VentureBeat's Matt Marshall @ Startup Camp San Francisco

Matt Marshall was formerly a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and who started the company VentureBeat.com in 2006. We first met when I attended his party at the Amsterdam in San Francisco, and then ran into each other at Startup Camp San Francisco, where he took time to talk with me while we were in the chow line there.

As for Startup Camp itself, it was great for networking, but I didn't get out of it what I was looking for, which was focused, specific discussion of problems and issues that all startups face. For the most part, the discussion groups had general conversations and were too large in some cases to be effective on a personal level.

Startup Camp - Meetings On Blogs and Social Networks

I'll post videos from this event soon, but now I'm listening to a panel that features Matt Marshall of VentureBeat, noted Social Media expert Brian Solis, and others talking about social networks. Social networks -- er, the conversation about them -- have dominated this conference.

The conference is great for networking and I've met -- already -- a number of people I've either seen at other tech events like VentureBeat's great party last Thursday, to people I will be doing business with.