Historic Naming Rights Sale for Chicago Skyway

Later this month, the City of Chicago plans to competitively offer the naming rights to the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge for a term of 5-20 years. This will provide a unique historical opportunity for a prospective bidder to be the first corporation in the United States to own the naming rights to a major bridge and roadway.

The 7.8-mile long Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, connecting the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Indiana Tollway, would be renamed with the winning bidder's corporate name, followed by the words Chicago Skyway.

The winning bidder will market their brand identity 24 hours a day, seven days a week to more than 18.5 million passenger and freight vehicles per year.

It will provide powerful advertising exposure both locally and regionally, and includes over 100 prominent signs across the Skyway region, with the ability to expand the number of signs. Through traffic reports, news stories, and print signage, the winning bidder's brand identity will be reinforced with each and every mention.

The new name could appear on:

• Marquees above the toll plazas
• Existing guide signage on arterial streets and highways
• Additional guide signage
• Published maps
• Skyway Concession Company's website
• Radio and television traffic reports

"Just as the 99-year Chicago Skyway transaction was a landmark deal, we expect this first-of-its-kind offer could become a blueprint for other municipal infrastructure naming rights deals," he added.

The city will utilize a two-part process similar to the recent $1.83 billion Chicago Skyway concession to ensure maximum value and transparency. The city will first select a group of qualified bidders based on financial and technical qualifications, and the highest bid amount will be the only determinant in selecting the winning bid.

To receive the RFP or for more information on how your company can purchase the naming rights to the skyway, please contact Tom Kness at the City of Chicago, Office of Budget and Management, at 312.744.9845, or email him at tkness@cityofchicago.org.

The Economist on Chicago

World Business Chicago has obtained rights to The Economist's "A success story" 10-page survey of Chicago, and it can be accessed by clicking here.

This extraordinary piece of journalism was crafted by Johnny Grimond, who 26 years earlier had written another survey of Chicago painting a picture of seemingly irreversible urban decline. In the interim, Chicago once again reinvented itself.

"This is a city buzzing with life, humming with prosperity, sparkling with new buildings, new sculptures, new parks, and generally exuding vitality," are the words Mr. Grimond used to set the stage for a piece reflecting a two-week visit to update his quarter-century of interest in Chicago.

As the metropolis pursues its global aspirations, The Economist lays down a stark challenge: "Chicago's current success may be about as good as it gets" for what many consider "the quintessential American city." Our challenge is to generate new engines of economic growth.

"Failing that, it must content itself with the knowledge that it has succeeded better in reversing decline than anyone else—and that its broad smile is even more attractive than its erstwhile broad shoulders," Johnny Grimond concludes.

A better understanding of today's Chicago by business and opinion leaders around the world can contribute significantly to the continued rising of Chicago's economic tide and its global standing. So please share the attached "success story" today and in the months ahead with your influential contacts worldwide.

We need your help in getting the word out about Chicago, so that smiles are not all we have to show for all city-building work. Thanks.

--Paul O'Connor
Executive Director
World Business Chicago

To access The Economist article, Adobe Acrobat® Reader is required. Click here to download it for free. Acrobat® is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.

BIO 2006: Success... but where do we go from here?

It was a record breaker across the board. With attendance numbers peaking around 20,000 Chicago hosted biotech & life sciences leadership from 62 countries and 1,700 corporations, organizations and institutions worldwide. Indeed, the Biotech Industry Organization's (BIO) 14th Annual International Convention surpassed all benchmarks for success.

We saw the world's largest indoor cornfield. We saw a former President (Bill Clinton), a basketball icon (Magic Johnson), a comedian (Bernie Mac), and a talking robot. We saw some of the greatest innovators and innovations of our lifetime… all under one roof and all dedicated to finding ways for humanity to better itself through the application of science & technology. The only missing element seemed to be the addition of some sharks with laser beams on their heads, but that wasn't for lack of creativity on the event floor.

BIO2006 didn't just land on our front doorstep. The overall effort to pitch BIO leadership dates back many years. Chicago & Illinois public/private brass brought their thinking caps together, caught a flight to Washington D.C. and made the case that BIO should find its way to the Midwest for 2006, marking the first time in the event's history that it strayed from its coastal roots.

Much thanks and proper credit should be assigned to the State of Illinois & Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DCEO) Director, Jack Lavin and his team. Alongside the enormous financial support that was brought to the table, Director Lavin rolled his sleeves up and tackled the project personally. Looking for the A-team, he brought in the professional services of Jasculca/Terman & Associates to lead the multi-layered pavilion & overall communications effort. The Illinois Biotechnology Industry Association (iBIO) soundly managed all facets of pavilion sponsorship and industry representation.

Mayor Daley also did the City of Chicago proud, putting forward the financial resources and personal commitment needed to ensure that Chicago kept itself center stage on the global life sciences map. His plenary lunch address, alongside Earvin "Magic" Johnson & Abbott CEO, Miles White, supported his continued message for more aggressive attention to educational efforts in the fields of mathematics and science. In concert with this reminder, Mayor Daley & Miles White presented the Biotech Institute's International BioGenius Awards to each of the 13 student honorees who joined them on stage.

Everyone on the home team put their best effort forward. If a single superglue-like performance had to be highlighted, Abbott's John Larson can easily be identified as the element who kept it all together. That said, John and the rest of us would agree that the spotlight can shine equally amongst our universities, research institutions, private & public sector leaders, and all others who took the time out of their lives to make BIO2006 in Chicago a huge success. This list is simply too great to number in these pages.

And here we stand…wearing BIO's heavyweight championship belt. What now? For a few minutes in time, we're an inch taller than the rest of the world… but how do we keep our stilts from getting chopped out from under us?

Well, for starters, we can continue to work with one another on addressing the most basic issues facing our life sciences community: early-stage capital investment, adequate facilities for emerging & established companies, and commercialization efforts facing our research institutions and universities. These should be the bedrock of our long-term goals.

Much work still has to be done, lest we think that it's time to take a breather. For now is our moment to capitalize on the legacies left in BIO's wake. We have a rich history of making it work. It's up to us to ensure that all our achievements up until this point produce a sustained effort moving forward.

--Dan Lyne
Director of Business Development
World Business Chicago

Upcoming Events

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Exemplary Practices Discussion Series

Meeting the challenge to shape a culture that fosters employee learning and development:
A Framework for Impacting Employee Development Culture

Join professionals like yourself on May 4 for an interactive webinar that will provide answers to these vital questions. Presented by workforceChicago2.0 and hosted by ConferencePlus, this free event for Business Executives and HR Practitioners will focus on the "how to" of developing a learning culture within your organization.

Register today!

Who: Business and Human Resources Leaders
When: Thursday, May 4, 2006, 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. CST
Where: Live On-line Webinar with Telephone Dial-In
How To Sign Up: For more information or to register click here, or contact Jessica Abell at 312.499.2303 or email her at jabell@cael.org.

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