Acclaimed Financial analyst Peter Goldmacher of Cowen and Company will moderate a panel discussion among key executives from 10Gen, Infobright, MapR, and Sears Holdings/MetaSolve. They will explore the realities and practical applications of Big Data, as well as the issues that are unfolding and the many opportunities that continue to emerge.

Agenda

5:30pm Networking

6:00pm Panel Discussion

7:00pm Q&A

7:45pm Wine and Cheese Networking

Panelists

Dr. Phil Shelley, CTO of Sears Holdings, CEO of MetaSolve

Don DeLoach, CEO of Infobright

Matt Asay, Vice President – Corporate Strategy of 10GEN

Russ Lankenau, Central Solutions Architect of MapR

To Register

Visit www.illinoistech.org/event.aspx/10471

OR

Contact Meghan Bradley at Megan@illinoistech.org

This event is free to ITA members!

The theme for the event is “Who’s In Control of Your Cloud? Security and Visibility in the Cloud.” Just like an effective cloud system, the event will be open for participants to freely exchange ideas, knowledge, and information in a creative and collaborative environment.

CohesiveFT CEO, Patrick Kerpan, along with VMware‘s Senior Systems Engeineer, Jeff Huber; John Barnes, Chief Technology Officer at Model Metrics; and IBM‘s Program Manager – Cloud Technical Partnerships, Mike Dorosh, will attend and emcee the “unpanel” discussions.

The focus of the unpanel will be on the ever-present issues of security, access, visibility and control of data in cloud. But as the event unfolds, speakers and atendees are encouraged to shape the discussion to include any cloud-related topics throughout the night. If you are interested in giving a lightning talk, participating in the unpanel, or sponsoring the beer and pizza please email Ryan at marketing@cohesiveft.com.

The Cloud Camp Chicago event will be December 13th from 6pm-10pm (Central Time) at the TechNexus conference center on the 15^th floor of 200 S. Wacker Drive in Chicago. Register at http://cloudcamp-chicago-2013.eventbrite.com.

Register here.

We hope to see you there tomorrow night!

TechNexus welcomes Microsoft to our community! Microsoft has begun its residency here with us in downtown Chicago to introduce their new products to TechNexus Tenants and answer any questions about them.

Microsoft has several offerings for TechNexus startups & entrepreneurs as well as independent web developers, designers, consultants, and more. They have several exclusive offers. Check them out below and see what might benefit your company!

Also, Microsoft Startup Evangelist, Sonal Mane, will be hosting office hours at TechNexus for anyone who would like to chat. To view Sonal’s office hours and schedule a time to meet, simply visit http://ohours.org/sonalmane. This info is also up on our Community page for future reference.

Exclusive Microsoft Offers:

1. BizSpark for Startups. BizSpark is a global program Microsoft offers to qualifying Startups and Entrepreneurs that helps them succeed by providing access to software development tools, connecting them with key industry players, and providing marketing visibility.

BizSpark Software includes: Windows 8, Visual Studio 2012, Expression Blend, Office 2013 & Office for Mac 2011, Windows Azure (a flexible, comprehensive, and powerful cloud platform for the creation of web applications and services), Dynamics CRM, Windows Phone, SharePoint Server 2013, etc.

- Developers get a free 1 year membership for the Windows Store. Developers can also sign up separately for the 30-day Generationapp.com program.

- BizSpark members also get Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online through the Microsoft Cloud Essentials Pack.

- The Windows 8 Surface was just released and can be found at the Microsoft Store online or retail stores.

- Free trainings for Windows 8, Azure, and Windows phone can be found at MSDN Events.

- Release updates and information on hardware for the Windows Phone can be found here.

- If you are using Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies, check out this site for support.

- Visibility in the market – Get featured on BizSpark’s front page, blog, twitter, and Facebook feeds.

Sign up for Bizspark here. For those with additional Azure need (late stage startups), please contact Sonal Mane and she’ll talk with you about BizSpark Plus.

2. BizSpark One. Microsoft BizSpark One, an expansion of the BizSpark program, was launched in November 2009. It seeks to accelerate the growth of selected high potential startups. Learn more here.

3. Bing Fund. For more support, you can also apply to the Bing Fund  – here’s what you get! Check out the criteria and blog before applying!

4. For independent web developers, designers, consultants, etc. who do not qualify for BizSpark, no worries, Microsoft has free trials for you as well:

- For Azure Cloud FREE Trial, visit: http://aka.ms/TheCloud.

- For the Windows 8 RTM eval, visit http://aka.ms/Get8.  (Note the evaluation version will have an expiration date and cannot be upgraded.).

- For Visual Studio 2012, visit: http://aka.ms/Dev2012.

Walgreens hosted their first Mobile Photo Hack Day on Saturday, in partnership with TechNexus. Many innovative ideas were presented, but in the end only one could be declared winner. The judges, which included TechNexus co-founder Terry Howerton, picked Smilesback, an app that “reminds people about important dates such as anniversaries, birthdays and others occasions that are perfect for personalized, last-minute photo gifts.”

The husband-wife team of Smilesback, Mr. Bhabani Sahu and Mrs. Prachi Sahoo, were awarded a six-month residency at TechNexus, where they can develop the Smilesback project further while collaborating with like-minded innovators and entrepreneurs.

Congratulations to Smilesback, and thanks to all who participated! We look forward to partnering with Walgreens and other companies as they seek new ways to tap into our large network of forward-thinkers.

Read the full Walgreens Mobile Photo Hack Day recap here.

Terry Howerton addresses developers at TechNexus as part of a collaborative effort with Walgreens

“This is more of an informal hangout,” said Terry Howerton, managing partner of TechNexus, as he addressed the developers in attendance. He pointed out that of the 170 companies that have started at TechNexus, they have raised around $85 million in capital across multiple industries.

TechNexus is now partnering with Walgreens as the company seeks innovative mobile photo applications that can use its new QuickPrints software development kit (SDK). The QuickPrints SDK allows users to send photos to any Walgreens store (99% of them are equipped to handle it), where prints will be made within the hour.

Joe Rago, Walgreens Senior Mobile Product Manager, addresses developers at TechNexus

The TechNexus partnership with Walgreens is an example of how large corporations can leverage the TechNexus ecosystem to generate new business and investment opportunities while collaborating with people of different skill-sets and perspectives.

Mobile Hack Day kicks off August 11, 2012. At the end of the day, a panel of judges will decide on the best application. The winning team will receive six free months of residency withing TechNexus. Click here for more details.

CHICAGO – May 3, 2012 – TechNexus, Chicago’s first collaborative ecosystem for tech entrepreneurs and business leaders, has been named one of the top startup incubators in the United States by Forbes. Since opening its doors in 2007, more than 150 companies have grown within TechNexus; those companies have raised more than $80 million in investment capital and collectively employ nearly 500 people in new skilled jobs.

Forbes took several factors into consideration when developing the list, paying particular attention to the value of the companies tied to the incubators, the most recent equity valuation of the companies, and the percentage of companies that are still active.  Also making the list of Top Accelerators were our friends at Chicago's Excellerate Labs.

“I think the TechNexus team really hated the term the “incubator” for a long time, instead referring to the collaboration and meaningful community that gathered here each day as something different,” explained Pat Kerpan, CEO of CohesiveFT, one of the earliest companies in the TechNexus incubator. “The experience here was more community driven than other incubators I know of, especially five years ago. These guys were way ahead of everyone else.”

TechNexus is unique among the Forbes list of top incubators in America, which includes several different business models to support growing companies. It is an ecosystem built around nearly 3,000 entrepreneurs, engineers and executives from bigger companies flowing through the space each month, and anchored by community organizations like the Illinois Technology Association, Clean Energy Trust and more than 75 user groups. It does not require businesses to sign on to its incubator for a predetermined amount of time.  In addition to the incubator space, several hundred entrepreneurs, executives and even students have “keys to the clubhouse” and cowork within the 25,000 sq. ft. facility at 200 S. Wacker Dr. in Chicago.

“It’s like TechNexus is curating collaboration, bringing exactly the right people together to support the companies growing here,” said Jason Lobel, CEO of Storeplace, another TechNexus-incubated company.

TechNexus partners have made private investments in many of the companies within the incubator, and help facilitate relationships with investors from around the globe. Some of the companies themselves have foreign roots, hailing from locales that include Canada, China and Ireland.

“TechNexus was a great place to run our global headquarters, even as we continue to scale up our team in Australia and around the globe,” said Steve Subar, CEO of Open Kernel Labs.

Most companies that have grown at TechNexus operate in the business-to-business space, an

d benefit from the strong industry connections within the ecosystem.

“The focus around here is on building companies, finding customers and getting great revenue growth,” said Brian Crummy, CEO of flowerpetal.com. “There are real companies and some very experienced entrepreneurs here, and that’s an incredible resource to grow my business around,” he adds.

“We try to match a growing company with leaders from bigger businesses to transform industries,” said Terry Howerton, cofounder and managing partner of TechNexus. He adds, “Our role is to be a catalyst for that collaboration and growth.”

About TechNexus

TechNexus is the gateway to collaboration and growth for Chicago’s technology leaders and leading businesses. Established in 2007, the ecosystem was funded privately and is anchored around the Illinois Technology Association (ITA) and nearly 75 other community groups. TechNexus is a ‘clubhouse’ where ventures grow, and a co-working facility to bring technology professionals together, foster relationships and promote a sense of community. (www.technexus.com)

About Storeplacer

Storeplacer is a commerce delivery platform that enables transactions in mobile, social, web, and other digital touchpoints. Handling all of the technical barriers to ecommerce, Storeplacer allows agencies and retailers to focus simply on design and user experience to get to market faster and cheaper. (www.storeplacer.com)

About CohesiveFT

CohesiveFT is the leader in enterprise application-to-cloud migration and provides more software defined networking for cloud computing than all competitors combined. CohesiveFT's Elastic Server Cloud Container includes everything necessary to achieve “cloud convergence” across an IaaS computing portfolio, including multi-cloud image automation, network virtualization, and topology automation. (www.CohesiveFT.com)

About flowerpetal.com

flowerpetal.com is the nation’s leading flower and gift fulfilling partner. flowerpetal.com technology and service has teamed with the world’s most discriminate content and service providers to increase their revenue and enhance their customers’ experiences. flowerpetal.com works with organizations of all sizes, from local community websites to publicly traded companies and consistently delivers fresh flowers and gifts that exceed expectations. (www.flowerpetal.com)

About Open Kernel Labs

Open Kernel Labs is the global leader in virtualization software for securing wireless communications, applications, and content for connected devices, deployed on more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide. Chipset suppliers, mobile and automotive OEMs, national security agencies and contractors, mobile network operators, and enterprise IT depend on OK Labs to enable security for wireless access of corporate and government assets while protecting everything that runs on the device. (www.OKlabs.com)

HaveMyShift.com

HaveMyShift.com Completes Successful Pilot Program with Argo Tea

HaveMyShift.com, which allows employees to pick up and hand off shifts to their coworkers via the web or mobile app, has recently completed a 45-day pilot program with Argo Tea. During the pilot, they were trying out a corporate-sponsored model in which Argo pays HaveMyShift.com for their software platform, and the employees pay nothing to use it.

“By partnering with HaveMyShift, we’ve enabled our employees to seamlessly swap their shifts, increasing morale and greatly improving communication,” Simon Simonian, Argo Tea’s co-founder, said. “Their tool is extremely easy to work with, and system integration was completed in a mere two weeks.”

HaveMyShift.com believes that this model will be the predominant one—as opposed to a pay-per-post model—as more companies begin to see the service as a valuable benefit to their employees.

Infobright

Infobright Reaches OEM Agreement with Leader in Business Intelligence Solutions

Infobright announced this week that it has secured an OEM agreement with an independent leader in business intelligence solutions. Infobright, which operates a high-performance database, will supply its Infobright Enterprise Edition to Information Builders for its WebFOCUS business intelligence platform. WebFOCUS is installed in tens of thousands of locations, servicing millions of users worldwide. Infobright’s database is extremely valuable to companies like Information Builders that analyze large volumes of “machine-generated data” such as web data, network logs, telecom records, stock tick data, and sensor data. Read the full release.