Illinois Technology Partnership: Policy Lunch Kick-Off Coming Up
June 30, 2008
Aviva Gibbs - founder of the Illinois Technology Partnership (ITP) - just sent me an update on the ITP’s policy lunch kick-off that I wanted to share with all of you. I think this will be a worthwhile event for all technologists, tech entrepreneurs and others who work in Illinois tech. I am going to try my best to make it and I hope you will as well. See below for details:
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Technology is moving at a breakneck pace. But is public policy keeping up?
Come mingle with those in the know and get connected to the process.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
11:30 am – Registration
12:00 pm – Lunch/Program
Petterino’s Banquets
50 W. Randolph Street; Chicago, IL
Confirmed panelists:
Brad Spirrison – Chicago Sun-Times / MidwestBusiness.com
Maura O’Hara – Illinois Venture Capital Association
Bret Swanson – Progress & Freedom Foundation
RESERVE YOUR SPACE TODAY at www.iltechpartner.org/action-center
The Illinois Technology Partnership monitors and assesses legislation and shares that information with our members, policy makers, and the public. By working together, we can ensure that next-generation technology will thrive and Illinois tech consumers will have access to the cutting-edge products and services they demand.
At this kick-off event, ITP will moderate a discussion focusing upon the impact of public policy on business and technology. What’s “running in the background,” and what can Illinois do, or stop doing, to make this a good place for tech.
RESERVE YOUR SPACE TODAY at www.iltechpartner.org/action-center
The GeoDomain Expo Chicago
June 20, 2008
This just in from our friend and local tech reporter/entrepreneur Brad Spirrison:
An Exclusive Offer for TECH cocktailers:
The GeoDomain Expo is THE largest and most important gathering to date of Geodomainers from around the world. In association with The Kesley Group, The Expo will also be an opportunity for Internet and media executives to learn about the fastest growing sector in local online media.
Meet, greet and listen to the owners of some of the most lucrative brands on the Internet including NewYorkCity.com, LosAngeles.com and Chicago.com. For more information, contact Brad Spirrison (brad@midwestbusiness.com ).
Register Now to Receive Special $595 Member Rate
https://www.kelseygroup.com/Register/registration.asp?CID=58
Promo Code: “TECH 595″
SocialThing: Boulder Startup Rolls Out Version 2.0
June 20, 2008
SocialThing, a Boulder, Colorado TechStars startup that aggregates all your online social updates into one slick lifestream, launched into private beta this past March in Austin, Texas at the South By Southwest Interactive event. We got a chance to get a preview of the product the week before as SocialThing showed off its stuff at TECH cocktail Boulder. I was impressed and have been using it online and via the iPhone version ever since.
Just a few weeks ago, SocialThing rolled out version 2.0 of the product. The previous version was pretty but version 2.0 looks even better than before. It offers users more control of the presentation via the settings. For example users can now sort by friends or by time. Users can also allow others to link directly to a public profile with controls on what appears in the feed. SocialThing has reworked the way they retrieve updates from all your favorite services so that updates are not pulled back in a constant flow but are batched. This allows SocialThing to indicate when there are additional updates that you might want to refresh your page to receive. Additionally, they have rolled out a new iPhone application that allows for on-the-go posting of status and trolling of your lifestream. It is pretty slick.
I think SocialThing has nailed digital lifestyle aggregation as a utility. They are not looking to create yet another destination for you to visit to carry on the conversation but rather facilitate users to create and continue conversations in the all the social places they already have lots of friends and are familiar with.
SocialThing and FriendFeed often get brought up together in conversations because they are both lifestream products but they have different objectives. FriendFeed is creating an additional place on the Web to comment and create conversations while SocialThing is making it easy to continue the conversations on all the social places users already exist. I have to say my social application bandwidth is pretty full these days so anything that can be done to make it easier to interact in all the social networks I already know and love is greatly appreciated - this is why I like SocialThing.
SocialThing is still in private beta but if you would like to give SocialThing a try you can sign up and use the invite code: twopointoh
TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge
This article was contributed by SOMEWHAT FRANK the blog that takes a personal look at technology as it interacts with life by Frank Gruber.
If you are interested in contributing an article to the TECH cocktail online - find out how.
First DC Design Babes Event 6/26
June 20, 2008
If you are a designer in Washington, DC mark you calendar as next Thursday night will be the first ever DC Design Babes event. What is DC Design Babes exactly? DC Design Babes is an event is open for any design professional in the DC area.
Here are the event details:
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Location: Cafe Citron
1343 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
RSVP here: Upcoming | Facebook
Q&A With DC Design Babes
We decided to sit down and ask the creators of DC Design Babes, Alisa Schadt and Valli Ravindran a few questions about the upcoming event and have included them below.
1.) What inspired you to start DC Design Babes?
There are a lot of local events in the area that we’ve attended and just noticed that they’ve been very much tech centric or are true fine art related (except for TECH cocktail of course which is open to all). Beyond the words of perl, python, and rails, let’s just be honest and say we don’t know what you’re talking about.
We truly believe in fostering a tighter design community. so we jokingly talked about this at work one day and boom the next day we were actually serious. Set up our facebook group and a twitter account….and here we are!
2.) What type of crowd are you looking to attract?
Mostly designers (web, print, interactive). We would also be thrilled if we can get other genres such as fine artists, fashion designers, etc. Basically bringing the design community together keeping a focus on graphic design.
3.) What might an attendee expect at the first event on June 26th?
Our first event will be a mixer just to socialize and get to know the designers in our community. Expect to meet great people.. chat and have a few drinks (maybe show us some magic tricks)!
4.) How often do you plan on hosting design events?
We are thinking the mixers will be an quarterly event. We also plan to have day or half day events that will be all about business and less about the drinks.
Alisa: M is for mojito.
We look forward to having a cocktail with you at the event. Cheers!
TECH cocktail On Jonny’s Par-tay Live 6/18 9pm EST
June 18, 2008
TECH cocktail will be a topic of conversation on the video show, Jonny’s Par-tay on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9pm EST. The show is hosted live by DC TECH cocktailers Scott Stead and Jonny Goldstein so tune in. Here are the details:
What: A rollicking conversation with Tech Cocktail co-founder, Frank Gruber, Jonny Goldstein, Scott Stead, and you! You get to interact with everyone else via live text chat.
When: Wednesday, June 18, 9-10PM EST
Where: jonnyspartay.com
Be a part of the live conversation as we talk about TECH cocktail, technology startups and more. It should be a lot of fun!
IL-Celerate: Applications Due June 20th
June 17, 2008
The ITA has put together a great quick start program for entrepreneurs called IL-Celerate (man, we have to work on that name Fred!) that is a great way to get that idea you have been thinking about and working on off the ground once and for all. Applications are due this Friday so get your application together as soon as possible. No business plan needed. Here are the official details:
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The IL-Celerate Program will sponsor five “seed stage” companies through a twelve-week program. At the end of the program, each of the companies will have a completed prototype-stage product, exposure to potential investors and networking across the Illinois technology community for continued growth.
The program will:
- provide an avenue of development for very early stage ideas within Illinois
- develop a deeper relationship for young entrepreneurs with current technology executives/mentors and
- develop a stronger network among technology executives within Illinois
Developed by the Illinois Technology Association (ITA) and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce (CEC) in association with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Activity (DCEO), the ILCelerate program is available to any resident of the state of Illinois. A business plan is not necessary for the application. Partial selection criteria will include the market potential for the idea and the strength of the founding management team.
Please complete and forward your Application for ILCelerate to ilcelerate@illinoistech.org
For additional details: ILCelerate FAQ
Silicon Prairie Social 3 Coming Up
June 11, 2008
Tim Courtney just filled me in on Silicon Prairie Social 3. Details below. While we do question the policy on not allowing active job seekers to attend we still like what SPS has done overall and we hope to see you all there!
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
6:30-10:00pm
Mullen’s Bar & Grill
3080 Warrenville Rd., Lisle, IL 60532
An opportunity to connect in an informal setting with like-minded people in technology; Silicon Prairie Social is specifically for upwardly mobile tech professionals, tech executives, tech entrepreneurs, technology service providers, Internet professionals, Web 2.0 and startup companies, and the mobile industry. (Note: No professional recruiters, staffing agencies, or active job seekers permitted).
The event is free to attend, free drinks and food will be provided. RSVP is required at http://silicon-prairie-social-3.eventbrite.com .
For more information see www.siliconprairiesocial.com or contact Tim Courtney via social [at] xnet [dot] com
TECH cocktail Chicago 8 Photos
June 10, 2008
We just uploaded the rest of the photos from TECH cocktail Chicago 8. The talented photographer Clayton Hauck captured the atmosphere at John Barleycorn Wrigleyville on Thursday, May 29, 2008. There are just over one hundred photos that you can view in the TECH cocktail Chicago 8 photo gallery.
Enjoy!
Developers: Where art thou?
June 6, 2008
This post is for all the developers in Chicagoland, DC, Boulder and Boston. Bottom line: We run into a handful of interesting companies each week looking for developers and development help. These companies range from brand new start-ups to young, growing companies to larger companies.
Often times we know a couple of good folks to recommend but we would love to get a solid list together of the following:
1. Development firms
2. Freelance developers
3. Developers who work full time at various companies
If you fit into one of those three buckets I would appreciate it if you could fill out this form so we can compile info and keep it handy. We like to refer folks to local talent if possible and this will help me do a better job of that. Let us know what you develop so we can help recommend you!
And as always if you are looking for a job or looking to fill a job be sure to check out the TECH cocktail Job Board. There are currently lots of great jobs listed.
crowdSPRING: TECH cocktail Chicago 8 Demo Does Well at Competitive Under The Radar
June 6, 2008
For those that don’t know, Under The Radar is one of the more competitive startup conferences around. Companies go through numerous rounds of interviewing before the final presenting companies are chosen and local company crowdSPRING made the cut.
Being the sole Midwestern company in the land of valley startups they weren’t really sure how they’d fair but they worked like crazy, prepared for weeks and it all paid off.
crowdSPRING took home three awards - more than anyone other company - including both the audience award and the judge’s award in their category, as well as the Overall Audience Choice award. Some past success stories include Flickr, Photobucket, Userplane and Zimbra so crowdSPRING should be very proud.
Nice work guys! You defintiely represented Chicago well.
Quick quote from Pete Burgeson, crowdSPRING’s Director of Marketing:
We’ll always call Chicago home and TECH cocktail was actually our first public outing - which I think is only fitting.
Sahhhhweeet!
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