Lunch 2.0

Last Wednesday (08 Aug) I went to Lunch 2.0 at AOL. What a difference a year makes =). Lunch 2.0 was first held at AOL in March of 2006. Mark Jen had asked me to host at AOL back when we were sneaking in cafeterias. I mentioned to Mark that we might have to pay for our own lunch and go to the cafeteria where we jaywalk across the street. Mark was gracious enough to say that was completely fine — little did I know that was their M.O. so it really was no big deal. The folks that came all fit in one picture frame:

Photo Credit: Terry Chay

It was nice and intimate and we were able to take them around and show them the office. I was most excited to show them the UX Cafe where we post designs and everyone can look and comment on them. I told some of my designer friends to take down anything “confidential”. When we got to the area, everything was taken down and all the boards were flipped hahaha I guess everything was confidential.

Today, designs may still be confidential but AOL is showing more signs of embracing the Silicon Valley Tech “Web 2.0″ community. The VP at AOL Silicon Valley, William Morris, welcomed folks. They had great schwag … giving away a Timbuktu bag! It’s really amazing how much Lunch 2.0 has grown! Check out the video below.

Don’t forget Lunch 2.0 at Plaxo Wed 15 Aug 2007. That’s tomorrow/today!!

Disclaimer: I used to be an employee at AOL Silicon Valley

Cross posted at: http://monkeynotions.com/blog/2007/08/14/a-walk-down-memory-lane-at-aol/

Technorati Tags: lunch 2.0aol

Our first Lunch 2.0 in San Francisco was great! Check out this video created by the JumpCut folks, over the internet, right in front of us, during the lunch.

Be sure to click on the “Remix” button at the end of the video—it’s like iMovie in your web browser. You can create a pretty impressive vide with this, even though it’s a little wonky in Safari. (Remember to check the “Add” tab where you can pull stuff tagged “lunch20″ from all of JumpCut.

Speaking of pretty impressive, check out this video created by PodTech about the NETGEAR Lunch 2.0. (Disclaimer: NETGEAR is a client of PodTech.)

It starts with the founders of Lunch 2.0 talking about how it all started, a tour of the NETGEAR event itself, and why NETGEAR hosted one. It looks so geek cool, I wish I was there… Oh wait!

Hmm, if you want to taste the buzz it’s not to late to go to the one at SimplyHired today in MountainView. Maybe you can grab a bunch of extra food for your buddies standing in line at Apple Store Palo Alto.

As VC of Lunch 2.0, it is my job to make sure we run at a loss until we sell out. With all the free schwag that we’re getting from our gracious hosts, we’re in danger of recouping the $5 investment that I put in for the domain name.

I can’t let that happen and I’ve forced the others to seek a second round of venture financing with a pre-capitalization of… well… to be honest… it sort of breaks down there.

Oh well, I’m trying to increase exposure of Lunch 2.0 because a lot of people hear us through word of mouth and have complained that they don’t know how to get in touch with us to host an event. So I had business cards printed out:

I had an extra deck printed and I’m trying to give away all the cards from it. The way this works is you view them on Flickr, mark the one you want with flickr’s notes feature, and contact me and tell me how I can get the card to you. Pretty easy, huh?

Quick links: one, two, three, four, five.

This is my way of saying thanks for coming out to Lunch 2.0 and thanks for hosting! Without you, we’d just be four guys trying to sneak into cafeterias in the Valley.

Another great showing yesterday, this time at NETGEAR. Thanks to our hosts for providing food and a really cool future networked home showcase for us to play in. Here are some photos on Flickr from David (pics), Jeremiah, Mario (pics), Jeremy (pics), Chris (pics), Drue (pics), and Jeremy (pics)

Also, check out Jeremiah’s wrap up post(photos and video), überpulse (video), Holly (video), Mario Sundar, Christopher Salazar, Lisa Amorao, Michael Galpin, and Drue Kataoka.

Thanks everyone for coming; hope to see you all at Ning in 2 weeks!

Wow. Thanks again to the wonderful crew at LinkedIn for a great event last Wednesday. Here are a few pictures I snagged while I was there:

According to the guest list, there were over 200 people at the event! Here’s a quick write up by Mario over on the LinkedIn Blog, Bub.blicio.us was there to cover the event, and we even got covered in the SF chronicle

Check out this video Jeremiah shot for us at the event. Great stuff all around!

If none of the others are going to blog about this here, I am.

Lunch 2.0 and the LunchedIn event made the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle with an article by Jessica Guynn titled “Lunch 2.0: free food, a side of tech talk Cafeteria crashers now invited guests.” (Paul Chinn also provided a photo on page A14 of a dashingly handsome Lunch 2.0 photographer. I won’t spoil it by telling you who it is. )

Hmm, I got the munchies now.

Upcoming Lunch 2.0s

• Tuesday, May 29- Cellity (Germany)
• Wednesday May 30- Netgear
• Friday, June 1- Wetpaint (Seattle)
• Thursday, June 14- Ning

Want to host a Lunch 2.0? Contact Mark Jen or me.

It’s hard to imagine, but Lunch 2.0 has been around for over a year now! Last Wednesday, we brought it back to one of the original locales for a little lunch and demo over at Yahoo!’s Mission College Campus. Folks from YPN, MyBlogLog, and Pipes were on hand to give quick demos of their products and there were plenty of Yahoos around to chat with.

As you can see, there was quite a crowd and we even got some video coverage courtesy of bub.blicio.us!

Thanks Ian and Yahoo! for hosting us. Hope to be back soon!

Chalk up another one, thanks to our awesome friends over at Meebo.

For those who weren’t able to make it, here are some cool photos Jeremiah took for us (check out the rest in his photostream):

Yum… just looking at the pictures is making me hungry again!If you’ve got pictures from this past Lunch 2.0 event, upload them on Flickr and tag them “lunch20” or upload them to your favorite photo hosting site and let us know about it.

Stay tuned for future Lunch 2.0 events by subscribing to our RSS feed or getting on our e-mail subscriptions (see the top right corner of our homepage)!

Wow, Lunch 2.0 at Zazzle was kickin’! Good food, good company, good weather… perhaps a bit too good (it was hot!)…

Check out this poster Zazzle made for the event:

Check out the swag Zazzle had going on:

More pictures!

Compliments to the chef!

Thanks Zazzle for hosting us and for the Lunch 2.0 diehards, get yourself some cool Lunch 2.0 logo gear!

We sure to watch this blog for updates on the next Lunch 2.0!

Wow! We had a HUGE turnout this past Wednesday at Meebo. Major thanks to Meebo for hosting and I hope everyone who attended had a great time.

For those who missed us this time, here are some pictures

We had at least 100 people this time around and there was lots of great discussion and networking for everyone.

Check back here often for info on our next Lunch 2.0 - or even better yet, just subscribe to our feed!