Chicago Tech Report

Chicago TechExpo is Back

Now in its second year, the Chicago TechExpo is back. Join other entrepreneurs at the UIC Forum for demonstrations and meet and greets with those Chicago companies that offer technologies to help your business thrive. From starting a web site to understanding augmented reality, the TechExpo is bound to have something for you.

Some stats from last year's Tech Expo:

• Over 1,200 potential and existing business owners in attendance.
• 100% of exhibitors said they want the event to take place again
• Over 70% of attendees were business owners or future entrepreneurs.

Tickets are $35 and can be purchased here

Ever Hear of Circuit Bending? Meet Roth Mobot.

CTR is always on the hunt for chatting with inventors, techies, curious souls and anyone else in the land of building.  Today, we take a look at Roth Mobot, a company that takes circuits from old items and makes them anew.

 CTR: Tell me about your business/hobby.

RM: I'm a Circuit Bender.Circuit Bending is the creative recycling of common discarded consumer electronics (usually children's toys) by opening them up and naively rewiring them to perform in unintended, unexpected ways. I currently am the marketing force behind Roth Mobot, a circuit bending duo that conducts performances, festivals, workshops, classes, symposia, and conferences on the subject of the "Acquired Technology Arts." I also teach regularly scheduled workshops on the topic at The Old Town School of Folk Music)

CTR:How long has it been around?

RM: I have been hacking and bending since the late 70s - focusing on electronics since 1999. Roth Mobot has been around since May, 2005

 CTR:How large is your staff?

RM:Three. Myself, Tommy Stephenson, and our assistant, Ruth.

CTR:What challenge does your business/idea/passion solve (or you can look at this as ‘what do you do’?)

RM:For our students: creative enablement, self actualization, and instant musicality. For the environment: a productive recycling of e-waste

CTR:Who are your customers/clients/users?

RM:Students and peers. Usually from eighth grade up through adult. Often musicians, sometimes sculptors and film makers.

CTR:How have you spread the word about your business/passion/hobby?

RM:Performances, festivals, workshops, classes, symposia, conferences, and our web site. We recently lectured on the subject at the 10th annual OFFF Design Conference in Paris.

CTR:What new developments are you working on? (aka what is your ‘claim’ to fame/what makes you awesome?)

• Organizing a weekly eSymposium for Chicago-based hardware hackers to meet and compare notes.
  
• We recently created a system whereby Internet activities would activate a toy
  
• Winning the "Best Talk" Award at ORD Camp 2010.
  
• Each year we build the electronics for the annual Third Coast Radio Awards' trophies.
  
• Being nominated for the 2010 Prix Ars Electronica Award in Digital Communities (we didn't win).

CTR: Are you hiring? If so, what positions?

RM:We aren't "hiring" per se. We are, however, constantly on the lookout to expand the Acquired Technology Arts community in Chicago.

CTR: What are your thoughts in basing your business/hobby in Chicagoland?

RM:The Midwest is the inventive think tank of the U.S. Everyone creates their vision here, then takes it to the coasts to manifest it. I plan on staying in the Chicago area incubating a constant flow of inventors and artists.

CTR: Name your favorite gadget or toy

RM: Oh man, that's a hard one. The Commodore Amiga computer comes to mind. Also the Texas Instruments See 'n Say.

CTR: What would you like readers to walk away with?

RM: A sense of curiosity.

Thanks for the chat, Patrick!!

Startup Mixology Brings Step by Step Guidance for Entrepreneurs

 For those entrepreneurs that are looking for some hands on guidance to starting a company, mark October 28 on your calendars. The folks of Tech Cocktail are bringing Startup Mixology to Chicago. You may be thinking, 'Another conference. Really?' I used to be in the same camp, but I've changed my tune to, 'The more, the merrier'.

The invite list is limited, so I highly recommend you snagging your early bird ticket for $225.  I spoke at this conference a few years ago and loved the knowledge transfer happening from the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, David Armano and Micah Baldwin.  This year's line up is just as, if not, more stellar.

Google Chicago's Brian Fitzpatrick and Data Liberation

Back in December, one of my favorite podcasts, TWiT, featured Brian Fitzpatrick. Brian was one of the first engineers at Google's Chicago location. Brian now spearheads the Data Liberation Front, a group whose mission is to enable users to take data in and out of all Google products. Given the developments in the world of social networks and cloud computing, I took another view of the video below. 

Brian comes in around 2:39.

Chicago's Old Tech Guard Teams Up With New Talent

It's been an interesting last few weeks for me.  I've been swimming in Chicago tech news and cross referencing the links between how the 'old' Chicago tech guard is teaming up with a new crop of entrepreneurs, bringing the spotlight back to Chicago's tech and start-up scenes. I've also been creating my own mini family tree of executives and entrepreneurs that I've worked with over the years. Seeing the new companies folding out of this city is fantastic. Without further ado, the update:

Socialdevcamp just took place at IIT. Partnering with the Knapp Center for Entrepreneurship, the weekend long conference featured discussions from Groupon's Andrew Mason, along with I Can Has Cheezeburger's Ben Huh.  Former Obama for President CTO, Michael Slaby also spoke.  All of this knowledge sharing happened while a hackathon was hosted over at the Illinois Tech Association's Tech Nexus. By the way, IIT is the first school in the country to have an iPad app making class.

Next up, I learned of a new, well funded startup, whose founders hail from some of the best known dot coms in Chicago.  BrightTag is led by Mike Sands, who used to be the CMO of Orbitz (my old stomping grounds).  Working with Mike we have Eric Lunt as CTO. Eric is one of the original founders of Feedburner, which was sold to Google. Marc Kirven serves as BrightTag's COO and hails from local online advertising success story, Centro. 

Today, Excelerate Labs held Demo Day for the 10 startups that were chosen to be involved in Excelerate's Year One alumni of startups. Within the inaugural 10 includes TransFS, which recently received $510,000 in funding. The co-founders of Excelerate include serial entrepreneurs Sam Yagan and Troy Henikoff. Troy founded SurePayroll and recently launched OneWed. 

While Demo Day was place, Mayor Daley announced his mini tech council. The Mayor is seeking advice from with the likes of GroupOn, Google, Navteq, OpenTable and others, all for the goal getting up and coming startups to consider Chicago and stay here.

Lastly, Divine Interventures founder, Flip Filipowski is back in Chicago and claiming office space over in Google's building. 

I don't know what's next, but I'm enjoying reading about the old and new faces that are sweeping Chicago's start-up scene.