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The Twin Tech Towns Come Together

Here's Zach Goldfarb's weekly update on the local technology scene. It was a melting pot of the Washington technology community. They came out--hundreds of them--from all sides: venture capitalists, Web developers, government contractors, online marketing pros, consultants and bloggers.

Here's Zach Goldfarb's weekly update on the local technology scene.

It was a melting pot of the Washington technology community.

They came out--hundreds of them--from all sides: venture capitalists, Web developers, government contractors, online marketing pros, consultants and bloggers.

The goal of the "Twin Tech Party" was to bring together the area's two tech towns -- the old tech consisting of government contractors and Beltway bandits and the new tech consisting of social media players -- under one roof. (In this case, they filled virtually every corner of Local 16, a spacious bar on U Street in the District.)

There's no question that the goal was accomplished. The name tags on people's chests read: Booz Allen Hamilton, LivingSocial, Clearspring, Core Capital, PNC Bank, Leverpoint, WilmerHale, Ozmosis. Here's what those companies focus on, respectively: government consulting, Web 2.0 development, online widgets, venture capital, retail banking, enterprise software, law, online health.

There was a question, however, of how much one side was talking to the other. On Local 16's first floor, a scattered set of people in suits, ties removed, were talking. These were the old tech people. Up on the second floor deck, the new media people mingled. That's an oversimplification, but the separation was clear as like-minded folks talked to like-minded folks.

See the rest of the post and comments here: The Twin Tech Towns Come Together