ReadWriteWeb

Hot on the heels of the inaugural Open Angel Forum in Los Angeles this Thursday, event organizer and notable investor Jason Calacanis has announced a second event will be held in Boulder next month. Announcing the event on his weekly live video podcast This Week in Startups, Calacanis says he has booked Foundry Group's Brad Feld, and TechStars founder David Cohen, though he plans to have at least a dozen more angels attend.

The Open Angel Forum - which Calacanis considers a "jihad" rebuking VC firms with "pay-to-pitch" practices - provides entrepreneurs with the opportunity for free and open access to angel investors.

Best known for its movie stars, sun and surf, Los Angeles probably isn't the first place you'd think to breed technology. But when you consider the influence of investors like Jason Calacanis and Mark Suster, in addition to the fact that companies like Demand Media and Docstoc call Southern California home, it's not surprising that the community is emerging as one of the country's hottest startup hubs. ReadWriteWeb caught up with some defining characters of the LA Tech scene to find out why they've made their homes away from the traditional tech haunts of Silicon Valley.

After tech heavy hitters like Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble and Fred Wilson expressed public outrage over its pay-to-play fees, the Keiretsu Forum has begun waiving fees for early-stage startup presentations. According to PeHUB's Deborah Gage, the network is asking its chapters to disregard presentation charges for companies with less than $500,000 in capital and for those trying to raise less than $500,000 from investors.