Just read a great string of comments by HN readers in the DC area. (<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=629040" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=629040</a>) This inspired me to create a Hacker News group on Meetup.com.<p>Join if you live in the area, and come on out for beers.<p><a href="http://www.meetup.com/Hacker-News-NOVA-DC" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/Hacker-News-NOVA-DC</a>
I just joined. DC is getting some momentum-- there is a great PHP community here and there were decent number of start-ups at the AWS Start-up event today. A lot of the DC tech business is federal government or contractor-related and not as visible as the consumer start-ups out west.
Make sure you add any meetups to <a href="http://www.dctechevents.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.dctechevents.com/</a>. That's what I've been using to track local events.