Every time I attend WebInno in Boston, I get the same question: “you came here ‘all that way’ from Connecticut?”

Honestly, is an hour and a half really “all that way”? I realize Boston is not exactly in my backyard but the mini-schlepp is definitely worth the trip. I like to think of The Web Innovators Group as the best geekpreneur sock hop on the East Coast. One Tuesday evening per month start-ups and techie guys and gals with ecomm and weberactive ideas court VCs and funders. We sip cocktails, watch demos and chat each other up with our best elevators.

As a writer and marketing message maven, I attend for very selfish reasons. The first is to have cool stuff to write about. The second is to have cool stuff to share with my clients. I could Google all day long to find out what new soc media or ecomm ventures are kicking up but, until you talk with the creators, you can’t really get a sense of how trends are shifting. Not being a techie, what seems new and fresh to me is old hat to a developer. I constantly feel like I’m behind the curve. I hate that. But feeling behind the curve is not all bad because it constantly drives me to learn something new every day.

I’ve met some sharp onliners at WebInno that I’m looking forward to checking in with, particularly Mark Doerschlag with MarksGuide, who just launched sites for NYC, Seattle and more, Kevin Gardner who runs the cool online music collab site Tune Rooms and Chris Keller from Fafarazzi, a fun soc net site that is like fantasy celeb sport meets The Onion. These guys have weathered the storm so far and have proven that they have the right combo of good idea + positioning + audience to pull it off.

Another reason I attend is to share ideas (to anyone who will listen) from the marketing and business perspective. Developers and programmers have a tendency to work within their world and focus on the “it”: what does “it” do, how does “it” look and where will “it” take the next wave of online cool? These are all very important “its.” The one I find missing a lot, however, is this: why are we doing “it”?

Asking why forces you to think beyond the immediate application and ten steps ahead to the possibilities of multiple apps. I sense that geeks and techies are getting wise to this, now that start-ups are transforming from dorm room innovation to dedicated career path.

If I could make one forecast for trends we’ll see on Tuesday night, it is this: hyperlocal. It’s a safe prediction, considering the pretty long list of new tools and apps for people to make online and offline connections for business and hobbies alike.

More importantly than trends, however, I’ll be paying uber close attention to conversations. It’s been a while since I attended a WebInno. Last time I attended I met the spectrum of smarties, from genius kids who were green in the ways of business to sharp-eyed suits who could use a little less business in their business.

Either way, I’ll be counting the times I hear, “You came ‘all that way’ from Connecticut?” So, let’s make another forecast. I predict that I’ll hear that question at least 4.5 times. More or less.

Hope to see you there! To check out the attendee list, go to the Eventbrite site for WebInno.