Hi Tech Lifestyle Parties: Sex, Drugs, and Silicon Valley

The proliferation of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll in the 1960s, more than any other social phenomena, epitomized that indeed the “times they were a changing.”  A half century later in Silicon Valley, a few miles south of where the sixties revolution was born, the times haven’t changed much at all, as hi-tech executives entertain themselves with sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

A wide ranging group of hi-tech engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors, and financiers congregate regularly to get to know each other better  at “lifestyle parties,” which are hi-tech versions of the previous generation’s swinger’s parties.

Here, according to CNN, couples dance, drink, do drugs, listen to music and, if they feel so inclined, engage in a variety of sexual activities. The basic blueprint to the “lifestyle party” is much the same as the earlier iteration.  Couples get together wearing sexy clothes, get high together on intoxicant of choice, make-out with their partners, start disrobing piece by piece as the night goes on, start switching partners, and then have some form of sex with a varying number of participants at a time.

The big difference between now and then is how people network and summon others to join their sexual soirees. Ben Fuller, a hi-tech entrepreneur who sold his first company for $5 million, is the purveyor of his own “lifestyle party” called the Bronze Party, which he has been staging regularly since 2011.

Fuller’s new company, Modern Lifestyle, helps facilitate 50 sex clubs around the country. The online platform provides software to alert people to who are coming to the parties and how they can purchase tickets. The company sold $3 million in tickets in 2014.

Stella and husband Greg, both engineers, enjoy swapping partners and swapping ideas as well. Greg says that he’s met others that he learns from: “They often have great ideas about technology… that I can apply here at Bronze Party.” He explained that he met an iPhone developer who gave him a better way to manage contact information and others who’ve helped him circumvent Gmail filters, redesign websites, and explore mobile apps.

Yet, Greg clarified the real importance of the parties saying, “Whereas you might go to a bar, pick up somebody and take them home for the evening if you’re single, here it wouldn’t be unheard of to do that even if you’re married.”

Fuller said that Apps like Secret help people locate his Bronze Parties. “We just heard from a threesome — two women and a man — who said ‘Oh, we heard about it on Secret,'” he stated.

Technology makes it easy for people to find other people, Fuller maintains. “In the old days, you never knew where you were going. Now you get a really good sense. The event details… even the pictures of the people that are going to be attending the party.”