by Brian Solis
Held at the majestic Exploratorium in San Francisco, STIRR held what had to be the Holiday party of the year.
The team at STIRR had a holiday gift for entrepreneurs…an elegant holiday party in San Francisco created for startups without the budget to do their own big holiday shindig. And not surprisingly, it quickly sold out!
At final count over 120 companies were present with almost 500 attendees.
The entrance. The line went out the door!
Henry Hon, founder of Vyew
Vic Podcaster of Podcamp West and HotfromSiliconValley
Along with STIRR, other sponsors included: Gabriel Venture Partners, Wilmer Hale, Sun Microsystems, Square One Bank, Fenwick and West, Aydin Senkut / Felicis Ventures, AboveNet, Shasta Ventures, Guidewire Group, and Four Vines for the bad ass “Old Vine Cuvee” (OVC) Zinfandel and “Naked” Chardonnay.
Photo Credit: Valleywag
We were greeted to the Uprounds acappella group, led by Tim Chang of Gabriel Venture Partners, who sayng Jingle Bells, Youtube sells. Jump over to Valleywag for the lyrics. We were also treated to the sounds of Jellyroll, who performed live swingin’ holiday tunes. And yes, people danced!
Startup founders, bloggers, entrepreneuers, were everywhere. But, Winter Wonderland wasn’t the usual STIRR mixer. This was truly a holiday celebration, so there was less networking and more celebrating.
The ambiance was elegant, with everyone out of their usual 2.0 jeans + tech tshirt and adorned in suits and dresses – I hardly recognized anyone. 
With the full Exploratorium and its science exhibits at our disposal, the party quickly and easily spread to every corner.
Rafe Needleman of Cnet and Webware
STIRR’s Sean Ness (left) and Sanford Barr in action
Even though this was a holiday celebration, most still found it impossible to resist pitching their startup to anyone and everyone. I too couldn’t resist and found myself engaged in several discussions with Eventbrite founders Kevin and Julia Hartz, Stickis CEO Marc Meyer and CTO Jean Sini, TechDirt’s VP of Product Development, Dennis Yang, Above.net’s Xenophan Giannis, Rateitall.com’s Lawrence Coburn, Henry Hon, CEO of Vyew.com and Simulat, and the party crasher herself, Sarah Meyers.
Joanne Wan and Eventbrite Founders Kevin and Julia Hartz
Dennis Yang of TechDirt and Dana (Trying to remember her last name!)
In addition to primary sponsorship, Gabriel Ventures also ponied up $22k in schwag. Perhaps it was just collecting dust back at the office, because it really wasn’t that “usable.” I walked away with a wine tote…to add to my collection.
The night was indeed a grand affair. Stay tuned for bub.blicio.us tv coverage from the event.
Kudos to the STIRR team!
For more pictures, jump to the flickr stream.
d7tv party+crashers sarah+meyers stirr sanford+barr above.net vyew vyew.com vic+podcaster fourvines four+vines gabriel venture partners web2.0 web+2.0 bub.blicio.us bubblicious bubble2.0 bubble+2.0 2.0 wilmer+hale shasta square+one guidewire valleywag rafe+needleman cnet webware futureworks brian+solis stickis eventbrite techdirt rateitall simulat megan+mccarthy