Foster.ly – Where Fledgling Ideas Meet Entrepreneurial Authority

We’re back with a debriefing on all the interesting stuff that happened at Saturday’s exclusive Day of Foster.ly event.

The sold out event was held at the Artisphere, a posh urban arts center in Arlington, Virginia and was host to DC area’s leading entrepreneurs, VCs and emerging startups.

Attendees were treated to a presentation from Aneesh Chopra, the first CTO of the United States, and an appearance from Congressman Jim Moran. The day’s events passed by in a flurry as hundreds of entrepreneurs collaborated and innovated together through panels, study sessions, and parties.

Intridea’s Managing Director of UX, Jurgen Altziebler, joined other development and design leaders on a panel where they shared insight on how to find and hire talent, how to work with clients, tips on project management, and how to get programmers and designers working together effectively.

Martin Ringlein, co-founder of nclud, advocated for hiring passionate people:

“When looking for new people, its all about passion, you can’t teach that to people.”

On the subject of project management, Jurgen shared:

“You can read all the books in the world about Project Management, but PM’ing is very much a human skill.” – Jurgen

We really liked Nick Whitmoyer‘s advice to startups on logo creation:

“A lot of startups do ‘styrofoam branding’, where they get something for very cheap; it doesn’t look good, and then it never biodegrades.”

After an energetic day of knowledge sharing and collaboration between established entrepreneurs and fledgling startups, we were all treated to a night of live music and parties where many of us continued interesting conversations on technology, design, and strategy. We’re looking forward to future Foster.ly events and to being a part of the innovation that’s underway in the community of DC entrepreneurs.