First up, local agencies, marketing and PR managers need to be aware of the Apollo Awards. This is a great opportunity to get your company recognized for having an outstanding learning culture. The deadline is next Friday, March 14. LComm client Helios HR and Washington Smart CEO magazine are organizing. Details are here.
DC Has a Tech Chip on Its Shoulder
Co-host Aaron Brazell and I (photo from MashMeet DC last night) had a really good chat on District of Corruption Episode on DC’s Psychological Complex in regards to Silicon Valley. This debate got started around a particular issue: "Are DC Start-Ups Developing a Complex," introduced on East Coast Blogging.
The hub bub surrounded a Washington Post article featuring LaunchBox Digital. LaunchBox Digital was supposed to support DC firms, but funded a Silicon Valley firm first. We ended up concluding that while a PR gaffe, this was just a business decision.
Aaron followed up with some more commentary yesterday on the topic. He basically stated that DC hasn’t earned the respect we want in the 2.0 world from a tech start-up perspective.
I’d agree with that with a couple of caveats. It’s important to note that there are huge technology companies here. They just can’t talk about what they do as their primary customer is the government. As Lockheed’s tag says, "We Never Forget Who We’re Working For," and it isn’t ValleyWag. Also, there’s a substantial 1.0 group of telecom, biotech and IT companies still surviving in the I-270 and Dulles corridors.
But this is not social technology haven. And we should not kid ourselves (sorry, Ann): The growing respect the region seems to be developing must be earned through hard work, a conscious effort to unify through events like Podcamp DC, Bar Camp and BlogPotomac, and deserved successes.
MashMeet DC
Speaking of respect, one of Silicon Valley’s larger voices Pete Cashmore came for a little visit last night. Like Ann, I skipped the PowerPoints (ugh!).
Other blogeratti notables in attendance included Aaron, Shana Glickfield a.k.a. The DC Concierge; Peter Corbett, iStrategyLabs; Andre Blackman, Antibio.tech; a few folks from the Viget Labs team (Josh Chambers, Spec.ta.cles; Samantha Warren (pictured above with Cashmore) with Bad Ass Ideas; Ryan Moede, Social Media); Steve Field, The D-Ring; Nick O’Neill, Social Times, and many more (please forgive me if I forgot to link you).
Our newest team member Qui Diaz (joining Livingston on March 17) organized the event. Technotheory’s Jared Goralnick (pictured below on the left with Shana Glickfield and Ryan Moede) had some nice photos on Flickr, and I also have some less than nice photos on Flickr.
Agreed it most definitley is not social technology haven (yet) but we do have some solid and amazing entrepreneurs here…it’s just a matter of time and it will happen with or without local funding resources. We’ll bring the dollars from elsewhere if we have to – it’s what Nick is working on. There is some amazing talent here and many are not looking to move anywhere else. We’ll keep turning the tide in our favor. Really don’t care what the environment is – we’ll make it what we need it to be.
Glad you ditched the soul patch, bro.
Congrats on bringing Qui into Livingston Communications. She’s awesome and has been a pillar in the DC tech community.
Thanks, Justin, I too, am really, really happy to have Qui on board. She’ll make a big difference.