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. But if you are new to the business, how do you get started? 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

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

That doesn't mean they're not working, however: mining the PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree report, we find that Luxtera has scored $26.75M in funding, Kaai , a stealth LED startup from LED experts Shuji Nakamura and Stephen DenBaars has pulled in another $5M , Siimpel raises $8.78M for its MEMS camera technology , and Aquea Scientific has quietly raised $10.95M for UVA/UVB sunscreen that you can just wash on in the shower. In And, on a sad note, Martin Schaedel -- well known to many in the Los Angeles technology community, and a contributor of photos to socalTECH--