What was so funny was the email emphasized that the event was outside of Web 2.0, not inside of it.
Of course, one needed a Web 2.0 badge to get into it, but whatever.
Zoosk is a dating social network started by Shayan Zadeh, who's now CEO of the company. Zadeh explained that Zoosk started out as a Facebook-based project to rate "hot hot your eligible friends are on Facebook" and it grew from there. "And now there's a song about us," he said.
This song featuring T-Pain...
The Zoosk party was a mix of the typical SF Bay Area tech party with a lot of free drinks, an ice sculpture of the name of the firm holding the event, and people socializing in clumps and a wild scene of people who worked for the company were associated with it in some way, who were not afraid to yell and scream and shout.
On the tech side, I met Chindu Parikh of Sach Manya. Sach Manya is a mobile web applications firm who won the Venture Capital Speed Dating event Zoosk hosted. Like many small companies at parties like this, Sach Manya's work and creations are exciting, innovative, and useful. Need an iPhone app? Chances are Sach Manya can produce one for you that meets your needs.
Aside from the talk about tech, well there wasn't much of that. There was a lot of flowing cocktails and (thankfully) Hip Hop music. I say that because I'm tired of events where it seems the hosts think if they pay Rap or Hip Hop they're going to be taken hostage.
Was the party a bellweather of economic improvement? Did it mean Web 2.0 was a success and I missed it? I'm going to say, no and no. No because it was a small party that took up one room and by one company. It was designed to be that way and you can't tell a thing from an event like that. But I will say no to the second question just by the read of the lack of a crowd at The W Hotel.
You can tell how much economic impact an event has by the crowd or lack of one at The W Hotel during a convention. While Wonder Con SF drew record crowds, it didn't translate to spending at the W. In past years, it did. The Game Developers Conference packed the W all night long it seemed and that was more of a crowd for the W. And while that's true for Web 2.0, it didn't translate into a crowded W Hotel this time around.
In a way, that's too bad. Even though I blasted the organizers for a boring event, I'd hoped to see a Web 2.0 hashtag from someone's account as a Twitter Trend, proving me wrong. It never happened. Somewhere along the way Web 2.0 had become far too clubby and now it needs to be far more open. At a time when more people are being forced to learn about the Internet and how to use it for their business, Web 2.0's once keen market ears may need a New Media spring cleaning.
Perhaps Zoosk offers a lesson for Web 2.0's future: just add Rap and a few iconoclastic video-bloggers.
Think about it.
Stay tuned.
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