We just received the photos friend and professional photographer Glenn Phenicie took at the event, and boy us SPS’ers are a classy looking bunch! We’ve uploaded the pics to Flickr and to the Facebook group. Have a look:

Our Flickr Photoset:

Plus these others…

• Photos tagged “siliconprairiesocial” on Flickr
• Event Photos on the Facebook Group

Join the New LinkedIn Group:
LinkedIn just re-released the groups feature, so we created a group as promised. So, join the group here and stay connected with fellow SPS’ers!

Read Others’ Comments:

• Mazy Hedayat posted a nice review and photos of SPS on his blog, Practice Management.
• Carolyn Shelby of cshel.com posted her Silicon Prairie Social Re-Cap.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to our first Silicon Prairie Social! We had a great time, and from the looks of things last night, so did everyone else. The final RSVP count stands at 373 (minus a handful of duplicates I estimate this to be around 350). Just over 200 were in attendance. To those of you who couldn’t make it and wrote in to give up your slot, thank you. Because you did this, we were able to let all of our wait-listed guests into the event.

Having been to numerous events, one thing we didn’t see last night was wallflowers — everyone we saw was mingling and talking with someone. We received many comments on the quality of attendees, connections, and conversations — also many comments on the great suburban location that’s accessible and near to where you live — something we’re happy to provide.

At 8:30, everyone gathered on the outdoor patio for Microsoft’s XBox 360 raffle (Phil Rosenberg from Rainmakers Global was the lucky winner). Then Dave and Larry kicked it up a notch and gave away a Zune, and The Krull Group drew business cards from their booth raffle for 2 American Airlines round-trip tickets.

Thanks:
First, thanks to our wonderful sponsors who jumped on board our first-time event: Chicago Micro, Microsoft, The Krull Group, M5 Networks, PunchEngine, Bradley Wiltjer Marketing Group, Digital Bootcamp, and Bill Jacobs BMW. I’d also like to thank the ITA for promoting their event via newsletter and Interactive Mediums for providing our SMS wall chat.

A special thanks to Lisle-based colocation and dedicated Internet provider XNet for taking initiative to fill the void in suburban tech industry networking.

And to our volunteer hosting staff:

• Jerry Murphy from GM Commercial Properties
• Kirk Fisher
• Heidi Zards
• Art Peña

Finally, to:

• Julian Pretto at ChicagoMicro for being our first sponsor (sight unseen!) as well as a great sounding board, key connector, and volunteer behind the scenes.
• Eric Olson at TECH cocktail for his guidance, quality introductions, and for promoting the event via TECH cocktail’s blog.
• Kristen Nicole from Mashable and WebAscent for initial support and introductions that helped get the event off the ground.

Stay Connected:
Here are three ways you can stay connected after the event:

1. Join the Facebook Group (be sure to upload your photos! Ours are coming soon).
2. Upload your photos to Flickr and use the tag “siliconprairiesocial” (none yet, be the first!)
3. Join the LinkedIn Group - well, not quite yet. LinkedIn isn’t allowing new groups currently as they’re re-designing the feature. But when it’s back up, we’ll create a group and let everyone know!

Send Us Your Feedback:

We set up a survey for attendees to gather feedback on our first event. We’re serious about bringing quality opportunities like this and other events to the suburbs — so we want your input. Please take a couple minutes to complete the survey, we’ll carefully consider all of your comments when putting together future events!

As of this post, Silicon Prairie Social has 350 RSVP’ed attendees — what an incredible response! Due to space considerations at Mullen’s, we’ve capped the RSVP list at 350, so we ask If you have already RSVP’ed and can’t make it today, please email tim [at] siliconprairiesocial (dot) com to cancel — this way we can hand your slot to someone else.

Can’t RSVP? Join the waiting list.
We’ve added a waiting list category to our RSVP site at http://siliconprairiesocial.eventbrite.com. From past experience at others’ events, there’s a good number of no-shows from the RSVP list and a good portion of the wait list usually gets in. So, please sign up there.

Need the info again?
Read the original announcement here, and our Monday update with additional details here.

See you tonight!

We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone this Thursday night for Silicon Prairie Social. What is Silicon Prairie Social? Read the original announcement here, and make sure you and your friends RSVP here (it’s a must to get in–we’re expecting a full event!).

Highlights:

• Over 250 RSVP’ed guests, including CEOs, CTOs, private equity/VCs, designers, developers, business development, support specialists, and bloggers from companies including Motorola, Argonne, Microsoft, AT&T, Mercantec, and Lisle Technology Partners, to name a few.
• Free food and drinks: We’ve opened a tab for you punctual types and ordered some food as well. Once the tab is gone, look forward to plenty of Rolling Rock making it’s way through the crowd–on us! (details on free food and drink here)
• Microsoft is giving away an XBox 360 with Gears of War!
• Bill Jacobs BMW is bringing out a couple cool cars.

Come out and enjoy yourselves on a beautiful fall evening and get to know fellow professionals in the regional tech industry. Can’t wait to see you there!

Taking the train?
Mullen’s is just a 6 minute drive from the Lisle Metra station on the BNSF/Aurora line. Here are some quick links to the Outbound Metra schedule and inbound Metra schedule.

Need a ride? Have extra room? Carpool!
Feel free to use the comments below or the Facebook Group to link up with potential carpool partners (sorry, no LinkedIn group as they currently aren’t allowing new groups due to feature upgrades).

Parking
Mullen’s has plenty of parking. If, however, their lot is full, you are welcome to park next door at the Wyndham hotel at no charge.

Acknowledgements:

• Eric Olson and Frank Gruber over at TechCocktail have been very gracious advising us on getting the event off the ground. Eric has made multiple posts to the TechCocktail blog to help spread the word.
• Mobile search marketing and business development leader David Dalka announced the event on his blog last night.
• Tom Sherman of WindyBits posted SPS as “recommended”
• Ben Bradley spread the word at the announcement
• As did Dave Bost at Microsoft
• Julian Pretto over at Chicago Micro blogged it (Julian, Dave, and Ben above are all sponsors)
• David Carman of Business Network Chicago and host of Fall n-Counter (downtown this Wednesday) graciously gave us the go-ahead to post on his 1500+ strong targeted mailing list.
• Fred Hoch and the ITA published the event on their site and in their weekly newsletter.
• David Flint at TechVenue submitted SPS to the Chicago Sun-Times calendar.
• Mike Maddaloni at The Hot Iron blogged it, even though he unfortunately cannot attend.
• The ever-useful TechSocial posted the event to their calendar.
• Ron May at the May Report has posted some emails and referenced SPS several times since our announcement.

One more reason Silicon Prairie Social is the place to be on Sept 20: Dave and Larry from Microsoft are giving away a new XBox 360 Premium and Gears of War! So come out to Mullen’s in Lisle and enjoy some food, drinks, and meet some other cool techies … and you just might go home with an XBox!

If you haven’t RSVP’ed already, make sure you do so at http://siliconprairiesocial.eventbrite.com. Here are the event details one more time:

Silicon Prairie Social
Thursday, September 20
6:30pm-10:00pm (bar open until 1:00am).

Mullen’s Bar and Grill
3080 Warrenville Rd.
Lisle, IL 60532
(Get directions via Google Maps)

One more thing: A big thanks to our latest sponsors, PunchEngine and Bill Jacobs!

“Can you build a startup ecosystem outside the Valley?”

That’s precisely the question Ben Yoskovitz over at Instigator Blog asked in his thoughtful article by that title. One of our goals behind Silicon Prairie Social is to help build that ecosystem here in the Chicago area, the place we call home. We know we’re not alone.

In order to build up that ecosystem here, what needs to happen first? Ben writes:

More than anything, everyone’s openness, availability and participation makes the difference.

In order for startups to succeed, you need lots of different people:

• New entrepreneurs
• Veteran entrepreneurs
• Angel investors
• Venture capitalists
• Supporting players (lawyers, accountants, marketing, PR, etc.)

Everyone needs to hop into the sandbox and play. And that’s exactly what you get in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. It’s a giant mashup of non-stop events and networking opportunities. Meeting top people and key players is easy. And generally, people seem willing to help.

The startup ecosystem in San Francisco is designed to help startups succeed. Doesn’t mean everyone succeeds, but having the ecosystem in place certainly helps.

All of that exists here. It’s emerging in Chicago tech culture at events like TECH cocktail, Chicago Beta, and Web Ascent. We just lack the scale of the Valley. Entrepreneurs: you want this ecosystem to grow, right? Supporting players (attorneys, marketing & PR folks, finance, operations professionals, etc.): you want to take advantage of startups’ success, right?

Get out there and participate.

Build the environment that yields successful tech companies. The Silicon Valley ‘code’ is being cracked by people like Yoskovitz and the folks at Outside the Valley. It’s time to step out, connect, build resources and build a culture to yield the benefits of the Valley here on the Prairie. It won’t happen overnight, consistent effort will get us there though.

One of the first steps you can take is to come out to Silicon Prairie Social and meet your fellow tech-minded professionals and entrepreneurs. Meet a potential partner, come home with a few leads or with a VC contact, and most importantly, initiate long-lasting professional friendships.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at the first Silicon Prairie Social, coming up in three short weeks on Sept. 20. Make sure you RSVP at http://siliconprairiesocial.eventbrite.com.