DUMBO use to be most famous for producing cardboard boxes and Brillo soap pads but now the area is perhaps most famous for its innovation in digital media and technology.

In December of 2008 Kristin Maverick (AttentionPR, Ex-Carrot Creative), Maury Postal (Carrot Creative) and myself (The JAR Group) were attending the First Thursday’s gallery walk in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. I was lucky enough to have recently met Kristin through Soccer 2.0 – the soccer team organized via the NextNY mailing list. That night, we had no intentions of founding a meetup but we found ourselves expressing the same desire to have a social event where on a regular basis the digital thought leaders of the neighborhood could come together to meet, share ideas, and build stronger relationships.

We knew the neighborhood had a vibrant tech scene, but for the most part that tech scene was somewhat underground except for a few occasional events from Drop.io, HUGE and Outside.in (Yes, these companies are in DUMBO!).

We decided to take the initiative and Digital DUMBO was born.

Collectively, Kristin and I built a list of initial contacts to notify and announce the first event to be held the last Thursday of January, 2009 (Chrysanthe Tenentes of Outside.in should not go without mention either!). As I recall, the first list we built only included about 30 people.

We secured space at ReBar, EventBrite was setup, emails were sent out and we waited. We thought maybe 50 people would show up…

January 29th rolled around and Kristin and I waited in the side room of ReBar for guests to arrive. A few people strolled in…and then, after an hour, the room was absolutely packed. Around 120 people showed up to the first event! We were absolutely stoked.

Fast forward to today, 10 events later. We now have a mailing list of over 800 names and a continuously growing crowd – a crowd of people who are genuinely excited to attend when they can. Some people every month, others every 3 months – but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they are excited to be there and glad to be amongst like-minded individuals. To be honest, sometimes I like being at Digital DUMBO more than I like hanging out with my own friends! My friends have no idea what I do for a living, but you do and you care.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times people have come up to me to tell me how much they enjoy Digital DUMBO because the people are “non-pretentious.”

For a group of innovators who are creating some of the most cutting edge interactive media, technology, and marketing companies to be described as non-pretentious is a huge compliment. It’s something to truly be proud of and a testament to what you all have helped Digital DUMBO become.

You represent the following companies (and more):

Agencies:

HUGE (JetBlue, IKEA, CNN, NutriSystem)

HUSH (Sony Ericsson, Cheerios, Hyundai)

BigSpaceship (AMC, Miramax, Paramount Pictures, Coca-cola)

Special Ops Media (Nokia, 1800 Tequila, Reyka Vodka)

Carrot Creative (NFL, Crayola, The Onion, Unilever, Dave Matthews Band)

The JAR Group (MTV, Unilever, Time Inc, TuneCore)

Domani Studios (Sears, Gucci, NASCAR)

Space150 (Starz, Toro, Dairy Queen, Target, Best Buy)

Purple, Rock, Scissors (First National Bank, TruTV)

Freedom+Partners (Comedy Central, Volkswagon, Toyota, Adobe)

Brooklyn Digital Foundry (Gucci, HUGO Boss, Viraline, Steiner Studios, Guggenheim)

Web Services:

TuneCore: TuneCore is a music delivery and distribution service that gets music you created (even cover versions) up for sale on iTunes, AmazonMP3, Rhapsody, Napster, etc., without asking for your rights or taking any money from the sale or use of your music.

Drop.io: Drop.io is an easy to use, online collaboration and file sharing service that provides users with a simple, real time and private way to chat and share images, video, audio, documents and other digital content through unique, user-created and controlled sharing points called ‘drops.’

Outside.in: Outside.in is the best place to discover news happening around you. We make it easy to find stories, events, and local discussions happening in your neighborhood, within your city, or even on your block. Thousands of sources—including local bloggers, newspapers, events databases, and even Twitter tweets—help you keep up with everything happening in your backyard.

Etsy: Etsy enables people to make a living making things, and connects the makers with the buyers.

FanFeedr: FanFeedr are a real-time personalized sports feed.

Sawhorse Media: Sawhorse Media builds Twitter-centric web properties, tools and also hosts the Shorty Awards

The Universal Record Database: URDB believes every person on earth has potential to be the world’s best ’something’. URDB’s mission is to become the database where all such achievements will live.

Waterfront Media: Waterfront Media is the largest privately held online health company and operates The Everyday Health Network, which attracts over 25 million unique users per month across 24 sites.

Not to mention all of our Manhattan friends that come every month as well! We love you too, but I would be here all day if I wrote you up!

Digital DUMBO matters because it’s a platform; it’s an API. Leverage the API that together we have created to collaborate, innovate, and educate to ultimately build a stronger economic fabric so that we can sustain the recent success that we’ve seen in the NYC tech community.

In the week of thanks, I’m thankful to all of you that continue to support Digital DUMBO.

Special thanks goes to Kelly Samardak of Just an Online Minute (MediaPost) and Matt Caldecutt of Paint the Town Red who write about us every month as well as Kaitlin Villanova from the Carrot Creative team who has done a tremendous job in spearheading organizational efforts since Kristin Maverick’s departure!

Last but not least, all of the companies that have sponsored past events with interesting and engaging presentations (and free booze)!

This article was originally published on my Tumblr account in November of 2009.

I co-founded the Digital DUMBO event in January of 2009. The event was a grassroots movement to better organize the Brooklyn digital community. Digital DUMBO now has a mailing list of over 1,300 and monthly attendance of over 350. Follow our Facebook Fan Page to be notified of upcoming events!

Digital DUMBO was created to raise awareness and foster business for the local technology community. We do this through collaborative efforts with local organizations, companies and individuals to showcase local talent, educate the community, and facilitate idea exchange. The goal of our efforts is to drive future talent to the area, sustain business and solidify the community as a viable economic player in the New York Metro area.