TcDC1 Wine King On Conan: Tune In!

July 31, 2007

Reading time: 1 - 2 minutes

Gary Vaynerchuk at TECH cocktail DC 1 For those of you in attendance at the first TECH cocktail in DC, you may remember that there was wine tasting as Gary Vaynerchuk, of the popular video blog Wine Library TV sampled wine & gave out wine totes and wristbands. Though he is modest, Gary is kind of popular. He is has been as he has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine and now he has landed a spot on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on Wednesday night (August 1, 2007). Be sure to tune in to watch Gary Vaynerchuk on Conan!

Posted by Frank Gruber | Filed Under TECH cocktail, techcocktaildc1 | Leave a Comment

Wanna Join A Glorious myAOL Adventure?

July 26, 2007

Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes

Do you want to work with, Frank Gruber, one of the co-founders of TECH cocktail?

If so, this could be your chance, it will be glorious…
Join Frank Gruber For A Glorious myAOL Adventure!
What to help me and the rest of the super myAOL team? We recently launched the, myAOL Personalization Suite and we need more great people to join the team. We are going global with the product soon and want to keep the momentum going forward but we are looking for passionate people to join this fabulous team at AOL. We are looking for Product Managers, Designers and Engineers that will be working with me directly. What could be better?

We need sharp, motivated and passionate people to join our team. Details on the Product Manager, Engineer and Design positions below.

Engineer Position Details:
–> Writing widgets that allow a personalized experience to be built on AOL’s web sites. You’d write widgets using DHTML, HTML, AJAX and Flash technologies. The widgets span from one that shows email and Instant Mesdages , to one that show is your “social status” such as Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Flickr and Bebo.
–> Syndicating these widgets across sites outside of the AOL network – so your stuff goes across the web.
–> Passion and drive. We want people with passion and drive, who can learn quickly and want the best product for the users. You don’t need to know everything.

We are looking for sharp, motivated engineers who can build out widgets for our AOL applications and syndicate these across the web – think of syndication across Facebook, MySpace and of course our brand new “myAOL” product and iGoogle.

Product Manager Position Details:
–> Working with other myAOL product managers to ensure that all future roadmap projects/features work with our cobranded sites
–> Working with partners to develop module requirements and other features as needed
–> Working with project management, design, dev and qa to scope, schedule and implement requirements and report updates/progress to the program manager and co-brand team
–> Working with International on per-country requirements across global agreement
–> Liaison with cobrand team

You should have great communication skills and work well with the extended team - everyone from dev, qa, legal, business development, marketing, design, etc.

Sr. User Experience Designer Details:
The User Experience Design group at AOL in Silicon Valley is looking for a Sr. User Experience Designer with an emphasis on interaction and visual design (a little HTML/AJAX-y goodness wouldn’t hurt either). In this position you will be working on some of the most important and most strategic parts of the new way that AOL does business.

–> Must have proficiency in the standard design tools used today
–> Serves in a leadership role in the development of the look and feel or your designs
–> Leads project team in the development and implementation of your high-quality, interactive designs
–> Actively solicits feedback to ensure that all activities and deliverables meet expectations

If you are interested in jumping in, and working in a dynamic, fast paced environment, send your resume or better yet, send an example of your work! (Frank Gruber - frank at frankgruber5 dot com)

Come and be part of a great team. Cheers!

Posted by Frank Gruber | Filed Under Chicago, DC, Frank Gruber, TECH cocktail | Leave a Comment

TECH cocktail Chicago 5: Thank YOU

July 13, 2007

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

TECH cocktail Chicago 5 TECH cocktail turned one year old this week and to celebrate we hosted our fifth TECH cocktail in Chicago (6th overall). Thank you to the close to 600 guests that came out to TECH cocktail last night at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville. It was a sea of green as guests all tried to win some great prizes from SingleHop. Eric Olson and I are extremely pleased with the way the local tech scene has come out of the woodwork in Chicago to support TECH cocktail. It has been wonderful getting to know so many people over the past year as we have some fun together connecting to amplify the technology signal in the Windy City.

TECH cocktail sea of green!

Thank you to our sponsors who we could not do this event without. They include SingleHop, LinkedIn, Digital Bootcamp, Saper Law Office, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, MK Capital, Origin Ventures, Chicago Micro, Fave Media, LiquidTalk.

We had demos of a few products which included myAOL (a product I hold dear to my heart), PollEverywhere, My Open Bar, Braintree Financial, Humanized & Fave Media.

Special thanks to Paulette, Laura and the staff at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville for helping keep this event running smoothly. Most notably, thank YOU, our loyal TECH cocktailers for all your support in helping connect and spotlight the solid tech and entrepreneurial community in Chicago.

If you are interested in sponsoring or demoing at the next TECH cocktail please let us know. Thanks again for coming to the TECH cocktail 1 year Anniversary event!

TECH cocktail Chicago 5 photos can be found in the Flickr widget below. Though this is our sixth event overall (5 in Chicago and 1 in DC) please tag your Flickr photos: techcocktail5 . Check out SingleHop’s TECH cocktail 5 photos as well.

Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.

Posted by Frank Gruber | Filed Under Chicago, Eric Olson, Event, Frank Gruber, TECH cocktail, techcocktail5 | 7 Comments

The 700

July 12, 2007

Reading time: 1 - 2 minutes

So, some of you may have noticed that we have closed the RSVP. We actually hit 700 RSVPs over night (which we didn’t really think would happen) and since we only have budget for 700 people we had to shut it down. That said, I am sure not all the RSVPed guests will come so we’ll be able to let in other folks as time goes on (assuming we aren’t over fire code at a certain point).

Bottom line: Get to the venue at 6:30pm to ensure you get in. TC 5 is first come, first serve. Also, the RSVP list is simply a head count for us and a way for others to see who is attending. We won’t have a list at the door so make sure to get to the venue on time even if you RSVPed.

Thanks for working with us on this everyone. Frank and I are continually surprised at the growth of TECH cocktail and we’re working hard to ensure that everyone that wants to come can. Speaking of, if we’re not at fire code and we have hit the 700 mark (meaning we’re out of money) we’re happy to let other people in if they simply pay the per head charge that Barleycorn’s charges us which is $15. Not bad for 2.5 hours of open bar right?

Posted by Eric Olson | Filed Under Chicago | 1 Comment

Time to Break out Your Green for TC5

July 11, 2007

Reading time: 1 - 2 minutes

No, it isn’t St. Patty’s day quite yet but the guys at SingleHop want to create St. Pats in July at TECH cocktail 5. What does that mean for all you TCers out there? It means you need to break our your green clothing, any green you have, and wear it to TC5 this Thursday.

The SingleHop guys will be walking around the room looking for green all night and awarding prizes and SingleHop bucks (aka greenbacks) good toward dedicated servers and a host of other prizes including $500 in cash for the person who wears the most green. Other prizes take the form of ipods, gift cards to over 50 restaurants in Chicago, itunes gift cards, etc.

This couldn’t be an easier contest to win so I hope to see everyone in green on Thursday. Also, the green clothing will be a huge show of support for the guys at SingleHop who have been the main sponsors of each and every TECH cocktail to date including the first ever TC a year ago this month (where they were the only sponsor). Without these guys backing us from the get go this event wouldn’t be what it is today.