TECH cocktail CONFERENCE Today Is Sold Out - 11 Tickets Offered At The Door
May 29, 2008
Reading time: < 1 minute
TECH cocktail CONFERENCE day is here and we sold out! But if you didn’t get a chance to grab ticket and still want to see the hottest show in town (other than the Chicago Cubs of course) I would trot down to Kasbeer Hall today and buy a ticket at the door. We have 11 more tickets to offer on a first come, first serve basis. See you there!
TECH cocktail Chicago 8 Preview
May 28, 2008
Reading time: 6 - 9 minutes
Following the first 
TECH cocktail CONFERENCE we will be hosting our 8th Chicago TECH cocktail mixer event. With over 600 guests RSVP’ed it should be another super event. The event it sponsored by AOL, Illinois Ventures, Sun, Illinois Technology Partnership, ChicagoMicro, Dash Navigation, Kirix, Singleton Law Firm and Interactive Intelligence with special TECH cocktail drinks served by Death Door Spirits.
As we look to help amplify the technology signal the following startups will showcase their stuff at the event:
coloring.com - A Chicago-based startup devoted to offering its users fresh and fun new images to color online. Just remember to stay between the lines. You will be able to color at TECH cocktail if you like. Check out the video introduction to coloring.com by founder Carlos Pero below.
crowdSPRING - Leveraging the wisdom and design skills of the crowds this Chicago-based startup has created a marketplace for design opportunities. If you have a specific design project that you are looking for design help with you can post it with a price and the crowdSPRING design community will compete for it.
DASH Navigation - Creating a truly interactive experience by combining the power of the Web and a GPS navigation system DASH has produced a very unique offering. Check out the video introduction to the DASH Express below which features Chicago-native Mark Williamson, the Online Director at Dash.
Edmodo - A self-funded bootstrapping startup co-founded by Jeff O’Hara and Nic Borg offers microblogging for education and groups. Since both co-founders work in education, they wanted to do something to help others in the space. They also noticed there were not microblogging platforms available with the rostering and privacy options needed in the educational space - so they decided to build Edmodo.
iSocket - iSocket is a marketplace and platform for any kind of advertising. By providing the right environment and tools for advertising buyers and sellers, isocket enables easier, more effective advertising regardless of type or budget. isocket is the first commission-free advertising exchange. isocket uses an open exchange format. Buyers can bid on advertising opportunities or purchase at list price. Sellers are not bound to accept any bids, let alone the highest one. isocket gives users full control over where each dollar is spent and who it comes from.
Snap and Buy - Currently in private beta, Snap and Buy looks to offer up comparison shopping while on the go via your mobile device with a camera. The system enables consumers to take photos of barcodes while shopping and send them to Snap and Buy, then its sends you back information on related products in an effort to find you the best deal.
Kirix - A Chicago-based startup, is looking to help change that by exposing your data in a Web browser experience with the launch tomorrow of Strata. Strata is a powerful set of tools that enables anyone to access, browse and manipulate data from a Web browser.
OneLlama - A product of six employee Champaign, Illinois-based startup One Llama Media, leverages audio analysis, search and discovery systems to offer a place for music lovers to discover, listen, share and buy new music.
The Point - A Chicago-based startup, enables users to create and join campaigns around any issue or idea. Campaigns can be setup to raise money, plan an event or take action. Set campaign parameters are made clear and no one pays or has to do anything until campaign reaches its set tipping point.
tvCompass - tvCompass has developed an innovative second screen interactive TV, content and advertising monetization model for the WiFi connected digital living room. The solution offering is a white label OEM wireless infrastructure platform, content to player — that works without a PC connection; it includes client, server and application software, mobile content, and IP connected digital media remote device designs for the control & interaction of advanced digital home entertainment, and is based on proprietary and patented technology. Content support for other wireless enabled platforms may include WiFi dual mode phones, WiFi personal media devices, networked TVs, and LCD tablets.
Thanks to all the demo’ers for your participation. Special thanks to our preferred service providers Jess3, FR&R, Hinshaw Law and Teaming for Technology Chicago. Additionally, upon arrival to TECH cocktail Chicago 8 you will be offered an opportunity to purchase a 50/50 raffle ticket for the Chicago Children’s Charity. This should be a super day of events and we look forward to seeing you there!
The Ballad of TECH cocktail
May 27, 2008
Reading time: < 1 minute
In preparation of the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE taking place on Thursday, May 29th in Chicago we thought it might be nice to offer up a little musical flavor in the form of the TECH cocktail Song which is a bit of a ballad. Enjoy!
TECH cocktail CONFERENCE Preview
May 27, 2008
Reading time: 7 - 12 minutes
With the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE just a few days away we wanted to take a moment to preview our super lineup of speakers. The conference will be taking place on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at Loyola University Water Tower Campus, 25 E. Pearson in Chicago, Illinois and offers two separate session tracks spread between the Kasbeer Hall and Room 208 which offers a more intimate conversational setting.
Special thanks to AOL for sponsoring our first TECH cocktail CONFERENCE event. It is much appreciated and could not be possible with the support.
Check out the schedule below:
8:00 a.m. - The day will start with a continental breakfast.
8:45 a.m. - TECH cocktail co-founders Eric Olson and Frank Gruber giving a brief welcoming address.
9:00 a.m. - Mike Domek founded TicketsNow in his Woodstock, Illinois apartment and recently sold it Ticketmaster. Mike will speak about his experiences and how you can start a business anywhere.
9:35 a.m. - There are two sessions to choose from. Kasbeer Hall: Watch the tech leads at community driven startup skinnyCorp/Threadless.com as Harper Reed and Scott VanDenPlas speak with technology agnosticism. The title of our presentation will be “The path to agnosticism.” Breakout Room 208: Find out how Seth Godin’s startup Squidoo leveraged ad supported Web 2.0 business model and became. Brian Williams and Corey Web will discuss the approach they took along with tips on becoming profitable in a session titled “9 Tips to Profitability: How Squidoo Did It.”
10:10 a.m. - There are two sessions to choose from. Kasbeer Hall: Sit in on a panel discussion lead by Sean Ammirati of mSpoke and a ReadWriteWeb contributor will moderate as a great cast of social application experts which includes Keith Schacht, Troy Henikoff, Nick O’Neill and Alex Bard. They will discuss Facebook, widgets and all things social. Breakout Room 208: The FeedBurner design duo of John Zeratsky and Matt Shobe (now with Google) will take a look at how you design products with users in mind.
10:50 a.m. - There are two tracks to choose from. Kasbeer Hall: Adrian Holovaty creator Django, ChicagoCrime.org and now EveryBlock will discuss starting up in the Midwest and avoiding the Silicon Valley Echo Chamber. Breakout Room 208: Mike Macadaan of AOL and Ant Creed of Intuit will be in the breakout session solving problems by taking an innovative approach in a very hands on session called “Innovate in 30 Minutes.”
11:25 a.m. - There are two sessions to choose from. Kasbeer Hall: What is the deal with partnerships? Are they good or bad? How do you know? Nick Fera founded a Chicago-based company called Parlano which was acquired by Microsoft last year and will hope to help answer these very questions and more around partnerships. Breakout Room 208: Micah Baldwin, from the Colorado-based search company Lijit, has made it his quest to be the #1 Douchebag on Google and he will explain. Micah will break the session into two parts. Part 1 will discuss how SEO is no longer just about content, code and links, but now includes the intertwining of personal brand into any SEO plan. Part 2 will be a site review, with session goers being able to have Micah review their sites from an SEO perspective and provide insight and suggestions in real time.
11:45 a.m. - LUNCH BREAK
12:00 p.m. - During lunch Your Inner CEO author Allan Cox will coach us all along as we look for that inner CEO.
12:30 p.m. - After lunch Jason Fried, founder of Chicago-based 37signals, will share his experiences about what works and what doesn’t in web development and how the unconventional methodologies followed by 37signals give it an edge.
1:05 p.m. - Two sessions to choose from. Kasbeer Hall: A panel moderated by Nate Westheimer and made up of Evan Brown, Daliah Saper, Gary Barron & Ed Mullen will discuss legal and accounting as they are an essential part of starting and running a business. Breakout Room 208: Jared Goralnick of AwayFind offers up productivity hacks and tips of social media, email and business.
1:40 p.m. - Two sessions to choose from. Kasbeer Hall: A panel moderated by Sean Ammirati and made up of PR, marketing and social media experts, Danielle Wiley, David Armano, Frank Gruber & Geoff Livingston, explore creating a brand leveraging social media. Breakout Room 208: Jason Rexilius of HostedLABS will tell his story and explain cloud computing and how it can be used to help your business scale.
2:25 p.m. - Two sessions to choose from. Kasbeer Hall: A panel moderated by Shawn Bolan and made-up of three very talented women, Jen Consalvo, Genevieve Thiers & Blagica Bottigliero, will discuss how important it is to understand your audience. Breakout Room 208: Do you understand the Semantic Web? Fraser Kelton looks to help you understand it better.
3:00 p.m. - Finding funding for your business can sometimes be a challenge. Eric Olson will moderate the panel of experts, Matthew McCall, Kirk Wolfe, Rob Schultz, Bruce Barron & Brad Feld, as they offer their expert perspective and experiences.
3:35 p.m. - Dick “The Wizard” Costolo, CEO/founder of FeedBurner which was acquired by Google in 2007, will offer up an open forum for asking questions in a session called “Ask the Wizard.”
4:10 p.m. - Changing the wine world with Wine Library TV and transforming a tradition wine business with the help of social media Gary Vaynerchuk will bring the thunder and explain how he did it. You are definitely going to want to hang around to see Gary anchor the full day of speakers.
4:45 p.m. - Finally, Eric and Frank will give details on the evening proceedings - TECH cocktail Chicago 8 mixer event at John Barleycorn Wrigleyville.
Check out the full TECH cocktail CONFERENCE schedule. Hope to see you there!
The North American Perl Conference: June 16th - 18th in Chicago
May 27, 2008
Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes
It was recently brought to my attention that the North American Perl Conference will once again be hosted here in Chicago from June 16th to 18th at Herman Hall on the campus of IIT. Here is the blurb on the conference I was sent from Google engineer Josh McAdams:
The North American Perl Conference, YAPC::NA, has once again chosen Chicago as a host city. Join us June 16th through 18th at Herman Hall on the campus of IIT for over sixty tech talks relating to Perl, dynamic programming languages, and Open Source in general. The conference features keynote speakers such as Larry Wall, the inventor of Perl, and Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman, two subversion developers and Open Source advocates within Google. Free and open hack-a-thons will be held before and after the conference. There are also four master classes taught by top instructors from around the world offered immediately following the conference. Registration information can be found at http://yapc.org/America .
For all of you Perl fans out there this is without a question the place to be in mid-June. It is great to see more leading technology conferences come to Chicago. Register now for the North American Perl Conference to ensure you don’t miss out.
TECH cocktail RACING Takes 6th at Threadle Manss
May 18, 2008
Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes
This past Saturday, TECH cocktail RACING headed up by Carlos Pero of coloring.com participated in the 2008 Threadless.com Threadle Manss Pine Wood Derby Race and finished in sixth place out of a field of 41. The TECH cocktail car was clocked at 150.0 MPH with a time of 3.2960. This years first place finisher was Mshuck with a time of 155.5 and as it was clocked at 3.1790.
Congrats to all that competed in the race and special thanks to Threadless.com for putting the race on and to our TECH cocktail RACING lead engineer Carlos Pero for leading the team this year as he explained in this video. Check out more photos of TECH cocktail RACING car.
Oh and don’t forget you can meet Carlos in person at the upcoming TECH cocktail CONFERENCE on May 29th in Chicago. Don’t forget to SIGN UP TODAY!
Chicago: Things of Note for May
May 16, 2008
Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes
Hey TECH cocktailers! Just wanted to get the info out about a couple of great events coming up in the next few weeks/months ahead of the weekend. Here it goes:
2008 National Summit on American Competitiveness - Thursday May 22nd
I heard about this event the other day is it looks to be pretty solid (the attendees are top notch). In fact, I went ahead and bought myself a ticket. This summit is going to be filled with the top business leaders, academics and entrepreneurs around and it is being held right here in Chicago. At $150 the event is very inexpensive and is a must attend for all of us so that we can show how strong technology and entrepreneurship are right here in Chicago.
Register here before this event fills up. I think you will be glad you did.
Chicago Innovation Awards - Call for Nominees
If you know any particularly innovative companies in Chicago (and I know you do) please head over to the Chicago Innovation Awards site and nominate them for the 2008 Chicago Innovation Awards.
I was lucky enough to be part of a winning squad (FeedBurner) back in 2006 and really enjoyed the event. Nominate now before nominations close.
Career Academy for Advanced Technology
I met a woman named Joan that works for the City of Chicago the other day. Among her other duties she is also spearheading an initiative called the Career Academy for Advanced Technology (CAAT).
CAAT will work with high school students to train them for technology careers (training that can even be used to get a great job out of high school should they not choose to go on to college) and prep them for college.
Currently CAAT is in proposal mode and to make sure the proposal is approved Joan is looking for businesses willing to commit in writing to helping students find internships in the industry and to provide training and mentoring to the students (including coming to classes to teach and relay experiences).
Seems like a very worthwhile endeavor to me and I know TECH cocktail, LLC will be committing to it (what could be more fun than teaching kids about technology!?).
If you want to commit your business to this please let me know before May 23 (Joan’s proposal deadline) and I can get you the form and tell you where to send it.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Video: TECH cocktail RACING Preview
May 16, 2008
Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes
Saturday… Saturday … Saturday! Start your engines as Threadless.com, a Chicago-based skinnyCorp operated company and TECH cocktail supporter, will be hosting a Pine Wood Derby race called the THREADLEMANSS. Unfortunately, Eric and I won’t be able to attend as we are pretty busy right now getting ready for TECH cocktail CONFERENCE (did you sign up yet?!). But thanks to twitter we found out that TECH cocktailer Carlos Pero of coloring.com has a son that was recently undefeated in his Cub Scouts Pine Wood Derby. We leverage the power of twitter technology (follow techcocktail on twitter) to see if Carlos would like to lead the TECH cocktail RACING effort and thankfully he accepted.
Carlos is featured this week on episode 25 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV video (below) as he previews our TECH cocktail RACING car and shares some Pine Wood Derby knowledge. Thank you Carlos for your help and good luck on Saturday! You can cheer on the TECH cocktail car this Saturday, May 17, 2008 as Threadless will be streaming the derby live.
Death’s Door Spirits: Bringing Sustainability to Spritis & Drinks to You at TECH cocktail Chicago 8
May 14, 2008
Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes
One of our favorite local businesses, Death’s Door Spirits, has created an awesome drink menu that will be available at the TECH cocktail 8 mixer on May 29th (register here if you haven’t already - space is limited).
Not only are these drinks all phenomenal but they are also made with Death’s Door vodka, gin and whiskey. Why should you care if the drinks are made from DD spirits? Well, I am glad you asked.
Death’s Door is based in Wisconsin and their products are are distilled from grain grown for them in Wisconsin so they are truly local sustainable spirits and this is why we’re proud to be working with them (longer company story here). Plus we really like the founder, Brian (who is quite the mixologist), and his products are simply amazing - top shelf without a doubt.
Without further adieu here is the drink menu that Brian created for us including two TECH cocktail signature drinks. This menu will be available on May 29th at the TECH cocktail mixer (along with beer and wine as well per usual):
TECH-Tonic
2 oz Death’s Door White Whiskey
¼ oz blue curacao
5 oz tonic water
Add ingredients to a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with lime wedge
TECH-tini (that’s right - it is the signature drink from our logo!)
2 oz Death’s Door Vodka
1/4 oz triple sec
1/4 oz blue curacao
Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass.
Classic Wisconsin Martini
3 oz Death’s Door Gin (or Vodka)
¼ oz dry Vermouth
Pour vermouth into shaker and coat insides. Shake out and add ice and gin. Stir until cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a skewer of olives and Wisconsin cheese.
The Gin Sling
1 1/2 oz Death’s Door Gin
1 oz sweet vermouth
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
1 dash angostura
Shake and strain into rocks-filled collins glass
top with seltzer.
Looking forward to seeing you all in a couple of weeks!
Lijit Post TECH cocktail DC 2 Breakfast Videos
May 14, 2008
Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes
For those of you that may have missed it, Lijit Networks hosted a breakfast after TECH cocktail DC 2 at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2008. The event was a lot of fun and offered a great opportunity get to know several of the DC TECH cocktailers better over coffee, OJ, eggs and bacon.
If you missed it and you are interested in finding who was there and what happened - no worries because Scott Stead was on hand and interviewed most of the attendees. His videos are shown below.
Additionally, SOMEWHAT FRANK TV offered up a video (below) which find Scott breaking it down with a little geek rap sweetness!
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