Chicago Tech Report

Why We Took a Break

Time. Simply time. Keeping up with folks that would like to contribute, while carving out the time to cover the landscape of social, digital, start-up, open source, mobile and other tech happenings.

As the Founder of CTR, I continue to see quite a bit of promise when it comes to reporting on both the established, but also up and coming tech ideas around Chicagoland.

In the last few months, interest and excitement over the Chicago 'tech' scene has emerged - and many of us are excited to see it.

Should you like to be apart of this, feel free to contact me. Until then, thanks for your patience as we determine the best use for what CTR was and how we can make it better.

Best,

BB

National Restaurant Association Recap - More tech than you think

In case you missed it, over the last several days McCormick Place has been inundated with restaurateurs, food product and food equipment manufacturer's all as part of the National Restaurant Association's annual show. In case you're wondering, "Hey, isn't this supposed to be a technology blog?" Well, you're right. I knew going in there was technology involved, but nowhere near the amount I picked up as a result of the visit. Whether it was DNA tagging for shrimp farming, restaurant composting, green energy production, using light to measure alcohol distribution, or fryer oil reclamation - technology, and increasingly sustainability, is everywhere and in everything.

As you'd expect with any show in Chicago, the hot dog booth at Vienna beef and Eli's cheesecakse were swamped pretty much the entire time I was at the show. Aside from these staples, here's a few other booths I'd suggest you check out, if you have a chance to attend the last day (Tuesday):

• Dry Soda - a tasty soda company with a great design aesthetic
• Lighthouse Seafood - really friendly people who know their seafood
• Hudsonville Ice Cream - good ice cream, from good people. Maybe I'm a little biased because they're from Michigan.
• Grecian Delight - try the chicken shawarma with the spicy sauce, absolutely delicious

If you can't make it, there's an entire list of exhibitors here for your online perusal. Also, sorry I didn't note it earlier, but this show is only open to folks "in the biz". Sorry if you wanted to stop in for a lunch break.

Chicago Tech Report is in Austin!

Hello Gang!

Quick update for our readers. Len and Blagica are in Austin and taking in the sxsw conference.  We are gathering video, images and interviews along the way.

We'll be updating the blog with the latest soon. Until then, don't forget to follow us at @Blagica or @LenKendall.

Yee Ha!

Who's hiring? - Chicago Tech Jobs Report

I'm not going to be holding my breath, but it appears that things might be turning around. Hopefully sooner, rather than later. In the case that you are still looking or just interested to see what's out there, we bring you the Chicago Tech Jobs Report.

Copywriters:

• Bilingual Copywriter, The San Jose Group
• Senior Copywriter Multi-Cultural, DraftFCB
• Copywriter, Tripp Lite
• Senior Copywriter / Copy Supervisor, Company Confidential
• Copywriter, Semper

Art Directors:

• Senior Art Director, Digitas
• Art Director, Starcom
• Senior Art Director, Pointroll
• Interactive Associate Creative Director, Arc Worldwide
• Art Director, Edelman Digital

Web Developers:

• Senior Flash Developer, Razorfish
• Flash Developer, Critical Mass
• Web Developer, Tribune
• Web Developer, comScore
• Web Manager/Developer, American Dietetic Association

Media Planners:

• Media Planner, DraftFCB
• Media Planner, JWT
• Sales Development Associate, Internet Media, TravelZoo
• Media Planner, Digitas
• Associate Media Director, Ogilvy NEO

Also, here's a nice video speaking to the possibility of making a career switch altogether, from the WSJ.

Image courtesy of frozenchipmunk

Pre-SXSW Tweetup Recap

Wednesday March 4th marked the first ever Pre-SXSW Tweetup: Chicago Edition. To our surprise and joy, there were a LOT of people from the windy city who will be in Austin next week. The tweet up had about 40 people coming and going throughout the night and essentially every aspect of SXSW was disected. Places to eat, panels to see, and of course the afterparties. Having seen the final bill (and the number of Margaritas consumes) it's looking like the there's a very social group making their way to the conference.

Stay tuned to CTR as we'll be bringing you more Chicago specific SXSW coverage as the conference gets closer.