The back patio of Fanny and Alexander s bar in Palo Alto was particularly alive with people on Thursday night, prompting a few regulars at the popular establishment to wonder what the world was coming to. The occasion was the latest open bar networking event hosted by The Midnight Forum, a trendy new social and networking organization. The capacity crowd which took full advantage of the open drink tab to make it a memorable evening is a testament to the young organization s growing popularity among members of the Silicon Valley South Asian community. Founded in January by young entrepreneurs Manish Vij, Monis Rahman, Vinod Valloppillil, and Harsha Raghavan, The Midnight Forum attracts a young and upwardly mobile crowd of mostly, but not exclusively, South Asian startup founders, Valley techies, and other business people with a good proportion of second generation Indians in the mix.
Participants receive a nametag, the bar is opened, and the party begins.
But this is, after all, the Valley, where pleasure is usually mixed with a small measure of business. The mood at The Midnight Forum certainly isn t the networking frenzy that you would see at many other Valley conferences and events where business card waving entrepreneurs run rampant like traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. This is, genuinely, a social event. But those who came to get a little bit of Valley buzz, and a few useful contacts weren t disappointed. One entrepreneur was even winding through the crowded rows of beer-drinkers with a bag of marketing materials and a fist full of company logo magnets.