marusin.com » techcocktail

TECH cocktail 3 Announced

mike — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:21:51 +0000

TECH cocktail 3 has been announced! The festivities go down on January 25, 2007 at Amira (in the NBC Tower).

I’m really looking forward to this event as I haven’t been disappointed yet. I’m not familiar with Amira, but hopefully it’s a little larger (space-wise) to accommodate the throngs of cocktailer’s that have been showing up…

marusin.com stuffing #10.5

mike — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 03:24:40 +0000

Yes, this is episode #10.5. Episode #10 was a lost cause (other than a surpise guest of my wife calling me while recording). Maybe you’ll hear pieces of it in a future “best of” (once we have some content that is deemed “best of” ~ we have a long way to go). In the meantime, it’s about 3 months since my last podcast and I’m back in the car…

- Episode #10 was weird and I don’t know why
- I love fall
- I love draping myself in corduroy
- Weird weather so far in October 2006
- I get side-tracked about panhandlers and can’t remember how/why I got on the topic
- I went to Techcocktail 2 on Thursday night
- It was fun, but very crowded
- I need coffee and should watch the road
- “I will plan on talking to you again when the time seems appropriate”

Download marusin.com stuffing #10.5 (14.8mb – 21:26) or suck it in from my RSS Feed or subscribe to it in iTunes.

Back From TechCocktail2

mike — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 03:54:09 +0000

TechCocktail 2 was tonight at The Gramercy in Chicago and was another good time. I think I liked #1 better just for the fact that it was in a more-open space and wasn’t as jam packed. Boy, was it jam packed.

Being that crowded is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that there are tons of people to talk to and meet. The bad thing is that it’s so crowded that it’s hard to maneuver and you pretty much stay put the whole night (at least lazy people who don’t want to fight through the crowds like me).. :)

Nice seeing some of the regulars and also meeting some new people. (sorry, too lazy for links right now)

I recorded a little podcast on the way home but I need to re-listen to it first. I was in a goofy mood on the way home and I think it may be reflected in the recording. We’ll see what becomes of it…

TechCocktail 2 is this Thursday

mike — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 02:39:44 +0000

It kind of snuck up on me, but TechCocktail 2 (Electric Boogaloo) is this coming Thursday (October 12th, 2006) at The Gramercy in Chicago… I am planning on being there and am looking forward to this event. I had a great time at #1 and am hoping that it has the same energy/vibe.

If you’re planning on going, let me know so I can keep my eyes open for you…

BarCamp Chicago This Weekend

mike — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 16:28:56 +0000

I’ve been feeling really good about the tech-scene going on around Chicago (yeah, that’s really nerdy to say out loud). Coming off of “a high” from Gnomedex, it’s nice to see this attitude carrying on locally…

- The local crew has a couple of tricks up their sleeves which will be announced soon
- TechCocktail happened last week and was a huge success
- I’ve been working on a new site personally that hopefully will launch soon
- The first official BarCamp in Chicago is this coming weekend

I was on the fence regarding BarCamp due to some personal obligations, etc. but I think I have clearance from the tower to be there on Saturday, 07.15.2006. Are you planning on being there? If so, let me know…

Glad I made it to TECHcocktail

mike — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 14:06:00 +0000

Last night I made the trek last night to the inaugural TECHcocktail event in Chicago. For being such a big city, there never has seemed to be any sort of techy/webby/bloggy community that I was ever able to find. If you go back to the early years of marusin.com (we’re talking 2001ish ~ too lazy to link right now), you’d often here me whine and complain about this (I really used to be a whiner back then, looking back. Sorry about that…).

I’m really glad I made it to the event last night. There were over 200 registrations, but for some reason I had the feeling that it was going to be Evan, Kris and myself (they made the trek as well). I was really surprised when the room (or at least the non-restaurant side) at State was jammed in an “excuse-me, pardon-me” kind of way. Kudos to Frank Gruber and Eric Olson for getting some kick-ass sponsors and organizing such an event (especially the first one!)…

I met a couple people I knew from previous events (nice seeing you again, Andrew) and a ton of people I didn’t. I was very happy to see so many “thought leaders” (sorry about using that term) and entrepeneurs. Between this event and coming off of Gnomedex last weekend, I’m buzzing. To top it all off, we have BarCamp Chicago coming up next weekend. We need to start spreading these out a bit more to keep things going! :)

Frank and Eric, thanks for putting on a great event. Looking forward to the next TECHcocktail.