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America elected Trump last night. Here’s how #dctech is responding

Some DMV companies are plodding on; some are facing it. “The important work for us starts today. Civic engagement does not end on election day.”

At Technical.ly's #BIW15 Business Conference event. (Photo by Catherine Sontag)

As election results started to trickle in last night, this reporter was with roughly 1,500 other #dctech and creative (or at least party-minded) folks at the WeWork election night party at the National Building Museum. Pelonkey’s DJ Neekola played to a restlessly dancing (and results-refreshing) hoard of people while stars-and-stripes themed lights flashed in the cavernous venue, revealing a floor littered with the remains of so many red, white and blue balloons and napkins.

WeWork election night swag. (Screenshot)

WeWork election night swag. (Screenshot)


1,500 people, after all.
And then this morning #dctech, and the rest of America, awoke to a new President-elect. And let’s just say it’s not the one many were expecting.
So how are the people and companies of #dctech reacting to this news? Is there an effort to address this seismic shift in representation taking place in offices around the city? Or is it business as usual?
At MakeOffices HQ out in Clarendon, CEO Raymond Rahbar told Technical.ly in an email, it is more of the latter. At least for now. “Being residents of D.C. and the DMV we all follow politics and have been watching nonstop,” he wrote. “It’s been a crazy roller coaster of 18 months of this. And of course we were awake watching the elections pretty late into the night. That being said, in the context of business we haven’t talked about it nor will we in the very near future. But as with all Presidents, some things will be good for us and some things will be bad. But until we see policy proposals and Congress voting on anything there isn’t much to talk about as far as its impact on our business in all honesty.”
It’s much the same at the 15th Street campus of 1776, apparently. Campus manager Shahier Rahman told Technical.ly that while election talk is “unavoidable” around the office, the team has not discussed the results in a formal manner just yet.
Other companies, meanwhile, are addressing the election in a more head-on fashion. Phone2Action, the Rosslyn-based political advocacy software company, is one example. “We bought bagels and we are going around the room one by one asking how people feel,” cofounder Ximena Hartsock told Technical.ly in an email. “The important work for us starts today. Civic engagement does not end on election day.”
On social media that message — a kind of quiet resolve — seemed resonant:
https://twitter.com/GoForTopherB/status/796373658000302080


And then there was curiosity, too, for what the next four years will hold:


Indeed. We’ll be watching.

Companies: Capitol Canary / Pelonkey / MakeOffices / WeWork / 76 Forward
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