Both conferences are in early October and happen to fall in five consecutive days. Since I now have some readers from the Valley, please hear my pitch for the five reason to attend five days of Facebook for under $1,000!

1- Facebook’s platform is so popular, you might be stuck at the stoner’s lunch table if you don’t attend.
2- Tom from MySpace is attending to learn how to add auto-play music to their upcoming FB app. Please attend
and stop them.
3- If you’re short on Facebook development resources, you can mingle with those that have doing it.
4- For less than $1,000 you hear some big names discuss the platform and learn what this API can do for you.
5- If you have REAL faith in your fb app, show up and pimp it out!

Update: Gabe commented on this post, confirming Dave’s mention that he’s a good dude… just a misinterpretation of a look.
What do you do? It’s been a tough question for me to answer as it’s been four years since I’ve had just “one job.” During my Bay Area Trip, I visited Lunch 2.0 and although it was great, I had a funny/odd encounter to wrap up the event.

Above is a Flickr photo of me sitting next to Techmeme‘s founder, Gabe Rivera. I didn’t know who he was even though he spoke at SXSW and Rob heard him speak (and liked what he said)… but I didn’t attend that panel.

So let me set the stage. Lunch 2.0 is winding down and I’m sitting across from Dave McClure. I go get something to drink and another guy (Gabe) is now sitting across from Dave. I sit down amid their conversation and I realize this guy’s name is Gabe. A few minutes later, there’s some silence, so I extend my hand…

Todd: Hey, I’m Todd.
Gabe: Hey.

Todd: So Gabe, what do you do?
Gabe: I run a web site.
Todd: Cool, which site is that?
Gabe: (glaring at me like I’m beyond stupid) Uhh, it’s called Techmeme.com.
Todd: (impressed he runs Techmeme, but shocked he thinks I should know him) Ohh… I know your site, nice work.

I met some really cool people at Lunch 2.0, but after that conversation, I realized it was time to head out. So, maybe Gabe’s not a social butterfly or he was having a bad day. Luckily, I didn’t have that experience with anyone else. Next time, I’ll ask a few more questions to be sure the first impression was accurate. start with a better question like… If you run a popular web site, blog, vlog, twitter app, or were a child tv star, I’m sorry I don’t know you, but what do you do?

Kevin Smokler – Editor of Bookmark Now and popular speaker on the topic endurance of the arts in the digital 21st century
Mary Ladd – Writer for the city blog SFist.com, blogs at Jalapeno Girl and works on raising funds for LitQuake
Dave McClure- Advisor or investor for Mint, Spock, Mashery, Simply Hired, HealthUnity and Canopy Financial
Lunch 2.0 at Simply Hired – Dave was nice enough to invite me along to his old stomping grounds with 100 of our closest friends. If you’re attending Lunch 2.0 today, stop by and see me. I’ll be the only (I assume) guy with a camera man following.
Ben Casnocha – Author of the book, My Start-Up Life and founder of Comcate