The event is October 26th in Marina Del Rey , at the Ritz-Carlton, and should be an excellent opportunity to hear from local investors and other influential folks here–it looks like right now Tim Draper (DFJ), John Babcock (Rustic Canyon), Mark Suster (GRP), and Scott Sangster (Tech Coast Angels), Jason Nazar (Docstoc), Jeff Tinsley (MyLife), Shawn Colo (Demand Media), and Scott Painter (Zag/TrueCar) are among the many folks speaking at the event. Hi everyone–we’re giving away a ticket to the Perfect Pitch , the investment pitching event later this month which features a keynote by Richard Branson .

Zag has previously received venture capital from such firms as Anthem Ventures, GRP Partners, the Tech Coast Angels, Capricorn Management, Capital One, and Arcturus Capital. Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online automobile buying service headed by Scott Painter, is reporting today that it had what is calls its "strongest sales so far this year" in June. The firm--which provides its car buying service as a private-label offering through affiliate groups such as the AAA and USAA--said it had 20% sales growth in June, and 15% growth on average for the previous three

Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. 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 this is a sign