Wow, what a great turnout at Silicon Prairie Social 2 last night! This second event was arguably better than the first. We’re glad everyone braved the cold and made it out to have a great time socializing and building business relationships within the suburban Chicago tech community.

Photos
Here’s a selection of the photos we took at the event last night. We’ll post more next week. If you took your own photos last night, please upload them to Flickr and use the tag ‘siliconprairiesocial2‘ to create a shared gallery.

Prize Winners:
Congratulations to our lucky guests who took home one of several prizes given away last night. Andy Thomas from Optimus Solutions took home the XBOX 360 with Halo 3 from Microsoft, Tom Rupp and Bill Winsininski at Imprint-E won an OKI multi-function printer courtesy of ChicagoMicro, Robert Sansome of Optimized Telecom Solutions won Optimus Solutions’ iPod Touch, and Lambert Smith of Stone Cliff Productions won the iPod Nano from Piocon. Finally, the winner of XNet’s 1hr Swedish Massage at Mario Tricoci of Naperville goes to Amanda D. Cook at Simply Aesthetic Design.Keep in Touch:
Use the Facebook Group and LinkedIn Group to keep in touch with fellow Silicon Prairie Social attendees.

Thanks:
First, from all of us at XNet, we’d like to thank those of you who braved the cold and came out to mingle and network with your peers in the tech industry. You made the event a whole lot of fun. We’re glad to be able to host such an event for the suburban tech community.

We want to especially thank our sponsors: Premier Sponsor ChicagoMicro, along with Microsoft, M5 Networks, Kirix, HostedLABS, Optimus Solutions, Piocon, Bradley Wiltjer Marketing Group, and M. Hedayat + Associates, P.C. Also, thanks to the ITA and Business Network Chicago for promoting the event via their calendars.

Send Your Feedback:
Please take a moment to fill out this brief survey and give feedback on the event last night. We sincerely appreciate your input.

Stay Tuned:
Finally, to receive updates on future events, take a moment to subscribe to this blog via RSS or via email by following the links below the sponsor logos to the right.

Until next time,

Arthur Zards
Tim Courtney
XNet
Co-Hosts, Silicon Prairie Social

We’re writing you to communicate some last-minute details in anticipation for tonight’s event. We have a record response for Silicon Prairie Social 2 — we’re excited and can’t wait!

Due to space limitations, we want to relay some specific points beforehand:

• THE EVENT IS FULL. Because of this, all guests must have their printed RSVP and a business card, or they may be denied entry.
• Due to capacity of the venue, plan to arrive towards the beginning of the event. If you arrive late and we experience high turnout, we may need to throttle entry, even for RSVP’ed guests.
• If you have RSVP’ed and are planning to bring a friend, have them RSVP by 3:30 today. RSVPs close at that time.
• Note that we are not accepting walk-ins or offering a waiting list for this event.
• 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.

Need the info again?
Read the original announcement here, and our Monday update with additional details here. Stay warm, and see you tonight!

Arthur Zards
Tim Courtney
XNet
Co-Hosts, Silicon Prairie Social

We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone this Thursday night for the second 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!).

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

Reminder: The event is almost full.
If you haven’t RSVP’ed yet, do so now. RSVP (with business card) will be required for admission.

Free Food and Drinks
We’ve opened a tab for you punctual types and ordered a bit more food this time as well. Once the tab is gone, we’ll break out the Rolling Rock again!

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 or LinkedIn Groups to link up with potential carpool partners.

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.

Special Thanks
Again we’d like to offer a special thanks to our sponsors who make this event possible: Premier Sponsor ChicagoMicro, along with Microsoft, M5 Networks, HostedLABS, Kirix, Optimus Solutions, Piocon, Bradley Wiltjer Marketing Group, and M. Hedayat + Associates, P.C.

The Evangelism team at Microsoft – Larry, Dave, Brian and Chris — are coming through yet again by giving away an XBOX 360 with a copy of Halo 3 at Silicon Prairie Social 2. We’ll be handing out your raffle ticket at the check-in table, which you can take to the Microsoft table to enter. While you’re there, be sure to check out Microsoft Expression and Silverlight, and get in a round or two of Guitar Hero in the XBOX room.

It’s going to be a full house, so RSVP if you haven’t already (it’s required) at http://siliconprairiesocial2.eventbrite.com. Here are the event details one more time:

Silicon Prairie Social
Thursday, January 24
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)

Also, we’d like to give a quick round of thanks to some of the organizations and bloggers who have helped us get the word out about SPS2:

• Sponsor Angela Binkowski of Microsoft and blog Ravings of a Developer TS
• Sponsor Ben Bradley of Bradley Wiltjer Marketing Group
• Sponsor Mazyar Hedayat of M. Hedayat + Associates
• Illinois Technology Association
• Business Network Chicago
• Technology Executives Club
• TECH cocktail
• Event news blog The Silicon Prairie
• TechSocial
• The Hot Iron

Mike Mecklenburg of ChicagoMicro here. We’re a full service IT hardware, software, and services company, and a proud supporter of Chicago’s technology and entrepreneurial scene.

Chicago has a thriving tech market, and we hope that through events like the Silicon Prairie Social it will continue to grow. As the premier sponsor of Silicon Prairie Social and a longtime supporter of TechCocktail, we believe in the Chicago technology community. And in the spirit of our community helping each other, we want to extend an invitation to all who attend SPS: We hope that you will give ChicagoMicro a chance to help your business grow and prosper. Please stop by our table at the event and say hello. We would like to learn about your business and your technology goals.

In addition, we would like to personally introduce you to our partners that will be joining us; VMWare, Fujitsu, Rackable, and Okidata. They are just as excited as we are about the suburban tech community, and are looking forward to meeting everyone at the event. And I’m sure that they will be bringing some giveaways—so bring a few extra business cards!

Finally we would like to thank Tim and Art from XNet for all the work they have put forth for making this such a successful event! We are looking forward to meeting everyone there!

Sincerely,

Mike Mecklenburg
Sales Manager
ChicagoMicro
mike@chicagomicro.com