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Yes It Rocked – Recapping The Awesome GovLoop Anniversary Parties

It’s Saturday and I’m recovering from a fantastic week. Quite superb.

This week was GovLoop’s 1-year anniversary and I’ve been thinking for awhile how to mark the occasion. Well things started to come together in a number of awesome ways.

On Tuesday in San Francisco, GovLoop teamed up with Gov 2.0 Club San Francisco to have a party in San Francisco. GovLoop rockstar, Gov 2.0 Club SF founder, and Gov 2.0 Radio host Adriel Hampton led the way and over 100 people gathered to connect and share ideas. Check out Adriel’s recap and thank to O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Showcase Expo for supporting the bar.

On Thursday, I did something new and entered Second Life. I’d heard a lot about the virtual world and know a lot of agencies have dipped their toes into it. So when GovLooper Marie wrote me and stated we should have a Second Life party for GovLoop’s anniversary I jumped all in. So the party came and a bunch of GovLooper piled in to an awesome room where a few of us gave speeches, wore party hats, and had a dance party.

Shout out to Eric Hackathorn who gave a talk and is just a govt Second Life rockstar. Thanks Marie (and check out her design company if you need help)

And onto the final main event. Thursday was the big bash in D.C. Summer of Gov D.C. was a combo event b/w GovLoop and Peter Corbett (iStrategyLabs) and the recent D.C. Apps for Community contest. Held at Local 16 – a sweet cool spot – the event quickly sold out the 300 spots.

The event was a smashing success and I really enjoyed chatting with #gov20 innovators and I always come back with a million ideas and a lot of positive energy. At the event, I was told by someone that their friend met their husbands at a Young Government Leaders event (a group I co-founded). Next step, more couples and babies out of GovLoop (I heard one couple formed from #gov20barcamp)

People came from places like DOD, DHS, MixedInk (Open Gov tool used by White House), Deloitte, AOL, State Dep, Bisnow, FCW, NAPA, Washington Post, Gov Exec, DC Gov, and many more.

Thanks to the fine folks at 1105 – Open Government and Innovation Conference (sign up for this sweet conference next week if you haven’t) for helping with the bar and KIDD Group for helping to put together the event. And the fine “friends of the bar” – Bob Gourley, Adam Boalt, Michael Rupert, Chris Dorobek, Ellyn Ambrose, Bobby Browning, FierceGovernmentIt, Noel Dickover, Denise Kennedy, Kelly Olson, James Hanson, Jaime Gracia, Jennifer Kirkhoff, Lena Trudeau, Evan Burfield, Aaron Nestor, Kenneth Fischer,

Here’s some photos originall from Chris Dorobek’s awesome blog (dorobekinsider.com -a must read)

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Kitty Wooley

Congratulations, Steve! From what I heard on Metro on the way home that night, the party really was wonderful. Thanks for all your hard work gathering the community. Kitty