Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) and Judy Estrin (author of Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy and former CTO of Cisco) have committed to speaking at a 2.0 technology event in Columbus in support of Senator Obama.  Oh yes.  This is mighty exciting.

October 10, 2008 @ 6:00 p.m.
Polaris Hilton
Columbus Ohio 

Free and open to the public

Online Registration  (for preferred seating)

I love my state.  I love the livability.  I love the beauty.  I love the people.  But if I want to attend an interesting tech related event, where do I go?  To one of the coasts.  DC.  Boston.  San Francicso. 
NYC.

And what one often finds at those events is a good number of folks who have flown in from other places.  Folks who recognize the value of working in a location where the cost of living is reasonable and who know how to use online tools to communicate and collaborate with their colleagues around the country (and around the world).  Technology innovation can take place in anyone’s garage ☺ or anyone’s home office regardless of where they live.

This event is important to multiple groups of folks:

The Obama Campaign:
The event is important to Senator Obama’s presidential campaign because it will draw Ohioans (and probably folks outside of Ohio) eager to hear Hoffman and Estrin speak.   The tech community is often apolitical or undecided.  This event will give them an intellectual atmosphere in which to hear about and discuss technology policies important to the future of our country.

The target audience is tech, academic and business sectors who may not customarily attend a campaign event.  They will be attracted to this event by the non-campaign tone of the promotional materials (I’ve been adamant about that) and the unique opportunity to hear Hoffman and Estrin discuss the future of online innovation.

Ohio:

The event is important to our state because Ohio generally does not attract web 2.0 conferences or top-level internet industry speakers such Estrin and Hoffman. 

Local folks are super excited about this event.   They are helping with coordination, a specific task or spreading the word because they want to help the Obama campaign or because they think its cool we are hosting a 2.0 event in Columbus.  Ben Blanquera has been tremendously helpful pulling in individuals to assist.  Trace Kingham made the arrangements for us with the Polaris Hilton.  The Polaris Hilton is less than three months old so they agreed to let us use the space for free to help promote their conference venue.  Tremendous.  And after the event I am going to have to write one very long blog post of thank yous.

I suppose you may be thinking “So why Ohio?  Why not another battleground state?”  Because Ohio asked.  Well, I asked.  (But I have a lot of civic pride so sometimes I claim to represent all of Ohio ☺).   I am an Obama supporter.  I want to do what I can to help Senator Obama get into the executive office.  It seemed most logical to me utilize the contacts I have, nationally and locally, to hold a battleground state event .  And the result was amazing.  Folks jumped in to help.  It has been an tremendous experience. And we are not done yet :-)

October 10 Draft Event Schedule:

5:00    Registration and Networking (Cash Bar)

6:00    Welcome – Angela Siefer & Ben Blanquera
6:05    Judy Estrin – The Technology Innovation Gap
6:25    Reid Hoffman – The Business Side of Social Networks
6:45    Michael Nelson, Advisor to the Obama Campaign – Obama Technology Platform
7:00    Wrap up