Initially, when I read that part of the announcement, I thought, “that is a great idea!” mostly because I end up getting talked to by recruiters all night long instead of talking to other people who have job-jobs. Apparently, Ron May said something in one of his copious newsletters about how awful the disenfranchisement of those groups is, but I didn’t really read it so I’m not going to attempt to craft a truly well written response. I’m sure if Ron shows up to this event I’ll end up hearing about it anyway.

My guess is the goal of the ban is to encourage more actual tech discussion, and also to limit the number of people who RSVP because the venue is not huge to begin with, and now that it’s winter and we can’t avail ourselves of the outdoor seating, the space will be even more limited than before. Also, the food ran out rather quickly last time and I’m going to attribute that to hungry job seekers as well.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to attending on the 24th to see how the new rules affect the atmosphere, crowd levels and overall utility of the event.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
Silicon Prairie Social 2 – No Recruiters or Job Seekers Allowed

Here’s Your Checklist:

1. Buy/Order/Make the cards — NOW
   Do not wait until Thanksgiving gets here and the xmas season when no-one-has-time-for-anything craziness starts. Take a few minutes to pop over to your favorite printing website, bust out the craft paper and glitter, or just add it to your list for your next Target run.

   Buy a box of cards — you choose the level of holiday specificity or lack thereof. Select something pretty neutral (unless you’re positive you won’t offend anyone with a religious card), and maybe splurge for some customization (if you’re having them printed) and some foil accents (because shiny says “I care enough to spend an extra $0.25 per card, because dammit, you’re worth it!”).

   Also, if you’re having your cards custom printed, make sure to include your website address on the card someplace. This is especially important if your website address is different from your actual business name. People may only know you by your URL if they don’t see you or do business with you very often.

2. Buy stamps.
   Do not use a mail meter or automatic postage stamping device. Automation screams lazy and impersonal.

3. Once you have your cards, pull out your client list and start addressing envelopes.
   Again, do not use a printer, do NOT do NOT do NOT do NOT use printed labels. Not only are you telling your clients they aren’t worth you hurting your wittle wrist wif all dat writing, you’re telling them they aren’t even worth you feeding envelopes into your printer. Don’t be lazy.

   If you have crappy handwriting, enlist the assistance of someone who does. Don’t know anyone with nice handwriting or printing? Try your mom, your grandma, your teenage sister/daughter, or an engineer (yeah, I said engineer). They all tend to have very nice handwriting or printing styles and can probably be talked into helping (or bribed relatively cheaply).

4. Sign your cards.
   Again, DO NOT just put them into the envelope unsigned because you have your name/company already printed on them. DO NOT feed them through a printer. DO NOT use a sticker label.

   I know your hand is still cramped from addressing the envelopes. Suck it up and just get it overwith, okay?

   Also, make everyone else in your office (assuming you have a small business) sign the cards, too. A bunch of different signatures (in different people’s handwriting) makes a big impression.

5. Mail the cards as close to Turkey Day as humanly possible.
   You want them to get where they’re going before people start leaving for holiday vacations and just generally are too busy or distracted to fully appreciate your gesture of goodwill. If you can put them in the mailbox on your way to Grandma’s house for dinner on November 22, all the better.

One last note of caution: it’s best to err on the safe side and not go with the edgy humorous holiday cards. Some people take their holidays very seriously and it would be a shame to go through all this effort and then end up alienating a client or potential business partner because you accidentally insulted their beliefs.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
Have You Ordered Your Holiday Cards?

As you entered there was the standard “Hello, my name is…” sticky badge for your name (I had to restrain myself from nicking the cool comfy grip hot pink Sharpie… I’ve never seen one before and I want one now), but then they also had sticky badges that said “I Know…” and “I Need…”. Of course, you had some smartasses walking around with “I Need… a girlfriend” and “I Know… lots of stuff”, and then there were people who felt this was a good place to write a tome about their wealth of experience in what could be considered a -5 pt font. (Little tip from cshel — boil it down to 5 or less words and WRITE BIG — otherwise you get people leaning in *awfully*close and squinting at your chestal region to read your sticker).

Speaking of stickers and chests, my feeble attempt at cleverness for the evening was putting my “I Know… SEO” sticker on my back. The logic there was that if I’m already talking to someone and someone else is walking past, they’re more likely to be able to read something on my back rather than something stuck to the front of my shirt. Also, and this is probably more of a girl issue to consider, there is only so much front-of-shirt real estate available for stickers unless you want to look like you’re trying to make a sticker faux-bikini.

People I saw or met at the event…

• Jeffrey Mitchell, a recruiter with Harvey Nash in Naperville, and also founder of “Close to the Heart”, a charity “dedicated to bringing together people to achieve meaningful and enduring positive changes throughout the world… based upon the philosophy that anyone can change the world if they only make a decision to do so. The organization sponsors fund raising events and supports fair trade as a force of positive change”. (He’s looking for some pro-bono web help if anyone would like to volunteer some of their talents.)
• Jason Catena, a Senior Staff Software Engineer Build System Architect (whew! say that ten times fast) at Motorola. IIRC, we talked long enough to exchange cards, but I think the crowd and noise levels at the time were chatting prohibitive.
• Jeff O’Hara, who claims to “hate SEOs” and works for the Wheaton School System, is also President and Founder of EdModo (website coming soon). Sounds like it’s a social site for grade schoolers and (I’m assuming) their teachers. Jeff was also there with his web designer friend, who’s name escapes me at the moment, and his other friend, who’s name also escapes me but I do remember was wearing an “I Need… a girlfriend” sticker.
• Antoine, from PunchEngine was a sponsor with the table next to The Krull Group. Since I was standing by Steve’s table for most of the evening, I got nosy and checked out the PunchEngine demo. PunchEngine is sort of like a combination of LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and Monster… it’s a lot to explain, so check out their site as it does a good job of explaining the concept.
• There were a number of other people I saw… Dave Rohrer, an in-house search manager with a car problem; Tom Gibson, Sr. Network Administrator (and SAN-Lord) from Provena Health; blogger David Dalka, whom I know from Search Industry conferences; Chicago technology reporter Ron May of The May Report; Tim Courtney of XNet; and finally, Steve Krull of The Krull Group, who seems to think I’m useless as far as suggesting restaurants (and to that I say, freaking ask me to suggest restaurants in Oak Brook BEFORE 10 at night, hmm?)

So, to wrap it up… I thought it was a great event and I look forward to the next one!

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
Silicon Prairie Social Re-Cap

So what is the Silicon Prairie Social? Well, to steal from their website…

Silicon Prairie Social is an opportunity for technology professionals in the Chicago area to connect in a social setting with likeminded people. The event is open to everyone, and specifically targets upwardly mobile tech professionals, entrepreneurs, service providers, Internet professionals, Web 2.0 and startup companies, the mobile industry, and mobile marketing professionals.

I’ve been to two of the TechCocktail events in the city, and they were great fun (witness the obvious fun being had in the photo — on the far left is Steve Krull, one of the sponsors of Silicon Prairie Social, I’m in the middle, and then Dave Choate is on the far right). The only problem with the downtown events is they’re just a little hard to get to from the burbs and then it’s a hike and a half to get home afterward. I’m really hoping this event turns out to be a huge success because I love the idea of being able to attend these kinds of things without having to schlep all the way downtown.

Just for giggles and some possible content for the SEO 101 podcast website, we’re kicking around the idea of me bringing a camcorder and doing little interviews with random people at the event. So if you see me walking around with a video camera, feel free to either flee in terror or come on up and ask to be interviewed. Make sure you bring me a card though… no business card, no linklove later. I’m pretty good at remembering names, but there is just no way I can remember everyone’s website addresses without something written down.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
Going to the Silicon Prairie Social? I am.