San Diego Meets the Xconomists: When Social Media Is Not Enough

The technology for online social networks arrived practically hand-in-hand with the Internet. Since the advent of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, we’ve seen such networks proliferate, from the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link (remember The WELL?) and chat rooms on Bulletin Board Systems to Yahoo message boards, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter, and Instagram. Nowadays, Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world, with more than 2 billion monthly active users.

Yet somehow, the connections are richer and more meaningful when people come together offline and in-person.

In San Diego, this higher order of social networking becomes apparent each fall, when Xconomy brings together scores of great technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, and other leaders for our annual networking reception. It is one occasion where San Diego’s swirling spheres of business, innovation, technology, and life sciences meet to share their passion for starting new companies and putting a dent in the universe.

Innovation increasingly requires a multi-disciplinary effort, and Xconomy always wants to convene people from a broad cross-section of fields. If innovation indeed occurs along the boundaries, it is our hope to encourage new insights and ideas by bringing together thoughtful people from many different sectors.  In San Diego, that includes individuals with deep expertise in medical diagnostics, genome sequencing, drug development, healthtech, neuroscience, wireless technologies, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, analytic software, and data science.

The “Meet the Xconomists” mixer also happens to be our way of saying “Thanks!” to the folks who have helped to shape our coverage over the past year.

As a media and events company, Xconomy hosts these annual networking receptions in each of the cities and regions where we provide our unique blend of events and business news coverage. As Xconomy founder Bob Buderi put it so succinctly a decade ago, “We are the authoritative voice on the exponential economy, the realm of business and innovation characterized by exponential technological growth and responsible for an increasing share of productivity and overall economic growth.”

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.