Sandbox

Sandbox comes to Washington, D.C.

September 30th, 2009 by Paul Gleger

On September 25th, sixteen Sandboxers and future members gathered for the Inaugural Sandbox Dinner in Washington DC. This was the first of many regular events which will bring together the most inspiring talents in the DC area around great food and even better conversation. Beacon Bar and Grill, a self described “retro-modern” restaurant and lounge in the Beacon Hotel, provided the perfect backdrop for guests to meet and share ideas.  The group first met over drinks in the open patio rooftop lounge, overlooking a picturesque fall sunset-a fitting start to the evening.

As the first Sandbox event in Washington DC, Friday’s meet-up was a great introduction to Sandbox for non-members, bringing together a group quite representative of our diverse members worldwide. Sandboxers traveled from Pennsylvania and New York to join us, including Mariam George (an engineer and Vice President of University of Pennsylvania’s Technology & Entrepreneur Society) and NYC based Sandbox Co-Founder Fabian Pfortmüller. Conversations jumped from gel printing inventions, microfinance NGOs, photography,  South America travel and everything in between.

Washington DC participants included Nate Loewentheil, Founder and Executive Director of the Roosevelt Institution, the largest student run policy think tank in the US.  Nate is about to take off on an exciting trip to Peru and discussed his upcoming journey with recent London School of Economics graduate, Gonzo Gutierrez. Tricia Chirumbole, who just returned from one of her frequent trips to Ghana where she runs the NGO Investors Without Borders, shared her Microfinance experience with banking professional David Esworthy (who recently wrote an article on the topic) and Galen Panger (who conducts consumer and product communications at Google). Alex Ugarte and Mark Abramson connected over photography and their travel experiences. We’re especially thankful for Mark’s amazing photos of the Sandbox event!

Everyone should also check out the Facebook application Diditz, who’s Co-Marketing Director and User Interface Tester Jeff Tong briefly joined us to learn more about Sandbox. Make sure to take a look at Jeff’s Diditz posting about the Inaugural Sandbox Dinner!  Cristal Ding (Georgetown senior who just returned from a year at LSE) and Yin Hou (senior consultant at Accenture) discussed careers in consulting, while Mike Raykher (Wharton graduate and law student at University of Maryland), Eugene Poverni (finishing up a JD/MBA program), and Dave Tortorelli (CEO of Tellenger) discussed a wide range of business related experiences.

Overall, Friday was a huge a success and representative of more DC Sandbox gatherings to come. Sandbox is a global community of carefully selected young achievers and innovators. We help inspiring young people from all fields build meaningful relationships and realize their next big idea. As the Washington DC Sandbox Ambassador, I look forward to putting together similar events in the near future, meeting and connecting amazing people, and in the process actively growing the DC and US Sandbox community. If you know potential Sandboxers in the DC area or have location suggestions for our next informal gathering, please send me an email: paul.gleger [at] sandbox-network [dot] com.

You can find more pictures of the dinner on Facebook.

Paul Gleger is Head of Marketing, US and Washington DC Sandbox Ambassador. He is seeking to grow a thriving Sandbox community in Washington while exploring different opportunities to take Sandbox to new levels in the US market.