If you didn't come to party, don't bother knocking on the door

Yes, it seemed like it was 1999 again at the very fun Boston TechCrunch MeetUp on Friday night at the Estate. There was free booze, food (which is at odds with my previous post regarding Web 2.0) and lots and lots and lots of people. In fact, this is the first Boston networking event in long time where I ran into mobs of people I knew -- from clients to media to VCs to even one of my neighbors (okay, he is a VC).

Several companies displayed their Web 2.0 offerings including mypunchbowlcom and the National League of Poker, which had quite a crowd in their back room.

While there was some grumbling here and there about the overuse of the words "Facebook" and "social network", for the most part there seemed to be an atmosphere of excitement and enthusiasm about high tech.  I hope this is a positive sign for the market as we head into 2008.