TechCrunch9

Joanne Wan (GigaOm), Daniel Graf (kyte.tv), Kathy Johnson (Consort Partners), Gaurav Dhillon (Jaman), originally uploaded by kathyjohnson.

I have a few photos from the TechCrunch party at August Capital last Friday, which I've posted on Flickr and my Kyte channel. I'll try to post some here and provide a bit of narrative as well.. so here's a start...

First, it was another gorgeous day in California - crystal clear blue sky, brilliant sunshine, mid- to upper-80s temp. A bit too hot for networking in the sun, but the shade was okay to mingle with the team at Jaman, who had a prime (shady) spot secured for the TechCrunch party. Comfy chairs, the aroma of freshly popped buttered popcorn, and a big plasma screen projected clips from some of their hi-def worldly wonders for the internationally diverse crowd present (you'll see Gaurav Dhillon, founder and CEO of Jaman.com in this photo on the right).

Daniel Graf, co-founder & CEO of Kyte.tv, and crew were also lifecasting live from the TechCrunch party on the Techcrunch Kyte.tv channel. Daniel (lower center in the photo) did a great job drawing in the crowd to broadcast snippets of the event to a captive audience all around the world. He knows how to work the camera -- both as a star and as a producer/director. I'll post some video later that he directed ;-) You'll also see a cameo in that video of Joanne Wan of GigaOm (left in the photo).

The party was a bit like a high school reunion, with cliques forming and the popular kids drawing the attention of the crowds. I don't know know if I felt more like an insider or outsider, but after a couple of glasses of white wine (too hot for red), it seemed that everyone was friendlier and chummier (if that's a word). Andrea Heuer and Robert Norton seemed to prefer the margaritas, but I never got around to tasting them (how does the saying go, start with wine and you'll be fine, or whatever... anyway, I started and stayed with wine).

It was an enjoyable evening, even though Jeannie Logozzo (the organizer behind the entire event and the person who ensured all the sponsors were happy) got stuck en route from the east coast to the west and was unfortunately stranded in DC after a United Airlines emergency landing and diversion (oh the joys of domestic travel).

Robert Norton of King.com ended up in a story on the FT after comparing the Techcrunch phenomenon to First Tuesday with Chris Nuttall of the Financial Times. Kyte.tv's TechCrunch channel was featured all weekend on TechCrunch, typically drawing at least 150-200 simultaneous fans to chat about the event, and Jaman attracted a new set of eyeballs hungry for worldly content in unsurpassed (and portable) quality.