GSA Technology Council

Adam Gautsch has added some interesting pictures to the GSATC Photo Pool from our July Tech After Five. He decided to shoot from the hip. Take a look at what he got.

What are people saying about Tech After Five? We got this in the mail after our July event:

Ta5 was an excellent experience for myself and my team. Seeing old friends and meeting new ones in a focused (read: socially engaging) environment brought a smile to my face. Last night my team met our first potential investor, which raised the group’s morale tremendously, I can honestly say I’ve never been more excited about anything than I am now after meeting the people we have at Ta5.

This is a video montage of random video clips taken at the July Tech After Five networking event. The video was all shot on a Flip Mino and then combined into this video using the Movie Mixer software built into the Flip Mino.

Tech After Five (Ta5) July 2008 from Phil Yanov on Vimeo.

We got lucky with the workflow, so you can safely RSVP for tonight’s Tech After Five until 2 PM, after that, we can’t guarantee that we’ll have a name badge for you. (So, do it now.)

[RSVP ONLINE]

The GSA Technology Council will have two South Carolina start up companies in the Startup Zone at the July 16th Tech After Five. The first is a bit of a tech fashion / social networking hybrid and the second has developed an online system to help diabatics. The companies may be looking for testers, investors, employees, or customers. Come talk to them and see if you can connect with them.

Inacronym

(website)

After re-entering the singles market in 2005, company founder Jeffery Padgett discovered what millions already knew: meeting compatible people is not exactly easy. After months of failed attempts to meet new people and make new friends, Jeff started second-guessing himself. He realized that the criterion for getting that initial conversation going was failing him. He just needed a better way for people to get to know him.

One day at lunch, Jeff brainstormed for a way to communicate information about himself semi-anonymously to people. He then developed what is now the Inacronym VIPATM system. Jeff created the very first inacronyms in a little notebook he took with him to lunch. As his Inacronyms grew, he realized that the only way he would be able to utilize his system was if other people used it with him. He needed a way to distribute the Inacronym key and display them. He then created the first Universal Inacronym KeyTM or INACROKEYTM and the Winky apparel concept for Inacronym display. Today, the company is Jeff’s vision for giving people a way to end false first impressions and get a chance to start a conversation with someone who without VIPA may have ignored them based on assumptions.

Log for Life

(website)

Gnoso’s designer, Ethan Mullis, who has been living diabetes for 11 years, couldn’t find a diabetes logging tool that was simple and a pleasure to use, so we wrote our own. Log for Life is an online diabetes logbook that allows diabetics to log information like their glucose, medication, carbs, and exercise details from the web, email, text message, and on the iPhone. We’re focused on helping diabetics to gather enough information to take positive action toward living a long and healthy life.

Log for Life is a product of Gnoso.

About Tech After Five

Tech After Five is an after hours networking event open to tech professionals, entrepreneurs, and the people who can help them advance their careers and business goals. RSVP Online and bring us a business card and the first drink is on us. More info at www.GSATC.org, RSVP at www.GSATC.org/programs/ta5.

We’ve had more contributions to our photos from Tech After Five last month. (So you may want to look and see if you were there.) The following photo is part of a group sent to us by Kelly Conant:

See the set: June Ta5 Photos on Flickr.

We also got a number of great pix from Adam Gautsch:

See them here.

RSVP for July

The Next Tech After Five is July 16. RSVP Online.

We had another record crowd at Tech After Five last night in a couple of ways. Of course, every month the crowd gets bigger and we hear more stories of great connections being made, but I think I see more cameras in the room as well. If you got pictures and would like to share, just post them to Flickr and tag them with Ta5 and send me an email or use our comment form to let me know how to find them.

-> View the initial group of photos from last night’s Tech After Five.

At 5:30 PM tonight, the GSA Technology Council will host another record breaking Tech After Five at Barley’s Taproom. The audience is blowing the doors off of this event with each month significantly larger than the last. We set out to create an event where aspiring technology professionals are connected to Greenville’s growing community of technology entrepreneurs in order to make the connections that foster the development of high impact companies. It seems to be working. There is no other event in Greenville where so many of the right people come together to make the right things happen. Don’t believe me? Check out what others are saying.

The Startup Zone will see BigBlueHat introduce version 2.0 of their BlueInkCMS which allows for the easy creation and maintenance of websites. Content Management Systems are important for small business web site owners that want to frequently refresh content but dont have ready access to technical or design staff. BigBlueHat thinks that they’ve got the right set of features that will help them stand out in the crowded Content Management Space. Talk to President Benjamin Young and see for yourself.

WeSeeYou will demonstrate their patent pending We See You Mirror designed to promote safe driving by delivering a multi-panel rear view mirror which allows drivers multi-angle viewing into their rear seat. The mirror was desgined for auto safety but is also seeing commercial application as well. Be sure to ask Rick Matney at tonight’s Tech After Five why he decided to relocate his business from Florida to South Carolina.

The Details
Tech After Five is 3rd Wednesdays, Barley’s Taproom, 5:30-7:30, RSVP Online. Free.

Companies interested in appearing in the Startup Zone should apply online. (also free)

We think Tech After Five is a pretty great event. We built it so that entrepreneurs and technology professionals could get out from behind their microscopes, fab labs, and laptop computers to build real connections in the real world. It seems to be working. Here’s what you have already said about Ta5:

Great opportunity to meet people and share ideas. … gave me an opportunity to meet and spend some time with the “brain trust” in our community.
- Gary

I was able to meet a lot of excellent business contacts. Very friendly people made me feel welcome, and several people introduced me to people they knew. Great opportunity for good conversations. Thanks so much for having the event!
- Laura

Tech After Five is drawing a great group of IT personal that is giving our sales group an opportunity to network that we might not have otherwise and is great exposure for our company.
- Jerry

It has been great to meet new people and reconnect with old friends.  Tech After Five is the perfect setting to make new connections. 
- Kasey

I found just what I was looking for!  I needed help with building some websites … Tech After 5 is a meeting you need to attend!
- Jim

Even at my first meeting I met A) someone I helped, B) someone who is now helping me, C) an old friend I had not seen in a while, and D) a personality in local technology media. Definitely attend next month!
- Chris

Good people, refreshments, and a fun environment.  Great venue for meeting new people and touching base with current friends and acquaintances.  I like what Phil said in a recent email “..investing the time to develop connections with us, your peers, and potential stakeholders in your future success”. This really puts it in perspective; community, connections, and opportunities. 
- Gary

Tech After Five meets 3rd Wednesdays, 5:30 - 7:30 at Barley’s Taproom. RSVP Online and the first beer is on us.

Thanks again to Adam Gautsch for taking photos at May’s Tech After Five. The crowd keeps getting bigger and each month we hear more stories of great connections at the event. The Startup Zone area featured ZipitWireless, and AtheleteFocus.com showing off the latest version of their device and website, respectively.

A few words from the attendees of May’s Tech After Five:

• Even at my first meeting I met A) someone I helped, B) someone who is now helping me, C) an old friend I had not seen in a while, and D) a personality in local technology media. Definitely attend next month!
• The sponsor was very cordial, the venue is great. Looking forward to returning.
• Tech After Five allows me to network with my fellow geeks and IT folks, and at this stage of my career that type of networking is invaluable.
• It has been great to meet new people and reconnect with old friends. Tech After Five is the perfect setting to make new connections.
• Good beer. Friendly people. It’s like Cheers for tech nerds… except everybody doesn’t know you’re name, but we have name tags so it’s cool. ;D
• Tech After Five is drawing a great group … that is giving our sales group an opportunity to network that we might not have otherwise and is great exposure for our company.

Tech After Five is the Third Wednesday of every month at Barley’s Taproom. RSVP online and the first beer is on us. Want to know why? Watch this.

Thanks to Keymark for sponsoring the May Tech After Five. They would like to invite you to their Horizon’s conference on June. (RSVP)

One more picture:

It’s the only one I shot.

In a post on his blog, Loïc Le Meur asks Jason Calacanis, formerly of Weblogs, Inc., and now Mahalo fame, why he wants to put the DEMO conference out of business. Calacanis rightly observes that Startups are usually not in a financial position to make the investment of tens of thousands of dollars to participate in DEMO. Calacanis, along with Tech Crunch’s Mike Arrington formed the TechCrunch50 conference to showcase new companies while minimizing the expense for the startup.

We share Calacanis’ point of view. It’s incumbent upon the community that has had previous success in tech to create programs that make it easy for startup technology companies to take their first few steps. It’s the least we can do.

Watch Jason Calacanis explain why he FREE is better for startups:

Loïc Le Meur interviews Jason Calacanis about the TechCrunch50 Conference

We offer technology startup companies free demonstration space at our monthly Tech After Five networking event.