The next meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group (RMIUG) will be
Monday, January 12th. (NOTE: This is different than the "traditional"
second Tuesday of odd-numbered months schedule.)

Because of its popularity, we will be resurrecting our canceled meeting from
November, "Starting an Internet/Software Company Today - Lessons from the
Front Lines." Despite the economy (or perhaps because of it) startups are
still charging along and some of them are even doing quite well. Sure, money
is harder to raise these days and deals are harder to land, but that doesn't
stop entrepreneurs from forging ahead with their ambitious plans.

Our panel will cover the Internet/software startup environment today. What
are the current challenges? What's working and what's not? What strategies
are being used on the front lines to go after that sometimes elusive
successful technology startup?

Patricia Hursh (Patricia@...) is president and founder
of Boulder-based SmartSearch Marketing, a company which manages paid search
engine advertising campaigns and educates clients on effective search
marketing programs. Patricia will be discussing her transition from
full-time employee at a Boulder area tech company to being her own boss in a
fast-moving Internet startup. Earlier in her career while at Qwest, she
transformed the corporate intranet into a source of interaction and
communication for more than fifty thousand employees located across thirteen
states. Then she worked at Microsoft, leading many of the company's earliest
successes in the area of online promotions and email marketing. As a
marketing consultant, Patricia started providing search engine promotion
services nearly five years ago when she realized that most of her clients
were so focused on looking for new customers, they were ignoring the people
already looking for them. Today, SmartSearch Marketing specializes in
performance-based advertising campaigns. Clients include businesses selling
products and services online as well as companies using the Web to acquire
leads, qualify prospects, educate people, or build a brand.

Julian Gallow (julian.gallow@...) is Investment Analyst with
Himmelblau Inc., a trading, consulting, and investment management company.
From his experience working with many technology startups, he will share
perspectives on startup issues such as raising investment capital and the
investor pitch, the role of a business plan and the importance of the
startup's management team. He recently served as Executive Director of CTEK
Angels, Colorado's largest angel investor network, and is an active angel
investor himself. Julian is the founder of two technology companies, both of
which he lead to profitability. In addition, he holds an MS degree from the
Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

We also may have a third speaker. Details to come...

URL's of interest:
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SmartSearch Marketing, http://www.smartsearchmarketing.com
Himmelblau Inc., http://himmelblau.biz

The meeting is Monday, January 12th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional 6:30
pm start for refreshments and informal networking).

The meeting will be held at The National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR) at 1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from the Boulder
Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take Table Mesa Drive west towards the
mountains for approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills. NCAR is at the top
of the hill. For door-to-door driving directions, go to MapQuest
(http://www.mapquest.com/ ), click on Driving Directions, enter your
starting address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the NCAR lot, go in the
main door, and ask the guard to point you to meeting, which is held in the
main auditorium, right off the lobby. The meeting is free and open to the
public, but we may pass the hat to help defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough room to
accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to predict how many
people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of more attendees than
seats, we won't be able to admit additional people into the auditorium after
all seats are filled.

Thanks to our two sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
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MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical Talent
for Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages for RMIUG
meetings.

ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company that
provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting
minutes.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related Product
information, brochures, and business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html You can also reach the
RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/

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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR has
security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use the
facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and instead read the
minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:
1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.

4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when
dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please contact me
directly. Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).

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