It’s summertime here in Silicon Valley and you know what that means: it’s time for the most anticipated event and party that all tech geeks are clamoring to be a part of. Coming up next month is the annual TechCrunch CrunchUp and their world-famous August Capital party.
Typically the CrunchUp is considered to be a mini-conference–definitely not their highlight event of the year (that would be the Disrupt series), but these CrunchUps usually have a great lineup and focuses on a specific area that is of interest and in the recent spotlight. In 2009, it was about real-time, while a year later it was on the social currency. Last year, TechCrunch put the spotlight on mobile developments. So what’s on everyone’s mind this year? Well, the biggest IPO in tech history and its platform, of course…the 2012 CrunchUp will focus on Facebook and its ecosystem.
Wait a second, Facebook has an ecosystem?
Yeah, that’s right, it does have one…the platform certainly has become a hub of new applications and services that derive its data from the social graph curated by the social network. Services like Foursquare, Zynga, Socialcam, Instagram, and many others are pushing data to the largest social network in the world while using Facebook’s technology and API to import user data to make it a well-rounded experience. As TechCrunch puts it:
Its [Facebook's] social ads and developer ecosystem have disrupted other industries online and off. But what can it do about mobile? Its native apps are big, but it doesn’t own the platforms and it can’t monetize as easily. For all of Facebook’s successes, its products and platform have a lot of adapting to do for the mobile-first era.
Tickets are on sale for this great half-day event held at the Fox Theater in Redwood City on August 3 and if you go, make sure to meet up with any of the numerous developers, designers, entrepreneurs, investors, and two great members of Facebook’s development team: Doug Purdy (Director of Product Management) and Mike Schroepfer (Vice President, Engineering). Don’t forget that you’ll also get a chance to meet members of the TechCrunch team too! A lot of people will be there with surely a great chance for you to build some great connections and hopefully some partnerships centering around this dominating platform.
As Newsfactor wrote, Facebook’s ecosystem was initially dominated by social gaming, specifically by the likes of Zynga (remember Farmville and all those pesky invites you kept getting?), but now, Facebook has become the destination for many startups, some of them great, like music and artist-focused startup, Tracks.by, and social media marketing company, Wildfire Interactive. Since there are nearly 1 billion users on Facebook, the connectiveness that we get with each other helped spawn a new startup with goals of further connecting us, at least on a professional standpoint. BranchOut is the LinkedIn for Facebook service, which will allow you to connect with your friends and potential professional connections all from within Facebook. And according to the founder, Rick Marini, at its recent pace of adding three new users a second, or about 2 million a week, BranchOut will ultimately pass LinkedIn as the Internet’s largest online employment network.
With that being said, there’s enormous potential for the Facebook ecosystem–even though that their IPO didn’t go so well…but regardless, there’s no discounting the power that Facebook has and that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of startups eager to form a symbiotic relationship with the data that the social network has.
After the CrunchUp, don’t plan on going home or thinking the evening is about to end…oh no…that’s when the real social entertainment is about to begin. Join the TechCrunch team and the rest of the conference attendees as they venture just down the road to the offices of August Capital, the great VC firm that has graciously opened their doors for this great annual summertime party over the past few years. Anyone who wants to meet and greet the technology industry usually attends these things, including well-known individuals like Michael Arrington, Robert Scoble, Brian Solis, Don Dodge, Francisco Dao, Sarah Lacy, Hugh MacLeod, Cathy Brooks, Jeremiah Owyang, Jacob Mullins, MG Siegler, Spencer Chen, Redg Snodgrass, Sarah Austin, Brian Wong, Heather Meeker, Ben Metcalfe, and many more–it’s definitely a packed house!
If you want tickets, then you better snatch them up fast. Unfortunately all the ones for August Capital have already been taken, but perhaps more will be released a little bit later? I suppose you could pick up the Facebook CrunchUp tickets and go to the conference, because those tickets will also get you into the August Capital party faster than the other tickets. Worth the deal, most likely. Go to their Eventbrite page to get your tickets.
Here are some photos from last year’s August Capital party to show you what you can expect:
Photo Credit:
- Image of Facebook ecosystem via Platlas.com
- All photos of the August Capital party were taken by Kenneth Yeung
