We got our start in 2009, but 2010 will be the year we make our mark.

Creating a group from the ground-up isn’t an easy task, especially when a specific goal or purpose isn’t clearly decided from the outset. I had kicked around the idea of getting some of the talented and fun guys I know together to create a mens group similar to Gal’s Guide and Chicagonista. The concept is simple enough, but trying to determine exactly what we’d want to do and be known for proved to be a massive struggle. After a few meetings, of which working with people’s schedules certaintly isn’t easy, interest and participation had waned.

Our small team of ‘founders’ are certainly well known, and stay pretty damn busy outside of their day jobs. Caleb Gardner, for example, will be launching the earth-conscious Save The Cups on New Years Day. John Morrison has so much going on I don’t even know where to start. Chris Campbell and Ryan Powszok remain busy, busy, busy at Lakeshore Branding, ridding Chicagoland of bad websites and poor online marketing. Chris Wardzala is buying a house in a different time zone and getting married next year. Yeah. That’s just a sample of our team and the kinds of things we’ve got going on.

So, what’s to come in 2010? Well, hopefully we can get together on a regular basis and get this website rockin’ with some content I know we’re capable of producing. Interesting, Chicago, guy focused content. Our ‘meetings’ are not much more than getting together at a bar and hashing out some ideas while drinking pints of local brew, and hopefully we’ll have these more often. Ideally, you’ll see The Chicago Guys IRL, hosting some small events around the city. Guy focused, but definitely not guy-exclusive. Because we’re guys, after all, and we like the ladies.

With only three of us being in the official Chicago Guys’ Movember group, $450 is pretty decent.

Huge props to team leader Tim McDonald for leveraging his personal network and raising the lion’s share of the money.

-BZ

Um, if I had this, I would actually welcome the snow to come to Chicago (which is probably just a few weeks off). I could totally see myself thrashing this around dead man’s corner on Lakeshore Drive.

Hi, I’m Brandon. I enjoy tweetups, technology, beer, pretty much anything enjoyable. I try to make a living out of understanding the interwebs and some of the people that use it. And yes, I wish I had the chair you see below.

You know you’ve seen just about all of these variations… which do you use the most?

Love the ‘Hawks. This cracked me up when I saw it.

But then there’s this overly-digitized monstrosity. I like the concept, skating through Chicago, but it’s soooo over the top, I’d put this one in the fail folder.