What a mobile Chicago Web 2.0 week it was

I exceeded my party quotient this week, attending two incredibly satisfying parties showcasing some cutting edge startups and an internet mogul that knows how to party like it was 1999.

First up on Tuesday, Jeff Pulver showed us Chicagoans how to throw a party. It's been years since I last experienced  the irrational exuberance of the go-go VC-stoked internet startup era of the late 90's. But it all came back Tuesday night with the co-founder of Vonage renting out the entire House of Blues with a three-hour open bar and his own band for 1000 of his closest friends. His. Own. Band. And it was cool to see a captain of the VOIP industry who's down-to-earth enough to greet you personally and rock it like Eddie Vedder on the dance floor. Can't think of many tech CEOs willing to let it all hang loose like that. And I'm now also his friend on Facebook. The evening was also an opportunity for a Twitter F2F meetup for those of us geeky enough to grok what it's all about.

Then on Wednesday, it was the debut of the Chicago Web Ascent showcase of startups, with yet another open bar (this one with tasty chocolate martinis) and cool technology. This is what it must be like to be in the tech community in the Bay Area. I saw four companies worth noting: IQZone, which allows you to upload cameraphone pictures to an instant classified ad system; Spongecell, an event promotion system with sophisticated back-end analytics; ImThere, a social events network; and Pickle.com, which allows mobile users to upload on-the-fly cameraphone photos to a live web page. All of these companies have incorporated mobile functionality in their respective offerings. With all this activity in the mobile space, it's still unclear which companies are going to emerge as sustainable, profitable success stories in the long run.