- Overview
- Schedule
- Judges
- Coaches and Mentors
- Sponsors
- Organizing Team
- Blog
Startup Weekend Chicago - Creative Enterprise Edition
Friday, March 31 - April 2, 2017
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Startup Weekend Chicago - Creative Enterprise Edition
Friday, March 31 - April 2, 2017
Friday, March 31 - April 2, 2017
Event starts at 6:30 pm
Conaway Center
1104 S Wabash Avenue
Chicago,
Illinois
60605
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Bring Your Creative Idea to Life!
Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. The weekend events are centered on education, innovation and action. This particular event focuses explicitly on cultural and art based business ideas that promise to become deliverable and commercially successful.
We love art & culture, and believe the world has embarked on the creative renaissance. This renaissance, marks an era where high quality art is reaching new heights of social and cultural value. We aim to foster businesses that can transform the creative arts industry into a sustainable, commercially successful system.
Startup Weekend is for people with big ideas, creative minds, visual designers, web developers, coders, marketers, business developers, and any hard working person with a passion and genuine interest in the creative arts.
Stay tuned for more information and early-bird tickets!
EVENT SCHEDULE
Friday March 31st
Saturday April 1st
Sunday April 2nd
Event Judges
Matt Kuttan
Senior Vice President/ Creative - Leo Burnett
He has a degrees in Film from the School of Visual Arts in New York and in writing from Columbia College in Chicago. He has served as an advertising instructor at various universities and has written for numerous publications including the Chicago Tribune.
He eagerly follows the Chicago Cubs, Manchester United and the Indian Cricket Team.
Christie Hefner
Former CEO - Playboy, Chairman - Hatch Beauty
From 1988-2008, Hefner was Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc., making her the longest serving female CEO of a U.S. public company. Hefner restructured the company, initiating its highly successful electronic and international expansions, including leading the company onto the Internet, making Playboy the first national magazine on the web. She also greatly expanded the leveraging of the Playboy brand via licensing, generating close to $1 billion in annual global retail sales, 80% of them in women’s products. When she left, over 40% of her executives were women. For three years she was named to FORTUNE’s list of the 100 Most Powerful Women.
Hefner is a passionate advocate of freedom of expression, social justice and equal rights and opportunities for women. In 1991, she was inducted into the Women's Business Development Center Hall of Fame for "opening doors and building opportunities for all women entrepreneurs." She was the first woman elected into the Chicago Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. She has served on the board of advisors for Springboard since 2007, which coaches female led tech start-up organizations and has raised over $6 billion for the companies.
She also serves on the board of the D.C. based Center for American Progress Action, the leading progressive public policy think tank.
Jimmy Odom
Acting Assistant Director, Illinois Department of Central Management Services
Amor Montes De Oca
2112, Director of Strategic Initiatives
Coaches and Mentors
Kimberly Hall
COO - World Future Society
Ashley Hartman
Principal - Bluestein & Associates
Ashley has also worked for Coinstar in Business Development, where she focused on launching and growing their new ventures. After college, Ashley worked for NERA Economic Consulting. Ashley has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy from Williams College.
Ashley is active in the Chicago community by serving on the board of the Harvard Business School Club of Chicago, where she co-leads the HBS New Venture Competition in Chicago, a competition in which alumni from around the world compete to be the global winner. She also serves on the board of the American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation, an organization that facilitates cultural connections between the United States and Cuba.
Kenny Smilovitch
Director - JVS Chicago Duman Entrepreneurship Center
Ian Sargent Phillips
Creator/Owner/Designer - i love lamP Lighting
Ryan Shand
General Manager - Jammber
Joining in 2015, Ryan sits as General Manager for Jammber, a Music Tech platform focused on drastically simplifying the paperwork and payment process for the $250 billion dollar Entertainment Industry. Ryan is also an Associate Board Member for The Foundation's of Music, creating a society where children of all means have access to music education.
Brenden Dougherty
Principal - Shift Creative Solutions
Ariana Ulloa-Olavarrieta
Executive Coach - Ohio University
Ulloa-Olavarrieta has served the New Direction Career Center as a board member and treasurer, the Hispanic Chamber of Columbus as board treasurer, as well as the ACEnet board. Currently, she serves on the MidOhio Food Bank board and the Community Capital Development Corporation (CCDC) board. Ulloa-Olavarrieta was also a small business owner; launching Bébo Naturals, an organic baby food company in 2010.
Community service has always been tremendously important to Ulloa-Olavarrieta. She has been a United Way volunteer, Junior Achievement teacher, Women’s Fund volunteer, taught English as a second language and is currently on the scholarship committee for the Fund for Appalachian Ohio.
A graduate of Ohio University, she holds a Masters in Financial Economics as well as a BA in Economics with specializations in Latin American Studies, Spanish and German. Born in Mexico City, Ulloa-Olavarrieta immigrated to the United States when she was 5 years old. Currently, she lives in the Columbus area with her two children.
Usman Pasha
CEO - Ausomatic
Event Sponsors, and Partners
The Startup Weekend Chicago - Creative Enterprise Edition team is grateful for the support of local community partners without whom this event would not be possible.
Learn how to become a sponsor here.
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Organizing Team
Techstars Startup Weekend Chicago is 100% led by volunteer community leaders.
Learn how to get involved here