It was another great night at 18th Web Innovators Group. I have not heard of an actual count but it was easily the largest turnout yet.

My favorite demo from the main 3 presenters had to be Totspot but Zeer and WebNotes both look like promising startups. Of the side demonstrations, it was great to see former colleague Michal Hlavac from local virtual world CreaturePark and to meet Robert DeFranco from 211me. I also had a chance to meet upcoming blogger Amanda Gravel of SocialHoneycomb – add her RSS feed to your reader.

Pictures: You can check out all of the pictures on Flickr. If you have pictures of the event, please add them to the Boston Tech Events group that I just started on Flickr.

Social Media: You can follow the event on (Summize) Twitter Search or join the new Webinno room on FriendFeed started by my colleague and FF star Hao.

Presenters: Please check out each of the local startups from the event last night.

• Totspot – Adam Katz
• WebNotes – Ryan Damico
• Zeer – Michael Putnam
• 211me – Robert DeFranco
• WordChamp – Daniel Blumenthal
• PaperG – Victor Wong & Roger Lee
• Creaturepark / Ingeeni Studios – Michal Hlavac & Henry Kaufman
• YouCastr – Ariel Diaz, Jeff Hebert, Matt Hodgson, & Brad Johnson
• LuckyCal – Sanjay Vakil
• Snipd – Alex Schliker
• Tikatok – Sharon Kan

The next event will be September 15th!

Mark your calendars, July is now the web networking month for Boston area.  It marks the return of the several premier tech events including schmooze-fest TECH Cocktail Boston 2, PodCamp3 Boston and the uber Boston web 2.0 event – WebInno18.

I will attempt to attend all of these…hope to see you there!

• Build Guild, July 8th, 6:30PM
  Salem Beer Works [ REGISTER ]
  The new kid on the block and my winner for the best use of Twitter to promote an event, Build Guild brings together the cream of the North Shore web design crop in one event.  I love an event that brings together the web, micro-brews and  my old stomping grounds.
• WebInno18 – July 15th, 6:30PM
  Royal Sonesta Cambridge: [ REGISTER ]
  Back after a short hiatus, WebInno is back with a jam packed list of companies including Totspot, WebNotes, Zeer, 211me, WordChamp, PaperG, Creaturepark / Ingeeni Studios, YouCastr, LuckyCal, Snipd, Tikatok
  
• NSWG, July 17th, 6PM
  The Grog (Upstairs) [ REGISTER ]
  Another great event for the North Shore weberati, the North Shore Web Geek event is a monthly drinking / networking event at the Grog in Newburyport set for the third Thursday of every month.
• PodCamp3 Boston – July 19 – 20
  Joseph Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School [ REGISTER ]
  Considered an “unconference“, the next installment of social media popstars Christopher Penn (no, not that one) and Chris Brogan’s PodCamp comes back to Boston. Check out the list of presenters already signed up for the show.  This show also takes the “open” concept to the next level by publishing their books.
• TECH Cocktail Boston 2, Boston – July 24th, 6:30PM
  Tequila Rain by Fenway [ REGISTER ]
  If you liked the PopSignal event earlier this year and are looking for the party side of Boston web networking, TechCocktail is your event.  Check out the photos from last years TechCocktail event.

There are actually quite a few events and conferences in the area this month and next month even brings the Mashables event series to Boston…am I not cool because I do not have an event attached to my blog?

Had a great time last night at the North Shore Web Geek meeting.  I arrived a bit late so I did not get a chance to meet everyone there but I’ll put it on the list for next month if I am not traveling.   The great thing about this event is that is not too large yet.  It is just a small gathering of web industry people that live up in the great white north.

I did get to meet some very interesting people including JC from VendorCity and Joshua Porter who recently released Designing for the Social Web.  He is also working with Chi.mp (actually out of Honolulu) a top-level domain company that is going to try a different take on social networking, content management and identity.  You can sign up for the beta on the Chi.mp site.

Today, I got pinged about yet another North Shore web industry event that will happen on July 8th in Salem at the Salem Brewery.   Marc Amos & Angelo Simeoni (love the CSSboy url – is that the new Cabinboy?) will hold their first web networking event called “Build Guild”…an event that I first thought was a WOW gamer club but looks to be another great networking event.

Now web heads on the North Shore will have 2 excuses per month to drink on the job!

• North Shore Web Geeks
  Every 3rd Thursday @ The Grog, Newburyport
  Start between 6 & 7
• Build Guild
  Every 2nd Tuesday @ Salem Beer Works
  Starts at 6:30 ( RSVP )

See you there!

It was a great turnout for the PopSignal event last night in Boston. All of the usual suspects were out in force and the registration table claimed they had close to the 600 registered attendees there at the event.

I also spoke with quite a few small startups either are launched or just about to get going including 2 "wisdom of the crowd" (love the buzzwords) plays that were interesting.  There first person I talked with was Craig from a NH based startup called Vendorcity.  Vendorcity will create a new way for SMBs to source services. There was also micro-entrepreneur James who is working on a stealth way for open source projects to "crowd source" (buzzword again) their project management ideas.  I’ll keep you updated on both startups as they develop.

And not to be outdone, tripadvisor pulled out their full-sized mascot. I wonder what the executive meeting was like when they debuted this costumed character?  Who pulled the short straw to where this last night?

Cheers!