4 Updates and 12 New in SoCal Networking Event Organizations . No updates for SoCal Educational Networking & Job Search Organizations . No updates for Other & Indirect Job Networking Opportunities SoCal Networking Event Organizations Name: New Media Vault Sites: twitter.com/newmediavault , [link] , www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=65010916756 Weekly updates! Please let me know if know of other items to add, or if you have any feedback on events. Sorry for the delay, but this Update is BIG!! Follow these links to find the updates, and

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

But, for some reason, a number of small, private SoCal firms are actually quite upbeat, including MaintenanceNet - reporting Q4 growth ; Central Desktop with "a record quarter"; Skweezer saying the fourth quarter bumped it to profitability ; mobileStorm also reporting a strong quarter ; not to mention iRise , which says the bad economy is actually driving the firm's growth . For And, on a sad note, Martin Schaedel -- well known to many in the Los Angeles technology community, and a contributor of photos to socalTECH-- has died in a plane crash at the Santa Monica