I live in Oak Park and have an office downtown.<p>I'm working mostly on web apps and some business/finance services ideas (with software seasoning, of course.) I'm also an entrepreneur-in-residence for a small alternative asset fund that occasionally invests in SaaS start-ups.<p>I've went to one "start-up event" in Chicago since moving here. It was a waste of time. (The event was held at a bar and it was too loud to have any meaningful interaction with people. I was also hit up a few too many times for funding and/or free technical input by people that had ideas for things they couldn't share except to say their idea was "like MySpace, only bigger!")<p>;-)<p>I'd prefer a smaller, more informal meeting at a bookstore or something where the signal to noise ratio was a little better. And, even then, only if there was a compelling reason to take time away from coding...
I just set up a campfire for Chicago news.ycers if you want an invite drop your email to cubend#gmail.com It'll be easier to work something out in there.