On Thursday night, Eric Olson and I hosted our 11th TECH cocktail in Chicago. Since we started in Chicago we have seen the event grow from the simple idea of hosting an event to bring together the community and showcase the local start-ups into a premiere event where we can't even find a big enough venue anymore. TECH cocktail 11 had close to 700 paid attendees. We were rather surprised as this is the first event we charged attendees $10 to attend so we thought the event numbers might see a slight dip in attendance. But, this doesn't seem to be the case at all, in fact the stellar attendance further validates what we are doing.
Check out this quick video that gives a (12 second) look at what it was like at the event.
TECH cocktail Chicago 11 on 12seconds.tv
Nine new startups from the local Chicagoland area showed off their latest technological creations.
The startups demoing included:
BringIt is a platform that allows you to play your favorite video games against others for real money. BringIt makes it easy to compete against others on the Nintendo Wii and more virtually for cash prizes.Special thanks to the TECH cocktail sponsors which included:
iLime is an easy-to-implement solution that allows iPhone developers a way to integrate the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) and In App Purchase features into iPhone applications.
ProOnGo is an mobile application that helps you keep track of all your receipts while on the road. I couldn't think a product that could help me more right now as I have been traveling like a mad man lately. ProOnGo was founded by a couple of former Purdue classmates in my same School of Technology graduating class. Pretty cool to see them out doing their thing and doing it well. Go Boilers! (Ok, I had to throw that Alma Mater spirit in there).
Are you a Hot Tweeter? Hot Tweeters turns your Twitter profile photo into a measurement of your hotness as users compete in a "hot or not" style competition to find the hottest Twitter users.
indieCollision a platform that empowers music fans to discover new music from independent & unsigned artists. Music is a tough space to jump into but it is great to see a start-up out there looking to help indie artists create an online following.
Thinklinkr a real-time, collaborative outlining tool looks to make it easy to collaborate in real-time.
TweetVisor a Web-based Twitter dashboard offers another great way to keep track of all your Twitter activity online.
Northwestern University’s InfoLab has also produced a trio of new products which included, StatsMonkey a system that automatically generates baseball stories off of numerical data. Manatee Comics a system that automatically generates web comics. News at Seven a system that automatically generates a broadcast news show and I first covered at the Wired Next Fest in Chicago.
Going.com is doing some great stuff online and via mobile in the events and venues space and soon will be rolling out an iPhone app.
Start-up incubator, Sproutbox came all the way from Indianapolis in search of entrepreneurs, start-ups and big dreamers as they help fund early stage start-ups.
Zookie (formerly Zook Binders) rolled out it's new name and logo at the event as they search for some new employees.
TransFS is Chicago-based startup that Eric is co-founder of and is looking to help companies get the best rate on online credit card processing. They just created an iPhone that we used at the event to take in credit card payments for TECH cocktail event tickets at the door - pretty technologically advanced if you ask me. So now I can collect credit card transactions anywhere I go via my iPhone!
OVAL vodka leverages technology to create the purest vodka around. Just so you know distilling vodka can take as little as 4 hours but OVAL gets it right with it's patented 11 day distillation process which creates structured vodka. OVAL was serving special "tech" cocktails at the event.Shiny Heart Ventures is a new venture I have been working on mornings, nights and weekends as we look to create some "good" experiences that remind us of the joys of life. We should be launching our first experience soon. So stay tuned by following @shinyheart and by subscribing to email updates.
Saper Law which is lead by Daliah Saper, a longtime TECH cocktailer and just an overall great person to know in the legal space these days. Saper Law works with creative entrepreneurs and innovative business organizations on all of their legal needs. Saper Law gives focused an very personal service to their clients and has helped TECH cocktail as well.
ChicagoMicro another longtime TECH cocktail support. If you have IT purchasing needs you might want to check them out.
Total Attorneys helps thousands of small law firms and solo practitioners with the business of practicing law.
TECH cocktail Chicago 11 was another great event, but we might need a "bigger boat" next time. Thanks to everyone that made it a special night and don't forget to sign up for TECH cocktail email updates and follow @techcocktail on Twitter.
