blogging.vc

Thanks to the folks at Vuze, I got a ticket to the Techcrunch Party at August Capital. I have to say that for anyone wanting to understand what “Silicon Valley Networking” is about, such a party is the best crash course. Selected obeservations:

• Setup. A few hundred people on a sunny deck on Sand Hill Road and free beer is all that’s required to set up - the rest of the ambiance is created by plenty of sponsorship signs. Food doesn’t help since you need one free hand to exchange business cards in frequent intervals.
• Corporate Apparel. If you are with a start-up, make sure you wear a corporate Polo or T-Shirt. And if your company chose to go with a shirt whose design is about as discreet as a Dutch soccer jersey, don’t worry - this is a fashion-free zone (apart from the ladies, who are almost all employed by PR agencies for some unexplainable reason…)
• Name tags. Feels like they have an eye magnet built in - everyone wanders around looking at each others name tag first - then you get to looking at the face. Helps men to understand how women must often feel.

That said, this type of party is great to meet new people and refresh old contacts in a very casual atmosphere. The trick is that even though it is declared as a networking event, it doesn’t feel forced…networking just happens between a beer and the next one. That’s because it’s an integral part of Silicon Valley - you are, therefore you network.

P.S.: There was a bunch of Germans there, too: Aside from Silicon Valley residents Konstantin von Guericke and Tim Bonnemann I ran into people whose office is no more than 5 miles from my Hamburg office, such as Tim von Toerne and Matthias Henze….