obama

I spent most of the evening discussing politics and watching the news at a friend's house.  I had to get home to get the kids to bed so I hear the announcement that Barack Obama is our president elect while sitting in my family room by myself.  But not really by myself.  Thanks to twitter I am receiving updates from colleagues and friends including one who is at Grant Park for the public Obama celebration.  "@justinmassa #grantpark largest, most diverse crowd I have ever been a part of". 

And really, I grinned through the announcement.  I grinned because we had done it.  I am proud of the work I did to assist Senator Obama, from the big items to the little items.  A colleague emailed me after Ohio went to Obama and said "thanks for all your work in Ohio".   As a volunteer, I feel part of the "we" and thanks to social media I always felt very aware of various efforts and communicated with some of them.  The connectedness met me at many turns.

We all dream.  We dream for ourselves and we dream for the greater good.  Making those dreams reality requires the coordination of many details.  For the technology community in Columbus Ohio, one of those requirements - encouragement and advice - occurred on October 10, 2008.   At 2.Ohio, the tech community heard from Reid Hoffmam, Judy Estrin, Mike Nelson and Craig Newmark.  The community received not only specific advice on how innovation occurs but how technology policy impacts innovation.   We also received ideas on how we, as a local tech community, can work towards establishing ourselves as a recognized tech city.

Judy Estrin discussed the big picture of how innovation occurs, all the pieces that are necessary for it to occur and how there is not currently a fertile environment for innovation.  Her comments spoke to the community and to individuals.  They spoke to what each entrepreneur must do to ensure success while also speaking to the issue of a region creating an environment in which tech entrepreneurs will flourish.

Organizing an event completely with volunteer labor and no budget is superb.  I enjoy working with people who so believe in the event that they donate their very valuable time to ensuring the event is a tremendous success.  Of course, there is only so much we can do without a budget.  Fortunately, Resource Interactive stepped up to help us with the AV costs of 2.Ohio. 

And to keep the private reception open to those who really want to be there, we have chosen to set a ticket price for the guests.  $95 will cover the cost of the food and a few costs to coordinate 2.Ohio. 

We only have 35 remaining seats (after we provides seats to the speakers and the volunteers who put the event together).  If you want a seat, we must be able to match up your rsvp on Meetup and your credit card on Paypal!  No, its not all in one place, we are flying by the seat of our pants here!  But its full of smart dedicated people who want to see this event happen and by god it will! 

After a month of working on it, we're finally ready to shout from our battleground state rooftops...

Mark your calendar for October 10, 2008 at the Hilton Polaris! A star-studded lineup of technology innovators is coming toColumbus to discuss not only the future of Web 2.0, but also how the upcoming election may greatly affect what they do and how they do it. This event is free but registration is requested.  We do promise advanced registrants preferred seating so I encourage you to register today!  Come hear what these innovators see as the next big thing, and why they believe Barack Obama’s technology policy plan is the right plan to help them get it done.

What: 2.Ohio, a special event bringing together two of today’s biggest Web 2.0 innovators with Ohio’s technology community.

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.