More than two years ago we decided to start hosting a regular startup-focused happy hour for the North Texas area. More 2,500 local entrepreneurs have joined us for some beer and fellowship. The newspaper wrote about the event and lots of new companies have been formed from the relationships created at the event – for example Rylan and I met at the event and started Big in Japan. It has been a very fun couple of years, but I think it is time for a change – time to mix things up – time for Startup Happy Hour 2.0.

First, we decided change the venue. The High Tech Bar has been a good home for the event, but the parking situation really annoying. The new location will be at Architel’s new facility in the North Tower of Campbell Centre (the gold building on the corner of I75 and Northwest Highway where JR Ewing used to work).

Next, we decided to change the date. The first Monday made a lot of sense when we first began (the first happy hour just happened to be on a Monday), but we eventually remembered that it fell on the same night as Monday Night Football (this is Texas BTW). The new date will be the fifth Wednesday of the month. The inaugural event will be held October 27th, 2010 (subsequent events on Nov 24, Dec 22, Jan 26, Feb 23).

Third, we decided to change the format. Cocktails and more cocktails seemed like a great idea two years ago – easy to organize and easy to host – but I think we can do better. Starting in October we will begin the event at 5PM with cocktails and light hors d’oeuvres, then at 6PM we will have a speaker/program for 30-45 minutes and then have more cocktails and networking until around 8PM. Each quarter we hope to attract a ‘significant’ speaker, but don’t worry each month we will have really interesting speakers.

Finally, we decided to change from Upcoming.org to Meetup.com to manage RSVPs, pictures and discussion about the group. Just visit: http://www.meetup.com/Dallas-Startup-Happy-Hour/ and join the group and the conversation (i.e. you need to start the conversation).

We will be announcing the first speaker in the coming weeks. But you are going to want to save the date anyway.