FVCC 2006, Day 1: Duffers and Dinner at Florida Venture Forum

If the 2006 Florida Venture Capital Conference is any indicator, the venture vibe is up in the sunshine state. The conference ran Mon-Wed of this week and was full of good presenters, networking and activities. I've jotted down a few thoughts from Day 1 of the conference below and will cover Days 2 and 3 in separate posts:

- Investor golf at TPC Stadium Course: Beautiful course, tight, not too long, plenty of balls in the water. I had the pleasure of playing the scramble with Gary Andresen (RBC Centura), Jonathan Cole (Edwards & Angell) and opening keynote Brian Swette. Although we scrambled the whole day, our 7-under came close to the money -- all thanks to my teammates.

And, yes, I put two in the drink aiming for #17's island green. Having a Chivas Regal sample table at the #17 tee was either a cruel prank or welcome solace, I'm not sure which. Despite the distraction, John hit an amazing shot that landed near the left fringe and spun immediately right, stopping 6ft from the hole and winning closest to the pin!

- Visiting VC Dinner: Inflexion hosted a dinner for out of town investors and syndicate partners that evening and had a great mix of funds: large and small, life science and IT. Good deal talk and general networking, I even heard an "inside" rumor that Oprah might run for President in '08?!

...more to come...