words and pictures by Brian Solis
Twiistup 5 just set a new bar for startup tech events, not just in LA, but across the globe. Set in “Hanger 8″ at the Santa Monica airport, Twiistup transformed the open space into live set straight from of Blade Runner. Drenched in atomosphere setting lights and music, game-changing entrepreneurs, investors, bloggers, innovators, and the reporters charged with covering them, Twiistup 5 reminded us that in the tech economy, ideas are never bankrupt.
I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…
Jason Calacanis
Frank Gruber and Shira Lazar
Allison Berthrum and Miiko Mentz of FutureWorks PR and FWStudios.tv
WorldSings.com
Peter Pham and Adam Bain
Stephanie Agresta and Mike Macadaan
Alexia Tsotsis, Mike Macadaan, Amanda Coolong
Sarah Lacy, Stephanie Agresta, Jackie Peters
The crowd for The Dating Game
The judges’ favorite, Cogi
Anaiis Flox
Alison McNeill hands out Bubbies!
Karen Hartline wins a Bubby!
Sean and Laurie Percival
Francisco Dao hosts The Dating Game
The eligible bachelors
Team Animoto was In-N-Out of Twiistup
Moments later, Shira Lazar was cited for excessive fun at a tech event
Jackie Peters
Biff, Bam, Pow
Paige Craig to the rescue
The After Party…
Sarah Lacy
Brian Solis by Sarah lacy
Stephanie Agresta
Frank Gruber
Nicolina Royale, designer of rockstar gear and accessories
For more pictures from Twiistup 5, please visit my album on flickr.
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Part II – The Showoffs:
Twiistup featured 10 handpicked startups to feature during Twiistup from the hundreds to apply.
Causecast, dubbed “a one stop philanthropy shop” by TechCrunch, is a platform where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose.
Cogi (Judges Favorite) set out with a simple goal – give professionals a way to effortlessly recall and track everything in their important conversations through the use of an intuitive, browser-based service that seamlessly transcribes the important parts of conversation – the ‘COGent Ideas’ or Cogi.
eHow – More than 27 million people visit eHow.com each month to search more than 300,000 articles that are professionally written with clear and concise directions on how to do things. It also has a rapidly-growing library of articles created by eHow’s members and a large library of professional instructional videos.
FixYa empowers individuals to repair and improve upon their already-purchased possessions. The company also offers business services to manufacturers and retail businesses through its custom partnership opportunities.
GoGreenSolar is global group of professionals dedicated to improve the distribution of renewable energy products, services and financing for people everywhere.
Meebo is a new communications and media company that’s re-writing the way people have conversations and communicate on the Web.
RoboDynamics is built by passionate people who want to use technology to shift the status quo and leverage state-of-the-art technology in robotics to change the way people live and work.
TheScene connects individuals to the hottest places, people and events in their area. The Scene’s trendsetting community is on the pulse of nightlife and entertainment in various cities throughout the world.
Viewdle is a facial-recognition powered digital media platform for indexing, searching and monetizing video assets.
Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’
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Part III – LA Weekly
The LA Weekly’s Alexia Tsotsis covered the event and featured a quote from yours truly,
“Immersing people in a creative atmosphere is the best way to speed it up, as judge Brian Solis pointed out. ‘This thing is so much bigger than all the parties, it’s about the social economy, the one on one interactions between all of the entrepreneurs,’ Solis emphasized as he spoke of a post-geographical need to contribute to something bigger. As the “showoffs” vied to impress the extraordinary panel of judges (superstar tech journalist and author Sarah Lacy, social media maestro and PR 2.0 founder Brian Solis, Somewhat Frank creator Frank Gruber, Citrusbyte head Will Jessup, Mixergy founder Andrew Warner and Heavybagmedia minx Jackie Peters), each start-up put it’s best foot forward.”
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Discussion
Andy Sternberg16 February 2009 7:30 am
Great shots as always, Brian. Dig the new(ish?) bub redesign.
Allen16 February 2009 7:58 am
I think after viewing these photos, I’ve realized there are people who we can now call “professional event go-ers” – they just go to every event it seems like in every city
Scott Harrison16 February 2009 9:00 am
Yeah – looks like their simply attending parties but I think these people have the inside tips on all of the new ideas. I’ve read Brian’s blog, somewhatfrank and even the Twiistup blog and there’s insightful commentary on the state of web economy and tips on new technology. I’m glad someone’s paying attention and looks like having a lot of fun while doing so.
Thanks Andy!
LOL! Allen, there are indeed those who hop from event to event and also party to party. There are also those (some) who do so to help spotlight the disparate pockets of emerging tech and social economies.
Thanks for the support Scott!
Andrew Warner16 February 2009 10:31 am
Allen, I agree with you about the “professional event go-ers.” But what the pictures don’t show is how hard some of them work. I’ve watched Brian at events and he’s like a machine. He takes pictures, networks, talks to potential clients and helps the event organizers. He’s a blur of activity and then he jumps on a plane for the next event.