We were hoping for a big crowd at the GeekWire Launch Party. Little did we know how big it would get.

With more than 800 people registered for last night’s event, the turnout was a testament to the strength of the Seattle region’s technology community. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate the show of support.

And we hope you had as much fun as we did. Or at least as much fun as Jeremy Lewis of Big Fish Games, angel investor Geoff Entress, and Cheezburger’s Ben Huh — pictured on the mini-golf course at right.

Thanks to our celebrity guests, including NBA legend Detlef Schrempf, rap legend Sir Mix-A-Lot, and Seattle Sounders Pat Noonan and Brad Evans. And a big thanks to our station sponsors — Big Fish Games, Decide, Maveron, MadronaKobo, TechDwellers, Gist, thePlatform and Filter — for offering up great games and prizes.

KING 5 News was there, as well, using the event to take the temperature of the local tech community in light of the unconfirmed report earlier yesterday that Seattle’s PopCap Games is in acquisition talks with an unidentified buyer for a deal that could be valued at more than $1 billion. Here’s the segment.

Here’s a slideshow of photos from the event from photojournalist Karen Ducey.


Geekwire launch party photo gallery – Images by Karen Ducey

[Update: Also see coverage and photos by the Seattleite online news magazine.]

And here are more pictures below from the event by GeekWire photographer Annie Laurie Malarkey. Also, a special thanks to Kurt Schlosser for taking photos and shooting video, to Brent Roraback for spinning tunes all night, and to Seattle band The Dignitaries for the music used in the video above.

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