Our lunch keynote Frank Gruber is a hometown favorite, a national social media player, and creator of the outstanding TECH cocktail series of events. Frank Gruber recently had a chat with us to discuss the upcoming TECH cocktail event to be held here in the greater DC area on Thursday, April 24 at MCCXXIII on Connecticut Avenue at 6:30.

BB: Does being a local resident make having TECH cocktail in Washington more special?

FG: Yes, I think it does. We started TECH cocktail in Chicago when both Eric Olson and I lived in there, to help better connect and showcase the local technology community and I have gotten to know a lot of folks in Chicago. Since I now live in D.C., it is great to be able to host TECH cocktail in my home technology community as the community is very similar to that of Chicago.

BB: What do you hope TECH cocktail #2 in DC will do?

FG: Since our first TECH cocktail last year in DC, we have seen a number of other events arise to add to the others that already existed and to be totally frank, that is the whole point. We hope TECH cocktail can help to facilitate the creation of new technology startups, companies finding and funding, new friendships, new employment opportunities and more.

BB: What’s next for Frank Gruber?

FG: Well let’s see…

I am pretty busy these days. In addition to the upcoming TECH cocktail DC 2, I was in Chicago last week as TECH cocktail earned Eric Olson and I an Illinois I.T. Association CityLIGHTS Award for TECH cocktail’s positive impact on the Illinois technology community. It was much appreciated as it further validates out mission of helping to connect and amplify the local technology scene and I thank the community for the support. We are also hosting our first TECH cocktail CONFERENCE on May 29^th in Chicago and so we have been working hard to pull that effort together. http://www.techcocktailconference.com

Buzz Bin readers can use the promo code: LivingstonBuzz and receive $25 off the price of the conference.

I am working full-time for AOL in product development in the Social Platforms group and we have been working on myAOL as well as a number of other projects. We are currently waiting for the acquisition of Bebo, the 3rd largest social network behind MySpace & Facebook, to be finished up.

Aside from that I have been blogging up a storm at SOMEWHAT FRANK, created a new video podcast called SOMEWHAT FRANK TV and I am working on a book.

I sleep occasionally.

To see the full interview visit the Buzz Bin.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Q & A's, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.