Over the last year and a half, we have noticed a marked change in the local scene in and around Washington DC. In no small part, we have people like Jared Goralnick to give much of our thanks. Jared is one who puts others first and is always there to help out with folks from the local tech community.
So I was very excited when a while back he announced that he was organizing a conference in the area called Bootstrap Maryland. It took place this past weekend and I was very fortunate enough to be able to attend and enjoy. I saw familiar faces and better yet, saw a lot of new faces as well. There were lots of local MD college students there taking in all of the wisdom that was put out on part of the great set of panelists.
Everything was covered from what you need to set up a business, to include myths surrounding that. There was a great session on the use of social media for marketing inexpensively, the proper technology for your situation, and some success stories. There was an awesome small group session that I had the honor of running with Brett Haliburton of Cogmap, where we spoke intimately about challenges in starting a business.
It was so exciting to all of Jared’s hard work come together and also the pulse of the community growing here in there area. Last summer I spent some money to so to the Start Conference in San Francisco and it was a good time and learned a lot. But I had to travel across the country. Bootstrap Maryland was hands down better than Start and I only had to drive 8 miles and it was FREE !!
There was a lot of great pics (see above), twittering, awesome wiki, and post event blogging. Can’t wait till the next one.
