I’m pretty amazed as to the growth of businesses during a time of a recession so it’s probably no surprise that I’m reporting on iStrategyLabs and their recent advancements into the west coast.

Run by its CEO, Peter Corbett, iStrategyLabs has done a phenomenal job within its early existence. Having just celebrated its two year anniversary, this digital agency has focused itself on providing quality products and solutions towards a variety of clientele, including large brand names like GEICO, American Eagle and even to government entities like to Washington, DC and the government of Helsinki, Finland. Just this past summer, the company even began its expansion conquest around the country with its second office in New York City where it will help address the needs of its other clients, including NASDAQ and many more.

But will wonders never cease? Apparently not as just a few days ago, iStrategyLabs announced their entry into the Silicon Valley area where this office will be managed by none other than Internet famous consultant and strategist, Chris Heuer – best known as one of the founders of Social Media Club and AdHocnium. After hearing about the opening of a second office in NYC, I’m really not surprised that Corbett would open a third office nor that it was going to be in San Francisco. What shocked me was how fast he moved! But then again, when I saw him in San Francisco around the time of FOOCamp (for “Friends of [Tim] O’Reilly”), I remember him saying that he was thinking about opening up an office – in the metaphorical sense, at the very least.

Well lo’ and behold, the guy did it…and he picked one heck of a guy to run it.

iStrategyLabs couldn’t have picked a better place to set up shop. They definitely have a great location addressing government and non-profit needs in the nation’s capital, financial and other business markets in New York City, and now in San Francisco, they’re going to be intimately in touch with the actual technology being created in the Valley that will give them an advantage in being the digital agency that truly understands how to use social media and emerging technology. What an impressive team that is being built at iStrategyLabs…it’s practically an all-star who’s who that any company would be fortunate enough to work with.

Congrats guys!

Swanky bar, lots of room, free drinks and even twitter feeds streamed on the plasma TVs. Awesome.

The event, Twin Tech III, was the third in what has grown from an interesting gathering of old-school technology providers and hip, new Web 2.0 companies to a can’t miss event. We have covered the Twin Tech events in the past here and here when they had 500 and 1,000 attendees, respectively. But this time it was 1,500 people that led to a tremendous amount of conversation and business card exchanging.

Photo Credit: TechBisnow.com

I have to say that my experience was different and even better this time around. You go to many events and see many of the same people. This time there were many new faces and it was a blast to connect with new people. Also, what I did notice was that there was a serious amount of “speed dating/networking” going on. Maybe it is the economy, but people were quick to find out who you were, what you did, if there was a fit, exchange cards and move on. It was pretty efficient and I liked that. It seemed to be that people knew that there was much ground to cover and that they would all catch up later via email to schedule time to meet one on one.

The event was sponsored by Peter’s company, iStrategyLabs, and NVTC, the leading tech organization in Virginia. This time around, they even had a bus that left from Reston and ran to DC.The bus was sponsored by  London Ink, R2i, Speaker Box Communications, Memory Blue and LeverPoint  and filled with food, beer, and wine. These are times I wish I still lived in Reston.

But I get to hang out with awesome people like our blogger team, Joe Loong and Jill Foster:

Photo Credit: Shashi Bellamkonda

Peter tells me that Twin Tech IV is already in the works for Spring. For those of you that are near the DC area you should definitely make out to this event.

We have covered many events in the past but there is one event here in the DC area that seems to be a gravity well for all things tech. I am talking about the Twin Tech event that has already been held twice and we cover the first one and the second one to much fanfare.

The first event had 600 people and was a blast. The second was even bigger and with an open bar for 1200 people.

A full recap of Twin Tech II can be found here:
http://www.istrategylabs.com/twin-tech-ii-recap-photos-video-and-posts-from-around-the-net/

This time? 2000 people are registered and they are looking for a way to accommodate more people.

Here are the details:
When:
Thursday, January 22th, 2009 from 6:00pm-9pm

Where:
Lux Lounge: 649 New York Ave NW, Washington DC

Parking is available across the street and the Gallery Place and Convention Center Metro stops are blocks away.

According to the event site, “The format remains the same: the brightest minds in the tech/venture space will be on hand to mix and mingle with one another during a happy hour style meet-up. An open bar will be made available through the generosity of our sponsors.”

Since this is Inauguration Week here in Washington, DC many of our readers may be visiting from out of town. If you are interested, the event page is located at http://twintech3.eventbrite.com/.

We will have coverage of the event but we hope to see you out there.

Peter Corbett recently became one of the primary networking connectors in the MD/DC/VA area with the launch of the Twin Tech event in DC this past summer. Peter is well known in the marketing and social media community as a person who knows how to help companies large and small leverage social media through digital marketing, content creation and what he calls experiential marketing.

On Thursday, September 18th, 2008 iStrategyLabs hosted Twin Tech II with the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Twin Tech was created to bridge the gap between the veteran and emerging technology communities in the capital region.

Peter noted on his site the following facts:

-1200 confirmed attendees (250 in the first 24 hours, 400 in the first week)
-200+ waiting list
-36 amazing and generous sponsors
-2 official product launches. One by BrandClik and one by iStrategyLabs for the Bloom content creation service

Better this time around

Peter did one heck of a job for a first time event. It was a success by all accounts. The only thing people had complained about was because it was packed to capacity and really hot inside and out, made it hard to look professional when you are sweating profusely.

Learning from that experience and wanting to have an even bigger event. Peter selected the club venue called “Avenue” located on New York Ave in DC. It was closer to the metro and with three levels and air conditioning allowed everyone to spread out. There were about 200-300 conversations with an open bar on each level. There were lots of sponsors and companies launching products, tons of networking and what seemed to be lots of space to move around and really meet as many people as you wanted to.

The Twin Tech Communities Really Want to Work Together

For many of you out there who were around for the Web 1.0 era, you might remember the Netpreneur events put on by Mario Marino and his team. This has the same feel to it and I believe the communities are serious about connecting and finally trying to work together. Not only was the first Twin Tech not a flash in the pan, the coverage made this follow up even bigger and better. I believe that one of these a quarter with some related smaller focused events that target specific technical topics that the Twin Tech communities do even more effective networking would be amazing.

I just can’t wait for Twin Tech III. I know Peter and his team will deliver another memorable event.

EPILOGUE: Additional Info

Peter gathered all the coverage of the event, so for additional information, check out these sites:

[The Washington Post]: “Dispatch from the Tech Scene in Washington” (great diversity of perspectives on Twin Tech)

[Washingtonian Magazine]: “Twin Tech II Takes Over DC” (includes lots of great photos)

[Tech Bisnow]: “Twin Tech Towns Part Deux” (includes some great photos and commentary)

[Tech Bisnow]:”…NVTC’s New Reach” (includes some great photos and commentary)

[Shashi Bellamkonda]: “Twin Tech 2 – Peter Corbett organizes a giant cocktail party“

[I am now, have been, and will be wrong - VC Basics]: “Another Twin Tech Event“

[Solutions are Power - Network Solutions]: “It’s back…Twin Tech II…the event that united two DC tech communities“

[Solutions are Power - Network Solutions]: “Uniting communities through social media with Peter Corbett of istrategylabs.com“

[East Coast Blogging]: “Twin Tech II Returns with a Bang“

[Josh Greene]: “Twin Tech II“

[ButtonAll]: “ButtonAll Advances Across the Mason-Dixon Line“

[Diditzism]: “Event wrap-up – Twin Tech II in DC and Tweetup in New Delhi“

[Our Young Children]: “Early Literacy Conversation at Twin Tech II“

[Brick and Click]: “Twin Tech 2 Party a Smashing Success“

[SpeakerBox Plugged-in]: “Event Recap: Twin Tech II“

[Web 2.0h…really?]: “D.C. Social Media: 2.0ut in front?“

[ExecutiveBiz Blog]: “Washington Post’s “The Download” Emerges from “The Down Low”“

[Full Twitter Stream]: Roughly 250 tweet here. Connect with your fellow twitters

We recently sat down for an interview and I was able to spend some time with him and discuss the state of the tech community in DC and the future of digital marketing. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Steve: So, how would you describe iStrategyLabs to most people?
Peter: iStrategyLabs is a digital agency focused on providing clients with interactive strategy, experiential marketing and content creation services. Buzzwords aside, we’re focused on one thing – developing great ideas that sell your products and services or advance your cause.

Steve: So, how long have you been working in the digital marketing and social media space?
Peter: I’ve always been a ‘digital marketer’ ever since my first days on the net back in the early nineties as a teenager, but my career as an interactive strategist kicked into high gear in 2004 when I dug deep into the online media planning and buying side of the advertising world. I then had the opportunity to create the social media practice area at Blattner Brunner in 2006 – where I taught my colleagues the ins and out of social media and how it would be relevant for our clients moving forward.

Steve: What is your philosophy on using social media to grow a business?
Peter: How long do you want this blog post to be? I could go on for pages…
But, if there is one philosophy that I ensure leads every client effort (or my own efforts to use social media to grow my own business) it’s that what we’re engaging is is a one-to-one conversation with people. That is a very different approach that thinking you’re marketing to the mass of faceless consumers.

Steve: What exactly is experiential marketing for the uninitiated?
Peter: Experiential marketing is the physical creation of events that enable a brand to deeply engage an audience. I’ve been fusing this kind of ‘offline event marketing’ with social media and other interactive strategies to broaden the reach of my clients campaigns. Experiential marketing is a older marketing discipline, but it’s becoming really interesting as the lines between the digital and physical dissolve.

Steve: Since you are deep in the MD/DC/VA digital marketing/social media scene what have you seen transpire over the last 2-3 years in terms of trends, public perception and community growth?
Peter: I’ve been getting this question a lot lately. What we’re seeing in the capital region’s emerging tech/digital marketing community is not an accident, nor a trend, or coincidence. Over the past 4 years I’ve been working with about a dozen or so community organizers, programming what once were small meetups (5, 10, 20 people) for highly niche groups – the sweat equity we’ve put in has merely multiplied on itself and now we’re seeing much larger get-togethers (200, 400, 800+ attendees consistently) that are enabling all the niche sub-groups to mix with one another. That’s the idea behind Twin Tech which I host with the NVTC, and idea behind Frank Gruber’s Tech Cocktail. The niche groups are the backbone of the community are still and always will be crucial to the health of this region. What we’ve been lacking are the big mashups that get disparate groups into the same room where new friendships can be made, partnerships forged, companies started, and ideas explored.

That’s really my focus now in terms of community organizing – getting as many people together to mix it up as possible. That draws attention from the local and nation media – something we’ve really lacked over the years. Now, this region is getting noticed again as a cradle for innovation in emerging tech – from talking to some of the digital thought leaders outside of our region – people like Sarah Lacy and Scoble – I’ve learned that we really do have something unique here. We really have an incredibly healthy startup/social media community ecosystem that is spawning some really interesting businesses and other initiatives.

Finally, the fact that this group tends to be heavy users of social media technologies makes this a much faster process – we can see immediately what each other is up to. We know who is attending what, when and where. I’m amazed that I can send one email, or one Facebook event invite and there will be 250/300 rsvps to something in 24 hours. I’d like to think it’s because I’m a popular guy, but it’s really because social technologies have really made it easier for us to get together in physical space…and to market things for close to nothing.

Steve: Switching gears a bit, I would like to talk about your premier event, Twin Tech. This summer brought together the two different tech communities (government contractor crowd and the social media crowd) that might have never gotten together. Why did you put together the event when there are tons of tech events in the area?
Peter: It’s always been ‘my job’ to bring people together. I’ve done this ever since I was a little kid and it’s how I’m built. So, as someone who’s put a ton of time into helping all the niche communities in area grow separately – I was starting to think we needed to begin bringing it all together. When the Zach Goldfarb of the Washington Post called out the fact that there are “Twin Tech” towns in the capital region, I realized that I couldn’t wait any longer to get some serious cross pollination going. I’ve now made it ‘my job’ to merge, mix and mashup the niche groups…I guess I’m just curious about what will float to the top if we stir things up a bit.

Steve: Did you expect over 600 people to show for the first one?
Peter: Believe it or not, yes. At that time my local network of tech focused folks was about 500 or so mostly ‘emerging tech’ people and I knew that the veteran crowd that the NVTC would reach would be about double that. With a 30% reponse rate I figured we’d have about 500 or so folks – adding in the media coverage we got, and the ‘halo’ affect of hitting large numbers like that, the RSVPs got up to 800.

Steve: You have Twin Tech II planned for September 2008. You have a bigger venue with even more sponsors. Are you afraid it might be too big for people to really connect?
Peter: I don’t know that Twin Tech is meant for people to “really connect”, if what you mean by that is to sit down and truly get to know someone. What it will be good for is throwing the brightest minds in the region together in the same place, letting them hang out, and forge a lot of loose bonds that can then be followed up on outside of Twin Tech. People will “really connect” afterwards. It isn’t going to be the kind of thing where you sit down with someone and hash out an idea, strike a deal on the spot, or learn something out social media strategy. The niche meetups are really good for that. It’s really important for that to happen, but Twin Tech is just a starting place.

Steve: What are some lessons good or bad you have learned from doing an event of this magnitude?
Peter: Believe it or not, this isn’t a very big event for me – and it’s somewhat easy to do compared to other events I’ve produced. To put that in perspective, when I was in college I started producing concerts and would do shows with 1500+ attendees, talent flown in from around the country etc. In March I produced a concert for American Eagle Outfitters as a part of an experiential marketing campaign we did, that had about 3000+ in attendance. That took me 3 months and a team of 65 to pull off. Twin Tech is something I do solo for the most part, and with the support of NVTC.

Steve: Do you feel that an event like this will help bridge the gap between the communities and actually see them working more closely together in the future?
Peter: Absolutely. 100%. I wouldn’t bother if it didn’t.

Steve: What was the side effect of doing this event? More awareness for your company? New clients?
Peter: Yeah, there are lot of benefits to me organizing things like this and awareness for my company and new clients are certainly two of those things. I’m a startup myself, so being able to brand iStrategyLabs as the defacto source for interactive strategy, experiential marketing and content creation is key for me. If I can do that through community based initiatives, it’s a) less expensive for me to do a b) serves the broader community while I do. It’s good for everybody.

Steve: As we close the interview I would like to revisit iStrategyLabs. You have new projects like “The Wired Ones” launching in addition to growing your business. What is coming down the pipeline for iStrategyLabs over the next 12 months?
Peter: The Wired Ones has a lot of parts and pieces to it. The most relevant part of this for our conversation here dovetails with the theme of bringing disconnected communities in the region together; The Wired Ones will fuse the Tech, Creative, Entrepreneurial and Media Creation communities together for the first time. With all the niche communities under that umbrella that I’ve been a part of over the years, we’re talking about 2000 or so people that I feel really need to start connecting. I don’t think The Wired Ones Party will reach nearly that size in terms of attendance, but a few hundred or so people representing those areas will make for some interesting new connections between people.

Aside from that, iStrategyLabs is about a year and a week old and growing fast. In October we’re going to open an office in Dupont Circle that will include two floors and a rooftop! Aside from a great place for me to host happy hours, I hope my ‘idea lab’ will be the most creative place in town. I plan to have open ideation sessions – meaning, you can come and brainstorm and work through marketing/communications challenges with others, regardless of whether or not you work at a ‘competing’ agency, or if you’re a client of ours. If done right, it will truly become what iStrategyLabs tagline describes as “An Idea Foundry” – a place where ideas are born, and brought to life in the digital and physical world for our clients and for ourselves.

Lastly, a year from now, I hope I’ll be able to stick to my current model regardless of growth. The current model is to bring together what I call ‘iStrategists’ to solve clients problems only if they’re exactly the right people for the job. In this way i’m not ‘selling clients what’s sitting next to me in the cubicle’; I’m able to bring them fast and flexible teams that are lean and super talented. I don’t want to slip into the legacy agency model where you’re counting hours and trying to figure out how to monetize your staff by charging clients more and for stuff they don’t need. Interactive strategy moves way to fast for that.

The post in question was a Washington Post blog article titled “Washington’s Twin Tech Towns“. It described that while the Northern Virginia Tech Council (NVTC) was having their “Hot Ticket Awards” event at a beautiful house in McLean with 300 people from the “Old Guard” of technology integrators and government contracting firms, in DC at a hip club in Dupont Circle there were a different group of 300 “New Guard” people from the Social Media and Web 2.0 scene there to meet well-known Web guys Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert Scoble.

On July 17th, the Northern Virginia Technology Council and iStrategyLabs hosted The Twin Tech Party, covered here, that surpised everyone with over 700 people jamming into a venue in DC with lots of beer and networking that never would have happened anywhere else.
This occasion marked by the coming together of about 700 of the Capital Region’s emerging tech stars and veteran entrepreneurs.

A full recap of the coverage including links to Twin Tech I photos and videos can be found here.

With that kind of success everyone wanted him to do another, so Peter has complied and is proud to announce Twin Tech II:

It’s our pleasure to announce that Twin Tech II will be held on September 18th, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm.

The format remains the same: the brightest minds in the tech/venture space will be on hand to mix and mingle with one another during a happy hour style meet-up. An open bar will be made available through the generosity of our sponsors.

Please make sure to RSVP now as you’ll need to be on the list to get in and we will most likely run out of room. Twin Tech I had 800 RSVPs and we could only accommodate 610. Connect with your fellow Twin Tech attendees here on Facebook.

When:
Thursday, September 18th, from 6:00pm-9pm

Where:
At Avenue on New York and 7th (Chinatown) [Map]. Gallery Place and Convention Center metro stops are just blocks away, parking is available across the street, and valet service will be on-site as well.

Sign up before this one sells out too. It is going to be an awesome event and we will have coverage and interviews from the event afterward.