“So What Do You Do?”

Last night I went to a TechSet event in Hollywood and it was one of the weirdest nights at a bar I’ve been to, in that I actually enjoyed all of the conversations I had mingling with strangers. Seriously, it was very memorable. Props to Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis for putting it on.

I went with some coworkers to do some old-fashioned networking, and among these coworkers was BJ and fellow 20something Katelin (can’t wait for her post!).

But the event itself was interesting in that it seemed like an adult version of high school. That is, there were 3 distinct parties:

• The TechSet (AKA The Geeks): Obviously part of web 2.0+ culture, and also the main reason I wanted to attend this event in the first place. Some exciting conversations about the future: about why certain technologies work and why some flopped; about why we just can’t ever get our clients to buy into new approaches because of endless explaining to them about how these things work; about the bottom-line, and the best way to use it; about reaching the ends of the internet, poking around, and discovering that there are no best-practices because very few others in the market have gotten this far to define what the hell is going on; and most importantly about trading business cards like they were freaking Pokémon (gotta catch ‘em all!).
• The Film Festival (AKA The Life of the Party): Down the street was a film festival event that seemed to be comprised of young, independent film-makers from around the world, who seemed to be hell-bent on getting drunk, cracking jokes, and talking about the Los Angeles culture. So long as you were in character (character being any cordial drinker with any kind of sense of humor) these people were actually a blast to talk to. May their films be queued in many a Netflix account for ages to come.
• The GQ Party (AKA The Popular Kids): These were tragically hip, well-dressed, very attractive, and intensely clique-y. As BJ put it, the GQ party was identified as either very pretty girls who were sitting alone and txting on their phones, or a very pretty guys and a girls who were standing next to each other but who weren’t talking to each other, and instead looking around the room for something to comment on. This supports the idea that when you spend your life on your looks, you have very little in the way of being conversational. That is, until they get drunk, in which case they became friendly and conversational but still didn’t have any good ideas.

I don’t mean to demean pretty or popular people… wait, no, I do. I hated these shit-talkers in high school and now the tables have turned, because I have a career path and their shelf-life expires at 30. Who’s the loser now, assholes?

…

In the end, the party was pretty fun. I hope there are more events like this because I really do like pontificating on the future of the internet. And moreover, it’s really nice to talk to people who know their shit! And it’s even nicer to discover that I also know my shit enough to keep the conversation running in perpetuity. Crazy!

I realize I am swearing in this post more than I normally do but I will attribute this to being somewhat hungover.