Last night paidContent rolled into town, hosting a wireless panel and social gala at the W Hotel.

Clearwire chief strategy officer Scott Richardson kicked off the evening with an overview of the broadband wireless provider, calling the Kirkland company a "bit factory" and noting the differences between WiMax and LTE. Of course, Richardson believes WiMax is superior and has a head start. And he noted that the "E" in LTE stands for evolution, while he said what the broadband wireless industry really needs is a revolution.

After a panel on mobile advertising, the bar opened and members of Seattle's wireless industry came out in force. (Free beer and wine has the tendency to do that.)

I bumped into Knovolo founder Greg Bouwens, who said his bootstrapped Seattle startup is moving towards positive cash flow without taking venture capital or angel financing. He also offered advice on running a startup, saying the key is survival. "A startup is like extreme skiing, just survive," he said.

Wetpaint Chief Executive Ben Elowitz -- looking rested and relaxed after closing a $25 million venture round -- showed up even though his company has no immediate plans to go heavy into the wireless arena. The wiki provider has its hands full with the new Wetpaint Injected service, which Elowitz said is gaining serious traction with some large online publishers. (Look for an announcement on partners in the coming months.)

I spent the better part of the evening chatting with Jeff Schrock of Monster Venture Partners, who was full of interesting tidbits and stories. Did you know LinkedIn was started in Seattle? I didn't.

Schrock also talked about a new Seattle startup he's supporting: Tanning.com. I laughed at the thought of Seattle -- which is only starting to see the sun after months of rain -- being the potential leader in the online tanning business. But Schrock -- who joined Monster Venture Partners earlier this year -- had some interesting facts about tanning, its growth and the lack of online resources.

I jokingly asked Bill Bryant, who was standing nearby with a glass of wine, whether Draper Fisher Jurvetson would ever consider backing Tanning.com. Bryant, who just joined the board of recently-funded WidgetBucks, said they would probably pass.

After telling Schrock that I had begun using Twitter, the former Activate and RealNetworks executive said he didn't think the service would succeed. The reason: young people aren't using it.

Across the room, Newsvine founder Mike Davidson chatted with several of his MSNBC.com cronies. I missed touching based with venture capitalist Tom Huseby who whizzed by.

SinglePoint Chief Executive Rich Begert, the former McCaw Cellular and ImageX executive, provided an example on his phone of a mobile video ad (appearing before an episode of "Project Runway.") But he also lamented that not enough was being done to promote the power of mobile advertising.

I finished the night chatting with party host Rafat Ali about blogging before heading out with ZipWhip founder (and fellow Ohioan) John Lauer, who said Seattle needs more wireless events.

Overall, a successful evening on Seattle's tech social scene.