Second 1871 Hard Hat Tour on Saturday afternoon

Yesterday afternoon we hosted the second 1871 Hard Hat Tour on the 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart.  The 100 spots sold out quickly after being posted on Thursday and we welcomed a great group of entrepreneurs, business leaders, government leaders, and other folks from the community.  Right at 3pm the doors opened and hard hats were passed out because this is still a construction zone.

Here is a picture of Steve Collens with a bullhorn welcoming the group at the entrance…

 We made our way through the 50,000 square foot space – visiting the coffee shop, the large event space, the reserved co-working space, the accelerator space, the classrooms, and the suites.  Many questions were asked along the way about programming, partners, and how to apply.

Here’s a shot of the group in the event space in the northwest corner…

The 1871 team is thrilled at the response from the community in building this co-working center for digital entrepreneurs.  If you haven’t had a chance to go on one of these Hard Hat Tours, we hope to offer future ones, but we will have to take next weekend off as they are working on the floors so we can’t be in the space until they are done.  Please sign up for our 1871 mailing list for updates and to hear about the next one.

Thanks to all of those who came out yesterday – please tweet any pictures you took to @1871Chicago