Eric Olson on TECH Cocktail

Unquestionably Chicago’s highest volume technology networking event, TECH cocktail is having their 10th edition of their business mixer next Thursday (Februrary 19). As part of the run-up to TECH cocktail 10, we’ve put a few questions to TECH cocktail co-founder Eric Olson about the origins of the event, their expansions (please note their Facebook page touts a potential expansion to New York City) and plans for tech community unity.

Chicago Tech News: While FeedBurner was going along nicely in May 2006, and arguably Chicago’s tech flavor of the month at the time, you and Frank Gruber were still a full year away from cashing out in the Google sale. Why did you decide to start a side-venture while your company was still in a relatively early stage?

Eric Olson: Frank was actually a product manager at Apartments.com at the time and I was working on business development for FeedBurner. Just wanted to clear that up! Anyhow, Frank and I didn’t look at TECH cocktail as a side venture so much as we looked at it as a project that would help bring the Chicago technology community together. When I had moved out here in 2005 to join FeedBurner I was amazed that the technology scene, while being pretty interesting in that a lot of great companies had been formed in Chicago, wasn’t coming together in a more meaningful way. I met Frank about six months later (he’s a native of Illinois) and he felt the same way so we decided to partner up to bring the Chicago technology community together. TECH cocktail was born.

TECH cocktail didn’t impact my job at FeedBurner at all. FeedBurner was always my top priority. I should mention that the FeedBurner founders and everyone else on the team were incredibly supportive of my work on TECH cocktail. They saw the need for something like TECH cocktail just as much as Frank and I did.

CTN: “TECH cocktail, LLC.” — is that a for-profit or non-profit entity?

EO: We’re technically a for-profit entity although I can tell you that Frank and I aren’t getting rich! We use any extra proceeds we have to seed future events, start new initiatives, sponsor other local events (like Bar Camp), etc. TECH cocktail is a social venture through and through, but we have resisted moving it to non-profit status because the filing is a hassle, the taxes are much more complex and, well, we just want to keep things simple given that this is a venture we run in our spare time.

CTN: Two things about the Chicago Tech Cocktail mixers that harken back to the dotCom boom era of the late ’90s are the large size and the ability to attract attendees from corporate, start-up and independent/DIY crowds. Was this mix and scale something you set out to do, and if so what was your plan for achieving it?

EO: The mix was something we set out to achieve, hence the name TECH cocktail. We wanted to get a cocktail of all the folks involved in technology in Chicago. We felt we’d get the best mix of folks if word of the event spread through word-of-mouth via blogs (started out with techcocktail.com, somewhatfrank.com and ericjohnolson.com) and other social media. That way, we figured, the right group of folks would find out about the event and attend.

CTN: Your mission statements says “Not every city has a sense of community seen in technology rich areas like Silicon Valley.” You’re starting to cover a lot of territory for the definition of “not every city.” Washington, D.C. (which makes sense with Frank working for AOL these days), Champaign, Boulder, and Boston have joined Chicago as TECH cocktail outposts. Why the wide and rapid expansion?

EO: Ideally we’d like to cover many of the communities in the U.S. and abroad. Of course we’re a small organization so we’re can’t do it overnight. The wide expansion does one main thing that Frank and I view as being important: it loosely unites all of the cities TECH cocktail is in. When we are able to unite smaller tech hubs under the TECH cocktail umbrella the combined cities become more powerful as a whole. Getting people talking between D.C., Chicago, Boulder, Champaign, Ann Arbor, Madison, etc. is where the power lies. We’re just trying to unite everyone we can and form some solid ties between cities. After all it is a global economy now.

I should also point out that the expansion has occured organically based on people emailing from various cities and requesting TECH cocktail come to them. We have a backlog of probably 15 – 20 cities on our list that multiple people have requested. We simply need more help and resources to spread TECH cocktail faster.

CTN: Where’s the next city you’re expanding to, and when are you going international?

EO: Ann Arbor will be the next new city (coming up in March) and we’ll hopefully follow that with Madison, Milwaukee and a few others. The more resources we can amass the more cities we’ll be able to “light up” so-to-speak. As far as international goes: we have been approached to do events in London, South Africa and a number of other places. We’re still trying to figure out what that looks like but we’d love to start doing some events offshore soon.

CTN: Since you’re interacting with a diverse set of tech communities, how does Chicago’s functionally differ from D.C.’s or Boston?

EO: The functionality is really the same, although the demos usually have a unique flavor given that some areas are more specialized around certain technolgies that others. That’s part of the fun for me is that we get to see so many different technologies from so many different places.

CTN: Last year you launched a TECH cocktail-branded conference for business start-ups. Are you planning more content-oriented events?

EO: We are. In fact, we think we have a unique idea for a conference model that would allow us to get more content offerings out there. Look for that annoucement soon.

CTN: Who wins in a drinking contest: you or Frank?

EO: Good question… Perhaps we should have one at TECH cocktail 10 and find out!