While there was a ton to do during the daytime portion of the HostingCon 2007 event this week, there was almost as much to do in the evenings, with sponsors pushing networking events and parties from every angle.
There were so many events organized in the evening (both HostingCon-scheduled events and more extra-curricular activities) that it was literally impossible to have seen them all. Part of the reason for this post, I suppose, is that even if you were at the conference, there’s no way you were at all of these events.
One of the reasons conference organizer George Roberts gave when I asked him why the event was moved back to Chicago was that it was hard to keep people around for after-hours networking events last year because of the abundance of nightlife in Las Vegas. The move appears to have worked, because each of the parties was packed with attendees. And while nobody was going wild, exactly, there appeared to be plenty of networking taking place.
(Of course, there are more pictures from each of these parties posted at theWHIR’s flickr page.)
On Monday, HostingCon itself held a networking reception in the Navy Pier facilities immediately following the keynote presentation that closed the day’s schedule.
On Tuesday, Fastservers and Tophosts sponsored a networking event held on a private boat on Lake Michigan.
At the same time, Microsoft held a cocktail event at the seafood restaurant Riva, located right next door to the conference facilities.
Also on Tuesday, the Web Host Industry Review, Ratepoint and AmbrionTrustWave co-sponsored a party at Lucky Strike, a bowling alley nightclub.
And on Wednesday, CRE Loaded sponsored a rooftop barbecue to close out the event.
