Kudos. I'm not in Chicago, but I applaud your effort.
One of our writers http://www.twitter.com/annatarkov decided to get on twitter about 2 months ago. She's now got almost 1000 followers, including just about anyone who's anyone in the media in Chicago. She's been promoting the heck out of our little meetup. I'm pretty stoked. Motivate the right people and they'll spread the word about your project!