Sunday, November 20, 2005

Riya Launches!


On Friday night, I attended the Riya launch party at Michael Arrington's (above) house. By all accounts, it was a smashing success. Taking advantage of the amazing November weather that we've been having, 250 tech freaks took over Michael's Atherton residence for the latest TechCrunch Meetup.

This was the first time that I attended a Techcrunch event and it won't be the last. The energy at these events is just incredible. Also, like any good Web 2.0 event, there was free food & free beer.

I even managed to find someone else there who's actively practicing real estate, so I could fully geek out in both worlds. I'm usually operating in either the Real Estate or the Tech environment & it was way cool to connect fully on both ends for a change.

On my way in I saw that the Atherton fuzz was setting up a roadblock around the corner and was looking forward to breaking the scoop; but by the time I made it inside and grabbed a slice of pizza, the word was already making it's way around the event. It's tough to beat a crowd full of geeks & bloggers to the punch on a scoop, even when it's less than 15 minutes old.

As I immerse myself in the geek subculture, I'm starting to pick up a lot more on the tiny nuances of the scene & it totally adds to the experience.

I spent a good amount of my college years on tour with Phish, so this just seems like a natural evolution. Sort of like Phish lot 2.0, except the people at these events are changing the world and not just slinging veggie burritos & grilled cheese in order to make it to the next show. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Interested in more information on the service that Riya provides? Check out these Tech Crunch & Wired writeups.

Other Recaps:
TechCrunch
Laughing Squid
Naked Conversations
Scobleizer

Photos:
Mine
Laughing Squid
Michael Arrington
Tara Hunt

On a side note, it was nice to pick up some swag in the form of a long sleeve t-shirt. Heading into winter, I needed a new one. Tara may be in it for the free beer, but I'm in it for the free T-shirts. You can quote me on it, but only if it's taken out of context.