If you have Sat May 19th free, or part of it, this will be an excellent event:
http://www.zeromq.org/event:chicago-2012-05
This crowd is polyglot, very smart, and is generally tackling hard problems.
They also drink, seriously [1].
If you don't feel like signing up for the wikidot thing just to add
your name, let me know off list and I can add it easily enough.
Garrett
[1] Optional, afterward