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Yes, you read right.  Check out the announcement when you have a chance and, even better, just go right ahead and RSVP. Here are the details:

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Time: 6:30pm – 9pm
Place: John Barleycorn’s – 3524 N Clark (where it always is)
Cost: $0 (per usual)

As usual we’re looking for some sponsors to help us out so if you know any, or if you are one, please send any questions my way and, if you are ready rock, just head over to the RSVP page where you can purchase a sponsorship electronically (I love technology).

Lastly, if you are interested in demoing please shoot me a note and we can figure out the details.

Rock on.

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Here’s a fun video from TECH cocktail co-founder Frank Gruber that chronicles our very long day in Champaign. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you are interested in having a TECH cocktail event in your city or town please email us (cofounders [at] techcocktail [dot] com) to let us know.

21 Hour TECH cocktail Day from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

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Just wanted to post a quick update on the TECH cocktail conference that is coming up on Thursday, May 29th. Frank and I recently finalized the schedule and posted it on the site. We really have a fantastic speaker line up if I do say so myself. We’re really psyched and appreciative that so many top notch folks were willing to give up time in their day to come and talk.

If you have been thinking about buying a ticket but haven’t yet here is your chance to get $25 off the already low introductory rate of $225. Just use the promotional code olsonsobservations when you register and you’ll be $25 richer (or I guess you could say $200 poorer but I really think the content we put together is worth much more than $200 – the glass is half full people!).

I look forward to seeing everyone at the conference. (Oh, and I really do have some more “real” posts coming up soon. I swear… Stay tuned!)

Side note: We even have “Attending” and “Speaking @” TECH cocktail Conference badges for your site. Snag one and add it to your site when you have a chance. Attending & Speaking

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Wow. Twelve hours later I still don’t really know what to say. For people who know me well they know that says something (yeah, I talk a lot).

Frank and and I were nominated for the Illinois I.T. Association CityLIGHTS award along with some truly incredible people last night (my friend Brad Spirrison and super angel Bob Geras among them) who all deserved the award as much if not more than we did. Winning this award is a huge honor and incredibly humbling. I can’t stress that enough. I was simply stunned we took it home.

As I said in my short speech last night TECH cocktail has really been a story of community. Frank and I look at ourselves as facilitators but the tech community here in Chicago is where the magic is and always was. We just brought it into the light.

Another key point to note is that the tech community here will grow much faster if we all work together. Every chance we get we help other events, startups and people because we need an ecosystem. Other organizations, the ITA being one of them, feel the same way and always try to help others. Bottom line: we need to work together. TECH cocktail certainly can’t do it alone (nor has it – we’ve had a lot of help in the last two years) and it will be much more powerful as part of a larger whole.

I am excited for the future of Illinois technology and for the Midwest overall. I think we’re heading into a new age where we can become the technology center we deserve to be. Do we want to be Silicon Valley? No, I don’t think we do. We want to solve real problems with solid technologies in order to create real revenues and long term sustainable value. This isn’t to say that Silicon Valley doesn’t do that as well but I do think that we tend to escape some of the irrational exuberance that is prevalent in the Valley and that should be looked at as a strength not a weakness.

Here’s to the future. Onward!

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TECH cocktail Boulder has been a long time in the making. In fact, my friends at lijit have been nudging me for a while and I am glad they did because TECH cocktail Boulder was a blast. Everyone here has been so welcoming that I honestly wish I had another week or two to spend in Boulder to see all there is to see and to hang out with all the awesome folks I met. There is a thriving tech community here as is evidenced by all of the great web apps coming out of the Boulder area.

Speaking of web apps, four local companies were on hand last night showing off what they have been working on. Here are some brief descriptions of the companies so you can see which ones you may like to try:

Filtrbox: Business grade content monitoring and filtering for professionals and small businesses.

Newsgator: Consumer and enterprise feed reading and collaboration software.

SocialThing!: Digital life manager. Get all of your online “stuff” in one place.

SurveyGizmo: Survey creation tool.

Of course we wouldn’t be able to put on these events without the help of great sponsors and we had two outstanding ones for TECH cocktail Boulder.

First up was lijit. I am lucky enough to be able to call some of the lijit folks friends and they certainly made things happen in terms of helping us get TECH cocktail Boulder off the ground. If you’re looking for a great search widget for your blog please check them out. I love my lijit wijit. It is probably the most useful widget out there.

Second, last and certainly not least was skinnyCorp (threadless). These guys are friends from Chicago and they decided to not only make the trek down to Boulder for the event but also to sponsor the event for the benefit of the Boulder tech community. If you’re a t-shirt junkie like me make sure to check out threadless if you have a chance.

Along with these great sponsors we also had the benefit of some helping hands from DEMO. These guys helped us out with some logistics which made it much easier for us to plan the event from afar.

If you want to learn more about any of sponsors please head to their websites or check out our write up on them from a little while back.

Thank you again Boulder for having us. Frank and I had a great time and we hope to be back soon.

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Didn’t get to see some of the demos or talk to all the folks at TECH cocktail Chicago 7? Check out the video below created by Metroproper to catch some of the demoers elevator pitches.

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TECH cocktail Chicago 7 went well last night. We ended up having over 500 of Chicago tech’s finest at the event (despite the cold temps outside) and, for me, it was great connect with everyone that I hadn’t seen for the past five months.

It’s great to be back.

Unfortunately Frank and I were so consumed with some last minute event details and with our two big announcements (new site & new conference) we didn’t get to the venue early enough to spend enough time with our demoers and sponsors.

However, from what I heard today all of the demoers and sponsors really got a lot out of the event as did the attendees which is all I could ask for.

I just want to take a quick second to thank all of the TECH cocktail Chicago 7 sponsors because without them TECH cocktail wouldn’t happen. A big thanks to Google, Imprint Enterprises, Mullen Law, Chicago Micro, Fiodan, Saper Law, Fitzgerald and Hewes, Hubbard One, Interactive Mediums, Forbes Technical Consulting, LiquidTalk and Sun Trading.

Also, make sure to check out the awesome new companies that demoed at TECH cocktail Chicago 7.

hoodFind: Find stuff in your neighborhood.

ContextMedia: Content solutions for the health care field.

TransFS: Comparison shopping for small business financial services.

MetroProper: Localized citizen media.

TextAdapt: Ad optimization for publishers.

Thanks again for a great night Chicago. Looking forward to the conference and TECH cocktail Chicago 8 on May 29th!

Click Here for the Official Wrap-up Post at TECHcocktail.com