Photos by Lane Hartwell
Only a host as popular as Michael Arrington can get away with serving a tub full of Bud Light and O'Doul's to some of Silicon Valley's finest.
We actually got to witness this and other trivialities first hand at last night's TechCrunch 9 meet-up. Even though a lot has changed at the popular weblog over the past year, most of the evening's festivities seemed familiar. For the second year in a row VC firm August Capital opened up its Menlo Park compound to play host to the packed event, and just like the previous year the focus was on the valley's favorite trifecta--schmoozing, cocktails, and spanking new web apps.
Although the August Capital offices offered a lot of the indoor lounging area, the majority of it was roped off for the evening. The real kicker was that our hosts also saw it fit to remove a number of paintings from the walls. We quizzed the resident receptionist on the reason behind this and got a surprisingly succinct explanation; even though Arrington attracts a fairly clean set of press and entrepreneurs at his gatherings, one can never be too careful. Sauced socialites and private art collections apparently don't always mix.
Despite the open bar and the chance to chat with the who's who of the valley, most of the evening's pomp was devoted to new products.
With the gathering boasting product launch sponsors, regular product sponsors, and event sponsors, there was hardly a piece of real estate on the sweltering wrap around patio that wasn't demonstrating or promoting some new fangled Web 2.0 contraption. If the current bubble can stay intact for at least another year, one can only hope that
TechCrunch's next outing will prove to be just as prolific.
The man himself. Through the modest $10 cover and a $5,000 donation from TechCrunch, Arrington was able to donate $10,000 to the Kipp Bayview Academy for the purchase of new computer equipment.
Kurt Collins and Julie Blaustein from Photobucket aren't just sharing ideas--they're sharing food.
Thomas Hawk of Zooomr takes a much needed break from shooting to chat with another party goer. With attendance reportedly as high as 900, the patio was packed to the brim with Web 2.0 personalities.
What kind of party goer gets preemptively "disinvited" for fear of promoting gossip? Hint: It was either Scott Beale of Laughing Squid, or Meghan McCarthy from Valleywag.
We're pretty sure these ladies had something to do with the removal of the art collection. Perkett PR was the generous sponsor of bottomless margarita bar.
Webcaster Sarah Meyers was pretty psyched about not having to sneak in to this year's bash. In fact, she might have been a little too excited...
This cozy pair hailed from photo sharing site Zenfolio, one of many of the event sponsors.
Once the sun set things started to get a little murky on the outdoor patio. Kris Tate from Zooomr had the bright idea of schmoozing by light of MacBook.
Daniel Graf of Kyte.tv undertook the tricky task of switching back and forth between booth duty and cocktail detail. The web based broadcasting site was kind enough to set up a TechCrunch channel for the evening so users could peek at the festivities.
