Distilled Intelligence 2.0 Is a “Must Go” Event for New Start Up Founders
Another day, another Meetup/ seminar/ get together/ crappy industry event… I remember a year and a half ago when I was excited to go to tech events. I would search out events and dutifully plug them into my Outlook calendar. It made me excited to think that I would get to be around other geeks for a night and discuss geeky things. I remember my heartbeat quickening and feeling like a little kid as I grabbed my business cards and headed out the door. Those were heady times… they were heady times indeed…
As things go in the tech world life has moved forward. Tech Events that used to be as precious as your favorite prized Lucky Charm Marshmellows are now almost impossible to miss. Happy Hours, Breakfasts, Lunches, Beers and Coffee happen now so often it is hard to keep track of what is happening on a single night much less keep track of weeks in advance. Within this cornucopia of Tech Get Togethers I can find that the mere mention of a new Tech Event can bring on an involuntary shudder. I have found myself becoming locked in my ways and habits as far as Tech Events go. I keep the Baltimore Tech Breakfast on my calendar. The Columbia Tech Breakfast is there, but I’m not sure for how long. And I’ll experiment with the DC Tech Breakfast, but I’m not giving any promises. Within this environment it can be easy to miss a great event that is hidden from view by all of the other activities going on.
Distilled intelligence 2.0 looks to be a “must go” event for anyone in the DC / Baltimore area who is launching or running a Start Up company. Distilled Intelligence 2.0 is an event where 100 different start ups will compete in a pitching event for $100,000 in prize money (or Investment… they seem a bit iffy on which it is…). This is a 2 day event where on the first day brand new start ups will compete, and on the second 50 start ups that are already functional will pitch. This is a great event to be able to sit back and see a ridiculous number of founders pitch their companies. One of the best ways to learn what works and what doesn’t is to see other people succeed and fall on their face. At Distilled Intelligence 2.0 you can sit back and watch 100 founders give it there all, and then take copious notes so that when your time in the spot light comes some day you’ll know what to do.
For someone like me I like Distilled Intelligence because the start ups that come are not all web based and app centric. At Distilled Intelligence 1.0 they had start ups for everything from baby clothing that monitored mood to modifications to diesel engines to increase fuel efficiency by 10%. At the end of the day I do recall that the actual winners seemed too web centric for my tastes, but as an attendee I had a great time learning about all of the new ideas and innovations.
If you decide to go you get 3 meals for the price of your ticket per day and you will be able to meet a lot of great people doing some really cool stuff. I think it is a great learning experience and should be a good time. Ticket prices are a bit steep at around $60 per day, but… supposedly they’re spending around $350,000 to put it on and let’s face it every once in a while you’ve got to pull out the credit card and actually pay if you want to attend something of good quality.
I’ll be there and I expect to be paying my way (Although I won’t say, “No” to a free ticket…) It will be October 11th and 12th in Washington DC.
You can check it out here: http://www.distilledintelligence.com/
Eli the Computer Guy has 16 years experience in technology being the guy to fix "it". From the Army, to building out new satellite offices for the enterprise, to running his own shop with 9 full time employees Eli has real world experience with almost all systems that technicians will be working with. Eli has 1600 hours of formal technical beyond his Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice on technologies ranging from Avaya PBX/ Audix to Microsoft, Red Hat Linux, MySQL, Cisco and much more.
