Statuesque and Happy
Icarus was seen falling to Earth, and Eve seemed to have
lost or not discovered her fig leaf yet – unclothed in the fading twilight.
Around them, the other statues (a sundry blend of mythological and Biblical
characters - as well as their friends from the millennium we're just leaving)
were rather "hush hush" about the whole thing. The only thing
breaking the silence was the sound of over 400 partying Austinites and live music
at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. And
although I toyed with the similarity of the name to the Germanic
language-specific diacritical mark that tells you to pronounce certain vowels
in a "long" manner [umlaut] -
the Umlauf was an excellent setting for the monthly High Tech Happy Hour
on November 16th.
(you can learn more about it at: http://www.io.com/~tam/umlauf/ )
Sponsored this month by the new Austin office of TFA/Leo
Burnett, the HTHH has been going on since July, '98 – when founder and current
impresario Harry Pape decided to get a few people together for a drink.
"The joke was that we could fit all the attendees on the sofa at the
b-Side lounge," says Pape. Used to the kinetic networking atmosphere of
his former scene in San Francisco, Pape decided last year to e-mail every
Austinite in his Outlook contact database, thinking that he'd either get
flamed, or people would show up. Lucky for him, they showed up. Currently, his
mailing list has over 700 people on it, and the "unsubscribe"
messages have been few.
Making the Scene and Herd
"I guess the main focus of the event was initially was
to get the Austin high-tech community together," says Pape. "Things
like the 360Summit work on issues at a higher level, but [HTHH] works at a more
informal, but still very important social level. If you and I work for
complementary software companies, you might ask me what PR and marketing firms
I use, or if I know of a good PowerPoint person. Even before I started HTHH, I
used to get asked that all the time. Another thing that is coming out of this
is that there are a lot of people that are new to Austin, from California –
from the East Coast, and it's a way to get them more involved in the Austin
community, hence – we try to have them at different venues. Umlauf is a great
place. In fact, a lot of people who've lived in Austin for a long time have
never been here. We're looking future events at places like the Elizabeth Ney
museum and Laguna Gloria (the original site of the Austin Museum of Art). The
problem is that when you top 400 people, like we did tonight, it gets tougher
to find places to have the event."
This
month's HTHH marked the first time that Pape decided to charge a cover for the
event. While only a modest $5, Pape thought that it might curtail the number of
attendees. Far from it – the actually turnout was the highest to date - the
proceeds of which went to benefit the Umlauf itself (all future events will be
benefits, as well). Sponsorship hasn't been a problem either, as
recruiting-hungry dot.com start-ups and attrition-buffeted software and
hardware behemoths scramble to get more warm bodies into their HR departments
for resume screenings and interviews. "I've got sponsors for the event
booked out all the way until August 2000," says Pape. Besides paying for
one free drink for each attendee, the sponsors now help cover the rental cost
of the facility and musicians to serenade the techies who show up. Another
first for this month's HTHH was an "unplugged" set by local
funk/blues mavens Malford Milligan and Funky London with Martha
Merriell.
The Network Effect – in Full Effect
As Martha and Malford keep the crowd warm with songs like
the incriminating Bill Withers groove "Who is He, and What is He to
You?" - I asked Pape what he thought of the human "network
effect" that Austin is going through. "I think our timing this year
has been great, all the way around. Historically, Austin is a
hardware/semiconductor kind of town – and that's an industry that doesn't
mingle much. With the influx of software start-ups, the culture is changing –
and I think for the better. One of the reasons I like the event is the fact
that it's not tied to any one organization, such as the Austin Software
Council, other user groups or business affiliation groups – there's no pure
agenda tied to it. What it does have is a sense of being high-tech, and the
words "Happy Hour" connote drinking, socialness, and a relaxed
atmosphere.
"When I ask people what they think about the event, I
get two responses. One is that people who are new to town absolutely love it,
because they get indoctrinated immediately into the Austin tech scene, and they
like that. These people are not shy, and they're ready to meet people. The other one is the people who've been here
for six to eight years, and they tell me that they've never been to an event
like this before. They're amazed at the kind of people that come to these
events – I'm amazed by who comes to these events. I get CEO's , CFO's COO's and receptionists. I get all kinds of
people. Venture capital deals are made here, or at least started here. People
were hungry for something like this. I
did it myself, because I was hungry for something like this. I see
people having meetings as they leave the event. And each month, I come with a
list of people I personally want to meet. Sometimes it's fun just to watch the
social dynamics. I see the mood change
after the first couple of hours – people get more relaxed and the conversation
turns away from business. Let's face it - we have a lot of single people in
this town who spend all their time at work, and they need some place to go and
meet people."
Matchmaker, Matchmaker….
An independent marketing and communications consultant
himself, Pape finds that his job dovetails nicely with the HTHH dynamic, as he
works to help out start-ups: "You know, two things happen with start-ups.
One is that they are started by technologists, so they're not really
comfortable with the marketing activities. They know what they need to do, but
they're not sure how to get there. The other is that they area started by
marketing people, but they don't really know the technology. So, I help them figure it out, both
tactically and strategically, because I help them find people. But I'm not a
headhunter – just a networker."
Like Cybersuds in NYC and like the events that have spun-out
of Craig's List in San Francisco, the High Tech Happy Hour has answered a need
in Austin -- a city that is rapidly losing the vestigial tail that tagged it as
a haven fit only for "hardware guys" with no lives. Software and the
Web are all about language and conversations, and the HTHH is a platform to
stretch-out on both accounts.
And that's all this week from Austin, where both the weather
and the people are always warm, sometimes hot, but never cold!
