Last night we attended a great event hosted by Social Media Club Chicago and crowdSPRING (@crowdspring) at their new office.  The drinks and food were out and there was a great panel discussing Chicago’s hospitality Social Media scene that included:

• Theresa Carter from The Local Tourist, @thelocaltourist
• Andrew Mason from Groupon, @groupon
• Mike Evans, GrubHub.com, @grubhub
• Dawn Reiss, @dawnreiss

It’s always great to catch up and meet with other Chicago entrepreneurs.  By the way, crowdSPRING’s new office is SWEEET.  They definitely raised the standards for the ideal startup office.  Congrats to them.

You can see all of our pics here.

In the spirit of, “All work and no play…”, some of our team ran the Race To Wrigley 5K this Saturday.  If you live in Chicago and haven’t heard of it, it’s only in its fourth year.  The hardest part was getting up for an 8am race on a Saturday morning.  The crowd was good, the weather was perfect for running and everyone had a great time.  Part of the race actually went through the Wrigley Field concourse.

After our Race to Wrigley, we all raced to Rebel’s for brunch and a reward beverage or two.  We were surprised to see that it was the only bar on Clark that opened for the race and the place was packed with runners and their supporters.

Our team is always up for a 5K that ends in beverages and/or a band so if you’re another small business in Chicago and want to get together for a race, let us know.

Last week definitely ended on a high note.  Thursday night, we were one of the demos at TECH cocktail 10, which took place at a very packed John Barleycorn’s in Wrigleyville.  Over 500+ people attended. Not only was it a great event to get the word out on our site, but it was great experience for getting our pitch down.  When you’ve got less then two minutes to explain/yell what you do and how you add value in a crowded bar, you’ve got to make every word count.  We made a lot of new contacts, heard about some great companies, and went through a lot of cards, even if you exclude what Ron May took.  It was a great event and we want to give a big thanks to Eric, Frank, the TC team and all of the sponsors.  If you want to see what you missed, there are some pics of the event here. 

Friday night we made it out to the Facebook Developer Garage Chicago event at Where I’ve Been’s office in Bucktown.  The night started off with drinks, food, and socializing and then went into the presentations.  Sachin Agarwal gave the first talk on how Dawdle uses Facebook with the blunt finesse that only he can pull off in a crowded room.  Jennifer Beese, the Social Network Manager at The Printed Blog, followed up after that.  Ben Parr gave one of the best (and loudest) presentations I’ve seen in awhile and then Luke Shepard, of Facebook, talked about Facebook and how to best use Facebook Connect.  For those interested, there was a cool sidebar with Keith Schacht, from Crafted Fun and Craig Ulliott, from Where I’ve Been.  As two of the top Facebook apps out there, they both shared a lot of good ideas and lessons learned.  Thanks to the team at Where I’ve Been for being great hosts. 

It’s awesome that events like these are continuing to grow in Chicago and we’re glad to be a part of them.

Part of our team actually got up early on Sunday morning to run the Bucktown 5K as part of the Red Door Runners Team.  The Red Door Runners are members of the Associate Board for Gilda’s Club Chicago which helps support people and families living with cancer.  It was a beautiful morning and a great event.  The hardest part was waking up before 7am on a Sunday.

We want to thank everyone that sponsored our runners and helped us raise a good chunk of money for the club.  We plan on doing it again next year.

Thanks,

Scott