A self-proclaimed geek once asked me, “Do you know the difference between a geek and a nerd?” Puzzled, I shook my head, to which he smartly responded, “A geek has technical skills and social skills, a nerd had technical skills but no social skills … and a dork has neither.” (Snicker, snicker.)
Well, I think the local geeks have taken this definition a notch higher with the upcoming Geek 2 Chic event. Haven’t heard of it? Ah, perhaps you are a nerd. (Snicker, snicker.) Well, seeing as I was one of 851 people invited to the event via Facebook, and, therefore clearly — or at least hopefully — not a nerd, I shall tell you so that you may consider yourself among the technorati of D.C.
Coming up, Wednesday, October 13th, at 6:30 p.m., a slew of — and I quote — “prominent young geeks” from the D.C. area will walk the figurative catwalk in some stylin’ outfits as part of a fund-raising event for Heart of America. In case the organization has never landed on your radar, Heart of America is a DC-based national group that promotes literacy and making libraries the heart of communities. The event is at Bloomingdale’s in Chevy Chase, Md., and is “Microsoft-powered,” which is code language for Microsoft being the major corporate sponsor. All good, right?
Of the geeks who’ll be chic-ing is one of my favorite local do-gooder geeks, Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategylabs. As well, Hooman Rafdar, CEO, Clearspring; Bharet Malhotra, Vice President of Sales, Cvent; and a dozen or so others will geek and chic it up. Big thanks go, of course, to one of DC’s finest haute couture geeks (@cheeky_geeky) … though I’m not sure if other geeks would consider him a geek, per se. But I guess if you worked for the National Defense University and now Microsoft, as @cheeky_geeky has, you’ve got some geek chops.
Tickets to the event are $45 for the regular people and $75 for the VIPs. Get your manners on and buy a ticket if you want to attend, as tickets won’t be sold at the door. If you’re the “friending” type and wish to share this announcement with your friends, you can use the Facebook event for such purposes.
It should be fun, especially as the audience will be a mix of people coming from the D.C. tech, business, fashion, media and nonprofit communities. Me? Whatever shall I wear! Ahh, better get to Bloomie’s soon to solve that problem.
