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!