Click here to view the embedded video.

During our first few years, we worked hard (in addition to our full-time jobs) to grow our footprint nationally, bringing events to cities around the country (and even internationally to Barcelona). More recently, I took it on full-time, growing the team and turning Tech Cocktail into a full-fledged media company. So our 5 year birthday is a nice milestone to celebrate with our traditional mixer but in a birthday bash fashion. While we will not have pony rides or a trip to Chucky Cheese like most 5 year olds would strive for, you might see a few differences between this event and our traditional mixer.

Event Details:

What: Tech Cocktail Chicago 5 Year Birthday Bash
When: July 21, 2011 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. CST
Where: John Barleycorn Wrigleyville
RSVP: http://tcchicago2.eventbrite.com

You don’t have to bring any gifts to attend but if you’d like, please share your favorite Tech Cocktail memory by dropping it as a comment below. You can link to a photo or video too!  All birthday wishes will be greatly appreciated and we thank you for being a part Tech Cocktail over the past 5 years. If you are feeling gracious and want to be a little more involved, you can be a special Tech Cocktail Birthday Patron. This patron ticket will get you some additional love on TechCocktail.com, at the event and you will be invited to a special pre-event. We appreciate patrons. 

Our special Birthday Bash event is currently sponsored by Cars.com, ChicagoMicro and Microsoft Bizspark. We are thankful for both of their support as title sponsors! Cars.com is looking to continue and grow its tradition of innovation in the online classified space and thus is seeking smart engineers and developers, while Microsoft Bizspark has been a longtime supporter of Tech Cocktail and startups across the globe. ChicagoMicro is also a community sponsor of the event, and has been a great support for much of our five years. If you are interested in finding out what types of software and resources that Microsoft Bizspark can offer, be sure to check out this link.

This event is also being done with the community support of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Centerand the State of Illinois’s Startup Illinois & Illinois Innovation Network – all focused on innovation and making Illinois a great place for technology and business. Additionally, we’re excited to have Social Media Club Chicago as a community partner as we look to create a “cocktail to tech people.”

Also of special note! This event is kicking off TechWeek, a week long festival which will offer a wide variety of community events and sessions throughout the weekend and into the next week.

There are still a few more sponsorship opportunities available and they can be found here.

Contact TechCocktail if you are interested or if you have any questions.

Startup Innovation Showcase
As usual, we’re looking for a handful of early-stage startups to showcase the latest technologies! These startups could be the next Groupon or GrubHub, so we’re excited to give them an opportunity to shine as they show off their stuff to the rest of the local tech community. If you have a startup and would like to apply to participate please fill out this form. We’ll select a handful of companies to showcase at the event.

While Tech Cocktail is turning 5, we are poised to continue to grow and evolve as we move towards 6, 7 and beyond… so come out and celebrate 5 years with a cocktail and some great people, startups and conversations as we move onward and upward!

While we wait for July 21st to arrive, go ahead and check out this video retrospect of Tech Cocktail in its first year (below).

Oh, look for ChicagoMicro’s CEO Julian Pretto, the original sponsor, towards the end of the video.

Mashable is thrilled to announce their second annual Social Media Day (June 30th 2011). The global event is a celebration of the technological advancements that enable everyone to connect with real-time information, communicate from miles apart and have their voices be heard.

It’s a day to celebrate the changes in media that have empowered us to stay connected to information in real time, the tools that have enabled us to communicate from miles apart, and the platforms that have given a voice to the voiceless and victims of protest injustice. It’s a revolution worth celebrating. Today, we celebrate Social Media Day and we hope you’ll join us.

We invite you to connect with fellow web enthusiasts by celebrating Social Media Day with @ChicagoMicro. There’s no better way to celebrate the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue than by socializing with your online community offline as well, so feel free to give our Social Media department a call 847.834.4876

Check out the Mashable Social Media Day page and try starting a Mashable Meetup. The Meetup can take just about any shape you’d like depending on what best suits your social community. For planning tips, check out their how-to guide. For updates and to find out what other organizers are cooking up, follow their @mashsmday Twitter account.

So how do you participate? Being social, of course. You can do this online by tracking the social updates in various ways as listed below, or you can make some connections offline by attending an event near you. There are more than 600+ meetups in 93 countries today with thousands of attendees. As far as we know, there is no official holiday dedicated to social media. We think it deserves a day of it’s own, and what better way to celebrate than to connect with your local social media community?

There are lot’s creative events planned from panels, to charity fundraisers and even sporting tournaments. Below is a message from our very own Pete Cashmore explaining the idea, reasons for and goals behind Social Media Day:

Check out the Message From Mashable’s Founder and CEO Pete Cashmore

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are 10 things we recommend here at ChicagoMicro:

1. Create and play with QR codes and how you could use them for your business.
2. Either find out how to set up a RSS reader, clean up your RSS reader or catch up with your RSS reader.
3. Change your passwords. It is a new year. When is the last time you changed your passwords?
4. Review your Facebook privacy settings. Do you know who can view your profile or who can tag you in photos?
5. Update your avatars or profile pictures to be close ups of your face so when people meet you in person, they recognize you.
6. Create a square version of your logo and profile picture. Have you noticed how many sites use square images? Your logo could be getting cropped or distorted.
7. Either write a post for your blog or finally get your blog started.
8. Clean up your Twitter followers with Manage Flitter.
9. Recommend someone on LinkedIn. You can recommend a current co-worker who makes your life easier, a speaker you recently saw, your favorite boss or someone you have learned a lot from on social media sites.
10. Purchase your ticket to the upcoming breakfast before it sells out!