Because Working Together is More Fun for Everyone.

Jelly member Jessica Lybeck’s new project Layoff Moveon was written up in the careers section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Congrats Jessica!

The obligatory Facebook page is now up for Jelly Chicago – we’ll probably post intermittent updates here in addition to the normal newsletter – feel free to become a fan!

“Jelly not only gives me an excuse to get out of my apart­ment, but also allows me to con­verse and social­ize with like-​​minded peo­ple that do the same thing I do every day.”

Freelance with friends at Jelly Chicago

It’s been a pretty amazing year. Around this time last year we started getting folks together for Jelly, a casual coworking event. After seeing what Amit had been able to put together in New York, we wanted to get something started in Chicago when I moved here.

It took a long time and a lot of help, particularly from partner-in-crime Brad Maier and Noble Tree owner Phil Tadros, but a year later Jelly has come a long way in Chicago.

What started in a house grew into a larger space with much better coffee and pie. Our mailing list has grown to around 80 freelancers, entrepreneurs, designers, writers, marketers, developers, etc. We’ve met probably a third of those folks over the past year, and about 10-15 folks have come with frequency.

We’ve had a number of social events, including a couple intense WhirlyBall matches and a number of “Beer and Jelly” happy hours. And we spent 36 hours holed up in a room at BarCamp to create a web app (got about 80% of the way there, presented to a packed house and had a ton of fun.)

The purpose of this site

We’ve officially grown to the point where we thought a proper site was in order. The goal is to continue to be a place for professionals from all walks of life to get coffee, meet some people and get some work done. We’re planning on doing a number of additional events in the coming months, and this site will continue to be fleshed out. It should be fun.

If you want to keep tabs on what we’re up to, I encourage you to sign up for our email list (about 1-2 emails a month) up top. Also feel free to subscribe to our feed.

Thanks for everyone’s help during the last year – we’re looking forward to an even more awesome 2009.