Why my first startup crawl won’t be my last

Thursday night was the grand finale of the 2012 ATX startup week, the Startup Crawl. All week long there were startup events, and the startup crawl is the event that caps the locally organized event, now in its second year.

Over 1000 people made stops along the crawl, riding the bus from Capital Factory, Home Away, Ordoro, and Outbox. WP Engine was heavily involved, and we posted up with a big table at the Capital Factory stop with 40 other startups dishing up fun times and great conversations. In addition to the normal T-shirts and stickers, WP Engine also gave out rootbeer floats to everyone who stopped by.

Events like these are always great for the community to bring awareness of all the awesome startup community in our city, and to share with the public what WP Engine is about. We got to mix and mingle with tons of like-minded folks who came out to enjoy the brews, the swag and of course to check out all these amazing startup offices.

In case you missed the startup crawl for some reason, here’s the link and the update. You’ll want to make sure you attend next time around.  Visit atxstartupweek.com for updates about next year.

During the crawl, Team WP Engine, the WPEngineers, was out in force. In addition to our booth, we had a twitter trivia contest covering Austin technology, WP Engine, and local Austin culture. Other startups were handing out everything from tequila shots to cupcakes. The Capital Factory had commissioned a photo booth where folks took pictures with hilarious props.

WP Engine was looking for marketing interns, and of course meeting other developers and WordPress folks because we keep growing, and we keep hiring. *Hint* Hint*

And if you weren’t having the time of your lives at the Capital Factory, you could head downstairs, catch a shuttle and mosey on down to another stop. It was a place where you could run into a stranger and realize you’re talking to the guy who invented the ethernet cable. Yes, Bob Metcalfe was at the party.

I was very impressed at how well everything flowed. You could tell a lot of planning went in to make the event, and the entire week, a success. It was a lot of fun mingling with other startups and entrepreneurs that co-exist with us in the Austin startup community. And of course, there was tons of free liquor and food. I give ATX startup crawl and week a A+, which is why you should take advantage of any opportunity where a company opens their doors, gives you a PBR and says welcome.

To those who participated in our twitter trivia contest, we’re grateful for your support and involvement and wanted to say Congratulations! to our Twitter Trivia Winner, @iammahmudur. He played a solid game against a few other contestants but in the end proved to be the Twitter Trivia Winner and will be receiving an awesome WP Engine swag pack and a $50 visa gift card.

I also wanted to also take some time to highlight some of the amazing coordinators involved in putting the event on and to give a big shout out to everyone who came out in support of the crawl, we really enjoyed getting to meet every single one of you! So thank you to Jacqueline Hughes, Josh Baer, Allyson Weber, Joleen Sanborn, Matt Jared and Sarah Cox– you all RULE.