What irks you? And are you building something to fix it?
Melissa Pierce counted nine movies including Steve Jobs and none about tech pioneer Grace Hopper. She’s making that movie.
Sam Lurye mused on the pain of the high school crush. If only there were some way to test the waters? He created an app.
VC money on the coasts. We know. It’s a bit of a sting to the old Chicago pride. J.B. Pritzker took it upon himself to launch the Chicago Venture Summit, which Amina Elahi reported is returning for a second year.
Bridging the gulf between idea and execution is initiative.
We have a launch of our own Feb. 25. We’ve created Blue Sky Social, a networking series, to draw us all together in person more often. Tickets for this event at the House of Blues are $5, benefiting the non-profit Chicago Tribune Foundation. Special to Exit readers: We’ll be unveiling an exciting new resource and expect to have a number of top guests from Chicago’s innovation community on hand.
John Carpenter cruised the Auto Show preview to poke at the new technology on display. Much of it is incremental, but it’s fun to watch him go video-active sampling some of the new goods. A former resident of Detroit, John knows Motor City muscle when he hears it.
Meg Graham was on hand at 1871 as Matter cut its ribbon and Gov. Bruce Rauner announced his new innovation council (Pat Quinn’s version of such a board, and you’re going to love this verb, “expired” as his term ended.)
Need a quick improv-style primer on workplace creativity and collaboration? Second City runs it down. If you want to try new things but need to put a name on it, give this a read: A look at how companies pinpoint and articulate their wants, needs and values.
It was an interesting week for founders: There was a Coca-Cola veteran now supercharging milk; a traveler to India who found an idea for a business; and a former football player who built a platform for tracking injuries.
Office Tours goes to Mintel this week with Meg and photographer Anthony Souffle. We’re jelly of the blue locker rooms.
Andy Crestodina wrote about how to come up with blog ideas. Writer’s block is no longer just for writers, as so many businesses are trying to create compelling content.
You know what the great David Carr, who many in Chicago remember for this piece on the Chicago Tribune, said was the cure for writer’s block?
Typing.
That’s initiative.
