DC Technology Business Innovation recommendations – Presentation Transcript

The pretty one is me, Jamey is the other one

A few month after Vincent Gray, our new mayor was elected last year,  one of the most awesome Washingtonian entrepreneurs, Jamey Harvey, founder of the DC based startup, Sponto and Marullus Williams, President and CEO of Limbic Systems, the DC based IT solution provider led a group of civic minded, entrepreneurial technologists and investors in a conversation about what we could do to make DC more awesome for Startups. The group included Peter Corbett, Jonathan Aberman, Doug Humphrey, Susan Banta, Julie Silard Kantor, Adam Rubinson, Wolf Ruzicka, Dutch Dunham and me, the awesomizer.

The mayor has declared this to be the technology startup month and he’s hosting a group of tech CEO’s soon to continue this conversation face-to-face.

Thanks to Jamey who put this slide together, here is the summary of what we did. Feel free to share it with those in your network.

Sponto To Awesomize The Events Around Washington DC

Sponto, the Washington DC based mobile party detection app that originally launched for college kids just launched their special edition Android app for DC week. The app allows regional tech community to experience DC week from anywhere in real time.

You and other participants will be able to form ad-hoc, spontaneous events simply by coming together with your phones in and around DC week events. Once detected, event participants can add their Facebook friends and post photos and descriptions to create a rich, real-time feed of everything that’s happening during DC week.

The New Sheriff of Washington DC Is In, So Are the Washingtonian Entrepreneurs

The Good looking one is me, Jamey is the other one

I am very excited to announce my involvement with the Technology Business Innovation Taskforce of the incoming DC mayor, Vince Gray. The task force is being co-chaired by my awesome entrepreneur friend, Jamey Harvey, CEO of another exciting DC startup, Sponto.

I think that this will be a good opportunity for me as I try to help tackle some of the problems that I’ve been bitching about, from an entrepreneur’s perspective for the DC area. I hope my participation to the team brings me closer to my goal in positioning Awesome Washington, DC as a technology hub.

The Technology Business Innovation Taskforce will focus on attracting and retaining technology companies from these and other high growth industries:

• Alternative Energy
• Health Care
• Cyber Security
• Internet/Software/Social Media
• Optics
• Mobile
• Gov 2.0 service providers
  

Washington DC Got a New sheriff: Vince Gray

Thanks to my web 1.0 era buddy Jamey Harvey, CEO of sponto, I was invited to the inaugural ball for the mayor last night.  It was freaking awesome, except for the food; there was no Kabob, no caviar, no Persian style rice :-(. Having said, the  ambiance, the laughter and joy from the beginning to the end of the party made it easy for me to overlook the food, which I’m actually not sure anyone minded but me, being the spoiled brat I am.