2008 Was a Great Year for Santa Cruz Geeks

At the dinner we had last week I sat down about 30 minutes before the event started and began writing down all the different and amazing things that took place in 2008 that either directly or indirectly spawned out of the Geek Dinners we had started only a little over a year prior. I also started listing some of the movers and shakers in the room specifically providing infrastructure to help the technology and entrepreneurial community in town. What I came up with is below, and I gotta say, I’m still freaking impressed and very much looking forward to an even more successful 2009.

MEMBERSHIP
-grew from Sol Lipman, Margaret Rosas, David Beach and Sean Tario to nearly 200 amazing members within a single year

EVENTS
-Numerous CoWorking Jellys at Quiddities’ former offices and at a stellar rental on the beach
-FreelanceCamp
-Public Media Camp
-Numerous Santa Cruz Design and Innovation Center Events
-Geeks on the Beach - Dinner and short lived bonfire
-Holiday and Halloween Parties
-Santa Cruz New Tech Alliance Meetup
-iPhone Application Meetup

COMPANIES MAKING HUGE STRIDES
-12seconds.tv (spawned from Beach and Sol connecting at a dinner)
-UserVoice.com (convinced founders to move from SF and Wisconsin to Santa Cruz because of the geek dinner!)
-RideSpring.com (look out for even bigger things from Paul and RideSpring in 2009!)
-RoomQuick.com (You’ll be hearing a lot about these folks in 2009, guaranteed!)
-ProductOps.com (Bob said, “why the heck not, done it before and I’ll do it again,” and thus, ProductOps was born in 2008)

INFRASTRUCTURE
-Marty Collins and The Digital Media Factory on the West Side (not new, but Marty did some serious growing last year!)
-Jeremy, Ryan and Veronica and NextSpace downtown
-Santa Cruz Geeks Google Group
-www.SantaCruzGeeks.com
-Local geek Peter Koht hired as the Economic Development Manager for the City, who was able to launch within the first month in the position www.CruzBusiness.com

OTHER STUFF
-Mike Brogan, Acting Director of Marketing for Cruzio Internet, elected as the Technology Director on the Board of Directors for Santa Cruz Next
-UCSC Baskin School of Engineering starting to spin off some interesting and viable companies such as www.pergamumsystems.com and putting plans in place for some engaging and entrepreneurial focused events coming up in 2009

So, that’s what I’ve got off the top of my head… what’s missing?

Santa Cruz NEXT in GoodTimes

Stoked the cover story of the new issue of Good Times here in town features Santa Cruz NEXT.

Simply an example of what Patience, Persistence and simply Making it Happen can accomplish.

I’m working on getting another piece written on the companies working in, and coming out of, Santa Cruz as well ;)