37signals Featured In Wired
February 28, 2008
In case you missed it, Chicago-based 37signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson were recently featured in Wired Magazine. The articled titled, “The Brash Boys at 37signals Will Tell You: Keep It Simple Stupid” does a great job detailing what they are all about.
It is also worth noting Jason Fried will be speaking more about this simple, “less is less” approach at the upcoming TECH cocktail CONFERENCE in Chicago, May 29th. SIGN UP NOW!
TECH cocktail Boulder Sponsors
February 27, 2008
Just wanted to give some props to the companies who have decided to sponsor the first ever TECH cocktail Boulder since they are some very cool companies (and, no, I am not just saying that because they are sponsors or because it happens to be cold in Colorado this time of year).
DEMO: As you have all read the DEMO conference is the presenting sponsor for the Boulder event. I am sure I don’t need to say too much about them since most of you are no doubt very familiar with what they do. For those that aren’t familiar, suffice it to say that they put on the conference to launch startups.
lijit: Local Boulder, CO company lijit has stepped up to the plate to help us out, If you don’t know lijit yet, you will. These guys have one of most useful widgets around. Among other things the lijit widget provides you with top notch search functionality for your site. I use it over on Olson’s Observations and Frank uses on SOMEWHAT FRANK (see search box the right hand side of our pages) and we love it. Want to make your site stickier? Add the lijit widget.
skinnyCorp/Threadless: skinnyCorp, best known for the site Threadless, have been helping out TECH cocktail since the beginning. They are helping out again with the Boulder event and Frank and I couldn’t be happier. Their flagship site Threadless.com is the best t-shirt site around. Artists and designers submit shirt designs to the site, users vote and the winners get some cash and their t-shirt produced and sold on the site. If you are in the market for some great shirts check them out. You won’t be disappointed. They also run some other fun sites like ExtraTasty and IParkLikeAnIdiot.com. Frank and I took a tour of the skinnyCorp office last week and you can watch it here.
Check these guys out and patronize them but don’t just patronize them because they are helping out a community building event do it because their products rock (and they do - no question). See you in a week!
Side note: If you are interested in sponsoring TECH cocktail Boulder please drop us a line at cofounders [at] techcocktail [dot] com
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Check out the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE. We have some great speakers lined up already and the list gets better every day. Snag a ticket now before our early bird pricing ends.
Giving Back: TECH cocktail Partners with Teaming for Technology Chicago
February 27, 2008
Frank and I are proud to announce that we recently partnered with Teaming for Technology Chicago. Teaming for Technology is an incredible group run out of the United Way that provides the following services to those groups who participate in their flagship Year of Assistance program:
- Technology Planning and Consulting
- Volunteer Recruitment
- Network Installation and Training
- Web Design
- Software Training
- Database Design
- Hardware Donations
- Low-cost Resource Matching
The goal of the YoA program is to provide a sound technological framework from which non-profit organizations can move forward to better serve their communities.
TECH cocktail will help Teaming for Technology by helping all of you TECH cocktailers out there looking to make a difference to hook up with T4T so they can place you in various volunteer roles within the non-profits they work with. Frank and I think this is a great way for folks to use their tech talent to help out the people who are working hard every day to make the world a better place.
Being a volunteer for a couple non-profits myself (World Bicycle Relief & the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation)I can say that it is very hard to keep non-profit organizations up with the latest and greatest technology that is crucial for them to better serve their constituents (due to the time constraints of the staff and the cost constraints).
I know we can help bridge the digital divide if we all pitch in just a little bit and I hope you will consider pitching in via Teaming for Technology.
If you are ready to get involved now please e-mail me at eric [at] techcocktail [dot] com and I will get you over to the right person at T4T. If you aren’t ready to volunteer now I can still hook you up with some folks you can talk to and/or you can wait until our May 29th event where T4T will be set up at a table waiting to talk to you about what they do.
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Check out the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE. We have some great speakers lined up already and the list gets better every day. Snag a ticket now before our early bird pricing ends.
Poker Anyone? Win a Ticket to SmartBet
February 27, 2008
OK, so we have this ticket to SmartBet to give away and we’re going to make you work for it. For those that don’t know SmartBet is the TECH cocktail of the charity world. It is an event where entrepreneurs (and others) get together and enjoy each others company (while trying to beat them at poker) all the while raising money for some great causes.
Let’s see, what can we do to make winning this ticket a little challenging. OK, how about this:
In the comments section of this post I would like people to guess how many people Frank and I thought it would take to make a smash hit first event (i.e. how many people we aimed to bring together) back when we planned TECH cocktail 1 in May 2006 (bonus points for the person that can also guess how many people showed up to our first event).
The person who gets the closest answer as of Friday (the 29th) at 5pm wins the ticket.
Buy in for this event is $250 so this is a valuable prize. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s responses and to picking a winner.
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P.S. Chris Rollyson lost his Porsche TecFlex pen at the event on Thursday. If anyone has found it I would appreciate it if you could contact me at eric [at] techcocktail.com so I can put you in touch with Chris. Thanks!
TECH cocktail Chicago 7 Photos
February 23, 2008
We have been busy cleaning up, uploading and tagging as many photos as we can possibly handle in one weekend so that you can enjoy them on our new site. Click here to see the TECH cocktail Chicago 7 Photos.
A special thank you to our photographer Matt Kuehl for taking some great photos from the event! Also we were able to capture some snapshots with our own respective cameras as well and mixed them into the batch. Enjoy the photos and see you May 29th at the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE or TECH cocktail Chicago 8.
TECH cocktail Chicago 7 Wrap-up and Thank You
February 23, 2008
What a night! Despite the cold temps and the snow flurries early in the day over 500 of Chicago’s top tech minds showed up for TECH cocktail Chicago 7 last night at John Barleycorn’s in Wrigleyville.
It’s truly unbelievable how big TECH cocktail has become. Frank and I are continually humbled by the growth of the event and the great stories we hear about how TECH cocktail has been able to help the community (i.e. SitterCity found their current CTO through a post we did for them on the site and the American Medical Association has hired three new people over the past three events we have done).
Unfortunately Frank and I were so consumed with some last minute event details and with our two big announcements (new site & new conference) we didn’t get to the venue early enough to spend enough time with our demoers and sponsors.
However, from what I heard today all of the demoers and sponsors really got a lot out of the event as did the attendees which is all we could ask for.
I think it is about time to give a big thanks to our sponsors. Without these guys we wouldn’t be able to put this event on. Thank you Google, Imprint Enterprises, Mullen Law, Chicago Micro, Fiodan, Saper Law, Fitzgerald and Hewes, Hubbard One, Interactive Mediums, Forbes Technical Consulting, LiquidTalk and Sun Trading. You guys rock and your support of the Chicago technology community will hopefully be reciprocated with support for your businesses.
Also, make sure to check out the awesome new companies that demoed at TECH cocktail Chicago 7:
hoodFind: Find stuff in your neighborhood.
ContextMedia: Content solutions for the health care field.
TransFS: Comparison shopping for small business financial services.
MetroProper: Localized citizen media.
TextAdapt: Ad optimization for publishers.
As always we have some super photos from TECH cocktail Chicago 7. Check out our Flickr account and add as a contact to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the pics. Also, you may be interested in following us on Twitter, joining our Facebook group or joining our LinkedIn group. Let it never be said that we didn’t give you each and every social media option available.
Thanks again for a great night Chicago. Looking forward to the conference and TECH cocktail Chicago 8 on May 29th!
TECH cocktail Gets a Facelift
February 21, 2008
Yes, that’s right folks. We figured announcing our conference today (register now! we have some great speakers already lined up) and putting on TECH cocktail Chicago 7 tonight wasn’t enough. That said, this is the official announcement of our new site design.
This not a simple redesign mind you. We totally revamped the site over the past month. In fact, it no longer looks like a blog. We have a number of pages you can check out like videos, photos, jobs, past demos, etc. which makes for a much better user experience.
The blog updates will continue to come so if you are subscribed you will continue to get new items as if nothing changed. If you are not subscribed please head to our new site and click on the e-mail or feed icon at the top right.
We hope you enjoy the site and we would love to hear any feedback you have so please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Introducing the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE
February 21, 2008
The first TECH cocktail CONFERENCE will unfold on Thursday, May 29, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. After hosting TECH cocktail mixer events for nearly two years, a full day CONFERENCE seemed like the next step.
The conference will entail a full day of TECH events and TECH talks and will run from 9 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. at Loyola University’s Kasbeer Hall (Water Tower Place campus). After the conference the customary and popular TECH cocktail mixer will take place from 6:30 p.m. till 9:00 p.m. at John Barleycorn-Wrigleyville.
A stellar cast of speakers for the event are on tap as we look to facilitate a place for people to learn all the various aspects of starting and running a web business. The usual “no nonsense” approach will be alive at the CONFERENCE along with our signature relaxed atmosphere so attendees will learn a lot while having fun.
If you are interested in attending the conference please REGISTER NOW since space is very limited. We look forward to seeing you at our first conference and we thank you for your support over the last couple of years. Without it TECH cocktail wouldn’t be where it is today.
Current confirmed speakers include:
MIKE DOMEK - TicketsNow / Ticketmaster - From the Northwest suburb of Woodstock, Illinois, Mike Domek founded The VIP Tour Company in 1992 with $100 and an abundance of ambition. Armed with a strong work ethic, keen sales acumen, and a flair for finding and selling event tickets, Mike quickly transformed The VIP Tour Company into a professional, full-service ticketing agency. Mike Domek created TicketsNow, the world’s largest independent online marketplace for premium event tickets, and serves as Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors. In his role, Mike works closely with TicketsNow President and CEO and the company’s executive team in managing the overall business operation, while creating and implementing corporate strategies that yield future growth. Ticketmaster was acquired by IAC’s Ticketmaster in January 2008. More on Mike Domek.
DICK COSTOLO - FeedBurner / Google - Dick is the Co-founder and CEO of FeedBurner, a Chicago-based feed management company which was acquired by Google in June 2007. Previously, he cofounded and was CEO of Spyonit.com. Spyonit was sold to 724 Solutions in September 2000. Prior to Spyonit, Dick cofounded Burning Door Networked Media, a web design and development consulting company. Burning Door was acquired by Digital Knowledge Assets in October 1996. Prior to Burning Door, Dick was at Andersen Consulting for 8 years, where his roles included Senior Manager, Strategy, Application Products Group and Senior Manager, Application Infrastructure, Eagle Advanced Technology Group. More on Dick Costolo.
JASON FRIED -37signals - Founder of Chicago-based 37signals, Jason Fried is an innovative thinker, designer, developer and entreprenuer. His work at 37signals includes creating Basecamp, a hosted project management tool that is extremely popular among its thousands of users, as well as a number of others. Jason often shares his experiences about what works and what doesn’t in web development and how the unconventional methodologies followed by 37signals give it an edge. From the advantages of working as a team with members in different continents to getting the word about your product out effectively, Jason covers it all and preaches “less is less” in design, work and life. Jason has also authored a book called Getting Real, about how to start a successful web-based business. Jason also contributes to the popular Signal vs. Noise blog.
GARY VAYNERCHUK - Wine Library TV - The star of Wine Library TV and the Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, Gary’s career took a new turn with the advent of Wine Library TV. Broadcast daily between 4 and 6 pm EST, over a five year period from from 1998 to 2003, Wine Library grew from a $4 million dollar business to a $45 million business. With his wealth of knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit, Gary is a wine 2.0 expert who has reinvented the concept of wine tasting for a new generation. In addition to encouraging straightforward wine tasting, Gary educates viewers about the effects of regional factors (soil, sun, wind) on wine flavors, and how to buy wine. Debunking myths (red vs. white, big name brands vs. independent growers, the pitfalls of wine ratings, etc.) is another ongoing theme of the show. Former TECH cocktail demoer and sponsor. More details on Gary.
ADRIAN HOLOVATY - EveryBlock - Adrian Holovaty, founder of EveryBlock, is a journalist and Web developer. He has developed award-winning Web applications for washingtonpost.com, Lawrence.com and LJWorld.com and started EveryBlock after being awarded a two-year grant from the Knight Foundation. His 2005 project chicagocrime.org, developed with co-EveryBlocker Wilson, was one of the original Google Maps “mashups” — and eventually helped influence Google to open its mapping infrastructure for all to use. Adrian co-created Django, a free, open-source development framework that makes it fast and easy for programmers to build Web sites. He co-wrote the Django Book in 2007. More on Adrian Holovaty.
More speakers and an agenda are coming soon! Register now.
DC Design Talks - February 29th
February 19, 2008
If you are in the Washington, DC area then you might want to try and get into the upcoming DC Design Talks one day conference on February 29th at the Viget Labs office. DC Design Talks is a one day conference for web designers. This one day conference features some of the best speakers and practitioners of design in the DC region.
Though the event is currently sold out - you might want to get yourself on the waiting list - it might be worth your wait.
ChicagoGSB Students Host TechVision2008
February 18, 2008
The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business High Tech Group is putting on a one day conference called TechVision2008 on Friday, February 29, 2008 at their Hyde Park facility. The conference aims to address the key issues and trends relevant to venture capitalists, technology executives, entrepreneurs and those who are interested in and support the high tech community.Here are the details:
Date:
Friday, February 29, 2008Time:
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM CST
Location:
Charles M. Harper Center
5807 South Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
773-702-7743Cost of Admission
High Tech Group Members - Free
Students - $10
Alumni - $25
Guests - $45
I will be attending Future of Web Apps Miami that day or I would definitely be at TechVision2008. Eric might be able to swing in for some session though.
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Preferred Services Providers
Preferred Creative Service Provider: Jess3 
Preferred Accounting Services Provider: Frost, Ruttenberg & Rothblatt, P.C. 
Preferred Legal Services Provider:
Hinshaw & Culbertson
Preferred Charity:
Teaming for Technology -
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