JOBMATCHBOX

The third ever Social Matchbox was a success.  We had about a dozen new companies including recent graduates of the Launchbox Digital incubator program here in DC as well as from the greater Mid Atlantic region.  We broke the format up into two segments - companies hiring and companies doing demos.  

Here are our photos from Social Matchbox (Shashi’s photos here).  Check back for updates that will include more photos and video of the presentations. 

Update:
Zach Goldfarb of The Washington Post attended yesterday’s Social Matchbox.  Check out what Zach had to say. 

Here is a list of the companies who presented:
*Clearspring
AddyMate
100 Dimensions
emPivot
Contribune
folioFN
Freewebs
Hireworx
Hotpads
iBelong
Innovative Query
MixedInk
OurCoupleSpace
Positive Energy
Razoo
ScriptAct
ShareMeme
Ubernote
Viscape

7 days left before Social Matchbox 3 and only two socializer tickets left.  If you want one then you need to act fast.  We may issue a few extra tickets next week, send a note to email@socialmatchbox.com if you don’t get one of the last two. 

There are still tickets available for Job Seekers, Hiring Team, and people seeking co-founders.  

Click here to register. 

Thanks to Jimmy over at East Coast Blogging for the really nice review of the event!

The team here at Jobmatchbox wants your office to win Rock Band or a Nintendo Wii.

To enter, submit the following by email to email@jobmatchbox.com by August 13, 2008:
Employer Name
Employer Contact Name
Employer Daytime Phone Number (not your cell)
Employer Physical Address
1-2 Paragraphs That Summarize Your Company
Group Photo of Your Team

Winners will be drawn at the August 2008 Social Matchbox Event.

RULES:
Entrant companies must be within a 35 mile radius of Washington, DC (20036); void where prohibited.
Only one prize will be awarded per company; odds of winning based on entries.
Only companies from 2 to 150 employees are eligible to participate.
No purchase necessary to enter; must be over 18 to participate.
Prizes are not redeemable for cash and must be accepted as-is.
Entry grants usage of names, likeness, photographs, or other submitted information (this may include here).
Jobmatchbox.com waives responsibility for any injury or damage to persons or property as a result of acceptance of prize offered.
Deadline: all entries must be submitted to email@jobmatchbox.com by August 13, 2008.

So, last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the TwinTech event at Local16 here in D.C. The venue was classy, the people engaging, and the conversation lively. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Full set of my shots available on Flickr. More pictures here and here and good recap coverage by The Washington Post here.

- Kurt

We have heard from a lot of people asking when the next Social Matchbox will happen.  Every company that I’ve talked to since the event has told me that they hired someone who they met at the event so it is worth having another one.  With this in mind we are working on the next event, to be held either in Baltimore or Tyson’s Corner.  We may hold one in both places. 

If your startup company or interactive firm would like to participate let us know ASAP.  Depending on the number of participating companies this time around we may hold the event on more than one evening or extend the event time and insert more time for networking. 

We are also talking to new and returning sponosors, if you would like to become a sponsor let us know.  We are currently seeking a title sponsor for each night in addition to a food and beverage sponsorship. 

All inquiries should be directed to email@jobmatchbox.com .
   

SocialDevCamp East has to be one of the best startup community events that I’ve been to this year.  It was (well) organized by David Troy, Ann Bernard, and Keith Casey. 

The event surprised a lot of people on a lot of different levels.  Not only were the discussions interesting and often on new topics to all of us.  Another aspect of the event that was different was that despite participation by consultants and people stalking the startup community members (I’ve been guilty of this on occasion), there were a signficant number of principals from startup companies present too.  One of them included Clarence Wooten, CEO of CollectiveX. 

The best part about this event was that it held true to the Bar Camp ideals - it was democratic and participation happened everywhere (not just in select discussions).  And to top things off, there was a good mix of startup, political and non-profit personage in the room.    

We sponsored the event and I facilitated a discussion on high impact social media and had the e-campaign director from Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign on one end of the table and people from Seesmic on the other, you can’t beat that in terms of balancing a discussion.  Jared Goralnick lead a discussion titled ‘Who Needs VC’s’ that was combined with David Troy’s ‘Amtrack Corridor’ discussion that could have easily been titled ’Startup Community Building 101′.  The takeaway from the meeting for me was that you need $1 million in receivables before you ask for a DC area VC to fund you in a social media business.  I’d like to think that that isn’t true, but for some that seems to be the case.   

The only complaint that I heard (and experienced) was that there wasn’t enough wifi to go around, but that isn’t something unique to this or any other event (I’m hoping that WiMAX will help resolve that). 

Go here for event photos on Flickr.

AkshayJava - Trip Report
Alex Hillman - The East Coast Revolution
Ann Bernard - SocialDevCamp Was A Success
Dan York - Calling All Developers
Dave Troy - Awesome People, Awesome Day
Greg Cangialosi - SocialDevCamp and The Baltimore Scene 
Harry Chen - so much fun
Jason Thomas - Some Thoughts
Jimmy Gardner - Community Power  
Keith Casey - Recap
Kenneth Yeung - SocialDevCamp was neither about development or camping.
Mark Scrimshire - Going beyond throwing sheep
Nick O’ Neil - The Washington Post Rails D.C. Yet Again
Raj Malik - Making of East Coast Silicon Community
Shashi Bellamkonda - SocialDevCamp - A Room Full of CEO’s 
Tom Poe - 600block attends, geeks out
Travis J Todd - SocialDevCamp, and oh yeah, LAUNCH!