On May 2nd, 2012, we celebrated the official Grand Opening of the new home for Chicago’s digital startups, 1871. Now, in honor of our 6-month birthday and in the interest of sharing more about the member startups of 1871, we’re releasing this awesome Infographic that the folks at Lab42 helped us create.
6 months of 1871: Member Infographic
Last weekend, Chicago-area tech pros came together with CareerBuilder and 1871 to hack out solutions to the more than 12 million people unemployed. Given there are more 3.5 million unfilled jobs, despite unemployment, attendees were prompted to identify and start to develop solutions to match the right talent with the right company and to help empower employment.
Chicago’s entrepreneurial community had a great night last Wednesday evening at the 5th Annual CEC Momentum Awards dinner in Millennium Park . Over 750 Chicago leaders came together to celebrate our past, present, and future entrepreneurs and the people and corporations who support them.
[Read more…] about A big night for entrepreneurs in Chicago: the 2012 CEC Momentum Awards
Chicago’s Business Community Celebrates at 5th Annual Momentum Awards; CEC Raises $1.5 million to Support 2013 Initiatives
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Matthew Helbig is a team member at Azadi, one of Impact Engine companies and 1871 member. Here is his take on 1871 and IE so far.
A few days before we officially opened 1871 in the Merchandise Mart on May 2nd, 2012, Scott Kluth, the Fouder and President of local entrepreneurial success story, CouponCabin, gave us an incredible gift to mark the occasion. I’d like to mark this historic day for Chicago with the writing from this lithograph – which you can see next time you visit 1871.
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I think we can all agree 2012 has been a momentous year for the local startup scene.
[Read more…] about Help a Local Startup Win Free Tickets to the CEC Momentum Awards
Last Friday, September 14th Governor Quinn visited 1871 to announce an innovative $10.3 million public-private education initiative called Illinois Pathways, to better prepare our state’s students for today and tomorrow’s jobs.
[Read more…] about Governor Quinn Announces STEM-focused Education Initiative at 1871
By Hugh Musick, Associate Dean & Director of Education, IIT Institute of Design
[Read more…] about 1871 & IIT Institute of Design Lecture Series: User-centered Design for Start Ups
by Yasha Saxena, CEC intern
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1871 is all about bringing the Chicago ecosystem together to support and grow the startup community, and there is no better example of that same effort then in what Troy Henikoff, Sam Yagan, and Excelerate have built over the last 3 summers. I remember when there was talk of an “accelerator” program in Chicago and many folks were skeptical, but a small group of leaders got it done and it’s only improved each year! Ranked the #3 accelerator in the country by Forbes, Excelerate just graduated an incredible class of 10 startups from around the country and the globe. Wednesday was Demo Day at the House of Blues and the presentations by the graduating companies were amazing – the clear result of excellent coaches and mentoring help over the last 3 months. Here’s a run-down of the 10 startups for you to check out:
Reprinted from Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC)
[Read more…] about Calling All Chicago Education Innovators!!!
Back on May 2nd, we opened the doors to a new 50,000 square foot center for digital startups in the Merchandise Mart. We named this place 1871 to reflect the great spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship following the Great Chicago Fire. We hoped that a place like this would become a hub for startup activity in Chicago – and would provide a supportive community of like-minded entrepreneurs building early-stage companies alongside one another. We hoped that bringing together incredible partners like Code Academy, Excelerate Labs, Impact Engine, and the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) – as well as top local universities and venture capital partners – would provide access to the talent, capital and mentorship startups need to grow their businesses. We hoped for so much and so far it has exceeded our expectations!
By Yasha Saxena, 1871 Team Intern
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By Frank D. Muscarello, CEO of MarkITx
By Jeff Dunn, Director of Educational Technology R&D for DeVry
I lead efforts to make sure that all DeVry institutions are on the cutting edge in using technology to deliver a world-class learning experience for every one of our students. And in Chicago, the cutting edge starts at 1871.
(Exciting news from Impact Engine on their inaugural accelerator class taking place at 1871. Below is the press release they put out today.)
[Read more…] about Impact Engine Announces Inaugural Class of 2012