Frequency/Location: "Meetings occur once every month on the fourth Thursday at 7pm" / Key Code Media, 1004 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401 (located between 10th and 11th) Cost: Free Review: Adam Bell founded this group and I've met him numerous times; he's knowledgeable, a good guy, and shares my interest in good beer. Added 2/15/2010 by Todd Zebert Name: Networking For Professionals (NFP) Review: I attended the 2/2/10 "High Speed Networking" event at The Yard, Santa Monica. Weekly updates! Please let me know if know of other items

But, in running it now for the second half of January, the keyword that popped to the top was: Layoffs And this is definitely a sign of the times. When I drill down on that term, you can see why with posts like: Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Lops A Third Of Company THQ Lays Off 100 Employees, Closes San Diego Office Citrix Cuts 10 Percent; Santa Barbara Hit And it's also interesting to see what geographies are being associated with "Layoffs" more often than others: Layoffs Woodland Hills Layoffs San Diego Layoffs Santa Monica Layoffs Los Angeles I guess

mentioned this before, but it seems like good technical folks are in high demand here — even in this economy, where things have shifted into layoff mode. Today, high profile music startup Topspin–located in Santa Monica–said it is looking for a  VP of Engineering for the 25 people in its engineering team (Topspin Media is the Redpoint and Foundry-backed music startup headed by former Yahoo Music GM Ian Rogers, who we interviewed a few months ago). Still worried about your job in this economy? Don’t worry, if you’re a good software engineer