration, open bar, and dinner
7:00pm – Panel discussion and Q&A (bar closed)
8:30pm – Open Bar, and networking

Get your 50% discount code by clicking here: http://gs15-sfnt.eventbrite.com/?discount=SFNewTech

Hope to see you there!

And finally, some really sad news…

Last week on Thursday 2/19, Brandt Cannici, SF New Tech member and demo alumni, was tragically killed in a car accident. You may remember Brandt from our 10/07 SF New Tech Rocks event when he demo’d his company Strayform, which provided services and tools to help artists get paid for their work. Brandt always had exciting things going on. His most recent endeavor was starting MedicareSaver.com, a company designed to help lower prescription drug costs for the 35 million people on Medicare. Brandt came out to our events regularly and touched me in a way few do. He inspired me greatly and he always exhibited a level of graciousness and sincerity few people can match. Although I only knew him from our tech-centric world, Brandt was kind of enough to snail-mail my wife and I a handwritten card after the birth of our daughter. He was that kind of guy. It’s with great sadness and sorrow we’re off to the races without Brandt. If you knew Brandt (or even if you didn’t) and you’re a member of Facebook, you’re invited to share your thoughts at this special Remembering Brandt Facebook group: http://bit.ly/DXQkL

RIP, Brandt. We’ll miss you.

Thanks to everyone who made it out to play with us on Wednesday!

Big thanks to AdoRoi, OneRiot, Metaio, Carticipate, SonicLiving, and Ricoh’s iCandy who all did a stellar job!

Check out some photos ….

… and this fun video clip I mashed together.  It almost feels like you’re there!

Other fun notes and links from Wednesday’s event :

* 60-Second Soapbox Spots: http://sfnt.wufoo.com/reports/21109-60-second-spots/
* Photos up on Facebook: http://bit.ly/4iJbG (Go tag your friends!)
* Photos up on Flickr too: http://bit.ly/16obHh
* A taste of what it was like last night — in under 8 minutes: VIDEO: http://bit.ly/rv599
* Big thanks to http://www.buzzconnect.com for the famously awesome El Toyanese Truck tacos! (If you’d like to sponsor tacos at one of our events in the future – let’s talk!)
* Tweet’d up! http://search.twitter.com/search?q=sfnewtech
* Follow SF New Tech on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sfnewtech
* Follow Myles on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mylerdude
* Apply to do a demo at a future event: http://www.sfnewtech.com/demo

Hey All -

We’re seeking to depart from the standard demo event at Mighty in December in exchange for a throw-down bash where we can all come together and drink up, dance, have fun and just party for the sake of it… and, oh yeah, celebrate the "holiday" season while we’re at it.

We’re on the hunt for 3-5 companies who’d like to sponsor drinks at the bash.  

We’ll give you full signage on site, mentions in emails and during registration, big logo flashing on the big screen, and even a table to set up your wares if you’re interested.  

SF New Tech, as you know, is a cornerstone of the Bay Area Tech scene.  If you’re interested in making nice with and impressing upon the tech community here by buying them some cocktails — let’s talk.

Please email me at myles [at] sfnewtech.com

Party on!

-Myles

PS:  Stay tuned for a more exclusive demo event to take place on 12/17 at the famous state-of-the-art Dolby Labs theater.  I’m putting the program together now.  It’ll be moderated by someone smarter than me and will only accommodate ~80 people.   (If you’re working on something that would look good on a big crispy screen with Dolby surround sound, now’s the time to hit:  http://www.sfnewtech.com/demo )

Powered by Wufoo

We’ve added another great company to the demo line up for Wednesday’s SF New Tech event.  Joining us will be Tristan Harris CEO of Apture , a very cool tool for publishers to easily add rich media to their online content.  It’s VERY cool stuff if you ask me. 

Hope to see you there!

Took me long enough… but here we have videos of demos from the SF New Tech’s Widgets up the Wazoo … Part Two!

It’s a hack job but I think you’ll enjoy ‘em …

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=P3Ki6ZSc9bM]

SF New Tech: Widgets up the Wazoo II – Pre-event networking

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=lsqox4Jldj4]

SF New Tech: Lawrence Coburn (SexyWidget.com) Intro

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=02Tw2TUgchg]

SF New Tech: Glam Apps Platform

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=hCv8MiwISrw]

SF New Tech: iWidgets Demo, Peter Yared

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=GyOoXW4bZIE]

SF New Tech: Widgetbox Demo, Giles Goodwin

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=BbDYckYP0P8]

SF New Tech: Gigya Demo, Eyal Magen

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=ESUlVAvQpmU]

 SF New Tech: Musestorm Demo, Ori Soen

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=AtzGMihd2ik]

SF New Tech: Zembly Demo, Todd Fast

 [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=N5kWWBm17xA]

SF New Tech: Widgets up the Wazoo II – Panel Discussion

Turns out Vinnie from Lefora was called away on a very important business trip and can’t make it on Wednesday.

But no fear!

In Vinnie’s place we’re thrilled to welcome Ivan Kirigin, Co-Founder/CTO of Tipjoy.  

Tipjoy is a micropayments service that makes it easy to leave tips for stuff you love online.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=DTzK36w6tv8]

So, the good people who attend SF New Tech events are a smart, connected, well-heeled, and influential bunch.

They like new tech and they like to talk about their experiences back at the office and on their blogs.

If you’d like to buddy up to them, you may want to consider jumping on board as an official "drinking buddy" sponsor and buy them some drinks. It’ll be worth your while!

SF New Tech is always on the lookout for great sponsors… and a stable drink sponsor missing from our family.

Do you want to gain muster with the SF New Tech community? Become a drink sponsor!

Email me (myles) at myles at sfnewtech.com to learn more!

So last night was quite an adventure!  

As many of you know, most of Potrero Hill was in the throes of a power outage most of yesterday afternoon.  

Derek from Mighty called me while I was enroute — speeding down Van Ness — to notify me that we may have a challenge on our hands…  I arrived at 4:45 and the whole neighborhood was dark.  

PG&E was rumored to get the lights on in "30 minutes".  So, with that intel we were all systems go… we set up in the dark and crossed our fingers.   30 minutes came and went.  And then another 30 minutes.  Still dark.  

I twittered out our status and word about the power outage bubbled through the twitter universe like wildfire.  

People started to arrive only to learn that we were in a holding pattern. 

I had to make a decision to choose a time that would be the make it or break it time of whether we’d have to cancel — and I chose 7pm.  If the lights weren’t on by 7pm we’d have to cancel the event that over 200 people RSVP’d for.   Wonderful.  A SF New Tech first.

More people arrived — and we brought the sushi outside for all to enjoy while we waited.    It wasn’t looking good.   T-minus 5 minutes before pulling the plug and then, boom!  At 6:56 the lights came on!  Yeehaw! 

We scrambled to get everything in order (now that we could see!) and started to let people inside.    The event started a little late but folks were happy to belly up to the bar and hang out.   The demos began @ 8pm and by that time we had a VERY full house.  

To keep things interesting, our famous 5 minute clock decided to fritz out for the night.   It was par for the course!   In all, though the event was one of our best.   

I want to thank everyone for hanging in there … and I want to thank the good folks from Nirvino, Zivity, Razz, Mymeemz, and Ribbit for their most excellent demos.    

Rock on SF New Tech!   (Stay tuned to the Flickr box to the left for photos!)

Another great night had by all.

Here are some relevant links …

1) Check out the Qik Video of Pleo!
http://qik.com/video/52052 (Thanks to Kevin Rose!)

2) 60-Second Spots from 4/8. Track ‘em down here:
https://sfnt.wufoo.com/reports/40808-60-second-spots/ .

3) 4/23: Chi.mp and Mashable Present: EVOLVE (with a little help from SF New Tech!)
http://evolve.eventbrite.com/ (Comp code for SFNT peeps: "chimpme")

4) 5/4-5: Time to go to camp!
Join Om Malik, Pete Cashmore, Matt Marshall, Jonathan Schwartz, and others at Sun’s Startup Camp!

It’s FREE: http://www.sun.com/startup/ .

5) 5/7: Belly Up! @ Mars Bar!
RSVP: http://maybellyup.eventbrite.com/ (it’s also FREE)

6) 5/13: Wine, Women, and … SF New Tech!

See next month’s line-up is hot, hot, hot!

On tap: Zivity, Razz, Ribbit, Nirvino, AddtoAny… and more.

Details, coming soon!