Chicago Tech Report

National Restaurant Association Recap - More tech than you think

In case you missed it, over the last several days McCormick Place has been inundated with restaurateurs, food product and food equipment manufacturer's all as part of the National Restaurant Association's annual show. In case you're wondering, "Hey, isn't this supposed to be a technology blog?" Well, you're right. I knew going in there was technology involved, but nowhere near the amount I picked up as a result of the visit. Whether it was DNA tagging for shrimp farming, restaurant composting, green energy production, using light to measure alcohol distribution, or fryer oil reclamation - technology, and increasingly sustainability, is everywhere and in everything.

As you'd expect with any show in Chicago, the hot dog booth at Vienna beef and Eli's cheesecakse were swamped pretty much the entire time I was at the show. Aside from these staples, here's a few other booths I'd suggest you check out, if you have a chance to attend the last day (Tuesday):

• Dry Soda - a tasty soda company with a great design aesthetic
• Lighthouse Seafood - really friendly people who know their seafood
• Hudsonville Ice Cream - good ice cream, from good people. Maybe I'm a little biased because they're from Michigan.
• Grecian Delight - try the chicken shawarma with the spicy sauce, absolutely delicious

If you can't make it, there's an entire list of exhibitors here for your online perusal. Also, sorry I didn't note it earlier, but this show is only open to folks "in the biz". Sorry if you wanted to stop in for a lunch break.

Chicago Tech Report is in Austin!

Hello Gang!

Quick update for our readers. Len and Blagica are in Austin and taking in the sxsw conference.  We are gathering video, images and interviews along the way.

We'll be updating the blog with the latest soon. Until then, don't forget to follow us at @Blagica or @LenKendall.

Yee Ha!

Who's hiring? - Chicago Tech Jobs Report

I'm not going to be holding my breath, but it appears that things might be turning around. Hopefully sooner, rather than later. In the case that you are still looking or just interested to see what's out there, we bring you the Chicago Tech Jobs Report.

Copywriters:

• Bilingual Copywriter, The San Jose Group
• Senior Copywriter Multi-Cultural, DraftFCB
• Copywriter, Tripp Lite
• Senior Copywriter / Copy Supervisor, Company Confidential
• Copywriter, Semper

Art Directors:

• Senior Art Director, Digitas
• Art Director, Starcom
• Senior Art Director, Pointroll
• Interactive Associate Creative Director, Arc Worldwide
• Art Director, Edelman Digital

Web Developers:

• Senior Flash Developer, Razorfish
• Flash Developer, Critical Mass
• Web Developer, Tribune
• Web Developer, comScore
• Web Manager/Developer, American Dietetic Association

Media Planners:

• Media Planner, DraftFCB
• Media Planner, JWT
• Sales Development Associate, Internet Media, TravelZoo
• Media Planner, Digitas
• Associate Media Director, Ogilvy NEO

Also, here's a nice video speaking to the possibility of making a career switch altogether, from the WSJ.

Image courtesy of frozenchipmunk

Pre-SXSW Tweetup Recap

Wednesday March 4th marked the first ever Pre-SXSW Tweetup: Chicago Edition. To our surprise and joy, there were a LOT of people from the windy city who will be in Austin next week. The tweet up had about 40 people coming and going throughout the night and essentially every aspect of SXSW was disected. Places to eat, panels to see, and of course the afterparties. Having seen the final bill (and the number of Margaritas consumes) it's looking like the there's a very social group making their way to the conference.

Stay tuned to CTR as we'll be bringing you more Chicago specific SXSW coverage as the conference gets closer.

An Interview With WeSeed 'The Stock Market for the Rest of Us'

A local Chicago startup that seemed to have a 'quiet' launch is WeSeed. There wasn't much said about WeSeed in local tech meetings/get togethers, but then we noticed their sponsorship of a Social Media Club event, a banner on Mashable and advertising on Facebook. A few of their employees, Brandon Zeman and Caitlin Rosberg, are known faces in the Chicago social media scene, yet we don't know much about the company - aside from the tag line, 'the stock market for the rest of us'.  Chicago Tech Report caught up with Caitlin to ask some questions and get the lowdown on WeSeed.

CTR:What exactly is WeSeed?

CR: WeSeed is the stock market for the rest of us.  The whole point is that people continue to get caught by surprise when the economy does anything…and that’s scary.  We want to help anyone and everyone educate themselves and really see the power that they have as consumers and customers.  People know a lot more than they think they do about the market, and WeSeed wants to be there to fill in the gaps.  It’s a totally safe place to experiment, to read blog posts from people who are in tons of different industries about what’s going on, to talk to other users just like yourself.  You don’t need to spend money on a broker, if anything this latest chaos in the economy and all the scams we’ve seen like Bernie Madoff have proven that we all need to protect ourselves, rather than counting on other people to have our best interests at heart.  

UC Booth MBAs Sponsor METSummit This Friday

University of Chicago Booth MBA students are sponsoring a Media Entertainment and Technology Summit this Friday, February 27 at the Harper Center on the Hyde Park campus. From the website, it looks like an interesting blend of digital advertising, startup technology, and creative industry folk converging for a one day offering of panel discussions and demos. For non-students, the cost is a pretty reasonable $75, given the amount of content and industry exposure you're getting access to for the day. Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo, and Steve Seabolt, VP of Global Brand Development, Electronic Arts are the two keynoters. There will also be a demo of the Microsoft Surface device.

Executives' Club of Chicago Conference: Interview with Rob Bernard

As I mentioned in my last post, after the insightful and inspirational morning panels at the Executives' Club of Chicago Conference, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft Corporation. What does the Chief Environmental Strategist do? Rob works with both internal and external constituents to help reduce their overall impact on the environment, whether it's software, hardware, or business processes. Here's a quick Q&A Rob was able to provide in between the morning panels and a client meeting he had to run off to.

1. So Rob, how did you get into this position and what were you doing prior to this position?
   I've been working at Microsoft for 11 years. I was working on a project called Project 2 Degrees at Microsoft before they created this position. Now, I work on an environmental sustainability team, which is a virtual working team across several different groups, totaling 100 people across the company.
   
   
2. Are you working with any hardware vendors to improve energy consumption?
   In terms of hardware, currently, we're working with the XBOX team to reduce energy consumption. Current generations of the XBOX use half as much power as previous generations. We're also working with waste companies to help recoup materials after they have reached the end of their life cycle even though a typical XBOX has a fairly long shelf life.
   

Executives' Club of Chicago Conference: Business Sustainability in a World in Crisis

Two weeks ago (I know, I've been busy), I was fortunate enough to attend the Executives' Club of Chicago's Conference entitled "Business Sustainability in a World in Crisis." The topic at hand could have quickly degraded into a shouting match where emotions quickly outpaced evidence. However, the speakers on-hand were some of the best I have seen in a very long time -- equally eloquent and charming without being overly verbose or alarmist. In all there were 11 panelists with Ali Velshi, Chief Business Correspondent at CNN, moderating.