I’m back in Chicago for another productive and fun working session for Menuism. This winter’s been unseasonably cold in Seattle, so I was looking forward to getting out of town, but arriving to temps in the 20s here was like jumping out of the fridge and into the freezer. I’d forgotten how the wind cuts through your clothing here, and the last time I experienced it was nearly a year ago, when we kicked off our little Two-Bit Operation. Happy birthday to us soon – we’ll recap the year in a coming post.
We timed this trip to coincide with one of our favorite networking events – Tech Cocktail 3, which was held at Amira at the base of the NBC tower. Hosts Eric and Frank have perfected the simple formula for bringing together the Midwest tech community – take a swanky lounge, add an open bar, and make the whole thing free. The local community’s definitely taken to the idea, with attendence nearly doubling at each successive event.
Justin and I had lots of fun at the last one, and last night didn’t disappoint. Amira’s a large venue, but even with all that space things got crowded quickly and lots of people were turned away at the door. Previous sponsor Singlehop outdid itself this time, providing complimentary (strong!) martinis poured through glowing frog ice sculptures. Thankfully, this time there weren’t any video interviewers to stumble in front of after one-too-many free drinks. =)
More than the venue and the free drinks, the best part of TC was meeting interesting people and hearing about their projects. It was nice to reconnect with old friends and make new connections, though with so many in attendance it got hard to find everyone we wanted to. For more detailed coverage, check out WindyBits‘ coverage here.
As for actual work, we’ve got a couple things lined up for Menuism in the coming weeks that we’re really excited about and working hard on – stay tuned for more!
-John
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[...] Chicagoist – WindyBits – Networking Insight – Two Bit Operation [...]