Hacking Web 2.0

I guess everyone who went to the web 2.0 conference this week (I couldn't make it due to a board conflict) knows this but I just found out about it and I love it so much I want to blog about it.

First Round Capital hacked the web 2.0 conference.

Josh Kopelman tells how they did it here:

We've reserved a meeting room at the conference (Sonoma Room - on the second floor) to make it easier for us (and our portfolio companies) to meet.  If any of you are around, feel free to stop by and say hello.

Sounds innocent enough, but when you look at the floor plan of the conference, you see that the Sonoma Room is right smack in the middle of the whole shebang. And they had margaritas flowing too? Fucking brilliant.

Comments

[dave mcclure]

not to mention, they were *right* at the top of the escalator, easily visible, and in addition to drinks & candy there was hard-line internet access that was better than the conference wireless.

(even if i wasn't an investor in Mashery, i'd have been hanging out there... all the under the radar startups were dropping by the room ;)

i agree, effing brilliant.

[Adam Kalsey]

Brilliant indeed. Christine Herron has some more details about this. http://www.christine.net/2006/11/mashery_pioneer.html

[Howard Greenstein]

I hacked the Web 2.0 conference for an hour or two, thanks to Mashery having a place to meet. And the margaritas were quite good. So thanks Oren and company.

[Chris Barchak]

Trilogy (after I left so no credit for me :) pulled a pretty impressive hack along these lines at the '98 SAPPHIRE conference. After they couldn't get the space they wanted in the conference, they rented out a car lot across from the convention and put on a spectacle, including giving away 1 Porsche Boxster per day for 5 days (ah...the Bubble Years). One rendition of the story here:
http://www.concentric.net/~Gjabrams/Background/DestTrilogy.html

[marc]

they also hacked the vacant store-front on the first floor of the building across the street with the company banner. [You could see it from the windows of the conference room.] f'ing brilliant. Can they do it next year? With Batelle's radar on ... it would be tough for a repeat. (But if they do... they'll be paid off in spades for the repeat.)