Social gathering introduces lively tech community

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By ROBERT TRIGAUX

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 15, 2001

So who was that guy in the funky yellow shirt standing outside Dan Marino's Town Tavern on Thursday evening?

His name is Fritz J. Eichelberger. And by the size of the tech crowd that showed up at the BayWalk pub to schmooze and network, Fritz and his brazenly dubbed "Shameless Networking Social" are an instant St. Petersburg success.

Call him Fritz the Chat.

Eichelberger, 34, an Oracle software consultant, has hit an industry nerve by organizing social gatherings for technology workers. He sends out no formal invitations. It starts with a few e-mails that multiply across the tech community. Like a rave for techies, word gets around.

Thursday's St. Pete event easily drew more than 100 tech workers ranging from their 20s and 30s up to some in their 50s. Business card-swapping, sharing war stories in tough tech times and simple curiosity were the draws of the evening.

Eichelberger already has established a monthly tech social for Tampa, held at Jackson's on Harbour Island. And he's started a similar gathering for Orlando's tech workers, held at Kate O'Brien's Irish Pub at Church Street Station.

The gathering at Marino's was the first of its kind in Pinellas County. Even Eichelberger seemed surprised at such a strong turnout on the first night. But he knew the St. Pete and Pinellas tech community is a lot stronger than most folks realize. And gathering at popular BayWalk doesn't hurt.

Next up: Jacksonville and Melbourne, two promising tech cities, says Eichelberger, whose day job is working for Applications Consulting Specialists.

So what attracts all these tech workers?

"Networking," says Bernie Borges, a senior account executive at Tampa software developer PowerCerv, who came across the bridge to make new contacts. Similar comments were shared by account executive Amy Karmazon of Tampa's ConnectWise, vice president Christine Kemp of Orlando's digital fusion, and other managers from companies such as Edu-Tech, NetYak, Homestore.com and Data Returns.

Eichelberger may be on to something. Other Tampa Bay area groups, notably the formidable breakfast gatherings of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum and the lunchtime meetings of the Internet Business Association, are playing to big crowds. But both offer keynote speakers and an agenda that limits chat time.

Eichelberger's pitch is pure social networking -- with no cover charge (you pay for your own drinks). But he also is working with both the Tampa and St. Petersburg chambers of commerce as an ambassador of sorts to Tampa Bay's diverse tech scene.

Born in Switzerland and educated in Europe, Eichelberger worked for a company that sold warehouse equipment before moving into the tech world. After selling bandwidth for Global Crossing, he switched to software consulting. Eichelberger, who long lived in New York, these days resides in a condo on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa and drives his Miata convertible to work in St. Petersburg.

On Thursday, as more and more people rode the BayWalk escalator up to Marino's, they asked: "Are you Fritz?" Then they saw the yellow shirt he's known for.

"Oh, there he is!"

Says Eichelberger. "I guess I'm the ringleader," he says while making introductions. "Or maybe the matchmaker."

Short takes

DON'T LET THE EXIT DOOR HIT YOU: Never let it be said that former Florida House Speaker J. Hyatt Brown, top executive at the rapidly growing Brown & Brown insurance brokerage, lacks management style. A few years ago, he called his company employees "hunter-gatherers" in the competitive business chase. And in a recent interview with A.M. Best Co., which tracks the insurance industry, he elaborated on how his dual-headquartered Daytona Beach-Tampa company helps motivate (and weed out) the slower producers on staff. At annual sales meetings, managers who are poor performers must stand up and explain what happened and why. They are followed by very successful managers who are richly rewarded for their performance. A bit harsh? "It's the American way," Brown says, "that people rise and fall based on their own abilities." . . .

A FEW MORE WEEKS, PLEASE: Shareholders were supposed to vote next week on the deal to sell Clearwater's tech consulting company IMRglobal to Canada's CGI Group. But some details won't go away. So the shareholder vote has been delayed to July 13. A recent SEC filing says IMRglobal shareholders with about 27.3 percent of the company's outstanding common shares have agreed in advance to vote in favor of the deal. Stay tuned. . . .

ANOTHER TECH STUMBLE: The world's largest distributor of computer products says it may dip into the red in its second quarter amid weak demand from U.S. companies and a softening in its international markets. We're not talking about Clearwater's Tech Data Corp. but the larger, California-based competitor Ingram Micro Inc. Tech Data's still performing well in a tough market. Maybe there's something to the notion that No. 2 tries harder. . . .

HEY, IT'S ONLY MONEY: Former employees of brokerage Salomon Smith Barney and parent Citigroup can pursue class-action lawsuits against the financial giant in Florida and two other states. The court ruling permitting the cases to advance addresses the issue of wages employees allegedly had to forfeit when they left the company. Filed more than a year ago, the lawsuits allege Salomon and Citigroup required stockbrokers to invest as much as 25 percent of their wages in the company's stock -- and to lose that money if they left the company before the stock vested. Must be some new corporate loyalty plan.

- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

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