One week ago, I organized another meeting of the Boston Web Innovators Group (aka “WebInno”). This periodic gathering of people interested in web and mobile innovation has swelled in the past year since I formalized the group – we had almost 200 people attend the most recent session last Wednesday night. Each meeting we have two or three self- or angel- funded startups give a five minute demonstrations of their innovative service to the crowd. This segment is followed by a networking portion with five additional companies at tables along the periphery of the room giving informal demonstrations to small groups.

A snapshot from across the blogosphere speaks for the most recent event’s success:

• “…the energy of the room was amazing… The presentations were real people, honest comments.” Sudha Jamthe

• “Great location and good networking. My second so far, and I enjoy the theatre/performance of it.” Ami Chitwood

• “I got to see some interesting new web apps.” John Wall

• “My first Boston Web Innovators Group… I’m starting to feel like the Boston scene is heating up again… It was great to see all the people and feel the energy in the room.” David Evans

Last Wednesday’s gathering featured Mike Kowalchik from Grazr (RSS/OPML widget and scripting language) and Brad Powell from Calabash Music (a “global” music destination site). Side demonstrators included FineTune, StartupBusinessSchool, radeo.net, Citysquares.com, and Offertrax. All of these are examples of local companies which are utilizing the web in some unique way. And as the above comments show, these exhibitors gave the crowd plenty of material for engaging discussion in the schmoozing which followed.

This recent gathering was no exception, as the Web Innovators Group has had the privilege of hosting a number of notable startups over the past year including Sconex (acquired by Alloy), Aerodiet (acquired by About.com / New York Times Co.), Reddit (acquired by Conde Nast), Blogniscient (now part of Top Ten Sources), and MyBlogLog.

With the Boston web innovation scene revitalizing, I am looking forward what 2007 brings, and am happy to announce our next WebInno event will be held on Tuesday January 30th, 2007. You can read more details and RSVP on our event wiki page: http://webinnovatorsgroup.com/

There’s more info about the group itself on our dedicated site and blog. And as usual, if you are interested in presenting at the coming in either format, please reach out to me at the e-mail address david at web innovators group dot com.

I’ll see everyone in January at the next Web Innovators Group…

(P.S. I am very appreciative of all past demonstrators who have helped contribute to the Boston scene: Accolade, Assembla, Bloggerkit, Blogniscient, BlueTrim, bvine, Calabash Music, Citysquares, MyBlogLog, Calorie-Count, Echonest, Fat Calico, FindFreeTime, FineTune, Glance, Grazr, Isabont, Lifeknot, Locamoda, LoudCity, Kiko, Pawspot, Plum, Proxpro, tourb.us, Nextcode, Offertrax, radeo.net, reddit, Referral Monitor, Sconex, SmackChannel, Startup BusinessSchool, Swaptree, Tourfilter, and Traineo. And additionally, I’d like to thank all of the attendees to the events – it’s you who have made this a thriving web scene in Boston.)