Greetings,

Tony Karrer and I have been discussing ways in which we can get the community more engaged with the rest of Los Angeles. As part of that effort, I have put together a list of suggested networking events and why they might be of interest to you. This list is by no means complete, and has a definite Los Angeles slant to it, so please point out any interesting events that we may have missed

Here is the list of interesting technology-related events in Los Angeles for the month of April:

Digital LA – Digital Drinks @ La Vida – 4/6/2010 (Tuesday)
7-10pm Hollywood
If you are into video and entertainment, this could be good. Digital LA has a rep for being more marketing oriented, so be prepared.

LA Tech April Meetup – 4/6/2010 (1st Tuesday of month)
7pm Location TBD
It’s like a miniature, regular TechCrunch50 or Twiistup.

http://newtech.meetup.com/25/calendar/12765900/

Thursday Lunch on the Promenade – 4/8/2010
12-1:30pm Santa Monica
This is a fantastic meetup. Informal gathering of some super smart people. Highly recommended.

OCTANe/FIRSTY – OC Networking Event – 4/8/2010 (Thursday)
5:30 – 7:30pm Aliso Viejo
OC members, don’t miss it! Though I’ve never been…this event sounds great…especially as this is the big kick-off for the merger of 2 big OC networking groups.

http://www.octaneoc.org/calendar/view_event.asp?CalendarID=659

DigitalLA – Digital Music Panel: Artists Go Social – 4/12/2010 (Monday)
7-10pm Beverly Center
If you or your company are into music and social media, this looks to be good.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=377946387339

Los Angeles High Scalability Group April Meetup – 4/13/2010 (Tuesday)
7pm in Santa Monica
Also known as “the hadoop meetup”. High signal to noise ratio. Highly recommended.

http://www.meetup.com/scalela/

Los Angeles PHP Developers – 4/13/2010
7pm @ CoLoft in Santa Monica
Check out the new co-working space at CoLoft. I haven’t been, but Oleg is a new member to the group, and I have heard good things. Recommended.

Social Media Club LA – 4/14/2010 (Wednesday)
Left, Right and Twitter: Social Media and Its Impact on Politics
7-9pm Santa Monica
Network with the Social Media crowd. Be warned: saying you are a technologist is like throwing chum in shark infested waters. I like this event, have gotten work out of it, but you have to have some good people filters to make it a good use of time.

http://www.socialmediaclub.la/

Copyrights and Design Patents – Filling the Gaps in Your IP Strategy – 4/13/2010 (Tuesday)
7:30-9:30am San Diego
Purely educational.

http://www.commnexus.org/programs/special-interest-groups/event_20100315.php

Mindshare – 4/15/2010 (Thursday)
7pm+
Where art meets science. I still haven’t been…but this is #1 on my list of new events to attend.

http://www.mindshare.la/

CalTech/MIT Enterprise Forum – 4/17/2010 (Friday)
8am – noon Pasadena
The Business of Social Attraction and Aggregation – How Do Fast Growth and Fads Become Successful Ventures?
Still haven’t been yet (Pasadena, eh?), but the CalTech/MIT forum is great.

http://www.entforum.caltech.edu/

LAMPsig – 4/17/2010 (Saturday)
1-3pm mid-Wilshire
Haven’t been. Any feedback from the group?

http://lampsig.org/new/

LA C# – 4/20/2010 (Tuesday)
7-9pm Manhattan Beach
Haven’t been. Any feedback from the group?

http://lacsharp.org/

Los Angeles Web Application Developers – 4/20/2010 (Tuesday)
7pm Location TBD
Will Jessup’s meetup. Very popular. Haven’t been yet, but will check it out soon. Any feedback from the group?

http://web.meetup.com/34/

From CTO to CEO – 4/22/2010 (Tuesday)
Irvine
Self-explanatory!

http://www.tcvn.org

StartUp Venture Summit – 4/22/2010 (Thursday)
9-5pm Los Angeles
For Entrepreneurs and Investors to Grow a Successful Venture. Tech Supper Club/Tech Cost Angels – $195

http://techsupperclub.com/Startup_Venture_Home.html

LA Flash Users Group – 4/22/2010 (Tuesday)
7-9pm
Haven’t been. Any feedback from the group?

http://laflash.org

LA Games Conference – 4/29/2010 (Thursday)
9-5pm Hollywood
A conference on gaming…pretty obvious choice for gaming companies and technologists. I may be there.

http://www.lagamesconference.com/

LA CTO Forum – 4/9/2010 (Friday)
8-10am Santa Monica
Content Categorization

http://lactoforum.org/

The Israel Conference – 6/3/2010 (Thursday)
9-5pm Los Angeles
This is a couple months away, but I went last year and it was a great event. Currently $180, soon to $210 ($295 at door)

http://www.theisraelconference.org/

Here are a couple other events with no confirmed dates for April or May. These are fantastic events that I look forward to going back to.

Startups Uncensored – http://www.jasonnazar.com/
Dorkbot – http://dorkbot.org/
LA Web/Mobile Software Entrepreneurs – http://lawebmo.com

Happy networking!

-=John

The Social Media Club panel on Google Analytics event that I participated in is now online. I had a great time speaking with Erica Fourette and the other panelists. I hope that everybody who attended (both offline and online) got at least one or two good bits of knowledge or science out of the discussion. 150+ people were in attendance at Mahalo. SMCLA also had a very large online viewing turnout, too. At one point before the event, I realized that I was trying to do 3 things at the same time: a) talking to Efren (TechZulu) about how he broadcasts the event b) setting up pizza and beverages and c) meeting my fellow panelists (I only knew the moderator) before panelizing together. I went with c), but I made sure to buy (later that week) the same Canopus encoder that Efren has for our own efforts and grab a slice and a soda on my way to the panelists meetup. The whole event was a most enjoyable – well done, SMCLA!

Here is TechZulu’s recording of the event:

I just met up with Eric Hammond, Ken Weiner, and more for Thursday Lunch on the Third Street Promenade. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. I’m not sure how the crowd normally is, but it was pretty tech/developer heavy this time – and I loved it!

I just came across a compelling position – Vice President of Digital and Social Development/Networking. After learning more about the opportunity, a more accurate title for this position might be  Chief Strategist, Web Presence.

Sears Holdings Company (SHC) is seeking a qualified executive (visionary) to lead in the development of a company wide strategy in the digital and social development.

This is a newly created role and grounded in the following:

1. SHC’s transformation away from being a primary brick and mortar retailer to a significantly larger E-Retailer (* currently nearly $2 billion in online sales revenue in 2009)
2. SHC’s  strategy – over “X” number of years, we will divert historical media budgets (print & TV advertising) toward creation and management of content on the web – focusing on attracting and developing the online customer and customer relationships
3. Introduce SHC to a younger and demographic
4. Continued and more effective branding, product placement, brand awareness strategies – what do we need to be doing 3, 5 10 yrs from now, where do we need to be (in an electronic sense)
5. The further development and branding of Delver.com (social search engine),  MyGofer.com, Marketplace at Sears.com and ServiceLive.com
6. Sears has multiple groups /resources developing digital and social media strategies, we working with several agencies with a significant budget

Ideal profile should have the following characteristics and experiences:

• a strong understanding of the technical aspects of digital and social networking/advertising/ content management/ e-Commerce
• demonstrated ability to create such strategies and launch successful programs (digital/social)
• part visionary/ evangelist/ technologist —- but grounded in sound business principals and able deliver real world results
• retail experience is fantastic/ e-Commerce experience preferred, if not required
• academic and professional pedigree

This position will report to the Chief Marketing Office for Sears Holdings and work directly in collaboration with the CMO’s of the Sears and Kmart platforms (as well as those business units) and the SVP/President of Sears Online-Business unit. This position will also have a great deal of exposure and collaboration (to some extent) with the Chairman of the Board at Sears Holdings Co. – Edward (Eddie) Lampert. **  The interest level that Mr Lampert has in the scope and responsibilities of this role can not be understated – AND – It is my understanding that this position, as much as any position in SHC, will drive the continued transformation of Sears Holdings over the next 3-5 yrs.

Contact me if you are interested, and I’ll connect you with the recruiter, Tim Thennes.

I’m so excited. We have an awesome speaker for January’s LA CTO Forum: Rick Parker of Fetch Technologies. Check it out:

Building Your Own Private Cloud

Rick Parker will present his experience and perspective in building a private cloud infrastructure from the bottom up for Fetch Technologies. Over the past three years, Rick has leveraged his experience in building cloud-based platforms to dramatically reduce operational costs by a factor of 4 or more. Rick will discuss analyzing, tracking, and sourcing different types of technologies and vendors in order to stay current with rapidly changing technologies. Rick also plans to address issues with the hardware infrastructure and software management systems as they relate to vendors, models, and services. Fault tolerance, monitoring, reporting, scalability, and deployment will be key components of his his presentation. Finally, Rick’ss assessment of the benefits and costs of developing a private cloud infrastructure should provide a substantial source of topics and ideas for a lively discussion.

Rick Parker (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rick-parker/3/71b/aa5) has over 24 Years of IT experience. At Vendare Media, Rick built the company from an initial desktop environment to 7 datacenters with over 500 servers in them. After that, he went on to found Bedouin Networks, one of the first Cloud Service Providers in 2006. Currently, Rick is an IT Manager for Fetch Technologies, a company that offers cloud-based resources and services to enable organizations to extract, aggregate and use information from sites across the Internet.

Mark Suster has a great perspective on the use of social networks to connect with potential partners, peers, friends, and more. I must admit that I’m lazier than I should be, using the default network greetings. I’ll change! I swear it!

To kick off my new blog, I thought I would pull one of my more popular (and useful!) pieces from the original Startup Army blog. Enjoy!

My friend Mark Long recently asked me about networking in Los Angeles. Mark is a CTO, see, and his company, PortBlue, was recently acquired (congrats, Mark!). After transitioning to the new team, Mark was left to wonder, what now? Where do I need to go to meet the people that I will “build the next big thing for”?

This past couple years, I have been doing a ton of networking. Rather than write something just for Mark, I thought I would let everybody else know what the good, tech-oriented networking events are in Los Angeles.

For the tech-oriented networker, there is one primary thing to keep in mind: Know the target audience for each event that you are interested in. Early in my networking days, it was easy to find a tech event — there weren’t any. As a result, I went to many “Internet” related events that really were not technical at all. It took me a little while to figure out the difference between entertainment meetups, advertising events, marketing conferences, and even fashion shows (did I mention that I am a Technologist?). There is a difference between these events, and it pays to know. With the onset of many more tech events in LA, it is in your best interest to attend the non-technical events. How are you going to find work otherwise?

Here are the technical events in LA that I enjoy. They range from over-the-top nerdfests to C-level shindigs at fancy-shmancy hotels. All of them are great events for different reasons. I will start with the highest level and work my down to the nitty-gritty of the tech trade.

For Business, Strategic, and C-level events, I strongly recommend these two events:

1. LA CTO Forum – This is a private community of CTOs in the southern California area. I love this group – what a fantastic resource! Only alpha nerds can get into this community.
2. Dealmaker Media – My first DealMaker Media event was Startonomics (a fantastic event). I would attend every Dealmaker event if I didn’t have to pay so much to attend them. Pick your topic wisely, if cost is a concern to you. You will meet great people at these events.

For meeting interesting People, Companies, and Startups, I recommend the following events:

1. Digital Family Reunion – DFR is a descendant of the VIC (Venice Interactive Community), LA’s first Internet networking group. If any event has the old school “movers and shakers” of the LA scene, it’s this one. DFR is the perfect blend of people from all walks of (Internet) life. There is a DFR event this month, September 2009.
2. Startups Uncensored – Follow Jason Nazar’s ramblings on his blog to stay up to date on what is probably the most popular (free) networking event in LA. The show kicks off with a great presentation (different every month) and then heads over to Docstoc’s headquarters for even more, intense networking.
3. Social Media Club, LA – SMC events have a nice mix of people ranging from entrepreneurs and marketers to developers and community managers. At the first event that I went to as Startup Army, the first person that I met became our first client. Social Media is big in LA, and SMCLA is at the center of the storm.
4. Twiistup – Twiistup is kind of like LA’s answer to the TechCrunch50. Companies enter and vie for the grand prize. This event can be hit or miss. It’s either really, really good or downright awful.
5. Mindshare LA – Mindshare is where Art meets Science. I have never been to one of these events, but it’s first on my list for new events. It sounds really cool

And now…the nerds!! Here is where the nerds are in LA (in order of my preference):

1. Builders and Doers – First a little BSP (Blatant Self Promotion), I started my own high-end, nerd meetup called BaD. It has the highest signal to noise ratio of any pure-tech group that I am in. You should start a small tech meetup of your own!
2. LA Hadoop Meetup – My good friend Mark Jeffrey’s company, Mahalo, typically hosts these events. They are *super* nerdy. This is the nerdiest meetup that I have ever been to in LA.
3. Dorkbot – This is where the hardware and software DIY nerds go to play. It’s in Silverlake, so it’s a bit of a haul, but the events are fun. And who doesn’t like getting tasty beer through a hole in the floor? (trust me…just go)
4. Geek Dinners – I first went to a geek dinner about 2 years ago. That’s when the light finally clicked: “AT LAST! There is tech networking in Los Angeles!”. It’s a good mix of people.

Finally, here are some tech-specific events that I have not yet had the pleasure of attending. I can’t speak to their quality, but all three of them come highly regarded by my peers. I will be attending all of these events in the very near future.

1. LA Cloud Computing – This is a new meetup. I’m not sure how good it is, but I am certainly going toCloudCamp LA 2009.
2. LA Web Application Developers – I have not been to this event yet, but all the top techs that I know speak very highly of it. It’s only a matter of time before I attend.
3. LA PHP Developers – Again, I haven’t been yet, but it’s a very big group and has been recommended to me several times. The group’s size has me concerned about the quality of discussion, but I’ll learn that for myself firsthand.

Mark, I hope this helps. I have a few more goodies up my sleeve, but this is your basic blueprint to tech networking in the LA area. Enjoy…and let me know when you get your schmooze on!

Happy Hunting,

-=John