Inno Approved: DC Tech Events To Know About This Week (7/21-8/3)

Like DC Inno Approved? A fresh version comes out every other Friday with new ideas of tech and networking events to check out. Here's a list of great tech, business and networking events in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, to hit up in the next two weeks. 

Friday, July 21

Event: FREEdom Fridays: Free Coworking

"Clout Workspace is offering FREE coworking Fridays. We are calling them "FREEdom Fridays" from 10:00am to 5pm every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month this summer. Come in and get some work done at one of our open desk workspaces, enjoy some coffee & tea, snacks, and hang out with our members and special guests." 

Event: Writers Happy Hour

"As AFF’s Writing Fellows graduate from our program, we invite you to a networking reception. Expect hors d’ oeuvres, drinks, and the opportunity to meet fellow freedom-loving writers in DC. Whether you’re an AFF alum or an established writer or editor, this is a great chance to make casual friends and professional connections!" 

The Weekend, July 22-23

Event: 2017 Blackberry Delight 

"For many Shenandoah National Park visitors, it’s all about the blackberries. Starting mid-summer, thickets of Shenandoah blackberries ripen in the open areas along the roads, trails and streams of the national park.

Blackberry Delight is an annual event that celebrates the sweet-tart fruit in all its glory. Skyland chefs create special blackberry-infused dishes combined with a full day of live music, dancing, local crafts, pony rides, and kid’s activities to make it a fun day for the entire family!" 

Event: Explore Life in Rosslyn: Open House Event July 22nd & 23rd

"Join us Saturday, July 22 & Sunday, July 23 from 12-4 for our Sales Gallery Open House to learn more about Rosslyn's hottest new townhomes and condos!"

Event: Wine on the Roof: Local Wines and Paired Bites

"We’re kicking off the day honing our culinary palette during A Mediterranean Experience: Herb and Wine Tasting Workshop, and following it up with an evening enjoying local wines and paired bites. Join us for tastings of 5 wines (2 red, 2 white, and 1 sweet) from Arterra Wines, and hummus and small bites from our friends Little Sesame. You’ll learn about how Arterra Wines is crafting authentic Virginia wine (think native yeast fermentation, fruit ripened long and slow into the late fall, soft barrels, and no chemical additives) and enjoy pairings of hummus, and small bites to complement each wine."

Event: Pleasant Pops Summer Bash

"Join us for an afternoon of live music ? , samples, and pop up shops from Zora & Amelia www.zoraandamelia.com - a store for empowered women & girls ?, and Urban Jungle www.urbanjungledc.com - carrying exotic and quality plants ?. Plus we'll have kids activities for babies and toddlers from Playwell, https://www.playwelldc.com/."

Monday, July 24

Event: Disability Start Up Network | Stakeholders

"The DC Department of Small & Local Business Developent is supporting an open stakeholders group for community members interested in furthering business development support for business owners and aspiring business owners with a disability in the District."  

Event: SUMMER LAUNCH FINAL SHOWCASE 2017

"The StartupHoyas Summer Launch Program (SLP) is a startup incubator program for current Georgetown students and recent graduates who want to launch a new venture. The Summer Launch Showcase is a culmination of each startup team's efforts throughout the 8-week program, where they will present their companies' progress."  

Tuesday, July 25

Event: AI and Machine Learning for Government Demo Day

"Are machines taking over the world? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing every aspect of society for the better— from national security and economics, to health care and citizen engagement. In short, these “intelligent” machines can benefit our country and its citizens by helping government execute against the Nation’s highest priorities. Our Spring ‘17 cohort focuses on technologies that are changing the face of government and revolutionizing the way organizations operate."

Event: DC Angel and VC investment trends: by the Startup Leadership Program

"The Startup Leadership Program (SLP) invites you to hear from two investors in the DC area, Penny Lee, Chief Strategy Officer at 1776 and the Chair of K Street Capital and Lisa Cuesta Vice President, NextGen Venture Partners. And from Ajay Kori, who co-founded urbanstems, a DC startup that's raised $14.3 million as of June 2017."

Event: Driving Innovation in Government Today with Tomorrow's Technology

"Join us, one of IBM's premier partners - Force 3, and Agency CHIEF for a conversation and networking event around technologies that create disruption within the Federal Government including Blockchain and AI. Get ready to experience an evening of engagement and empowerment."

Event: ISL Skillshares: Develop Your Web Presence

"Take your small business brand to the next level with the help of ISL Skillshares! Join us for weekly sessions from July 18 - August 8 that dive into tips and tricks for building and tracking a successful brand. In this session, you’ll learn tips and tricks for building your brand’s website, identifying your web content, and walk away with a cheat sheet of free resources to use along the way!"

Event: Do What She Loves: Women Leading The Tech Economy

"Join us for WeWork DC's Do What She Loves Series, featuring the Founder of Framebridge, Susan Tynan and Uber’s General Manager of the Southeast region, Arathi Mehrotra in conversation with Linda Poon, Assistant Editor at Atlantic CityLab."

Wednesday, July 26

Event: Tech in Motion's Summertime Mixer

"We've heard that the living's easy, so come join Tech in Motion for our annual Summertime Mixer at WeWork Wonder Bread Factory from 6-8:30pm! As the event leading into our 3rd Annual Timmy Awards, you'll have the opportunity to use your voice to select the winners for DC's Best Tech Startup, DC's Best Tech Manager, DC's Best Tech Work Culture."

Event: EmpoWer Professional Networking Event

"AAUW, the nation’s leading organization for advancing equity for women and girls, invites you to our inaugural EmpoWer networking event for professional women. Attend one of two professional development workshops to network with other women and gain valuable career skills."

Event: Driving Your Social Strategy

"This is not a typical social media workshop. We will not teach you what a hashtag is or the difference between liking and following. We won’t even tell you how to tweet. We will pose serious questions about how to develop a comprehensive strategy that unleashes the energy of your people–members, experts and readers. Learn how leading companies and associations are using social media to achieve their business goals."

Event: Drinks and Dirt: Summer Mint Spritzers with Don Ciccio & Figli!

"Come join us at our rooftop farm and explore our greenhouses and cocktail corner, where we have over 8 different types of mint! We will sample a flight of 3 distinct spritzers using various herbs from our rooftop, unique shrubs made with DC-grown ingredients and of course- Italian liquers made by DC's Finest- Don Ciccio & Figli. Don Ciccio & Figli specializes in bringing to life artisinal spirit recipes from the Amalfi Coast, including Amaro, Limoncello, Nocino, and much more! Check out the menu below and let us know which drink you're most excited to try!"

Thursday, July 27

Event: Green Drinks DC with Up Top Acres

"Join us high above the hustle and bustle of DC on a rooftop farm overlooking Nationals Stadium for libations and good fun with some of the city's most innovative agricultaralists."

Event: Startup Grind Hosts Hooks Johnston (iNova Strategic Investments)

"Hooks is a Managing Director of Inova Strategic Investments and the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator. He is responsible for leading Inova’s innovation investing and development for companies that are transforming Inova and global health services."

Event: Expert Panel: How to Level up your Career in Tech

"You've been working in the tech field whether as a developer, a program manager, or a designer. But now you ask yourself, what's next? What some of the job titles and opportunities I should be looking for (and what opportunities are there even out there)? How do I level up my soft and hard skills so I can move from a junior to a senior position? What is the lingo I need to learn in order level up to a senior position? How do I work with stakeholders on other teams and manage my peers?"

Friday, July 28

Event: Rooftop Taco Extravaganza

"Join us on our Rooftop Pool & Lounge for a taco extravaganza hosted by Art and Soul Executive Chef Douglas Alexander, who'll be manning the grill. Don't forget to bring your bathing suit if you want to take a dip between bites!

The $20 ticket gets you three tacos (a toppings station lets you pile them on!) and one Modelo Especial, a Vienna Lager style beer brewed in Mexico City."

Event: July FinTech Friday Happy Hour at Five

"Join the MPOWER Financing, Rooam and Village Capital teams for our monthly FinTech happy hour! This is an informal event to connect FinTech startups with the broader ecosystem in the DC-area. All are welcome."

Event: Porron by ANXO launch event

"No Kings presents the launch of Porron by ANXO. We teamed up with ANXO to design a pop up bar in Eastern Market. The design of Porron was influenced by the Basque region in Spain, Apple orchards, and of course Cider! Join us this Friday!"

The Weekend, July 29-30

Event: DC Poster Project: Exhibit and Open House

"The first exhibit of the DC Poster Project, showcasing the 40 neighborhoods and close-in locales completed so far. All posters are four color screenprints, pulled by the printmaker/designer, Anthony Dihle."

Event: Upper Georgia Ave Visioning Summit

"The Beacon Brightwood Business Alliance and the Emory Beacon of Light Community Development Corporation invite you to attend the Upper Georgia Avenue Visioning Summit to learn, share your ideas and discuss the re-use plan for the Upper Georgia Avenue Corridor. We will take a look at the past and present to visualize what we want from Georgia Avenue. The event is free of charge."

Event: Get Out There! Adventure Event

"Arc'teryx Washington DC Brand Store presents: Get Out There! Adventure Event. Hear tales of epic bouldering expeditions, South American base jumps, and conquering the Seven Summits. RSVP and claim your free ticket here!"

Monday, July 31

Event: Where's Waldo? Party & Scavenger Hunt

"Waldo has been hiding—in books—for 30 years! Celebrate the Where's Waldo? anniversary in a month-long scavenger hunt to find the beloved character hiding in twenty-five businesses around D.C."

Event: Local Drupal 8 Development With Containers

"There are many ways to develop a Drupal site, but there are few that offer as many advantages as a fully self-contained, local environment. This training session will get hands on with setting up an environment from scratch using Docker containers to emulate production servers, Composer to manage packages, Drush to manage configuration, Drupal Console to generate code, and source code management to tie it all together. We’ll discuss the benefits of local development and the pitfalls of other methods. Common problem areas in local development will be examined and solutions will be created to work through them. At the end of the session, users will be comfortable with creating a new environment (or migrating an existing one) into a local containerized solution that could be utilized anywhere between prototyping to production."

Tuesday, August 1

Event: ISL Skillshares: Master Social Media

"Take your small business brand to the next level with the help of ISL Skillshares! Join us for weekly sessions that dive into tips and tricks for building and tracking a successful brand."

Event: Artist Talks: Batman's Biggest Secret

"You don't want to miss author Marc Tyler Nobleman share the jaw-dropping story of writer Bill Finger, the focus of his critically-acclaimed book, Bill The Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman."

Event: So You Want To Go Faster?

"How frequently does a good agile team deploy to production? Not every team is capable of deploying "on every commit". What does it take for a team to even start deploying at the end of each sprint, or each week, or each day?"

Wednesday, August 2

Event: Web Developer Student Spotlight

"You're invited to GA's exclusive private hiring event to meet our latest cohort of web developers, who have honed their skills in General Assembly's Web Development Immersive Program. Hiring managers, recruiters, and anyone involved in hiring web developer are welcome."

Thursday, August 3

Event: TurtlShell Launch Party

"Join us for the launch party for TurtlShell.com, a marketplace where you can rent anything from your neighbors for as little as a few bucks a day. Use TurtlShell to find a tent for a weekend camping trip or a power drill to put together your Ikea furniture. TurtlShell.com is the ‘AirBnb for stuff’ and a part of the growing sharing economy."

Event: The Washington D.C. Pancakes & Booze Art Show

"DC's Largest Underground Art Show featuring: -100+ Emerging Artists -Live Body Painting -Live DJ sets - Live Art -FREE Pancake Bar -21+ EVENT"

Event: How to Find a Co-founder + Build a Team

"Who you work with matters; and that's never more true than when you're starting or running a company. Finding the right mix of passion, personality, and skill set will never come easy, but this event features a great line-up of speakers whose experience will help show you the ropes."

Image used via CC BY-SA 2.0 — credit Ted Eytan