Friday, March 11, 2005

VIC Returns, Targets SF and LA

socalTECH has learned that the Venice Interactive Community (www.vicnetwork.com), one of the organizations most associated with the dot com boom in Southern California, has returned. Brad Nye, founder of VIC, tells socalTECH that a group of dot com veterans decided to bring back the group after over 350 people showed up at a reunion in December. According to Nye, "There's now a sense that the industry is really settled and that it's still a vital industry - and there are still people looking for the connectedness that VIC provided in the old days." The VIC Network is headed by Nye, and events are being organized by Tony Winders, former president of iAgency and now director of marketing for ValueClick; Mariana Danilovic, former head of the Digital Media incubator for KPMG; Michael Terpin, CEO of Terpin Communications and founder of Internet Wire; and Mark Jeffrey, co-founder of Zero Degrees. Nye, now based in San Francisco, says that events will be held in both the Bay Area as well as throughout the Los Angeles area. Nye explains that the group is going to try to do more with online tools this time around, and will try to tap blogs, list servs, and other technology to foster networking among the community. The group says that it will bring back the 1990's style technology boom parties and events; time will tell if the group can bring back the dot com employees who disappeared with the dot com bust.

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