Monthly Archives: March 2008

Heading to Austin for SXSW

March 5, 2008 / posted by Nathan T. Wright

sxswiTomorrow I’m blasting off for Austin, Texas, for the 2008 South by Southwest interactive festival, a gathering of like-minded geeks, developers, designers, artists, entrepreneurs and gurus. I’ll be tweeting the entire time (assuming that Twitter doesn’t blow up from the massive increase in user activity). Looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones, frosty beverages and heavy doses of inspiration.

SXSW always sets the tone for my year. If you’ve never attended, I highly recommend you budget for it in 2009!

New digs for Lava Row

March 5, 2008 / posted by Nathan T. Wright

Last Saturday I moved into the new Lava Row office, which is at 400 E. Locust in Des Moines’ gentrified East Village neighborhood. It’s great to finally have a home for the business, especially after a year of working from my house and various coffee shops. Please stop in for a visit if you’re in the area — visitors are always welcome! I’m way up in the tower, as shown in the photo below.

Office space

Second Des Moines TweetUp is a rousing success

March 5, 2008 / posted by Nathan T. Wright

After launching Des Moines’ first TweetUp back in February, my intent was for future events to be de-centralized and self-organizing. I opened up a wiki to let participants discuss ideas for future locations and dates, and almost overnight, others had taken the reins and organized a second TweetUp, which took place this Monday evening at Court Avenue Brewing Company. Based on our unofficial headcount, 17 people showed up — that’s almost triple attendance from last time!

What I love about these events is the opportunity to connect with other people interested in technology and new media here in Des Moines, who I otherwise may never have met. The insights, shared knowledge and ideas formed over cocktails with new friends are extremely valuable, or, as @webboy put it: “It did more for me in one night than LinkedIn did in one year.”

Well said. If you’re interested in joining us for future TweetUps, please check out / join the Des Moines TweetUp wiki and be sure to track updates using the #dmtweetup hashtag method on Twitter.