Colorado's Inspired International Internet Keiretsu.

• Author: LAINSON, SUZANNE
• Position: Brief Article

Children's toys for inspiration. Teams of entrepreneurs. One-minute presentations to imaginary venture capitalists. Put them together, throw in some microbrews, give the winning team the Golden Mouse award, and you have the typical Colorado Internet Keiretsu meeting.

CIK was established in 1997 by Brad Feld, general partner of Softbank Technology Ventures. ("Keiretsu," dontcha know, comes from the Japanese for a "family" of affiliated companies.) The group has evolved from get-togethers at his Eldorado Springs Canyon house to bimonthly meetings alternating between

Boulder and Denver. Once exclusively for CEOs and founders of Internet companies, the UK recently created associate memberships for those who want to attend but don't have their own businesses.

The Brain Game also is new. "Each meeting will include an activity designed to promote interaction among randomly assigned small groups," said C. Maxine Most, founder of ARQ Business Solutions, a strategic marketing company for e-business. Most serves on the CIK board of directors and is its marketing chair. "The goal is to 1) take the members out of the realm of their normal everyday business minds; 2) create brief but intense connections among members that will facilitate networking and collaboration; and 3) create a fun, social environment."

And collaborations there have been. Interactive agency SpireMedia was formed after Mike Gellman, then president of Gig Media, and Paul Schrank, then president of Schrank Interactive, met at an early CIK gathering. (For more on SpireMedia, see this issue, page 52.)

Their next stop is New York, where SpireMedia is setting up an office. According to Gellman (the CIK member most resembling a snowboarder, which he is), "New York and Denver are about as similar as Tipper Gore and Puff Daddy."

Geilman's main competition will be bigger agencies such as Razorfish, Agency.com, and Organic, but...