I’m not kidding about that either. There are maybe 50 people here in the room with me now. There were more people here earlier, apparently.

It’s a free event at Chicago’s Soldier Field (think Cubs) in the Admiral’s Lounge. Called “Transvolve” and sponsored by LG, they’re happening in Chicago (today), L.A., and NYC. There are about 10 vendor booths here, lots of flat panels (about as many screens as people), and now…cocktail hour!

LG defines “transvolve” as: “to change and improve upon effectiveness to the point of  evolution.”

The hors d’oeuvres are excellent and the beer is free, so I can’t complain. And they have free mixed drinks too, if I care to not drive away from this place, which I’d rather do. There isn’t live music however, although you can hear yourself think, unlike the Corktop Launch Party where the music was very, very loud (sorry about that). There were also a couple digital signs that were either rebooting or showing Windows error messages.

I did have a good conversation with John from Stratacache about the current state of the digital signage industry. One interesting tidbit about their Ohio-based company: they’re focusing on mainly video, not really Flash or text. Interesting. Their software’s far too difficult for a normal person to use, however.

I’m in Chicago until Friday, having some meetings (one at City Hall) and tooling around Wicker Park (and the Around the Coyote festival). It’s an area that’s kinda like Goshen but in a big city and with much more established artists and creative class residents. More on Wicker Park later…