SOMEWHAT FRANK

TECH cocktail Takes On Washington

A few hours ago, TECH cocktail completed its first event in DC at the popular MCCXXIII bar (1223 Club DC, for the non Roman-numeral types).  The event was packed with hundreds of guests mingling as the place rocked to music, wine, product demos and mingling.  Over 225+ technology enthusiasts, VCs, bloggers and entrepreneurs came and celebrated the evening together. Wine Library TV, AOL, AN Hosting, BuzzXYZ, and Blue Sky Factory helped to sponsor the event - thank you all for your helping getting TECH cocktail going in DC.

It has been over a year since Eric Olson and I secured the TECH cocktail domain name and started firing up for these events. We were pleased to see such a great response in a new city as last night’s event was no different than the Chicago events that have become extremely big in the windy city.  Thank you to local blogger Nick O’Neill who helped plan the event - we couldn't have done it without you.

The event was well attended with a great mix of guests from a number of the local startups. It was great to see Gabe Rivera, techmeme creator, was in town from Silicon Valley and even dropped in. Demos were performed by the following companies:

BuzzXYZ powered by Blogdigger - helps track the buzz online
Clearspring - services for building, deploying and tracking widgets
Sportsvite - online community is bringing sports lovers together for on-the-field fun
PatentMonkey.com - fully search-able US patent text database
Wine Library TV - will be doing wine tasting and showcasing the wine video site

Though I am somewhat biased, TECH cocktail DC 1 went very well and was worth missing the finale of the Office to be there. I look forward to the next TECH Cocktail in DC and wherever else we choose to take it next.

Check out the photos tagged: techcocktaildc1. Special thank you to Raoul Pop for taking this awesome photo set at TcDC1 - this guy can take some pictures!

TECH cocktail 3: Coming In Early 2007

Start 2007 off on the right foot by attending TECH cocktail 3 on Thursday, January 25, 2007 from 6:30 to 9pm at Amira in Chicago. Amira is located at the base of the NBC Tower close to the Chicago River and Michigan Avenue. Co-founder Eric Olson and I are pretty psyched about the venue so we hope you like it too.

Click here to RSVP for TECH cocktail 3

If you are looking to find some talented employees be sure to check out TECH cocktail Special Job Board. It is FREE to post a job listing if you contact us for the promo code - give it a try. We made it to help the tech community connect with good people. We will most likely be demonstrating it at TECH cocktail 3. If you are interested in demonstrating a product at TECH cocktail 3 please let us know.

We still are looking for sponsors for TECH cocktail 3. If you are interested please let us know. Our email addresses are as follows:

frank [at] techcocktail dot com
eric [at] techcocktail dot com

We could really use the help especially since hosting a party like TECH cocktail is not free though we are able to keep it free to all guests with the help of our great sponsors. Help us help you.

For more details please stay tuned to TECH cocktail or subscribe to our feed. See you at TECH cocktail 3!

Photo Attribution: sonson on Flickr

TECH cocktail 2: Technology Evangelized

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend our friends over at TechnologyEvangelist.com have unveiled the first couple videos in a series of film captured at TECH cocktail 2:

The TechnologyEvangelist.com crew traveled down from Minnesota to spend the evening interviewing as many guests as possible on a range of topics from startups, web 2.0, the future television and about TECH cocktail itself. So expect to see a new video every day till the end of the month. Here are the first two:

TECH cocktail - Eric Olson and Frank Gruber
TECH cocktail - Christopher Monaghan

Thank you TechnologyEvangelist.com, I cannot wait to see the rest! 

Niche Job Boards Galore: Here's One More

There have a been a flurry of niche job boards developed recently to help connect employers with the right niche employees. Paul Stamatiou has previously highlighted the job board boom and had this to say:

"In a nutshell, these small job boards are great places to start looking for your next career or find your next employee."

I couldn't agree with him more. Here a is a quick list of the various niche offerings and listing fees:

37 Signals Tech Jobs - $300 for a 30 day listing
Authentic Jobs - $250 for full-time (30 days)  $75 for freelance (15 days)
CrunchBoard - $200 for a 30 day listing
GigaOM Jobs - $200 for a month listing
Problogger Job Board - $50 for a 30 day listing
TECH cocktail Specials Job Board - $30 for a 30 day listing - FREE with code

With the design and development assistance of Phraction, Eric Olson and I launched a job board at our last event TECH cocktail 2. The goal is to help better connect our supporters with niche tech/biz  opportunities - or as we like to call them TECH cocktail Specials (techcocktail.com/jobs). Though the site says it is only $30 for a 30 day listing (about a dollar a day), I wanted to make it clear that we only are charging to help keep the riff raff (spam listings) off of the site and raise money to help support our TECH cocktail events. However, we have a promo code that we can give you and you can post as many job listings as you would like for FREE! Yes, you read that correctly, post your job listings for FREE!

If you have a job opening and would like to place it on the TECH cocktail Specials Job Board, please email us:

Frank [at] techcocktail dot com
Eric [at] techcocktail dot com

You are probably wondering why we would want to jump into such a competative, segmented market of niche job boards. Well, it is simple: after the first TECH cocktail event both Eric and I received a number emails asking us to help them connect with developers, designers and product gurus. So rather than play HR matchmaker, which could be a full-time job, we decided we would launch a job board. Eric and I really want to see this board grow to help better connect the tech/biz community. So please feel free to reach out to us for that promo code and post a TECH cocktail Specials job listing today!

Related Links:
CrunchBoard: Find A Job In The Valley
Blogger Job Board Launched

Midwest Startups Profiled by TechCrunch

TECH cocktail got some more TechCrunch loving - several of the Tc2 startups from the October 12 Chicago event were highlighted. Thank you Mike Arrington for allowing me to cover the event for TechCrunch - hope you can make it out and cover TECH cocktail 3! Featured startups included:

Liquid Talk
eSigma
GrubHub
Pawky
Planypus
Time59
FitLink.com
HouseBlogs.net
Menuism
Metroproper

Be sure to check out the article here. If you like it digg it here.

TECH cocktail 2 Video Unveiled

TECH cocktail 2, an event I co-hosted with Eric Olson on October 12, 2006 in Chicago, helped to bring together the technology business community. If you missed the event but want to know what it was all about be sure to watch the video that was produced by Lambert Smith of Stone Cliff Productions.

Thank you to everyone that participated in TECH cocktail 2. Special thank you to Lambert Smith for creating this TECH cocktail 2 video which captured some of the evenings happenings. Stay tuned for details about TECH cocktail 3!

Second TECH cocktail Smoothly Downed

Last night (October 12, 2006), Eric Olson and I hosted our second TECH cocktail in Chicago at the Gramercy. As we first envisioned nearly 8 months ago, TECH cocktail 2 brought together the technology enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters and corporate masterminds in the area. With the list of rsvp'ed guests at 400+ for the evening by the events start time, I was a little leary as to if we could keep every guest smiling. I feel like that if the 350+ guests that did attend even had a quarter the fun I had I would consider it a great success. Judging by the feedback I have gotten, I think we can rest assured we pulled it off smoothly.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...
I am extremely thankful to a number of people and companies that made TECH cocktail even happen. First of all, a quick thank you to Eric Olson for being great partner in TECH cocktail crime and more importantly a great friend. Secondly, thank to all of our sponsors which included  midPhase, mk Capital, Coastr, Liquid Talk, Chicago.com, Digital Bootcamp and Chicago Enterpreneurial Center.  Thanks to all the companies that were willing to go under the hood and showcase their products. This includes eSigma, GrubHub, Pawky.com, Planypus and Time59 - thank you. Thanks to our three film crews which include Liquid Talk, Stone Cliff Productions and TechnologyEvangelist.com. Thanks to Jonathan Wolter for working registration and spreading some TechSocial love. Thanks to guys from Freshwater Venture who brought some pretty sweet company baseball cards. Of course, thank you to my family and friends for coming out and supporting the movement. Don Loeb was even in from San Francisco to attend - thanks for coming Don! Finally, special thanks to Jeff Pulver for coming over from New York to attend and pick up a tab on several hundred rounds of drinks.

Event Photos & Reactions...
Here are the photos tagged techcocktail2. 
Here is some of the buzz from the blogosphere:

• TECH cocktail 2: Wrap & Thank you - TECH cocktail (Official Tc2 thank you)
• About Last Night… (David gives his perspective)
• TechCocktail - a great party - tins ::: Rick Klau’s weblog (Glad Rick made it to this one!)
• I even wore a tie! (Dan from midPhase wore a tie)
• Tech Cocktail 2: What a Party: Technology Evangelist (Thanks for coming down!)
• About Last Night: TECH Cocktail 2 in Chicago - The Jeff Pulver Blog (Black AMEX, enough said - thank you!)
• TECH cocktail 2: Good Times, Lessons Learned - Chicagoist (Thanks for covering the limo situation so well)
• Chicago Beta (This is exactly what we wanted to see happen - more events!)
• TechCocktail tonight in Chicago « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger (Thanks for the plug Robert, wish you could have made it)

TECH cocktail Specials...

We also took the opportunity to introduce a new TECH cocktail product called TECH cocktail Specials (techcocktail.com/jobs) a job listing board that we hopes helps to connect employers with jobseekers surrounding TECH cocktail events. Not to mention, proceeds will help to support future TECH cocktail events. If you are interested in giving it a free trial please feel free to email and I will hook you up. The site was developed by Phraction.

With two TECH cocktails downed smoothly - we will see you at TECH cocktail 3!

Tagged: techcocktail2