ABOUT GSP West

Who Should Attend | GSP West Endorsements | Program Committee

Experience GSP West

"Facebook and the idea of the social graph have become the favourite, if not the only, topic of conversation among the valley's geeks, venture capitalists and internet moguls." —The Economist

Social networks are becoming a powerful tool for communication, particularly for the under-35 generation, and for revenue generation. An integral part of the definition of "Web 2.0," social networking is being woven into the fabric of web sites large and small, from corporate giants to garage start-ups. These new platforms are stable and broad enough to support innovative business models, spawning a host of new players. What are the trends in social networking, what are the opportunities, and what are the pitfalls?

At GSP West 2008, you'll learn:

• How can your application gain traction?
• What are the best ways of communicating to a diverse audience?
• What's the best method of getting your message out?
• How can you/your product/your company become a trusted part of a community?
• What's next on the horizon for Facebook and similar sites?
• What do the demographics tell us about the next wave of users?
• What are the best tools in this space?
• How are individuals and companies making money?
• How can privacy and security concerns be addressed while keeping "open"?

Who Should Attend

• Marketers
• Advertisers
• Developers and programmers
• Business strategists
• Open source advocates
• Analysts and media
• Entrepreneurs and VCs

GSP 2007 brought together representatives from companies and organizations like:
Facebook; Renkoo.com; Engage.com; Mogad.com; O'Reilly Media; Forrester Research; Microsoft; Search Engine Land; SocialMedia; Joyent; SixApart; Charles River Ventures; Widgetbox; JibJab; Clearspring Technologies; Teach The People; Mahalo; Amazon; SoftTech VC; NewsGator; Lightspeed Venture Partners; Slide.com; RockYou; VideoEgg; Plaxo; InsideFacebook; Altura Ventures; The Founders Fund; VentureBeat; TechChurch; fbExchange; Mashery; Nirvanix; WebWare; LinkdIn; PodTech.Net; Face Reviews; Lookery; Tantek.com; Satisfaction Unlimited; Hungry Machine; AdBrite

GSP 2007 Conference sponsors and exhibitors included:
Charles River Ventures; Microsost Popfly; RockYou!; Topix; AdBrite; videoegg; Plaxo; SocialMedia; Joyent; sometrics; Hungry Machine; TechCrunch; VentureBeat; Inside Facebook; b5media; programmableweb; Dealmaker Media; Future Works

GSP 2007 Endorsements

"One thing I’ve learned is that you absolutely MUST choose a few places to be a couple times per year to meet new people and talk shop…If you’re not at the Graphing Social Patterns conference, you’re going to miss out on some good stuff." —Nate Ritter, Web Directions North

Program Committee

Program Chair

Dave McClure
Dave McClure has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for almost twenty years as a software developer, entrepreneur, startup adviser, angel investor, blogger, and internet marketing nerd. He is an adviser or investor for several startups, and is a guest lecturer at Stanford University for the nation's first-ever course on building Facebook Apps. In addition to chairing Graphing Social Patterns, Dave is a co-chair for the Web 2.0 Expo conference. Previously Dave was VP Evangelism at Simply Hired, and before that was Director of Marketing at PayPal, where he founded and ran the PayPal Developer Network program. Before coming to Silicon Valley, Dave barely graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Mathematical Sciences Engineering.