Social media, startups & Sprouter in the Capitol

Mashable's Adam Hirsch, Sprouter's Sarah Prevette, & Andrew Kneale. Photo Credit: Nakeva N. Corothers

Last week was a huge one for the team at Sprouter. First, we launched our new site & name at an amazing launch party on the London Taphouse rooftop patio on Wednesday night. It was so great to bring out the community to say thank you for supporting us over the past several months, and to introduce them to Sprouter. We’re always amazed at the great group of entrepreneurs and members of the tech community who come out to our events (which will now be called Sproutups).

The Mashable guys - Adam Hirsch, Brett Petersel & Adam Ostrow

Right on the heels of our launch party we packed our bags and headed to Washington, D.C. to meet local entrepreneurs, startups, and members of the social media/tech community. Thursday evening we attended Mashable’s #Hyatt4Good Tweetup at the Hyatt Hotel on Capitol Hill. The Mashable guys have been on a cross-country tour hosting Tweetups in cities like Boston and Chicago to benefit the Summer for Social Good, an online campaign to raise funds online through social media and the power of the Internet. The Washington event was hosted by Mashable’s east coast events director Brett Petersel; editor-in-chief Adam Ostrow; and COO Adam Hirsch. Though they said a few words about the charity and the tour the event was mostly a networking social. After saying hello to the Mashable guys we had a great time chatting with members of the local social media/tech/non-profit scene – among them digial agency president Chris Abraham & our friend local Twestival organizer Anthony Fears. We also learned about some cool startups in the area – Open Amplify, a web service that brings understanding to content; and Jess3, a creative interactive agency.

Science Club, the site of the Sprouter #geekdrinks event in D.C.

Friday evening we hosted our own networking social in Washington – our first official Sprouter event! This #geekdrinks event took place at local social media-friendly bar Science Club – owner Steve is heavily involved in the social media scene (he helped us spread the word via Twitter and answered our questions via Twitter messages). Our goal was to meet some of the local startups and entrepreneurs, and hear about some of the upcoming events in the area. Since we didn’t know many people in the city our friends Justin Thorp and the good people

Some of the #geekdrinks attendees - @MattHurst, @thorpus, @v and Sprouter's @SarahPrevette

at Social Media Club Washington helped promote the event to their friends and members. We had a great turnout at the event, and everyone had such diverse backgrounds. From someone who works on accessibility for the government; to people who worked at non-profit organizations; to someone working on audience engagement at PBS; to the former head of Internet during George Bush’s second presidential term. We had a great time chatting with everyone, and even learned about a very cool social media wine tour taking place later this year. Thanks to everyone who came out – especially our friend Aaron Brazell who showed us around the town after #geekdrinks was done.

Thanks to everyone we met at the Mashable event, and to everyone who came out to learn more about us and Sprouter at #geekdrinks. We look forward to making a trip back soon! Check out our full set of photos on Flickr here.