The traveling web design conference, An Event Apart, is setting up shop in Chicago on August 27th and 28th. An Event Apart is headed up by web design aficionados Eric Meyerand Jeffrey Zeldman.I’m really lookingforward to this event. I’m sure this event can teach this developer’smind a thing or two. I’m also looking forward to meeting many of the top minds workingto make the web abetter experience. You can be sure I’ll be Twittering away during the sessions. If you’re coming out to the event, look me up.

I’ve been diddling around Facebook for a little while now. I’m impressed that I’ve amassed over 70″friends” up until this point. Even more impressive is that Imaintain the “friend” hi-scorein the iLike music challenge at 645 points. Wait! What?!? Kevin Hammond has surpassed my achievement by a measly 180 points?!?! Alright… I guess I know what I’m doing tonight.

Applications such as iLike are popping up left and right on Facebook. It’s what really distinguishes Facebook from the oh-so many Social Networking sites on the net. This is all due to the fact that Facebook has pushed the “site” into a “platform“. Facebook has implemented an API, a query language and a markup language to give developers the power to build apps to within the Facebook Platform immediately opening your application to millions of potential users.

Clarity Consulting are the brains behind the Facebook Developer Toolkit that allows you to easily consume the Facebook API’swith your favorite.NET language. This weekend,Clarity ishosting the first Facebook Developer Garage in Chicago where Facebook team members will be on hand to give an overview of the Facebook Platform and answer all of your development questions.

I’ll be there and I hope you will as well. Maybe I’ll be able to add some more friends to my Facebook account. :)

What: Chicago Facebook Developer Garage
When:Saturday, August 18th, 2007 @ 10:30AM – 6:00PM
Where: Clarity Consulting, 1 North Franklin, Suite 3400, Chicago [Map]

I’ve been meaning to make it one of the recent Chicago Tech Cocktails but somehow I’m either out of town or have some other conflict that keeps me from boozing it up with local technology enthusiasts. Thankfully, Tim Courtney of XNet Information Systems is planning tobring thesocial a little closer to home and on a date that works out great for me.

It just happens that XNet was my very first Internet service provider back in the day. Brings back quite a few memories actually. A consulting company I used to work for had their offices directly across from Xnet’s office. We were able to hook ourselves into the grid by stringing a line through the ceiling tiles directly into Xnet. Those were the days.

We are thrilled to be one of the sponsorsof the Silicon Prairie Social. We will be there to mingle with Chicagoland technical luminaries and enthusiasts, as well as show off some of our latest and greatest technology. This plans to be a great event and I invite everyone to come out and join us.

Silicon Prairie Social
Thursday, September 20th, 6:30PM – 10:00PM

Mullen’s Bar and Grill
3080 Warrenville Rd.
Lisle, IL. 60532
(Directions via Live Maps)

If you’re going to be in Rockford tomorrow (and who isn’t?!?!), stop by the Stateline Adobe User Group in Rockford, IL join in on an open discussion on Rich Internet Application (RIA) development. Zack Stepek, RIA developer extrodinaire, Larry Clarkin and myself will discuss the choices you have to build Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight and/or the Flash Platform (Flash, Flex, AIR).

RIA Showcase
Hosted by: Stateline Adobe User Group
Thursday, August 9, 2007, 6:30PM
Crave Media Group, 4861 American Road Suite A, Rockford, IL

Technorati Tags: rockford, user group, adobe, silveright, flash, flex, air

Whoa! It’s been a *crazy* July with Microsoft’s very own TechReady conference (think PDC/TechEd for the Microsoft technical field folk), vacation and Microsoft celebrating a new year – welcome to FY’08. With a new year comes planning, and more planning and a little more planning thrown in for good measure. Planning = Meetings, but my pain is going to be (hopefully) your pleasure. We have a lot of great stuff planned for FY’08, so hold on to your hats ladies and gentleman.

Speaking of holding on to your hats, the Chicago Technical community is all a buzz this year with so many technical conferences making the rounds in Chi’town. The BlogHer conference just made a stop in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. An Event Apart makes the rounds Aug. 27-28, The Web Design Conference drops anchor on October 18th and let’s not forget the mack daddy AdobeMax swoops into the city on September 30th. If you plan to make it to any of these outings, drop me a line. The first drink is on me.

Am I missing anything?

Technorati Tags: chicago, conference, adobemax, an event apart, web design conference, blogher