We blogged about our first-timer's experience with a mini-Mindshare LA last month, a dinner party at Mindshare LA founder Adam Mefford's fabulous Brewery loft apartment. Last Thursday, we got to check out Mindshare for real, and rubbed elbows with 400 of LA's most fascinating peeps while listening to some truly mind-blowing talks. Here's our review.

First up, the venue.
Mindshare is held in a downtown LA nightclub setting and this month it was Club 740, which was filled with vintage Los Angeles glamour. The space also provided all the suitable nooks and crannies for Mindshare's little break-out rooms which hosted everything from cool artwork installations to a couch where you could pose with a pair of stocking-clad dismembered legs (that I am still wondering were real, or animatronic limbs covered in a polyurethane that mimicks human skin -- down to the uncanny warm temperature. Anyone know for sure?)

The speakers.
The variety of Mindshare's speakers, who each talk for 10 minutes, means you're bound to hear someone who'll surprise, titillate or educate you about a topic to which you never would have been previously exposed. Attorney Bob Lancaster encouraged burgeoning inventors to not discount their ideas by showing us ridiculous US patents (including a birthing machine that uses centrifugal force.) We also saw beautiful nature photography from Floris Van Breugel, witnessed the kooky magic of Rudy Coby, and heard from Fierce Couture's Tressa Wiliams, who is bringing vinyl fetishwear from the underground onto the catwalk.

The food.
La Gallete Crepes (@LaGaletteCrepes) and the VizziTruck (@VizziTruck) provided hungry partiers with grub. I didn't get a chance to try any crepes, but the veggie chickpea sliders from the VizziTruck were outstanding!

The music.
Was raucous and danceable.

The alcohol.
Was strong and free-flowing.

Prizes and other free stuff.

We picked up a nice Floris Van Breugel calendar and Atty Bob Lancaster had little booklets of weird US patent up for grabs. Tickets to the LA Ballet, a free copy of a NSFW Tiger Woods ("inspired") videogame and a one-month's supply of Vitacoco were given out to attendees who funniest/wittiest/most original response to the event registration questionnaire.

The crowd and networking opportunities.
Were really the best part. Now in their third year, Mindshare's Adam Mefford and Doug Campbell have a proven formula in place. Alcohol + Entertainment + Intelligent People = Connections. And this month, ShareSquare sponsored name badges with scannable bar codes that were readable with your mobile phone. So if you met someone you liked and wanted to connect with them post-Mindshare via Twitter or Facebook, all you had to do was scan them. It was a very next-gen way of staying in touch, but done so in a very traditional old school fashion -- actually making a connection with a person, face to face over a drink. 

Fierce Couture models wearing high-end latex.

Rudy Coby, Magician (and Max Headroom impersonator??)

Raz PR's Shannon Deoul, hiding behind her name badge.