Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > September > 26 > Entry
TechCrunch and Moximity take back the night in Austin
Is this the new Austin social networking trend? A buzzed-about new media company swoops into town, throws a giant, invite-only party with an open bar and then disappears into the night like one of those Louisiana-drawling vampires from “True Blood?”
It happened in July at the Mashable.com party, and it happened again last night when snarky Silicon Valley Web site TechCrunch threw a big bash in cooperation with Austin Ventures. It was the first time many of the TechCrunchers had visited Austin (founder Michael Arrington, who also was conspicuously absent from South by Southwest Interactive in March, was MIA), but hopefully not the last.
This event, which included an embarrassing daytime panel at UT about Grassroots Web movements (more on that in a bit), was held at swanky Pangea and by the time I got there at 6:30 p.m., the place was so packed you could barely move. A guy brushed up close to me as he tried to pass and my just-applied nametag was rolled off, turned into little more than a sticky, Magic-Markered tube. I was one of the lucky ones: the nametags ran out so quickly that about half of the attendees never even got one. Hey, TechCrunch — we’ve got lots of Office Depots all over town. I can direct you to a Google Map if you like.
The vibe among attendees was hopeful, if a little wary. The big buzz of the night was prompted by the fallout from the afternoon Grassroots panel and by a Statesman article by Lori Hawkins that pointed out a pretty large gaffe: the panel, as planned, featured about 18 panelists, all of them men.
By the time I woke up Thursday morning, several prominent female Twitterers in Austin were linking to the article and asking how difficult it would have been to find a capable, successful woman to put on the panel.
“It was a major ovarysight,” I posted there, and later pointed out how much the panel reminded me of my favorite local event, Wurstfest, New Braunfels’ 10-day salute to sausage.
A little while later, we learned that a single female panelists had been added to the lineup. I tuned in on the Web stream later to find a long row of men (way, way too many panelists for one two-hour session) and Julie Shannen, deputy director of Girlstart, stuck on the end. Conference planning tip: if you can’t fit all of your panelists into one videocamera shot without backing up all the way to Round Rock, you probably have too many.
I didn’t attend the “Grassroots” panel, but I know some of the panelists, and several of my colleagues attended. I watched some of the live stream and the consensus among those I talked to was that the panel was nothing short of a disaster. Too many panelists, not enough different perspectives, and very little in the way of actual grassroots discussion (why not have a panelist from the Ron Paul campaign? I hear there are thousands of them, all ready to tell you exactly what they think. For, like, hours.). Panelists were forced to give short, sound-bitey answers and the moderating left a lot to be desired. Some told me later that they tried to get some words of wisdom in, but that the format didn’t lend itself to much in the way of insight.
One of them joked that there were more panelists than audience members. The numbers don’t seem to bear this out, but I can imagine what it must have felt like up there: something like one of those first presidential primary debates where there were about 20 candidates on each side, each asked to raise their hand if they agreed with a particular issue.
To me, at least, the panel misfire gave the impression that TechCruch doesn’t really know Austin. That’s forgivable, and actually gives me some comfort: I don’t see them taking over Austin tech news anytime soon if that’s an eventual goal.
The panel fiasco and the crowded party left an uneasy taste in many partygoers’ mouths (luckily, there were free drinks to wash it down), but that might have also had something to do with an unofficial “after-party” thrown by Austin startup Moximity.com at The Belmont. A person working the TechCrunch party I spoke to didn’t seem thrilled about Moximity’s tag-along, but by any measure it seemed like a big success. The question everyone was asking at TechCrunch was, “Are you going to the Moximity party?” even by people who had no idea what it is Moximity does.
Moximity is trying to tie together Facebook, Twitter and location-based social networking. By starting an account on Moximity (I installed it as an iPhone app), you can link your Twitter and Facebook accounts to Moximity and find what your friends from those services are doing. So far, I haven’t had much luck with the iPhone app, but it’s still in beta and very few people know about it. I’ll give you an update when things move a little further along.
The Belmont was crowded and packed with Twitterati. By the time I bailed at 11 p.m., the party was still going strong with live music from Automata, a nice lead-in to Austin City Limits Fest.
Both events were so festive and I spent so much time talking to people I know on Twitter or via the local tech scene that I ended up with a massive sore throat and only one photo to show for all my time:
Twitter friends (left to right) Austin Aaron, Lani Anglin-Rosales, Benn Rosales, the American-Statesman’s Twitter guru Robert Quigley, LaunchPad Coworking’s Julie Gomoll and Gus Rojo.
Luckily, it was fine that I didn’t shoot any video either because the guys from DadLabs were all over it. You can see video highlights from the TechCrunch happy hour below.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.
By Omar Gallaga
October 5, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this
Scott -- I can comment because I watched a sizable portion of the panel on the live video feed and I spoke to fellow reporters who were there in person, other attendees and even people who were on the actual panel.
As a matter of fact, I WAS too busy to attend -- I had several other stories I was working on that day and didn't have time to fight UT parking. I was also saving my energy for the events that evening and I'm glad I did -- people I talked to said they got a lot more out of the happy hour event than the "Grassroots" panel that wasn't very grassroots.
I'm very glad I didn't attend in person. I would have been very upset to have had my time wasted by going to a panel with 20 people who didn't get an opportunity to say much that was significant.
I'm not sure what you're implying about my sleeves, but my entire wardrobe is offended on my behalf.
Reporters like me must prioritize their time and decide where it's most important that they be from day to day. If there's a live video feed of a event and I know people I trust will be there to fill me in about it later, it's not always necessary for me to be there in person. If you have a problem with the way I report, I'd love to hear a more detailed critique.
If you'd like to defend the panel further and tell us what was so awesome that I missed by not being there in person, I'd love to hear that, too.
Thanks, Scott.
By Scott Williamson
October 5, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this
Omar:
If you weren't there how can you comment? Seems like you are just collecting others opinions and not much of a reporter that can roll your sleeves up. Obviously you are too busy to cover things such as this...
By john erik metcalf
September 28, 2008 2:23 PM | Link to this
hilariously accurate. lol. you rock, omar.
By Allen
September 26, 2008 1:36 PM | Link to this
I was really disappointed to miss the evening event. Things just didn't work out for us to come to ACL. I wish Austin would have more tech networking events of this scale without waiting for major name "sponsors" to cook them up. I'd love to be part of such an effort.
By Austin Aaron
September 26, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this
Seems many would agree with you. Word around Pangea was questionable in regards to the "panel". Glad I decided to forego the mundane and started drinking earlier.
Moximity was more than accommodating during their soiree. Had a blast. I'm looking forward to the app coming out of beta. Somewhat of a Yelp, Yellow Pages, facebook, and Twitter all rolled into one.
Once again, Omar comes legit. It's official, he rules.
*Can't believe I didn't get more man-chest in that pic.