My first stop, February 6, was Prairiefire, a business-plan
competition sponsored by McKinsey & Company and First Tuesday. Prairiefire, an initiative started 6 months
ago, is designed to help entrepreneur’s kick-start or grow their new economy
businesses in the Midwest. The
competition received a total of 600 business plans that was narrowed down to 50
semi-finalists and tonight they announced the winners.
I sat in a room of about 300 to hear that the winning
business plan belonged to Telcom 21, a broadband infrastructure equipment
provider, based in Naperville, Illinois.
Telcom 21 took home $100,000 in cash, $25,000 in consulting services
from eBlast Ventures, and $50,000 in computer equipment from Compaq. The two runners-up were EnTech Engineering, based
in St. Louis, MO which provides data on the destructibility of bridges and Opto
Electronics, based in Mahomet, IL that has found a technique for assembling
components in fiber-optic networks. Both
will receive $20,000 in cash and $25,000 in consulting services and computer
hardware.
This event did much to show that the spirit on
entrepreneurism in the Midwest is alive and well. I think David Jacobson, the leader of First
Tuesday Chicago, summed up the night best when he said, "the real winners
here are not the 3 individuals who took home checks today, but the whole
technology community."
On February 21, I packed up my palm pilot and headed over to
Mobile Wednesday. Mobile Wednesday, is
an event for executives, entrepreneurs, investors and consultants to meet and
discuss emerging technologies and the future of the wireless internet. The theme revolved around M-School with
Douglas Lemont, Professor at DePaul University, instructing the crowd of 200
about Chicago's place in the mobile economy.
"Chicago will be a national leader in the U.S. when it comes to
wireless products and we will make money," said Lemont. Representatives from Centerpost Corporation,
Sun Microsystems, Accenture, Expanets,
Fleishman Hillard, and Motorola were all present waiting to hear about the next
Killer Application.
I closed the month, February 28, at Kustom's. Kustom's was home to Chicago's first PinkSlip
party and was organized by turn-about* inc, a not-for-profit company formed to
spur the success of technology companies, workers, and entrepreneurs. The organizers, all ladies dressed in pink,
encouraged people to meet in small groups so job seekers could speak directly
to those filling positions. The exchange
was short-and-sweet, just enough to get business cards, resumes and job
details.
The youthful crowd peaked at about 500 and the night turned
into a beer guzzling and pizza munching party.
Many attendees were still employed and the networking opportunities were
endless.
The next PinkSlip party will be March 21st.
Kelly Markham is
the founder of LaunchChicago.com, a web portal for Chicago’s internet
community. Launch! Chicago hopes to encourage community
involvement, improve access to public resources and accelerate growth of
startup initiatives.
