Archives for May 2008

 

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!)