February 2006

The first of two Exploit Boston game nights at the Common Ground in Allston this month happens tonight (Tues, February 7th). (The two previous Boston shindigs were at The Paradise Lounge.) The start time is 7pm and the game playing fun should be happening until at least 10:30 PM. The kitchen is open until 11pm and the bar is open until 2pm. They’ve got really good food if you want to make dinner plans there, too.

There was a blurb in today’s Boston Metro about the event on page 11 in the entertainment section (PDF). Game night also happens in conjunction with the Common Ground iPod night so if you want everyone to hear your tunes, bring a 30-minute playlist. More info on the event website. Thanks to Ryan, there will be new and improved event website graphics for February 21st and beyond.

I have been thinking about getting rid of my email list for event invites that I’ve had since 1998. I’ve never promoted it all that aggressively and I don’t always send tidbits out to as often as I write about events here at sooz.com. I was thinking everyone on that list should just subscribe to my RSS feed since I usually write about my events here anyway. But the email list has about seven times more people on it than the number of people subscribed to my RSS feed.

How do you inspire people who don’t know anything about RSS to use it? Do you know anyone who has moved away from email announcement lists for events and is using RSS instead?

Including “informal” and “geek” in the title is probably redundant. In any event, Adam Green, Pito Salas and Mark Doerschlag have a geek dinner coming up on February 15th. They’ve invited Boston area geeks to meet up with them at the Top 10 Sources office at 66 Church Street in Harvard Square. It starts at 6:30 PM. There’s more info on Adam and Pito’s weblogs.

Michael and I watched the first show of Survivor’s new season last night. It’s pretty much the only “reality” television show that I can stand to watch. I’m impressed they are able to keep it interesting. But where do they find these people? One woman is afraid of leaves? Are they paying her a lot of money to have this affliction? And Shane, the marketing guy, is apparently originally from Nebraska, my homeland. Not that all Nebraskans are alike but I think that Los Angeles (his current home) may have zapped whatever Nebraskan he might have had in him.

Go read Michael’s write-up about last night’s show. He’s as hilarious and witty as ever.

I’ve had conversations with Pete Caputa of WhizSpark recently that on the surface might not have seemed so pleasant. I won’t get into all the boring details, but essentially we have been talking about my role with WhizSpark. I currently have complimentary use of their tools but I don’t work there as an employee. I think it’s safe to say I am one of their most supportive customer evangelists. It’s frustrating that I’m not joined by a bigger chorus; but in time, it will happen. (Event planners, concert promoters and other event industry humans out there? Hurry the hell up, will you? Stop using evite already!)

My phone and email conversations with Pete this week have reminded me that it’s an interesting adventure for a startup to balance their own agenda and timeline along with their supporters’ feedback. I’ve been asking for the ability to modify the link colors on WhizSpark event sites for more than nine months. (Red on black? It pains me to see that every time I look at one of the Exploit Boston Game Night event sites!) They keep telling me they will do it; but other things get in the way. So, after a while, I get cranky that things I think are important or “easy” things to acomodate, don’t actually happen. (Nice of me to make that determination, I know.) Of course I could probably impact their agenda much quicker if I had a million dollars to send their way. Any sensible VC out there should really be looking into WhizSpark. They have an actual product that people in the event planning industry need — not just an idea that might be cool. It’s useful and it works. I can only imagine how kick ass it would be if they had more money to spend on development.

When I spoke with Roy Rodenstein (of HeyLetsGo) and Pete at Monday night’s Boston Web Innovator Group party, I joked that HeyLetsGo had become my latest feedback victim. I really like that they’ve got an open forum for feedback during beta. Anyone can post an idea and most likely they will respond to it and at least acknowledge your input. It’s interesting to see what other people have contributed for ideas. They’re invite-only right now so if you want to check them out, sign up through my “Sooz Events” group and you can bypass the invitation and sign up directly.

I’ve been wondering if I can incorporate evangelism work into my freelance services to clients. Something to think (and write) more about, perhaps!

This is one of the photos that Brian Del Vecchio took at the recent (Monday, January 30th) Web Innovators Group shindig that David Beisel hosted at the Blue Room in Kendall Square. I finally got to hear what Gregor (in blue) is up to at his new venture. He was one of the night’s three presenters and gave a brief overview of his new-and-as-yet-unnamed map-related venture that is lead by techies previously at search.ch.

Once again there was a huge turnout. David wants to keep the gathering in Kendall Square but I’m not sure there’s going to be a big enough space in that area to accomodate it unless it moves to a boring hotel function room. Brandy Karl mentioned that Characters might be an option. The food probably isn’t great but it’s a pretty big restaurant and bar adjacent to the Marriott Hotel. I wanted to help out scouting around for a venue but would probably be able to help more if the location can be outside of Kendall Square.

Adam Smith wrote about the event on his weblog including a photo that Brian and I make an appearance in. I didn’t remember until reading Adam’s bio that he was one of the founders of Andover.net. They were the main sponsor for the Geek Pride Festival that I was the event planner for April 1, 2000. Small world moment #2949!