This post is based on a conversation I had with Tyler Crowley from Mahalo and Open Angel Fourm. Bio is below:

Tyler Crowley is the Director of Corporate Strategy at Mahalo and Producer of Open Angel Forum (OAF). OAF is a high quality private investor pitch forum for founders to meet quality Angels. They are looking for operational startups only, but there is no fee of any kind to pitch or apply. He can be reached @steepdecline.

I’ll start with the conclusion: Email is far from dead.

How could this be? We’ve all read articles, reports, and blog posts telling us email is dead. The truth is though that not only is email not dead, it’s growing fast along with the social media channels that are supposedly replacing it as a communications channel.

Many people believe that Twitter is the biggest threat to email. It’s a very efficient communications channel, it’s easily mobile, you only get Direct Messages from people you want, and the messages are short. But at the same time, Twitter is also a very limited communications channel. It’s very hard to efficiently schedule meetings, make introductions, and send long form content.

Our own StartupDigest newsletter is tangible evidence that email is not getting replaced by social channels. It has grown from just 22 subscribers to over 60,000 in just 6 months. Our subscribers are the most technologically savvy people in the world (developers + founders creating new technology) and yet still love getting StartupDigest weekly in their inbox. Being the early adopters they are, they subject themselves to the most amount of noise through new social channels but enjoy StartupDigest as a rare break from the clutter and noise every other channel is producing.

And email is only getting more powerful. There are companies like Rapportive that give you social context to emails, Mingly that is becoming the social CRM for personal relationships, SailThru that allows your newsletters to have behavioral targeting, RapLeaf that gives you social data based on email addresses, and MailChimp’s Social Pro that gives you real demographic analysis on your email list.

Watch out for an email renaissance coming to your inbox and new startups that extend your inbox to a socially powerful communications tool.

StartupDigest subscribers love it when we give them a discount or coupon code to an awesome event, especially to the more expensive larger conferences. To make sure that all of you can get the best price possible to attend these larger conferences, we’re launching a special Conference Deals page that will feature the best ticket discounts on the biggest upcoming technology and entrepreneurship conferences around the world.

We are separating this page from each edition of the StartupDigest newsletter because we want to make sure that these deals don’t effect the events we feature. Featuring the small informal meetups that happen in every city around the world is a big part of the core purpose of StartupDigest, and we will make sure that it stays that way.

Check out the first three deals we found for you:

To find all of the latest discounts on tickets to the biggest upcoming technology and entrepreneurship conferences, check out the Conference Deals page here.

With the 4th of July holiday weekend approaching, we are feeling very patriotic. To help honor the USA, here are the top 5 most popular startup events across our great nation this week. The rankings are based on data we have collected from StartupDigest.

Enjoy and share your favorite events below.

	Hackers and Founders: Dogpatch Labs, San Francisco – Thursday in San Francisco, CA It’s about hanging out, having a beverage and talking about shiny technologies we’re playing with, startups we founded or are thinking about, stuff we read about on Hacker News, and the latest geek and startup news. View SDbase profile: http://bit.ly/sdbaseHnF
	Girls in Tech NYC Happy Hour with Mashable – Tomorrow in New York, NY Girls in Tech NYC has now joined up with the official Mashable Social Media Day event in New York City for the month of June. For this special day, please join Girls in Tech NYC along with members of the Mashable NYC team, for an evening of drinks (and drink specials!) and networking at The Mean Fiddler (266 West 47th St.). http://www.meetup.com/Girls-in-Tech-NYC/calendar/13800493/
	Southern California Venture Network Monthly Mixer – Tomorrow in Santa Monica, CA The Mission of the Southern California Venture Network (SCVN) is to increase the entrepreneurial velocity of both startup and emerging growth companies. This mixer is geared towards bringing members, executive board, and newcomers together in a casual atmosphere. http://scvn.org/calendar/event/2010/6/30/194475
	Tech Tuesday – Tonight in Cambridge, MA If you’re looking for talent, clients or to just spread the word about what you are doing, join us for this Tech Tuesday.  You’ll have an opportunity for a fast-pitch shout-out to the audience of fellow geeks, tech savvy professionals, DIY-ers, and other industry luminaries at this high energy informal gathering. http://www.eventbrite.com/event/690779139
	Genjuice Chicago – Tonight in Chicago, IL This is not a typical networking group. We are a community that offers professional, social and civic opportunities to help cultivate Chicago’s future leaders (a.k.a. you). http://genjuicechicago.eventbrite.com/

To get the best startup events in your own city every week, sign up for your local StartupDigest issue here.

And God bless America!

Here are the top 5 most popular startup events in North America this week. The rankings are based on data we have collected from StartupDigest.

Enjoy and share your favorite events below.

	MogoTix Launch Party (Thursday – San Francisco, CA) Come celebrate the MogoTix launch with Plancast, UserVoice, Recurly, and imhello at ROE Lounge in San Francisco! The party starts at 6:00 pm. http://mogotixlaunchparty.mogotix.com/
	Innovative Marketplaces Meetup (Tonight – New York, NY) The Innovative Marketplaces meetup brings together entrepreneurs, developers, activists, financiers, and academics to explore how entrepreneurs are using marketplace models to disrupt industries and create change. http://www.meetup.com/innovations/calendar/13589819/
	Momentum Summit (Tomorrow – Cambridge, MA) How do small startups with a brilliant idea turn into big businesses? The Momentum Summit will explore that question with a series of in-depth conversations and strategy talks from notable local founders and CEOs. http://momentumsummit.eventbrite.com/
	Ignite Vancouver 2.0 (Thursday – Vancouver, Canada) It’s a full slate of presentations that range from funny to eclectic to scientific! http://IgniteBC2.EventBrite.com/
	WA Technology Annual Summer Celebration (Thursday – Seattle, WA) WTIA’s annual Summer Celebration is back, and this time we are bringing the community together with a new flare.  Hosted in Woodinville at Chateau Ste Michelle Winery our guests will enjoy a summer kaleidoscope of business opportunities, enjoyment & education! http://bit.ly/WTIAsummer

To get the best startup events in your own city every week, sign up for your local StartupDigest issue here.