ThinkChicago: Ideas Week '13

ThinkChicago: Ideas Week October 17-19, 2013

Mayor Rahm Emanuel invites students of technology, innovation, & entrepreneurship from top U.S. universities to visit Chicago and explore its vibrant innovation ecosystem and attend Chicago Ideas Week In August students were invited to ThinkChicago: Lollapalooza. Here's a look at that event:

Check-In

Thursday, October 17, 2013

1871 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, 12th Floor 10am 1871 is a co-working center for digital startups. Located in the famed Merchandise Mart, the 50,000-square-foot facility provides Chicago startups with affordable workspace and access to mentors, programming, educational resources, potential investors and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs.

Thought leaders speak Thursday, Oct. 17 10:30am-12:30pm

Caralynn Nowinski Associate President for Innovation and Economic Development, University of Illinois Caralynn promotes strategic relationships between the University community and external stakeholders to foster technology commercialization, talent development and retention, and overall economic impact. She offers a unique perspective to the University’s efforts to foster innovation and stimulate the Illinois economy, drawing from her past experiences as an entrepreneur, physician and venture capitalist. She previously worked in investment banking and venture capital with high tech clients, As a graduate student, Nowinski co-founded SanoGene Therapeutics, an early-stage biotechnology company, where, as CEO, she led the company’s spin-out from the University of Illinois and raised a strategic equity investment. Adrian Holovaty Co-creator of the Django Web framework Founder of Soundslice Adrian Holovaty is a web developer, journalist, entrepreneur, and musician. He's co-creator of the Django web framework and an advocate of "journalism via computer programming." Holovaty was founder of Everyblock, a hyper-local news website that began as one of the original "Google Maps Mashups" and was eventually purchased by NBC Univarsal. His curretnt project, Soundslice, is a beautifully designed, advanced HTML5 website offereing "the best way to learn music from YouTube videos." Follow @AdrianHolovaty Mike McGee Co-Founder of the Starter League The Starter League is an on-site learning environment for people who want to learn how to build web applications. The program takes people from knowing little to nothing about software development to being able to build a web application in 3 months. While providing top-notch instruction and mentorship from the best developers Chicago has to offer, The Starter League also empowers students through a network of Chicago’s best entrepreneurs, investors, and companies to help people make their ideas real on the web. Follow @MichaelMcGee Brenna Berman Commissioner & CIO, Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) Brenna Berman joined the Emanuel administration in 2011 as Deputy Budget Director focused on enterprise initiatives and performance management. After a year in that role, Brenna transitioned to DoIT as 1st Deputy Commissioner to focus on enterprise IT consolidation and operational excellence. Over the past year at DoIT, Berman has focused transforming the team at DoIT to align with the Mayor’s commitment to an open and data-driven government, building Chicago’s open data program into one of the largest in the country, implemented the ground-breaking “WindyGrid” spatial analytics platform into every level of government, integrating advanced analytics and real-time data-driven decision making across the city, and setting a new standard for government IT. Prior to her role at DoIT, Brenna worked at IBM for over 10 years, collaborating with government agencies in cities and countries across the world to leverage technology and analytics to improve the services they provide to their residents. Brenna earned her bachelor’s degree and Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. Phil Nevels Executive Director of ChicagoNEXTCo-Founder of Power2Switch.com ChicagoNEXT is a World Business Chicago initiative focused on fostering economic development and job growth in Chicago within the CleanTech, BioScience, and Web/Mobile sectors. As Executive Director, Phil is responsible for efforts to attract the entrepreneurs, investment and support infrastructure needed to grow technology companies within these sectors. Prior to this role, Phil was most recently the Co-founder and COO of Power2Switch, a company dedicated to helping its residential and commercial customers shop for electricity through the web. Power2Switch, recently acquired by Kleiner Perkins’ Choose Energy, was an alum of Techstars Chicago having started out of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009. At the time of its acquisition, Power2Switch had operations in Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. Phil has also worked at Google, Nokia, and Accenture. Follow @PlNevels Andreas Cangellaris Dean of the College of Engineering, University of Illninois Dean Cangellaris is broadly recognized for his research in applied and computational electromagnetics and its applications to the signal integrity of integrated electronic circuits and systems. His research has produced several design methods and computer tools that are used widely in the microelectronics industry. He has written or co-written more than 250 papers. He is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and with the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illnois.

Company Visits

Thursday, October 17, 2013

GrubHub 111 W Washington St, Chicago, Illinois 2pm-3:15pm - Group A GrubHub is a leading online and mobile food ordering platform that shows diners local restaurants available for delivery or pick up. Available in more than 500 cities across the nation, GrubHub features more than 20,000 online ordering restaurants and, as the parent company of Allmenus, lists approximately 250,000 restaurant menus. Diners who order through GrubHub’s free website or mobile apps can pay with cash, credit or PayPal™, and every order is supported by GrubHub’s 24/7 customer service. Catamaran Innovation Center 300 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL 2pm-3:15pm - Group B A space to engage, interact and collaborate: Catamaran's 24,500-square foot Innovation Center in downtown Chicago provides a powerful and compelling way for our clients and other guests to experience the ground-breaking advances Catamaran is bringing to the pharmacy benefit industry. Microsoft 200 E Randolph Dr, Suite 200, Chicago, IL 2pm-3:15pm - Group C Microsoft develops creative solutions to problems across their eight business divisions: Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft Office, Online Services, Server and Tools, Skype, Windows & Windows Live, and Windows Phone. Ifbyphone 300 West Adams St., Chicago, IL 2pm-3:15pm - Group D Ifbyphone manages, measures and automates voice conversations. The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service applications including ad tracking, lead distribution, hosted IVR, and voice broadcasting. Companies of all sizes and across all industries use Ifbyphone including direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and lead generation. kCura 231 S LaSalle St, 8th Floor, Chicago, IL 4pm-5:30pm - Groups A & B kCura develops web-based e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations. Orbitz 500 W Madison St., Chicago, IL 4pm-5:30pm - Group C Orbitz Worldwide is a leading global online travel company that uses innovative technology to enable leisure and business travelers to search for, plan and book a broad range of travel products and services including airline tickets, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and vacation packages. Orbitz Worldwide owns a portfolio of consumer brands that includes Orbitz, CheapTickets, ebookers, and HotelClub. Also within the Orbitz Worldwide family, Orbitz Partner Network delivers private label travel solutions to a broad range of partners including many of the world's largest airlines, and Orbitz for Business delivers managed travel solutions for corporations. Vibes 300 West Adams Street, 7th Floor, Chicago, IL 4pm-5:30pm - Group D Co-founders Jack Philbin and Alex Campbell started Vibes in 1998 when you couldn’t even send a text message in the U.S. The company has been pioneering the mobile marketing industry ever since. Over the past three years, Vibes has grown from 25 employees to more than 90 marketing strategists, technologists, developers and support staff in order to attack the rapidly growing demand for mobile marketing and Mobile Relationship Management.

Next: Tomorrow Today

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Chicago Ideas Week 151 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL 7:30pm-9pm Flying jet pack, anyone? It may not be as impossible as you think. In this session, forward-thinking scientists, inventors and innovators from various disciplines present their mind-blowing answers to the omnipresent question, “What’s next?”

Company Showcase

Mingle with some of Chicago's most innovative companies Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, 9am-11am Introduction by Jeff Malehorn, President & CEO of World Business Chicago

Keynote: Q&A Session Over Lunch Friday, Oct. 18 11:30am-12:15pm

Max Levchin Founder, HVF Co-founder & CTO, PayPal Chairman, Yelp HVF stands for "HARD, VALUABLE, FUN". It was founded as the umbrella project for Levchin's data-focused undertakings. Its core thesis is that thanks to low-cost sensors of every imaginable type, near-ubiquitous wireless broadband, advances in distributed computing and storage, data is becoming our most plentiful, and most under-exploited commodity. The insights mined from it will unlock enormous productivity gains, create efficiencies where none existed before, and meaningfully improve lives. The mission of HVF is to be the catalysts of that transformation. Levchin also co-founded, and was CTO of PayPal, and is currently Chairman of Yelp. He also sits on the Board of Directors of Yahoo! Follow: @mlevchin

Chicago Ideas Week Events

Friday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct, 19, 2013

Chicago Ideas Week Tech Summit Cadillac Palace Theater, 151 W. Randolph St. Friday, October 18, 1pm-6pm It’s time to stop looking at tech so… technically. We’re reimagining the future of digital by showcasing the world’s leading voices in entrepreneurship, web, design, data and innovation. This half-day experience features “Big Data, Small World,” “View From the Cloud” and “Creative Destruction.” This isn’t your average tech conference and these aren’t ordinary ideas. Are you ready? Instigators: The Good Fight Cadillac Palace Theater, 151 W. Randolph St. Saturday, October 19, 12pm-1:30pm Hear from modern day Robin Hoods; advocates and unsung heroes who are fighting to build a better world for the rest of us to thrive in. These are the people rising up to meet extraordinary challenges. Let’s join them.

Sponsors and Partners

Thanks to the following for their generous support of ThinkChicago

Special Thanks

also goes to the following for their support of ThinkChicago

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