During the flight to Chicago last week – an adventure unto itself I may add – I realized just how often I’d been there in the last five years. I think I’ve averaged at least one trip per year since my arrival in Birmingham.
The Magic City is often compared to Pittsburgh, with many claiming that it’s the Southern equivalent to the Steel City. I’ve never been to Pittsburgh, but I’ve been to Chicago and I see several similarities between it and Birmingham (probably more than the average person), though the ability to ride in from the airport on the Blue Line to eat ramen and potstickers for lunch downtown in Macy’s Seven on State food court is not one of them. For the record, I enjoyed the ramen; others apparently had different experiences.
While I did eat quite well last weekend, that wasn’t the main reason for the trip. I was in Chicago to attend the inaugural CityCamp at the UIC Innovation Center. I stumbled across the initial announcement for the conference via an email from BarCamp’s wiki several months back and figured that if I only attended one conference this year that it would be the one.