BELTWAY BIZ

BR>

Deal in the Works: McLean, Va.-based Women's Connection Online made venture capitalist Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Associates in Redwood City, Calif., take notice. When asked in a closing discussion at Red Herring's Venture Market South conference in Atlanta last month if any companies had caught his eye, the venture capital guru singled out the online news service geared toward women. The chief executive of Women's Connection Online, Susan DeFife, managed to hold her audience despite making her presentation in the conference's final slot. More than 20 Netplex companies hoping to spark deals with venture capitalists and investment bankers attended the conference.

Marketing Travels North: Organizers of the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology have planned a March 20 breakfast to market the biennial event to software companies in Boston. World Congress officials planned the breakfast with the Massachusetts Software Council, a nonprofit trade association in Boston. Organizers of the breakfast have sent 2,600 invitations to sponsors of the World Congress, the software council's 400 members and other software companies in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Gilbert Amelio, chairman and chief executive of Apple Computer Inc., and Josh Bernoff, a senior analyst with Forrester Research, will speak at the breakfast about trends in information technology.

Flew the Coop: When Maxm Systems Corp. of McLean, Va., was acquired by Boole & Babbage of San Jose, Calif., in January, only about 75 company executives and others were laid off. However, almost two-thirds decided to leave the company anyway. According to a spokeswoman for Boole & Babbage, of the 150 Maxm employees, only 52 remained after the acquisition. Boole & Babbage, a developer of enterprise automation software, issued 1.1 million shares of common stock, valued at $25 million on Jan. 16.

Nation's Capital Condensed to a Disk: The Greater Washington Initiative, a regional marketing campaign managed by the Greater Washington Board of Trade, will be releasing a CD-ROM this month on the Washington region. The disk will be used to entice suppliers of local high-tech companies to move to the area. Through colorful video and audio clips the disk will include details on Washington's quality of life, local universities and the area's transportation infrastructure. The economic development organization is currently putting together a list of recipients of the free disk.