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Two good parties in Chicago tech (with a third tonight!)
It’s been a busy week in Chicago technology. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
NXTcomm
NXTcomm has taken over McCormick Place and filled our city with VOIP, IPTV, and next-generation network companies. I stopped by the conference on Tuesday to learn how little I know about telecom. Probably the coolest thing I saw was the Microsoft Connected Services Framework (CSF). I’m not smart enough to actually understand it, but from what I can tell, it seems like a super-layer on top of web services that allows for enterprise-type applications to be developed, mashing up various data services while providing SSO, security, provisioning, billing, etc. Or something. Ask Adrian: he seems to understand the mashup stuff.
Pulver’s Summer Party
On Tuesday night, Jeff Pulver (founder of Vonage, now CEO of Pulvermedia) threw a helluva party at House of Blues. I hope you were there, but there’s a good chance you weren’t: the Chicago tech folks were fairly few and far between, while the 40something white guys from NXTcomm were there in force. (I can say that because I’ll be a 40something white guy in 15 years.) Well, no matter, because as I said, it was a helluva party. Seriously, Pulver knows how to do it. He rented out the entire House of Blues. Open bar for hours and a great cover band (no sarcasm, they were quite good) in Herding Cats. It was high energy and delirious 1999 dotcomdom all over again. And I dug it. Check out Jeff’s post-party blog entry and the pictures from zemote (Jeff O’Hara, a Chicago guy).
Web Ascent
And on Wednesday, Kristen Nicole of Mashable/606tech put on a solid Web Ascent event at Union Park in the West Loop. I will confess that I didn’t spend a lot of time checking out the demos. That’s right: I’m an irresponsible fake reporter. Instead, I took advantage of the beer specials and chatted with some cool folks. Finally met Harper Reed of Threadless (I’ve missed him at previous events). Also met Kenneth Coats of ArrestFree.com. That’s not exactly a Web 2.0 biz, but it is cool. They provide a service to expunge your arrest record. Keep this in mind if you get nailed for public urination after TECH cocktail 5. Other recaps of Web Ascent: Mark Smithivas, Leah Jones (M.C. for the event), and Jason Jacobsohn. Update: the best recap yet is Sela’s.
Coming soon…
And it’s not over! The Going.com Chicago launch party is tonight. 3 hours of open bar in Wicker Park: how can you pass that up? And with BARcamp Chicago this weekend (also in Wicker Park), you’re bound to have fun.
