Entreprelooza! A Celebration of DC Area Entrepreneurship

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) —

Startup DC in partnership with Startup America and Microsoft has announced Entreprelooza! is occuring on Tuesday, March 6th at what was previously a Borders bookstore on 18th and L St. NW in Washington, DC. It will be a 70,000 square foot celebration of all things geeky, startup, and entrepreneurial in the greater Washington, DC region. (Full disclosure: I am an advisor to Startup DC.)

The main activity of the evening will be the east coast premiere of CTRL, ALT…Compete, a documentary which follows the real lives of people in startup companies – stressing out, looking for funding, and so on. It recently premiered at the Napa Film Festival and will eventually have a wider release. It was executive produced by Microsoft. Some of the stars of the film – the co-founders of policy/tech startup POPVOX – are expected to be in attendance at the event for a special champagne toast.

You may recall my earlier post about the current excitement in the Washington, DC entrepreneurial community around not only more Internet/consumer/tech startups and events and incubators, but also around some ideas somewhat unique to DC and specializing some entrepreneurial efforts in verticals like defense, biotech, hospitality and others. Startup DC and this Entreprelooza! event are manifestations of that energy. And 400 or so lucky people will experience it firsthand next week.

The evening, the ticket sales of which benefit the nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, will include a lot more, too. Later in the evening, we’ll have a Geek 2 Chic date auction featuring startup folks who will raise even more money for a good cause. Local startups OPower and Sweetgreen are going to help make sure all the attendees get fed, and VitaminWater will keep people hydrated, Bliss spa will be giving out free massages to get rid of that stress you might have, and Uber will be getting some VIP ticket holders there in style. Fun, games, a DJ, junk food, a movie premiere, and hot geeks all suggest this is an event you’ll want to attend if you’re in the DC area next week.

There may even be a gigantic paper mache pig – Alexander Hamilton, the mascot of The National Piggy Bank – who you can get your photo taken with to raise awareness of America’s great challenges – but no guarantees (he is such a VIP, his pepole closely guard his itinerary for security reasons).

You can see more information on the Facebook event page and at the main Entreprelooza! page, where you can buy tickets now.

Dr. Mark Drapeau is an advisor to Startup DC and part of the Microsoft Office of Civic Innovation in Washington, DC. You can follow him on Twitter at @cheeky_geeky.

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