Lots of people don’t feel much like partying these days.
But it’s nerd-party central tonight, when Twiistup 5 and Twestival both converge on Los Angeles. You may remember Twiistup as the , entrepreneurs and alcohol, then blends them together in a big ol’ party where words like “chug it” and “RSS feeds” can be heard within minutes of each other. Tonight’s Twiistup, at the Santa Monica Airport, shows off 11 companies whose products promise to make businesses more productive, connect babies on social networks, recognize faces on videos and deploy robots to change the way people live. They’re all eligible to win two awards: Fan Favorite and Judges Choice. The goal is to get funding. One of tonight’s Twiistup showoffs, TheScene, said today that it had just secured seed funding from Velocity Interactive Group (which counts among its partners Jonathan Miller, he of the ). TheScene calls itself a “nightlife and entertainment platform connecting users to the hottest people, places and events in their area.” So a company that helps people party announces that it has raised money on the night it’s being featured in a party about raising money. How meta. But don’t rush to Twiistup to party yet. First of all, it sold out a week ago (sorry). Second of all, there’s another party in town. Twestival, an event put on by Twitter to raise money for , will feature blogging guests, DJs and comedians at Club 740 Downtown. The guests include the host of Mahalo Daily to Joe Rogan, the guy from “Fear Factor” and Ultimate Fighting Championship. The party starts at 8 p.m. and goes to 2 a.m. Some L.A. techies aren’t too psyched that both events are occurring on the same night. After drinking up lots of, er, information about start-ups at Twiistup, it might be tough to get downtown for Twestival. “Massive FAIL to whoever scheduled Twiistup and Twestival on the same night,” . “Tonight am headed to Los Angeles Twestival and Twiistup … Charity Water AND supporting local start ups. Tired already,” . But maybe it’s just a sign of just how cool the L.A. tech scene has become. Even in an economy when few feel like partying, L.A. is overbooked. It certainly makes other Californian techies jealous.
“Twestival AND Twiistup all on LA! Ok SAN DIEGO we need some good events soon.” . “Make the LA ppl come down here )!”