TechCrunch Boston

Mike Arrington organized TechCrunch Boston on Friday night, attended by 800 tech people, and sponsored by IDG Ventures. It was the best tech party of the year in Boston.

The IDG Ventures Boston team was out in force.  I talked with Michael Greeley, Chip Hazard, Jeff Bussgang, David Aronoff, and Kate Castle. Pictured here is Mike Ford (TownConnect), Mike Arrington, and Michael Greeley (IDG Ventures).

This was definitely an event for startups and entrepreneurs but I did talk to some other VC's including; Michael Skok (North Bridge), Lucy McQuilken (Intel Capital), Steve Schlafman (The Kraft Group), and Charley Lax (Grandbanks Capital).

Punchbowl Software was one of the startups doing demos at TechCrunch Boston. Here is David Aronoff (IDG) and Matt Douglas, CEO of Punchbowl (center) hamming it up with Mike Arrington of TechCrunch.

Mike was like a Rock Star. There were entrepreneurs and pretty women crawling all over him. Towards the end of the night Mike made me his manager/agent in charge of all photos and  meet/greets. I was sitting at Mike's table at the after party eating a late night dinner and Mike could barely get two bites before someone else approached. Mike was actually loving it. He is a great guy and will talk to anyone anytime. I went to the bar to order tequila shots for the table...Mike insisted on Patron. Only the best. Mike shouted to  Heather Harde, the brainy beautiful CEO of TechCrunch, that he had managed to spend $1,000 in the first 45 minutes of the after party. He was loving it!

On the way back to the table I bumped into Steve Schlafman (Kraft Group), Eunice Chou (Massive), and Danny Moon (UpNext). By the time I finally got back to the table they were on the next rounds of tequila.

There were some press people and lots of bloggers at the event. Scott Kirsner (Boston Globe) was interviewing and doing video. I also talked to Nick Carr, Francois Gossieaux, Halley Suitt, Doc Searls, and Wade Roush.

I talked to over 200 people at the event and saw another hundred or so with a quick wink or nod. It was a wild night. Startup entrepreneurs were everywhere. Off the top of my head I remember talking to; Ben Saren (CitySquares), Reed Sturtevant (Microsoft Labs), Doug Levin (Blackduck Software), Shawn Broderick (TrustPlus), Jeremey Allaire (Brightcove), Matt Douglas (Punchbowl), Mike Ford (TownConnect), Pito Salas (BlogBridge), Chris Herot (Zingdom), Danny Moon (UpNext), Eduardo Saverin (Firefly Health), Michael Kokernak (BackChannel Media), Mark Pascarella (Gotuit), John Zib (GetMemo), Scott Durgin (OffshoreTP), Nikhil Roy (Spendview), Sarah Meyers (PopSnap), Sean Ammirati (FeedHub), Dave Evans (TheProgressBar), and Ted Morgan (Skyhook Wireless).

I know I talked to more people but after 5 or 6 Martinis my memory was a little foggy. Here is Jeff Bussgang (IDG Ventures) and me towards the end of the night.

Next stop for the TechCrunch Party tour is Los Angeles in December. See you there!

More blog coverage of the event at Chris Herot's blog, and Doug Levin. 

Subscribe - To get an automatic feed of all future posts subscribe here, or to receive them via email go here and enter your email address in the box in the right column.

Comments

[John Z]

What a rockin nite! As a first time sponsor, I can tell you it was definitely a good thing.

Good to see you remembered my company, Memo Media, through all that fog. Let me know when you need more input on "the web outside".

[Allen Stern]

Darnit - I was looking forward to meeting you - next time I must carry a pocket guide with photos for everyone :)

Here's my recap with photos:
http://www.centernetworks.com/techcrunch-boston-recap

[RyanB]

"Mike was like a Rock Star. There were entrepreneurs and pretty women crawling all over him."

Ugh. So true and so gross. I think it's safe to say that I am NOT an Arrington fan.

[David Evans]

Don, good too meet you TC party. Nice name dropping, you have quite the memory. Meeting several bloggers (and Twitterers) that I follow for the first time

[Sarah Meyers]

It was nice to meet you at the party. It sure was crowded! btw it's popsnap.net, thanks!