Two or three weeks ago spring returned to northern California and despite everything going on in the world, spirits are starting to soar. Taking our lead from nature we hosted the second edition of “Casual Drinks“, Avangate’s networking event focused on software publishers and their partners.
We elected to host the spring edition of “Casual Drinks” at local Mountain View restaurant Don Giovanni, and from the start were quite pleased with the decision. Don Giovanni has a tradition of hosting events for local software companies, as you can see by the logos on the wall, and with the success of “Casual Drinks” Avangate has taken its place next to these giants! Inviting our friends and colleagues to see our new permanent position on the wall was quite a proud moment.
Our primary goal for organizing events such as “Casual Drinks” is to help organize the local software community, create low pressure and friendly environment for networking and to have fun- and judging by these pictures I think we accomplished our goal!
Although I spent much of event balancing between taking care of people as they arrived and coordinating with the Don Giovanni staff, I did manage to find some time to sneak away and speak with some of my favorite US colleagues.
I had the opportunity to discuss strategies for software distribution with Bob Walsh and moved into a conversation with Raj from Acutrack on the Indian religion and the webinar we co-hosted last month. With Gus from Nvidia and Daniela from Oracle I discussed being a good parent and the balance between family and work. I even spent some time with my good friends Santiago from Softonic and George from Recognos enjoying a glass a good red wine from Italy.
Our special guests for the evening were Carmen Sebe (Avangate CEO) and Laurentiu Ghenciu (Avangate Global Sales Manager). From their accounts they had a great time meeting and speaking with new colleagues and getting a chance to forget about their jet lag ;)
Casey gave another one of his great speeches taking an opportunity to make everyone laugh and brainstorm about how a software company can increase their sales volumes with Avangate, and this time the best answers were awarded with a copy of “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” a great book by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter.
Following the rules of organizing a good networking event, I have written down my thoughts and I am inviting you to post your comments, questions or feedback so that our next event will be even better.
Thank-you again to all the people who joined us and I am looking forward to seeing you again!
P.S. If you reached this point it means that you read the entire post; I thank you for that! Let’s stay connected and share some other ideas in the feature: follow me on Twitter and check out my LinkedIn Profile.
