The place to be for Seattle's tech community Tuesday night was in the heart of downtown at November's Seattle Tech Meetup, hosted by the fine folks at Impact Hub Seattle (if you aren't yet familiar with Impact Hub, they are a local Seattle coworking space that organizes fantastic events like this one!) If you still haven't made it to one of these Meetups, you are missing out on a fabulous night of networking, presentations from local startups, and great food.
It was another A+ event last night, drawing a mix of hundreds of talented techies and inspiring startups from around the area. If you didn't join us, make plans now for next month's Meetup, scheduled for December 17th from 6:00-8:00pm. Without further ado, here's a recap of last night's event through the eyes (and tweets) of those who attended.
Introductions
These events always draw a crowd. Tonight was no exception. The masses descended on 2nd Ave ready to learn and ready to mingle!
Presenter - PivotDesk
Pivotdesk helps startups find affordable, short-term office space and larger companies drive income from their excess office space. A true win-win. PivotDesk founder David Mandell opted to present a simple site demo, but inspired one of the night's most hilarious hashtags!
Presenter - Flash Volunteer
The night's second presentation belonged to Flash Volunteer, a web-based social network and community-building tool that's focused on increasing volunteerism in Seattle. They're trying to bring the idea of crowdsourcing and flash mobs to volunteering. And, as we discovered during their presentation, they do have one important advantage over app giant SnapChat.
Presenter - AdCrafted
Local startup AdCrafted pointed out that while the first ever banner ad converted at 78%, most ads today convert at only .1%. It's a phenomenon they call, "ad blindness," and it's something they say can be overcome with better innovation.
Presenter - Killer Infographics
When Chief Swiss Army Knife Amy Balliett of Killer Infographics takes the stage, you'd better be ready for an impressive presentation. She did not disappoint on Tuesday, sharing her personal startup story along with some statistics that left the crowd in awe. Here's what the masses had to say.
Presenter - buuteeq
buuteeq is one of Seattle's true startup all-stars. An all-in-one hotel marketing SaaS, buuteeq has now received over $17 million in funding, and doesn't look to slow down soon. Ironically, co-founder Forest Key says the only connection he and buuteeq's other founders had to the hotel industry was that they all enjoy traveling!
Presenter - Amazon
You've heard of Amazon, right? Well, they were in the house tonight (sponsoring the event's cocktail lounge, no less) and introduced their new Amazon Payments option. Now you can login with your Amazon account to make secure payments on third party websites! Sounds like a win-win-win for consumers, sellers, and Amazon. The crowd reacted pretty favorably!
The Wrapup
Great attendance, superb presentations, and opportunities to eat, network, and learn made November's #STMeetup a huge success. We loved being a part of it and can't wait for next month's event!
If you were at the event, let us know what you enjoyed most! See you next month.
.png?width=534&height=632&name=blog%20ad%20(1).png)
