This month marks the 5 year anniversary of Refresh DC. The first gathering was small and informal at Ireland’s Four Green Fields on Connecticut Avenue, Northwest. I was fortunate enough to make it since I was in my final year at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. It was spring break and I needed to find an internship for the next quarter. I was willing to commute from Philly to DC every week, that’s how dead the web scene was in the spring of 2006 (I also wanted to eventually land back in my hometown of DC, which I did). I didn’t land any internship leads but I did meet Nicholas Tolson and Nguyet Vuong who are still very active in the DC tech scene to this day.

For history’s sake, here is the e-mail for the very first Refresh DC meet-up sent on March 22nd, 2006.

Hi everyone! We’ll keep this short and sweet. Our first meetup is
upon us and we’d like to know how many people are interested in
attending. The details are listed below. If you can make it, hit
the ‘reply’ button and let us know (by the end of this week if
you can)!

There’ll be a little bit of discussion about what Refresh is and
where it came from and some ideas we have for Refresh DC. The
format is pretty loose, so bring your thoughts and ideas, we’ll
be happy to hear them!

Tuesday, March 28th, 6:30-ish to 8:30pm
Ireland’s Four Green Fields (next to the Uptown Theater)
3412 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 244-0860

Website: http://www.irelandsfourprovinces.com/
Google Map: http://rubyurl.com/Qpb

Drop us a line at contact@refresh-dc.org if you have any
questions. Hope to see you all Tuesday night!

– The Refresh DC Night Crew

So come be a part of history and come out to the 5 Year Anniversary meet-up of Refresh DC on March 22nd, 2011. Or stay home and look at old photos in the Flickr Pool instead.