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Ginny Griffith. Courtesy photo

The eCoast Technology Roundtable, now celebrating its eighth year, continues to generate quite a bit of media attention. But it's the word-of-mouth buzz that keeps high-tech firms and professionals coming back for the business network and its popular social, the monthly eBrew, long after the dizzying heights of the dot-com years.

Some eCoast co-founders who have returned for the networking and camaraderie take pride in the group's staying power and its newcomers.

In retrospect, the association seems like a natural given the number of high-tech, marketing and creative services professionals in the Seacoast of Maine and New Hampshire, says Joshua Cyr, a founding member and the chief technology officer for Harbour Light Strategic Marketing, and its fellow Portsmouth-based sister company, Savvy Software.

Cyr says the close-knit community has helped eCoast and those eBrews "" held the first Thursday of every month at The Press Room in Portsmouth "" thrive.

"It's only a few degrees of separation around here," he says. "Networking events like that are a great way of making long-term relationships."

As an example of networking as more than overnight phenomenon, Cyr notes he has worked with people in one forum or another since meeting them through eCoast, a special committee of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.

The eCoast is a Seacoast brand celebrating greater Portsmouth as a home to high-tech businesses, entrepreneurs and innovation. As Cyr puts it, one develops an arsenal of friends and colleagues to bounce ideas off.

Katie Paine. Courtesy photo

Networking can launch long-term alliances, which is a critical component for businesses, says Ginny Griffith, business development manager for the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. As is often the case, one tech company specializing in one service may join forces, or enter into a subcontract, with another company to land a project.

"It's not a swapping of ideas," she says. "It's a way of growing their business."

Businesses working together for their common good may not sound so unusual when considering the large number of small businesses in Portsmouth alone. In the first quarter of 2006, New Hampshire Employment Security reported there were 707 private firms with one to four employees, and another 356 firms with five to nine employees. To put that in perspective, there were only 37 firms with 100 or more employees last year.

While online networking has its place, getting out of one's office can spur creativity, says Katie Delahaye Paine of KD Paine & Partners, a firm specializing in marketing and measurement, with offices in the Seacoast and North Country. She sees several groups establishing business connections around the state.

"It's happening. I think it's very under the radar screen," she says. "The need for physical getting together and brainstorming is very real."

The free flow and exchange of ideas stimulates the entrepreneur, says Fred Kocher, president of the New Hampshire High Tech Council. He says groups around the state, from young professionals in Manchester to the eCoast Technology Roundtable in Portsmouth, create a kind of progressive fellowship.

"Some of the young professionals in the state seem to have interesting new ideas on how traditional organizations ought to be run," Kocher says. "And frankly, they have some great ideas."