My interview with Tech Cocktail
Tech Cocktail is a speaker series where two major CEOs give a TED talk style presentation to people in the startup community: entrepreneurs, VCs, any techies of all kinds. This month I had the opportunity to speak with Boston rep Melissa Pocek, who is also a freelance writer.
Each month has a different topic, and it comes with a free drink, or sometimes even more, from the event’s alcohol sponsors. “Sometimes our sponsors provide a lot,” Pocek said, “and you can drink until the cows come home. It cuts the edge when you have something in your hand, whether it be an alcoholic beverage or a Coke.” That being said, she stressed that the alcohol is a minor part of what Tech Cocktail is all about. Their main goal is to make the community in Boston closer knit.
“Our events are different from others,” Pocek said. “We have really dynamic speakers. When I go to other events, a lot of them don’t have focus, but we take our audience very seriously and use the feedback from our community to shape our topics.”
While some of their events are “intimate”, most range from 150-650 attendees, sometimes with seats, but sometimes just with everyone standing. It begins with 15-20 minute presentations by the speakers, but casually, with no slides and no suits, which puts attendees at ease. Then they have a long Q&A. “The Q&A is the high point for a lot of visitors,” Pocek said, “because they can ask hard-hitting questions and get customized answers to better their business. Then they mingle, talk, and meet people one-on-one.”
The next Tech Cocktail event is tonight! It’s called the “Boston Startup Showcase + Sessions: Grassroots Marketing”.