I worked my way around the floor, stopping at anything that seemed to have a reasonable likelihood of possibly needing a Communcations/PR/Web guy, and schmoozing. I don't know how many booths there were, but I gave away something like 35 cards on my way around. I was surprised to run into a couple of folks from a group there that had almost invested with Simuality ... I'm hoping to hook up with them for some possible projects later.
I was also surprised to find that they had a company sponsoring lunch (the thing was free to attend), so I got fed as well, and The Mayor came in to do a speech (a very depressing one, from MY perspective, it was all about jobs and taxes and city services, etc.). From talking to various city departments there, I guess there are a lot of jobs being cut out or cut back. I did end up getting to shake Daley's hand on his way out.
I also was shocked to run into an old friend who I'd probably not seen in 10 years ... George Black of Veganopolis (and formerly of the band Stations) ... I'd seen on the web that she and David had come back to Chicago from their long sojourn in Portland, OR (where they built a restaurant business up from a simple vegan food cart to an internationally-known Vegan eatery), but hadn't been able to connect with them. She was there to get some info from various city departments about things they're setting up for a new restaurant here. It was nice getting caught up ... known them since the early 80's!
Anyway, I don't know if my going there is going to move anything on a job basis (some folks did indicate they'd get in touch with me later), but it was certainly "serendipitous" connecting with these two sets of folks.