General John Ashcroft to speak at the POC

by Jim Garrettson

John Ashcroft will speak on 4/27

Continuing its tradition of bringing great speakers to the business community, the Potomac Officers Club announced today that former Attorney General John Ashcroft will be speaking on April 27th. The lunch event will be held at the Tyson’s Ritz Carlton and is sponsored by AH&T. Members, register here.

ExecutiveBiz will continue its push into the “member’s only” venue and is proud to roll out a speaker series for Government CIO’s, beginning with Charles Church on April 12th.

Charles Church will speak on 4/12

Mr. Church is the CIO of the Preparedness Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Click here to register. With this movement into the member-only speaker series, ExecutiveBiz is again bolstering the value of membership.

ExecutiveBiz membership is the best value in town for the executive that wants to connect with other executives for lasting relationships and avoid the low level networking found at many other organizations. Visit our site for more details.

Our Executive Spotlight features Mac Curtis, President and CEO of Pearson Government Solutions who will talk about his business unit and also the recent acquisition of Blueprint Technologies.

Technology savvy and Government agency executives will be flocking to the 1/2 day seminar entitled “The New New Internet”. You better get your upgraded internet connectivity or you will miss the next wave. Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform Tom Davis will kick the event off and be followed by The Carlyle Group’s newest investment in Internet Security, expert Tom Patterson of Command Information. Click here to register.

How did your bracket hold up? Here’s what last week’s survey results suggested about the Final Four predictions.

Our Around-Town reporting features an electric setting at IndeBleu for it’s one year anniversary party to benefit Youth Aids and made possible by the magazine of Washington’s Rich and Powerful, DC Modern Luxury and publisher Peter Abrahams.

The Red Cross continues its good work and will be hosting its 125th Anniversary on May 11, 2006.

If you want to Grow Fast and Grow Right, see what legal expert and capital raising guru Andrew Sherman has to say at his upcoming event on April 5th in Baltimore.

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Fred Wettling, Bechtel

Col (Sel) James Bacchus, USMCR

Rep. Tom Davis     Date: March 30, 2006 Time: 7:30 am to 11:30 am Location: Fairview Park Marriott, Falls Church, VA

The New, New Internet
IPv6: Technology's Next Big Step
This seminar is filling up fast, check your calendars and register today!

Northern Virginia is positioned to be the epicenter of a new 25 billion dollar IPv6 industry.

Next Thursday, March 30th Congressman Tom Davis will kick off a special seminar designed to bring Northern Virginia’s business community up to speed on IPv6 called: “The New, New Internet”. Following Davis, a panel discussion of experts led by Tom Patterson of Command Information and a panel including Fred Wettling of Bechtel. IPv6 Forum President Latif Ladid will provide insights on the international progress, and the event will wrap up a domestic perspective from DOD representative Col (Sel) Jim Bacchus, USMCR.

This event is filling up fast, don’t miss out, click here for more information and registration!

Goverment IT Speaker Series Featuring Charles Church
CIO Preparedness Directorate DHS
Space is very limited -- register today!

Date: April 12, 2006 Time: 7:30 am to 9:30 am Location: The Tower Club - Tysons Sponsored by: INDUS Corporation

Charles Church

Join ExecutiveBiz and the Chief Information Officer of the Preparedness Directorate Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Charles Church for an interesting and informative breakfast meeting at the Tower Club. This event is geared toward Defense System Integrators and all those in the Government Contracting Industries. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet Mr. Chuch, hear about how the private sector can get involved and what the DHS is planning for future technologies and investments.

This will surely fill up fast, don’t miss out, click here for more information and registration!

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Just What is "Web 2.0" Anyway?
by Brian Williams, CEO of Viget Labs

There's another dot com boom happening, and the trendy word being thrown around is "Web 2.0." But, what is "Web 2.0" exactly? Is it newer, better web technology or is it a social phenomenon? Does it describe better user interface design or more organized, searchable, and distributed content? Is it about social networks and open collaboration or Ajax, APIs, and open source? Real innovation or just a bunch of overblown hype? A legitimate label for cutting-edge web sites or ... a buzzword? And, should I care? The answer to all of these questions is "yes."

The term, coined in 2004 by Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly Media, has since sparked a very popular annual Web 2.0 conference and a lot of debate about what it really means. Tim O'Reilly has tried to clarify the term in this article, where he explains some of its core concepts:

• The Web as Platform - Web 2.0 sites are open and allow other sites, software, and users to contribute and "build on" to their core. This kind of collaboration "harnesses collective intelligence" and helps to extend, strengthen, and market these solutions.
• The Value is in the Data - Whether it's original or user-provided, hard-to-recreate data is the key competitive advantage of Web 2.0 companies.
• Perpetual Beta - Web 2.0 software is delivered as a service, not a product. This means that upgrades and changes happen frequently -- often daily. It also means that users are embraced as key contributors to the evolution of these services.
• Advanced User Experiences - Newer web interfaces offer features recently only available on your desktop, such as the drag-and-drop tools at Google Maps. Nifty features are just the surface, though, with the core concept being lightweight, flexible, and standards-compliant interface design.

Web 2.0 Visuals
This mindcloudmap summarizes the many concepts and examples that make up Web 2.0 (by Markus Angermeier). See it bigger at Flickr.		What companies are Web 2.0? Is yours on the list? Check out this collection of logos (by Stabilo Boss). See it bigger at Flickr.

What does all this mean to the Washington business community? There's a lot of innovation going on locally building next-generation sites, which is generating new opportunities for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and web consulting firms like mine. With Yahoo!, Google, and others snatching up newer web properties at an astounding pace, the most significant local impact could be felt in the investor community.

Want to keep up on the latest Web 2.0 companies? Michael Arrington's TechCrunch is a must, or just email me -- I'm always up for a discussion on the topic.

Brian Williams is a co-founder of ExecutiveBiz and CEO of Viget Labs, a DC-area web consulting and development firm that plans, designs, builds, markets, and supports leading web solutions. Comments? Suggestions? Contact Brian: brian@executivebiz.com / 703-891-0670

SAVE THE DATE: The American Red Cross - 125th Anniversary

The American Red Cross is celebrating its 125th Anniversary. Every minute of every day, the Red Cross is responding to disasters of all sizes and scope, providing relief to those in need.

DATE: Thursday, May 11, 2006, 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
LOCATION: The National Building Museum, 440 G Street, NW, Washington, DC

For more ticket information, please call (703)556-4245 or email redcross@hayespr.com.

The Grow Fast Grow Right Event on Business Growth Strategies

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 – 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Grow Fast Grow Right Enterprises, LLC is proud to offer to an intensive, in-depth business growth event with GFGR Co-founder and Chief Educational Officer, Andrew J. Sherman, and other recognized experts on business growth issues, custom-tailored to the needs of emerging growth and middle market companies. The GFGR program is founded on real-world knowledge, best growth practices and asking the right questions at the right time.

For more information, please visit www.growfastgrowright.com

Advertising here is smarter. Find out why & reach nearly 50,000 execs each week.

Technology industry veteran Arjun Rishi finds success as a restaraunteur

Washington area business and DC's beautiful people got together last week to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the very popular downtown DC Indebleu restaurant. (Owned by tech industry veteran Arjun Rishi) The posh event was commemorated by Modern Luxury's DC Magazine and benefited YouthAIDS whose logos adorned the backdrop in the welcome tent which served as a red-carpet style entree into a duel level party. The elegant affair began with tulip stemmed champagne glasses just inside the door and feautred delcicious selections from Executive Chef Vikram Garg's highly touted repetoire upstairs. Our favorites were the lobster and foie gras dumplings and the palm sized chocolate dipped strawberries.

Some of the noteables attending in addition to those below: Billy Campbell, Tom McMillen, Drew Ladner, Frederique van der Wal, Mark Ein, and Bennet Zier.

Rick Rickersen and Kate Roberts, founder of YouthAIDS

James Alefantis, Jack Davies, and Kay Kendall

Inde Bleu Executive Chef Vikram Garg, DC Modern Luxury Publisher Peter Abrahams, and IndeBleu owner Arjun Rishi

ExecutiveBiz works in partnership with The Potomac Officers Club. The Potomac Officers Club is a non-profit board of trade dedicated to improving business conditions in the Greater Washington area. For more infomation, please visit www.potomacofficersclub.com.

Thanks, Potomac Officers Club Sponsors

J.D. Kathuria

Message from the Editor

This digital magazine is designed to serve the needs of the local business community. Please contact us with your content ideas or advertising requests. We currently reach nearly 50,000 area executives.

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J.D. Kathuria
ExecutiveBiz Editor
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