Yesterday, I bid farewell to Classified Ventures' Apartments.com as I have taken a senior product management/development role at AOL. So I will be moving out of Chicago to work at AOL headquarters in the Washington, DC area soon.
I have truly enjoyed my time in the Midwest, growing up, attending college at Purdue and Northwestern and working my entire career but I am ready to try something new. I could not have asked for a better opportunity to work in the web 2.0 new media space I am so passionate about. So I am extremely excited about the new role helping to guide the direction of AOL on a number of web 2.0 initiatives. 
AOL has been in the headlines a number of times recently as they have switched business models from a paid service provider to an advertising supported model leveraging new media. The new AOL is developing products not only for the loyal AOL subscriber base but for the entire world to enjoy. Somewhat frankly, AOL draws parallels to west coast hip-hop icon Dr. Dre and his lyrics to his 2001 track Forgot About Dre which basically say don't underestimate Dre, or in this case AOL, because more hits are on the way.
You probably are wondering - what about TECH cocktail? I want to assure you that TECH cocktail will continue as planned. Eric Olson and I have worked through a number of the details and we stay well connected. We have a number of people that are working with us to help ensure the next event it just as good if not better than the first. We expect some great new things at our next event in October and I hope to see you there if you are in the Midwest. Right now, I had better get to packing - I move to DC very soon!
