Casual Drinks with Avangate – Spring Edition
Posted on: April 1st, 2009
click on the image to see all photos from the event on Flickr
Two or three weeks ago spring returned to northern California and despite everything going on in the world, spirits are starting to soar. Taking our lead from nature we hosted the second edition of “Casual Drinks“, Avangate’s networking event focused on software publishers and their partners.
We elected to host the spring edition of “Casual Drinks” at local Mountain View restaurant Don Giovanni, and from the start were quite pleased with the decision. Don Giovanni has a tradition of hosting events for local software companies, as you can see by the logos on the wall, and with the success of “Casual Drinks” Avangate has taken its place next to these giants! Inviting our friends and colleagues to see our new permanent position on the wall was quite a proud moment.
Our primary goal for organizing events such as “Casual Drinks” is to help organize the local software community, create low pressure and friendly environment for networking and to have fun- and judging by these pictures I think we accomplished our goal!
Although I spent much of event balancing between taking care of people as they arrived and coordinating with the Don Giovanni staff, I did manage to find some time to sneak away and speak with some of my favorite US colleagues.
I had the opportunity to discuss strategies for software distribution with Bob Walsh and moved into a conversation with Raj from Acutrack on the Indian religion and the webinar we co-hosted last month. With Gus from Nvidia and Daniela from Oracle I discussed being a good parent and the balance between family and work. I even spent some time with my good friends Santiago from Softonic and George from Recognos enjoying a glass a good red wine from Italy.
Our special guests for the evening were Carmen Sebe (Avangate CEO) and Laurentiu Ghenciu (Avangate Global Sales Manager). From their accounts they had a great time meeting and speaking with new colleagues and getting a chance to forget about their jet lag ;)
Casey gave another one of his great speeches taking an opportunity to make everyone laugh and brainstorm about how a software company can increase their sales volumes with Avangate, and this time the best answers were awarded with a copy of “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” a great book by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter.
Following the rules of organizing a good networking event, I have written down my thoughts and I am inviting you to post your comments, questions or feedback so that our next event will be even better.
Thank-you again to all the people who joined us and I am looking forward to seeing you again!
P.S. If you reached this point it means that you read the entire post; I thank you for that! Let’s stay connected and share some other ideas in the feature: follow me on Twitter and check out my LinkedIn Profile.
Tags: Avangate, casual drinks, software networking
April 1st, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Daniel, sorry I could not make it at the event. Looks like great fun. Would have liked to be there – maybe next time (when is the next one?).
Especially because I wanted to meet your colleagues Laurentiu and Carmen. Adriana was there?
April 1st, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Daniel,
A good event! I got to interview a couple of startups for The Web Startup Success Guide (http://apress.com/book/view/1430219858); talk with a couple of others and generally have a good time.
Definitely would recommend it.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:32 am
Daniel,
Thanks for the great event! It was an excellent opportunity to network and practice talking about our nascent business. We made several excellent contacts and enjoyed learning about your company.
Kri
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:02 am
Great event! Really useful stuff!
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:15 am
@Dave We had a lot of fun indeed. I am sorry you couldn’t make it. Adriana is in Europe but I’ll do my best to have her with us at the next one.
@Bob Thank you. I am looking forward to seeing you soon. By the way, great post today about “The Cloud and the Crowd”.
@Kri Thank you. I hope that you and Benjamin had a great time.
@Gary I am looking forward to continuing our conversation regarding … beauty in our lives :)
I hope to see all of you to our next events also. We are looking to San Francisco this time; what do you think about that? Can be more convenient for you?
April 6th, 2009 at 2:50 am
Daniel,
Event was a great way to learn about Avangate and meet your leadership.
Great hospitality and conversation.
regards,
John