OpenCoffee Chicago?

[Brad Maier]

Hi Everyone,

It seems like every time I meet up with another entrepreneur here in Chicago its over coffee and typically at a Caribou. Anyone else have any interest in starting a permanent open coffee group in Chicago? I'd be willing to spearhead it.

-Brad

[Jack Vinson]

I'd be in. Where do you usually meet? (I'm up in Evanston, but flexible on locations anywhere along the Red Line.)

[Allen Wade]

I'd be interested as well.

[Matt Wolff]

We at midPhase Services would love to sponsor a Chicago OpenCoffee Club. We're a web hosting company downtown and are entirely self-funded and homegrown. We've blossomed from two guys in an office in Palatine to having over 70,000 customers and a whole lotta employees in just four years so the spirit of the startup is very much alive with us. We've sponsored events like Tech Cocktail, Chicago Beta and Fast Pitch and are always looking for new and inventive ways to spread good will amongst the Chicago IT community and do our part in fostering the dotcom revolution.

We'll buy the coffee, we just ask everyone bring their innovative and groundbreaking ideas to gain support for. Downtown would be ideal but there's no reason why we can't do it outside the Loop either. If anyone has suggestions, let's get some dialogue going!

To help things along, I've set up an Upcoming.org page for the Chicago club, located at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/3155/ so feel free to join up. See ya!

[Jason Ziolo]

I'd be interested. How about the Schaumburg area? The Starbucks at Streets of Woodfield is huge!

jason at ziolo dot com

[Brad Maier]

you can start one there if you want but I'd prefer to have the chicago open coffee actually in Chicago, I was thinking the near west or river north.

[sam bennett]

i'm in. as long as it's somewhat close to the loop.

[Dean Richardson]

I'm interested...and near west or river north sounds fine.

Dean Richardson

[Brad Maier]

Hi Everyone, Seems like there's been a lot of interest on this, so let's get something moving. Is midPhase still in for sponsoring? River north seems like it might be the best location. anyone have any ideas for a big coffee shop there? I'm sending this to the message board so everyone gets the update. What's everyone think about the end of next week?

[Jack Vinson]

I'm out end of the first week of June. What about early the following week? 11th-13th?

[sam bennett]

The end of next week is bad for me, but go ahead and get it going. I'll jump in when I get back in town.

I'd like to pose one more point: I appreciate the offer from midPhase to sponsor the event, but is that really necessary?

[Brad Maier]

I'd tend to agree with no sponsorship being a good thing. i'm open to suggestions but lets see if we can grow this organically first.

[sam bennett]

Where are we on this? I've been out of country, has there been a meeting? If not, let's get it going.