I just got back from three whirlwind days in Chicago, where I worked with MediaRiver to push out several of their widgets. It was great fun to actually meet everyone on the team face to face, and to see what life was like at such an intense startup. MediaRiver is home to a diverse blend of programmers, designers, quality assurance people, and others. Our worked involved widgets for Motley Fool, MSN Money, and Haystack’s Roadrunner Records, which are syndicated on sites to provide contextual content from the publishers. Widgets are a booming market, and MediaRiver is courting some of the biggest companies on the internet with the offer of producing widgets that will virally deliver their content to the masses.

While in Chicago, I took a bunch of pictures that show both my experiences at MediaRiver, as well as other cool things that I saw in the city. One thing that I really liked about visiting MediaRiver is that it feels like a true startup, with long hours, a relatively low-key office, and a casual dress code. Hopefully, some of that feeling is captured in the slideshows below.