(2013-10-18) Chicago Ideas Week Tech Summit

I went to Chicago Ideas Week's Tech Summit Live Event (CIW).

MCs

• Brad Keywell
• Fast Company guys

Speakers (with some brief/random notes)

Beth Comstock, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, GE

• big companies need Chief Startup Officer to anchor ecosystem of startups (joint partnerships before investments) http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2013/07/16/its-time-for-chief-startup-officers/

Tom Kelley, Partner, IDEO

• new book out Creative Confidence
• importance of Empathy, Humanity
• "wrap data in a story" (and a ProtoType helps)
• high-stakes Story Telling; Choice Architecture - Change The World
• using microscope/project to show in real-time the bugs in water makes discussion about need to switch to better water (even if not-free) more effective

Chris Vanderhook and Tim Vanderhook, bought MySpace (with Justin Timberlake)

• had to throw out entire code-base (Microsoft) and start over
• had to adapt to Mobile trend while in the middle of that rebuild
• brands want to use Music to connect to people
• artists want direct fan data (cf Author Platform)

Ben Kaufman, Founder & CEO, Quirky; Chad Dickerson, CEO, Etsy

• question: how big can these systems scale before becoming grey-goo?
  • answer: sub-communities (esp Real World)
    • Etsy working with Rockford - 2013-03-15-EtsyRockfordEconomicDevelopment
    • Quirky idea-submission Teams
• how will 3D printing (Desktop Fab) affect these markets?
  • probably like spread of Sewing Machine, got to many but not all households
    • (hmm, when was Peak Sewing Machine?)

Max Levchin, Founder, HVF; Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer, PayPal; Chairman, Yelp

• when family moved to Chicago, they had no money, but managed to pull together pieces to make a (crummy) PC because this was Max's passion.
• new thing - Affirm credit network - use Social Media data as more info than FICA score?

Alexandra Chong, Founder & CEO, Lulu

• Women-only Social Network (enforced by FaceBook-connect) - more safe, so more honest
• start with college women, talking about guys in their network - Yelp for Sex.
• moving into discussions about Beauty Product-s (ahem Advertising)

Vineet Singal, Co-founder & CEO, Anjna; BHSI Fellow http://anjna.org/

• diabetes/hypertension - behavior-change compliance - esp big problem with Low Income patients
• but these people do have Cell Phone, and use SMS

Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code

• she doesn't code (grrr), she's a lawyer; was asst Public Advocate in NYC
• 20 girls in summer-2012, 152 in summer-2013
• goal: GirlScouts of the 21st Century; reach 1M girls by 2020
• importance of "cool" validation - girls want to be doctors/CSI because of TV shows (hmm, what % of such people will actually become doctors?)

Jason Harinstein, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, GroupOn; Eric Lefkofsky, CEO, GroupOn; Co-Chairman, CIW

Harry Weller, General Partner, NEA

Sallie Krawcheck, Business Leader, 85 Broads

Bing Gordon, General Partner, KPCB

Mark Wilson, Senior Writer, Fast Company; Host, Tech Summit

George Slessman, CEO & Product Architect, IO