Chicago, IL (AP) April 13, 2007 — Coming off a wave of solid growth fueled by a clean site redesign and exciting new features, Menuism.com ran away with the title of “fan favorite” at last night’s renowned Tech Cocktail 4 event. Menuism dominating the shell-shocked competition, including the notable new 37 Signals product, Highrise. Attendees were attracted by Menuism’s eye-catching booth setup and demo video, swayed by the suave pitch of the co-founders, and finally sold by the valuable giveaways offered by the alluring web debutante.
“Menuism rocked the house at TC4!” exclaimed one attendee who asked to remain unnamed. “It seemed like they were everywhere - I couldn’t resist being lulled by the sweet siren song of Menuism gospel. It was like those Highrise guys weren’t even around at all.”
Well, that’s how I imagine a PR firm would have spun it. We did attend and demo at Tech Cocktail 4 last night at John Barleycorn, and here’s the real breakdown of how it went:
- Tech Cocktail is renowned, and was fantastic last night. The venue in Wrigleyville was perfect, with plenty of space (and drinks) to accommodate the huge crowd.
- Menuism did win the crowd voting last night via Interactive Mediums‘ neat SMS-based voting system, but it wasn’t a blowout victory - the race was pretty tight with the other demoing startups, including the cool guys at ParkWhiz.
- Highrise was scheduled to be demoed last night, but those guys couldn’t make it in the end. There’s little doubt they would’ve been the most popular demo there - the 37 Signals guys are icons of the web world, and Menuism’s built on the framework they created. Highrise itself is a neat product tackling a real tangible market opportunity, so kudos to them.
- Justin and I did snag a great demo location, taking over a small bar on the side of the room but the only thing we had on tap was Menuism propaganda.
- Our booth was eye-catching, but probably because it looked like something from a high school carnival - paper tablecloths, orange helium balloons holding up printed signs, and laptops looping a video slideset about Menuism. And the “valuable giveaways”? Lifesaver mints - avoided by all.
- We did talk about Menuism to lots of people, which I felt was the best part of Tech Cocktail for us. Practice really does help when it comes to networking and talking, and we were better this time around, but still far from totally comfortable or relaxed. Any smoothness was probably due to the free booze.
That pretty much covers how TC went for us last night. We were looking forward to it all week, and as we were looking for supplies and setting up it totally felt like something out of the Apprentice. Here’s a representative picture of our setup, with me posing for the camera while Justin’s in the background, demoing his heart out.
Like many other companies there, we held a raffle to try to get more attendees to talk to us, with our prize being a $50 restaurant gift certificate. Congratulations to Clint from Stone Ward for winning our raffle - we’ll be in touch with you soon. =) We were able to meet a bunch of great new contacts, visible in card form here.
If you were there last night but didn’t win our $50, never fear - you can still win $50 in our monthly Food Fight Contest for April. We’re looking for the best salads around, so just review some salads and you’re automatically entered!
You can read more about TC4 with writeups by hosts Eric, Frank, and on the Tech Cocktail blog. All in all, we had a fantastic time at Tech Cocktail 4, thanks to the grand efforts of Eric and Frank. Thanks guys!
-John
Other Two-Bit Posts
on Apr 16th, 2007 at 12:18 am
37signals flaking out of a Chicago tech event? SAY IT AINT SO!
on Apr 18th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Hi Justin - Great to meet you at TECH Cocktail. Interesting blog - I am in your shoes as well, though I like to think I have more than 2 bits.
mp/m
on Apr 20th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
[...] Menuism beats out Highrise at Tech Cocktail 4! [...]