The local gatherings of techies, which are often free and open to newcomers, have long been a fertile field for schmoozing and hunting for investment capital. But as the latest technology boom has gathered steam, meet-ups have proliferated and taken on more importance in the industry.

Many meet-ups have left behind their humbler origins as bull sessions around pitchers of beer. For an increasing number of entrepreneurs, they are places to recruit employees, prospect for clients and keep abreast of the latest tech trends and tools. Some of the groups now have thousands of members — and even corporate sponsors.

The number of monthly events on Meetup.com, a service used mostly by techies to plan the confabs, had grown to more than 250,000 in May 2011 from less than 50,000 three years earlier.

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Last night, BoomTown went to a lovely party thrown by David Hornik, the August Capital VC who also runs The Lobby conference in his spare time.

He threw the event because those who attend the annual invitation-only gathering in Hawaii wanted to get together again during the year in Silicon Valley for even more schmoozing.

I went to the first Lobby in the fall of 2007 (you can see my video of that below too), so Hornik let me in to have some pizza and beer at August’s offices on Sand Hill Road and use my Flip video to ask those in attendance where they thought the digital sector was in terms of the economy and innovation.

So here’s Hornik, angel investor Brett Bullington (who is also in the 2007 video, but in shorts) and BillShrink’s Peter Pham, as well a merger of MINIs.

Here’s the video (with my 2007 one below it):