Washington DC: One City, Two Cultures

Last week there were a couple of great events in the DC area, showcasing the areas top talent.  While they took place on the same night, they also portrayed the two subcultures we find ourselves living in and around DC.

The events were prominently chroniciled by Zach Goldfarb in the Washington Post’s WashBiz Blog in a post titled “TechPost:  Washington’s Twin Tech Towns“.  The first event last Thursday evening was put on by the Northern Virginia Technology Council.  It was a look at the “hottest buzz” companies in the area.  The next event was held downtonw and featured the visiting Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert Scoble.  As Zack notes in his post, there was almost no overlap between the two, event though they are supposedly about the local technology scene.

This really did not strike me as odd in any way though, and I think is very indicative of the nature of the tech scene in the DC area.  I am pretty sure that this dual ecosystem we have here is not present in any of the other large technology hubs, maybe with the exception of New York.  The one major fatcor that creates this environment is the Federal Government.  There is obviously a huge industry created around the support of the government and its various technology needs.  As I have stated before, government contracting does not lend itself to a lot of innovation.  Rather it creates a culture of status quo where the big contractors work to not lose work instead of innovating new and interesting work.  It is really a vicious cycle.  On the other hand we are seeing the roots of a really cool and innovative culture flourishing here as well.  I think some of this is born out of the need for a creative outlet by many who fall in between both of these realms.

As I said, I think New York may fall into a similar catagory, with a mix of a coupld environements, financial, marketing, and technology.  But for the most part I think DC is very unique in this respect.  What do you think, is DC unique and if so, why ?