Well, the debut of the Austin Blogathon is upon us - a chance to commune and blog our faces off all at the same time. However, although it would be possible to put on a blogathon without sponsors, it wouldn’t be sustainable, and it would probably die a slow, painful death.

Fortunately, since Austin is such a giving town, and local businesses love an excuse to get together, we’ve had some fantastic sponsors step up to the plate and make this a truly fun – and sustainable event.

These sponsors are providing us with some much needed sustenance, shelter, clothing and accessories so our bloggers can happily work in comfort, and go all day long.

Plus, sponsorship is already starting to work. Case in point: I didn’t know half of these companies before Blogathon (or maybe I’ve been living under a rock). I know who to order cupcakes from for my next event, who to hire to take pictures during my daughter's graduation, and where to get pocorn for our stay-at-home movie watching.

I bet a lot of you are finding out about a lot of these businesses for the first time too.

Here’s a list of our sponsors...discover what some of these fine local establishments do, go give them your business, and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, and of course, your BLOG!!!

DrakNet Web Hosting

 www.drak.net @draknet http://www.facebook.com/draknet

1525 Cypress Creek Rd., Suite H #154, Cedar Park, TX 78613

About: Formed in July of 1997, DrakNet (a privately owned, female owned, and completely debt free company) has excelled the web hosting market with a dedication to providing premium shared hosting solutions for small businesses, bloggers, and developers. 

Conjunctured

http://conjunctured.com, @conjunctured, http://www.facebook.com/conjunctured

1309 E. 7^th Street, Austin, TX 78702

About: Conjunctured was born in July 2008 from the coworking movement that started in San Francisco in 2007. Since its origination, the popularity of coworking has spread like wildfire. Coworking spaces can now be found in pretty much every major city in the US. Conjunctured was the third coworking space to open in Texas, closely following Creative Space in College Station and Caroline Collective in Houston.

Conjunctured is a coworking space with a growing community of freelancers, entrepreneurs, and mobile workers who have grown tired of working alone. Along with the community aspect of coworking, Conjunctured provides all the essentials of a productive office environment.

Pinqued

http://pinqued.com/, @pinqued, http://ru-ru.facebook.com/pages/Pinqued-Interactive-Event-Production-and-Marketing/159935292389

About: Pinqued LLC creates the collision between the online and offline worlds. We are an interactive events marketing and management company co-founded by Jen Wojcik and Kate Buck in late 2009.

TabbedOut

www.tabbedout.com, @TabbedOut, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Austin-TX/TabbedOut/208207016589

About: Austin-based ATX Innovation has developed TabbedOut to allow customers to securely open, view, and pay bar or restaurant tabs from their phone (free download on iTunes and the Android market with Blackberry under development).

Mashable

www.mashable.com, @mashable

About: Founded in 2005, Mashable is the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. With more than 30 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new Web sites and services, and offering social media resources and guides. Mashable’s audience includes early adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, influencers, brands and corporations, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. Mashable is also popular with bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users — an increasingly influential demographic.

Torchy ‘s Tacos

http://www.torchystacos.com/, @torchytaco, http://www.facebook.com/torchystacos

Many locations around town!

About: Austin Daze issue #65:
austindaze.com
..."Torchy's Damn Good Tacos", a new South Austin stop on the trailer vittle trail, an anomaly in this weird corporate day and age we exist, but a little fist thrust in the air for quality, originality and personality, all things we need to sustain any quality of life and sense of community and self on this spinning chunk of carbon upon which we exist. Let it be known, far and wide, Magnus says, "Come one, come all, to Torchy's Damn Good Tacos! Your horizons will be forever expanded, your taste buds dazzled, your pangs sated. Uh-huh."
- Excerpt from Trailer Vittles, Pt. 3

Lux Bakery & Café

http://luxbakeryandcafe.com/, @luxbakerycafe, http://www.facebook.com/luxbakerycafe

3601 West William Cannon Drive, Austin, TX 78749

About: Lux Bakery & Cafe is a locally-owned eatery tucked in near the corner of William Cannon and Brodie in the heart of Southwest Austin.

The cafe serves a delicious variety of sandwiches, soups and salads, along with their famous fresh fruit smoothies and bubble drinks, while the bakery includes fresh baked pastries, muffins, cookies and much more. All these tasty treats can be custom ordered for parties, events, gifts for someone special, or just because!

Stop by for a real treat!

Casa Brasil

http://www.casabrasilcoffees.com @casabrasil http://www.facebook.com/pages/Casa-Brasil/157002955704

About: Casa Brasil wants to provide you the best cup of coffee available, directly reward those who produced the beans, and celebrate the culture of the beautiful country it came from. We approach artisan coffee producers with humility for their work and respect for the coffee they have grown. This sense of duty leads us to vacuum pack all coffee at source, import directly, roast in small batches, and cup every roast before it hits the shelf.

Our direct trade business model ensures we get the best coffee available and that these artisan producers are directly rewarded for their higher quality coffee. Direct relationships also mean opportunities for direct giving, and we encourage you to visit our progresso page to see how you can participate. Enjoy, and thank you for taking the time to visit our site. Obrigado e um grande abraço.

Treaty Oak Rum

http://www.treatyoakrum.com/ @treatyoakrum, http://www.treatyoakrum.com/

About: Treaty Oak Platinum Rum is hand-crafted from scratch in Austin, Texas with all Texas ingredients.

Our rum was created with three important principles in mind:

• Make a superb silver rum that could compete not only with the best rums, but also with the best vodkas.
•  Use only Texas ingredients.
•  Make our rum by hand and from scratch.

While these ideals may seem very simple, we are proud to say that we are Texas’ first & only distillery to both brew and distill our spirit. For that matter, we are one of very few micro-distilleries in the United States that adhere to this labor-intensive production method. Simply put, we believe controlling all aspects of production results in a superior quality spirit.

Graham’s Texas Tea

http://www.grahamstexastea.com/, @grahamstexastea, http://www.facebook.com/grahamstexastea

About: Graham's Texas Tea is a sweet tea flavored vodka made by hand, in Texas, with premium ingredients. GTT is brought to you by Graham Barnes Distilling, the makers of Treaty Oak Platinum Rum.

Cornucopia

http://www.austincornucopia.com, @cornucopiapops, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cornucopia/36739818358

 1914 Guadalupe St., Suite B, Austin, TX 78705

About: Walk into Cornucopia and you will quickly see what we’re about, variety and delicious gourmet popcorn! Made fresh every day, we have over 40 colorful & creative flavors to delight any audience. We’re always in the kitchen experimenting with new palates & ingredients.

Popped fresh in Austin Texas, Cornucopia is tired of the boring old movie theater popcorn. Each batch of corn is made in-store and by the hands of best friends & partners, Nikki & Nadia.

We invite you to find your favorite flavor and to share in the fun of popcorn with us.

The Cupcake Bar

http://www.thecupcakebaraustin.com, @thecupcakebar_, http://www.facebook.com/thecupcakebar

About: The Cupcake Bar originated as a branch of the Figs Catering dessert menu. After its studio party premiere, guests began booking the cupcake catering service for their own special occasions. This sugar sensation became its own entity and now offers customized desserts and entertainment in and around the Austin area.        

As You Wish Photography

http://www.asyouwishaustin.com/, @asyouwish http://www.facebook.com/AsYouWishPhotography

About: Lori Luza and the staff at As You Wish photography are passionate about making their clients happy. Lori defines her photography style as “down-to-Earth,” allowing for real emotion to come through in the images. This philosophy holds true whether photographing a wedding, shooting a senior portrait, or capturing the love in a family. We want to put a smile on your face! Our on-location sessions and build-your-own packages allow you to customize an experience that is just As You Wish…

GraphiTee’s

http://www.texasimprints.com/, @graphitees, http://www.facebook.com/CustomScreenPrinting

About: We specialize in custom screen printing. If you’re looking for T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Tote's, Apron's, Polo's, Towels? You’ve come to the right people for the job. We also offer full color professional transfers for a single shirt applications.

Haute Cakes

http://www.couturedesserts.com/, @hate4cake, http://www.facebook.com/austinweddingcakes

About: Coco Chanel said that a girl should be two things: Classy and Fabulous. Well...so should your cake!

When choosing a path in life, the choice is often out of our hands. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to choose not only our path, but who to walk it with.

We are best friends, turned baking partners. We believe dessert should always be the main course in life, and it should taste as good as it looks. That's why we created Haute Cakes. Perhaps you find some of life's questions difficult...paper or plastic, chicken or fish; but to dessert or not to dessert?

The answer is clear.

North By Northwest

http://www.nxnwbrew.com/, @nxnwbrew, http://www.facebook.com/nxnwbrew

10010 Capital of Texas Highway N, Austin, TX 78759

About: A message from Davis Tucker, owner of NXNW: North by Northwest came into existence from an idea that I had many years ago – that great craft brewed beer and fabulous food could come together in a fun and interesting atmosphere.

Julie Gomoll

http://flavors.me/juliegomoll, @juliegomoll

About: Entrepreneur. Crafty thinker. Marketing strategist. Clever schemer. Designer. Cocky geek.

• Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the changes in technology and media?
• Does your company need more visibility?
• Do you think social media might have some value, but have no idea where to start?

Let me help.

Jeremy Arntz

http://www.jeremyarntz.com/, @jeremya

About: Hello I’m Jeremy (duh!) and I live in Austin, TX. I’m a professional web developer and have been for the past 10 years. In my free time I like to take photos, kayak, watch tv/movies, write and, as crazy as it sounds, code.

I like to keep busy. I’m currently working on a book on developing web applications for iOS, blogging on several blogs, creating plugins for WordPress, and hacking on a couple of projects that I’m not ready to tell the world about. I always have something in the works so stay tuned to this blog!