The after-work crowd sipped IPA and snacked on quesadillas at tables set up in front of the stage. But instead of jeans and sneakers, they wore suits with name tags and typed on laptops. And there was no live music - just a projection screen with the words, "Our World is a Microsoft World."
This was the Providence Geeks' monthly meeting, which was held last night at AS220.The popular downtown restaurant, bar and club turned into a convention center for geeks across the Renaissance City.
Last night, the guest speakers were Chief Executive Officer Chris Crawford and Chief Technology Officer Peter Mackey from The Corporate Marketplace, a North Kingston company that creates online stores that allow companies to redistribute brand-name goods to other companies or to employees as rewards.
Crawford called TCMPI a "hub that fields world-class brands into alternative distribution channels." When Crawford initially told Geeks organizer Jack Templin about his company, Templin said he immediately thought, "Oh great, a crazy person."
Mackey and Crawford gave a brief Powerpoint presentation about their company's success and then gave way to a few hours of socialization, which was the Geeks' primary focus.
"There's a typical congregation on little groups," said Emlyn Addison, rolling his eyes.
Addison's friend Steve Babigian, who jokingly identified himself as a "cool geek," said the point of the meeting was "to get everybody drunk enough for everyone to think whatever they're saying up there is ... genius."
Addison and Babigian were first-time Geeks who said they came for the fun of the event, but many at AS220 seemed to be scouting business opportunities and came equipped with stacks of business cards.
"It's a networking thing," said Dave Brown, a local software consultant who regularly comes to Geeks meetings. "Find people, find workers, shout around ideas."
Though the dinner did feature some local entrepreneurs, Templin said, the Providence Geeks were not using AS220 only as a business breeding ground.
"There's such a connection between technology, design and art," Templin said. "That's something people don't understand about the technology scene."
Templin, who started Providence Geeks three years ago with Brian Jepson, said they thought AS220 would be the "perfect location" for Geek dinners.
"This group is very comfortable here," Templin said.
AS220, which houses Taqueria Pacifica restaurant, also serves as a small art gallery. Jepson showed off a friend's piece - a hamster ball - amidst paintings hanging on the walls.
The ball, which drew more attention than the gallery's paintings, was equipped with eight "keys," a light sensor on the outside and tangled electronic wiring, Jepson said. When hooked up to MIDI equipment like GarageBand, the ball could be used to play music, Jepson said.
"One hamster ball at a time, we're changing the world right now," Jepson said.
The crowd, which was split between self-proclaimed geeks ogling computer screens and beer-drinking loungers, represented a critical mass of technology innovators, said Wendy Lawton, a media relations officer at Brown and Templin's girlfriend.
Lawton said these gatherings give attendees the sense that "there are other people like me here."
"To some degree this is a start-up ... creating (an internet-based organization) that hasn't been there before," Lawton said.
Providence Geeks is "dedicated to creating more connections and collaboration between R.I.'s burgeoning info-tech and digital media community and the state's many academic institutions," Templin wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "Student entrepreneurs find a support network full of potential collaborators, advisers (and) investors."
