SOMEWHAT FRANK

21 Hour TECH cocktail Day

21 Hour TECH cocktail Day from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

I have been co-hosting TECH cocktail events in local technology communities for over two and a half years now. In that time I have hosted events in Boulder, Boston, D.C. and Chicago. Recently, we hosted our first event on a college campus by hitting the road and heading down to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for a "Big Ten Conference" style event which I mentioned previously. It was a lot of fun but it was a LONG day.

I captured our 21 hour day on video and you can follow us along as we woke up at 3:30 a.m. in the morning in Chicago and returned some 21 hours later. Follow along as episode 54 on SOMEWHAT FRANK shares our adventures in the video (above).

TECH cocktail CONFERENCE Downed Smoothly

Somewhat Frank has been taking the brunt of an intense schedule this past week as I have been in Chicago preparing for and hosting the first TECH cocktail CONFERENCE, followed by our 8th Chicago mixer, TECH cocktail Chicago 8 on May 29, 2008. Though it took a lot of time and hard work, it was all worth it as it was a lot of fun as we were able to further our mission of better connecting and amplifying the technology signal by bringing together some of the TECH cocktail community leaders from Boston, Boulder, DC and Chicago as speakers at the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE which attracted close to 300 guests. From the opening ceremonies where we played the TECH cocktail Song to Gary Vaynerchuk wrapping up the day of speakers it was a lot of fun. All the speakers did an amazing job and we are very appreciative of their participation and support. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to see all the panels as I was pretty emceeing the event and making sure things run smoothly.

Check out the TECH cocktail CONFERENCE photos taken by the very talented Leora Zellman. Additional photos from TECH cocktail Chicago 8 are coming soon.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Video: TECH cocktail Earns CityLIGHTS Award

The Illinois I.T. Association CityLIGHTS 2008 Awards Gala took place in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, April 3, 2008. The event was held at Union Station which you might recognize from the epic scene from the movie The Untouchables where Kevin Costner saves a baby carriage while also shooting up the Al Capone gangsters on its marble steps. While did not save any babies TECH cocktail, the community building startup that I co-founded with Eric Olson, was nominated for the CityLIGHTS Award for its positive impact in connecting the Illinois technology community. I am please to report, that TECH cocktail took home the hardware. I was deeply humbled by winning the award as it serves as validation that all the long hours and hard work is truly helping to sculpt a better connected local technology community while helping to amplify that same community to the world.

TECH cocktail: ITA CityLIGHTS Award Finalist

I am pleased and somewhat humbled that TECH cocktail, a little events startup which I co-founded with Eric Olson back in May 2006, has been nominated as a finalist for the Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS Award. Over 700 great entrepreneurs, startups and established companies will be in attendance tonight as the awards are presented.

TECH cocktail is nominated for the CityLIGHTS Award which is given to an individual or individuals that have made a significant impact on the Illinois technology community. The list of finalists include:

• Ron and Jeff Galowich, co-Founders, Initiate Systems
• Bob Geras, president, LaSalle Investments
• Brian Knudson, CEO, NogginLabs, Inc.
• Eric Olson and Frank Gruber, founders, TECH cocktail
• Brad Spirrison, president, MidwestBusiness.com

TECH cocktail was started as a way to better connect and amplify the local technology community and being a finalist for this award validates that all our hard work has been paying off. Our first TECH cocktail CONFERENCE in May should further along this mission - don't forget to sign up now. Cheers!

5 Startups Demo at TECH cocktail Boulder

On a clear, crisp evening in Boulder, Colorado over two hundred technology enthusiasts piled into The Foundry Billiards Club to better connect and amplify the technology signal of the region. The event, TECH cocktail Boulder in partnership with DEMO, showcased five startups from the local area. The event was sponsored by Boulder-based Lijit and Chicago and potentially soon to be also Boulder-based skinnyCorp - thank you both!

Since TECH cocktail is one of my own creations with co-founder Eric Olson, we were really enjoyed the evening getting to hangout with some of the technology "movers and shakers" in the Denver/Boulder area. For more details check out the official TECH cocktail Boulder 1 photos, our event wrap-up article and ColoradoStartups' wrap-up. Read on for more on the startups that demoed at TECH cocktail Boulder.

iPhone Social Network Pondering, Facebook Fatigue, Oscar Updates, IE8 Beta Coming, Mixx Updates, imagine it! & Olympic Bloggers

Photo of the Week: I visited the skinnyCorp office with TECH cocktail co-founder Eric Olson this past week and snapped this photo of the their workspace. Those threadless folks are pretty rad! The space kind of reminded me of a cross between Pee Wee's Playhouse, without the talking chair of course, and MAKE Magazine.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.24.2008

TECH cocktail Remixes With TECH CONFERENCE

TECH cocktail, the events startup that was created by Eric Olson and I back in May 2006, has made a couple of exciting moves today. First we launched a substantial redesign of the TECH cocktail website that we have been working on for the last couple months. In addition, to stay true to our mission of helping to amplify the technology signal in local communities we are have announced the first ever TECH cocktail CONFERENCE (or TECH CONFERENCE for short). The event full day conference will take place in Chicago on May 29, 2008 and will be followed up by our popular mixer event. Register now - it should be a great event!

TECH cocktail Boulder Colorado

I am pleased to announce that TECH cocktail will be making its first appearance in Boulder, Colorado. TECH cocktail Boulder 1 is another big step forward for TECH cocktail for another reason besides the obvious one of expanding to a new area. TECH cocktail Boulder 1 will be the first event we are putting on in partnership with the DEMO conference. Yes, the same DEMO conference that I just attended last week.

TECH cocktail Chicago 7 Announced

I am pleased to announce that TECH cocktail Chicago 7 details have just been posted on the TECH cocktail web site. This is the seventh TECH cocktail in Chicago and ninth event overall since Eric Olson and I founded the community building startup TECH cocktail in 2006. RSVP now for TECH cocktail Chicago 7!

If you are interested in supporting the TECH cocktail movement - become a TECH cocktail sponsor today! Contact us ASAP.

CES Should Move to Chicago

CES, the largest consumer electronic trade show, is wrapping in Las Vegas and it was reported by an NBC affiliate that CES may be leaving Las Vegas! PC World also echoed this news. We thought it would be great if we could help bring CES to Chicago. Why not? Chicago is a world class city with the facilitates to host a huge event like the World Fair or Olympic games. Not to mention Chicago has lots of tech companies and hotels, restaurants and bars to accommodate the 200,o00 attendees. So TECH cocktail co-founder Eric Olson and I have decided to help initiate the ‘Bring CES to Chicago’ movement. If you are interested in supporting the cause let us know in the comments below or email us directly. Also join the Bring CES to Chicago group on Facebook.

TECH cocktail Chicago A Sixth Great Time

I co-hosted a sixth TECH cocktail in Chicago last night and co-host Eric Olson and I had a blast doing it. With 500 plus attendees at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville there was so much energy and love in the room it was an amazing feeling. I got to see many familiar and as well as new faces as we continue to try and build a better and more tightly connected community in Chicago.

Leading up to TECH cocktail Chicago 6 was super, as there was lots of TECH cocktail related action. For example, DC TECH cocktail demoing startup PatentMonkey.com was acquired by Patents.com. Songza launched and then demoed at TECH cocktail last night. Also, TECH cocktail demo alum GrubHub got funded by repeat TECH cocktail sponsor Origin Ventures. TECH cocktail got a little local Chicago press love. Oh and I almost forgot, we now have a Twitter account so you can follow TECH cocktail on all its adventures in helping to amplify the technology signal in under-served communities.

 

Google Phone Details, OpenSocial Launches, No $200 Million Wordpress Deal, Zillow Launches Direct Ads & PlentyofFish.com $1 Billion?

Photo of the Week: With amazingly warm weather this weekend I was able to watch some sailboats in Alexandria, Virginia sailing down the Potomac River towards the ocean.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 11.04.2007

A Trend TV Somewhat Frank Interview

I got interviewed by trend junkie and entrepreneur Greg Cangelosi of Trend TV this week while at the The New New Internet Conference. Greg is a podcasting expert and just authored a book titled The Business of Podcasting. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy. Greg and I sat down and chatted and he captured the casual interview on Trend TV.

TECH cocktail Boston Was Wicked

TECH cocktail Boston took place last night in the shadow of Fenway Park and brought the Boston tech scene together. With about 400 people in attendance, TECH cocktail Boston brought together a number of startups, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts for an evening of food, drinks and passionate conversations. It was pretty wicked!

Use twitterfeed.com To Aggregate Your Facebook Status Updates On Twitter

Though an early Twitter adopter, I found that when Facebook came out with its open application platform which included mobile and web status updates I stopped updating my twitter page as frequently. I just couldn't keep up with updating two places with my status updates. When you also factor in Flickr photo uploads, myAOL 'Mix & Share' Favorites and regular blog posts (on Somewhat Frank, TECH cocktail and myAOL Blog) I had to start to looking for a way to cut corners. I recently found twitterfeed.com, thanks to my good friend Eric Olson. Twitterfeed.com turns twitter into a status feed aggregator as you can pull all your status updates together to be published on twitter.