The August STIRR mixer was held last night at Blue Chalk in Palo Alto and it was a HOT event – literally. No A/C on a hot August night…but still, the place was packed until the very end.

Photo Credit: Ian Kennedy

This was STIRR’s fifth event and appeared to be its biggest to date. What sets STIRR apart is that it is an effective mix of “live” social and business networking among a highly qualified crowd of tech innovators, Web 2.0 execs, entreprenuers, VCs, bloggers, and journalists. Kudos to the STIRR team:

• Sanford Barr, Co-Founder STIRR, The STIRR Network
• Sean Ness, Co-Founder STIRR, Institute for the Future
• Dan Arkind, Co-Founder STIRR, Indico Group
• Joanne Wan, STIRR Business Development, Strategic Decisions Group

Photo Credit: Jackie Danicki

As usual, companies are held to the event’s trademark 60-second business pitch. The evening’s line-up of presenters were:

• ConnectBeam, Puneet Gupta, CEO – Social collaboration for the enterprise
• OpenDNS, David Ulevitch, CEO – Rock Solid DNS that puts “you” in control
• YouSendIt, Ivan Koon, CEO – Wow, that’s a big file… YouSendIt!

The key questions asked after each presentation were extremely poignant and all companies should be prepared to answer at a moment’s notice:

• What pain do you solve? (What does the company do 100x to 1000x betterthan anyone else?)
• Who pays you and why?
• How are you going to dominate your market? (What strategy is going toobliterate your competition)?
• Who is the competition?

Photo Credit: Vic Podcaster

I had the opportunity to meet and speak with several stand-out entrepreneurs, execs, and media, all of whom I believe are “people to watch.” I also recorded a segment for Vic’s Hot From Silicon Valley podcast – direct link here. People to keep your eyes on:

• Vinnie Lauria of Meetro and Silicon Valley New Tech Meetup
• Kristie Wells of BrainJams
• Jessica Hardwick, CEO of SwapThing
• Ivaylor Lenkov, CEO of SiteKreator
• James Yu, founder of BuzzShout
• Priya Ganapati, journalist at Red Herring
• Laurence Toney, VP Marketplace Operations, art.com
• Sanford Barr, co-founder of STIRR
• Sean Ness, co-founder of STIRR
• Greg Narain, CEO at Social Roots
• Ranvir Gujral, CEO of InsightPath
• Tracy Sheridan, CEO, Waxxi
• David Allen, Founder & Managing Partner, New Castle Partners

If we didn’t get a chance to meet, please send me an email at brian@future-works.com. My goal is to profile as many companies and entrepreneurs as possible.

Photo Credit: Brian Solis – more pix here

There’s no question that STIRR is gaining in popularity, and it was evident last night. They hit maximum capacity and the word is out that they’re looking for a bigger venue in Palo Alto.

All I can say is that I’m looking forward to STIRR 1.6. In the meantime, there will be updates here, so feel free to visit again. If you have any information, highlights, etc., please send them along. Until September…

Links:
For pictures from the event, click here to jump to the Flickr photo stream.

Vic’s podcast featuring the event’s presenters is online.

Tags: stirr mixer, connectbeam, yousendit, opendns, swapthing, buzzshout, brainjams, meetro, socialroots, insightpath, vincent lauria, vinnie lauria, kristie wells, sitekreator, futureworks, sanford barr, sean ness, brian solis, pr, public relations, pr2.0 web2.0, web 2.0