Seattle Lunch 2.0 is now TechCafe!

This wonderful logo was put together by a Seattle Lunch 2.0 community member – Mark Chrisman. Mark attended a number of the events in the past and when we were asked for the first time to partner with the WTIA on an event, we needed a logo! Mark, loving the events and being a bright guy put together this logo. As we enter the fourth year of Seattle Lunch 2.0 and update our name & brand, I want to thank Mark for all of his efforts and patronage to Seattle Lunch 2.0.

As you may have noticed, our new name is TechCafe. So why the name change? What the heck was wrong with Seattle Lunch 2.0? First, a few things about our new name and mission:

■We don’t have a new logo (yet)
■We are being run by the same folks as always (yes, by we I pretty much mean me)
■We won’t be calling ourselves TechCafe 2.0 just to fit in
■We are still putting on the same great Lunch & Happy Hour events as we have for the last three years
■We don’t plan to earn a living off of these events
■We are still excited about all of the other events and places that exist for people to connect
■We no longer are restricted to “Seattle”
■We are motivated by the great people and companies that come and go here in the Greater Seattle Area
Of course there is the simple naming & logistics problem with Seattle Lunch 2.0 – We’ve been putting on events that happen at lunch time and events that happen during happy hour… which is a little odd sometimes. We’ve been calling some of these events “Seattle Lunch 2.0 Happy Hour @host w/co-sponsor”. I know that Microsoft gets away with branding like this, but they have been outpaced by Apple now as well. We had folks showing up at lunch time for a happy hour event and people waiting until happy hour time for a lunch event. Very confusing for folks. Granted all they need to do is look at the start time – but a lot of people are busy these days so we want to make it easy with naming more like “TechCafe Lunch @Sponsor” and “TechCafe Happy Hour @Sponsor” – much less confusing for our community.

Add to this naming problem, internally we realized that, for us it was time for a change and raising the bar. As all of you are well aware, when you are working on a project that slowly grows over time there always ends up being a point where kicking it up a notch or putting it into the next gear is necessary to really make that project what it can and should be. For us at Seattle Lunch 2.0, we’ve hit that time. Somewhat inspired by the changes at Seattle 2.0, the introduction of so many great organizations (Techstars, Founders Co-op, etc), and enabled by some of the great sponsorship and friends we’ve made (through the events themselves).

June marks our anniversary date, this is the end of our third year of operations and now the beginning of our fourth. We have helped companies launch products. We have helped companies launch themselves. We have helped Seattle’s tech industry hire some of the brightest in the industry. We have enabled companies to get the buzz going about their company. We have inspired entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. We have connected people in the tech industry for all sorts of reasons. We have enjoyed every minute of it and want to ensure we continue to offer what the community needs.

With the new site, the obvious new partnership with nPost & TechFoam, and a continued passion for the tech community in the greater Seattle area, there are some great plans in the works. These will unfold over the course of the year so you will definitely need to stay tuned here on the new blog.