Follow the Bouncing Ball

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Last spring, Bao Ngo wanted to get a basketball competition going. Her company, Santa Monica online genealogy mapper Geni, had a team and they challenged the team at her former employer, ScoreBig Inc.

Then she got an unsolicited email from someone at Hulu. That company had a basketball team, too, and they wanted in. Soon after, Honest Co. came calling. Within a few weeks, she had eight company teams from L.A.’s tech community and a full-fledged tournament, which she named LA Tech Jam. (Yes, there’s a mobile-friendly website.)

“I ordered some banners for every company and hired a DJ and had a ridiculous trophy,” Ngo, 29, said. “There’s a big community here and now we’re all connected.”

LA Tech Jam was such a hit that Ngo just announced there’ll be a follow-up in the spring. Even more companies have reached out, and she expects there’ll be enough for two eight-team brackets.

Ironically, with all the planning she’s had to do for the tournament, the one thing Ngo hasn’t been able to do is actually play. Not that she minds.

“I like planning things, so it’s not a problem,” she said. “Plus, it’s a lot of fun just to watch.”

Georgian Watch

On the weekend before Halloween, Robert O’Brien went out as something more severe than a vampire or superhero: monitor of presidential elections in the republic of Georgia.

O’Brien, who heads the L.A. office of law firm Arent Fox, was asked by the democracy-building non-profit organization International Republican Institute to observe elections in the former Soviet state. He was parachuted in for about a week; he examined ballot boxes and spoke with campaign representatives on a pro bono basis. The day of the Oct. 27 election found him in the town of Kutaisi, checking on 14 polling places to make sure votes were cast and counted fairly.

“If you like politics, you realize it’s the same all over the world,” he said. “It was fun in the lead-up to the election watching candidates compete and seeing signs and watching election workers go door to door.”

O’Brien, 47, has previous professional experience in international affairs as a former legal officer at the United Nations Security Council and co-chairman of a State Department effort to reform Afghanistan’s justice system. He still takes a personal interest.

“I grew up in America at a time when half the world wasn’t free and didn’t have the right to vote,” he said. “One of the great things in my lifetime has been the steady progression of freedom. We need to do what we can to ensure these fragile democracies have support of friends around the world.”


Staff reporters Tom Dotan and Alfred Lee contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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