My current employer has been on a pretty tight budget so I haven't done this in a bit but back in 2006 at my previous venture-funded company I made a point of going to local interest group meetings that had something to do with the technologies our company used. Whenever I found someone presenting something that could be helpful to my company I would ask for their info and pass it along to my boss.

So I would say get out there, let people know what you're doing and have plenty of business cards on hand.