Business POV

With Web 2.0 comes Boozing 2.0. The Web Ascent social gathering featured entrepreneurs, business ideas and liquor aplenty. We sent out intrepid producer out to capture some of the sights, sounds and business plans at Union Park, a bar in the Randolph St. area.

This was a "Mashable-sponsored" event led by Kristen Nicole, lead writer held June 20th. Where: Union Park 228 S. Racine (West Loop) Chicago, IL 60607

The Keynote Speaker was Joyce Park, CTO and co-founder of Renkoo.com

Joyce Park, a former senior web developer at Friendster, started Renkoo because the founders were spending all their time dealing with email and IM to arrange everyday social events like lunches, coffee dates, and movies. Renkoo is a new social network that paves a better way for connecting with the friends you already have. With $3 million in funding from Matrix Partners, Renkoo launched last fall to rave reviews as an Evite competitor.

Joyce attended the University of Chicago and will be speaking on her experiences in both Chicago and the Valley, and some of the challenges and high points of leading a venture-backed start-up.

About Web Ascent Events: The web 2.0 technology community is experiencing a lot of growth in Chicago, and we would like to not only recognize this community, but help bridge the gap between Chicago and Silicon Valley and other traditional tech dominated locales, where there is a wealth of knowledge and resources for all things technology-related. The media sponsor for the event is Mashable.com. We will have 5-8 start-ups from around the world here to demo at the event, and there will be plenty of time for networking.