Silicon Prairie Social 2, the TechCocktail of the burbs, is slated for Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at the same place it was held back in September (Mullen’s in Lisle). While the last social was jam packed, this one should be a little thinner due to the ban on active job seekers, recruiters and staffing agency types.
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.
Sounds fun. Wish we had something like that here in the frozen boring lame Midwest.
@TheMadHat: You should host something in your town!
Your guess is correct on the recruitors. But its not to limit the RSVP’s, but to get more relevant RSVP’s. So far, it looks like its working. On the food, this time there’s more, but get there early for it will run out!