WBC Goes "Electronic"

Welcome to a new Economic Focus. During the past several months we have been working toward this electronic format.

This new format will allow us to offer you more -- greater detail, embedded website links, more economic data and, at times, photos and illustrations.

In this issue, we’re taking the liberty to re-acquaint current and new subscribers with who we are and what we can do for you.

Earlier this year WBC secured a spot among North America’s top dozen or so economic development groups (out of more than 4,500 organizations in U.S. and Canada) ranked by Site Selection magazine
-- the “industry’s scoreboard.”

This newsletter is intended as a tool to help each of us exploit this moment of destiny for Chicago.

We welcome and encourage your comments regarding the new format.

Paul O’Connor
Executive Director

Who is WBC?

World Business Chicago (WBC) is a not-for-profit economic development corporation, chaired by Mayor Richard M. Daley and directed by Paul O’Connor, dedicated to enhancing the Chicago region’s global position as a business location.

WBC’s mission is to expand Chicago’s economy through the growth of the private sector, building the best city in the world in which to live, work, and play. WBC is a public-private partnership funded jointly by the City of Chicago and the private sector. WBC's Board of Directors, co-chaired by Aon Corporation President and COO Michael D. O'Halleran, is made up of 25 of the region's leading business executives.

WBC leads in marketing Chicago’s competitive advantages, coordinates business retention and attraction efforts, and seeks to enhance Chicago’s business climate by being a thought leader in economic development policy. The staff provides “point of first contact” assistance for economic and industry data, site location, state and local incentives and contacts within the region’s private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

To contact a WBC representative, visit www.worldbusinesschicago.com and click on “WBC.”

Chicago Celebrates Innovators  

What do a turbo-charged pizza oven, a future-gen Trapper Keeper, and a pair of nano-sized tweezers all have in common? As you might have guessed, they each brought home high honors at the 3rd Annual Chicago Innovation Awards.

Hosted this year at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Chicago Innovation Awards celebrated Chicago’s deep innovative roots and hometown visionaries. This year’s panel of judges was comprised of representatives from the Sun Times and Kuczmarski & Associates, the original co-developers of the Innovation Awards program. It was their difficult task to sift through a list of over 110 nominees.

Almost 300 people were on scene as John Edwardson, Chairman of CDW Corp, gave the keynote address, a privilege shared in prior years by Bob Galvin of Motorola & Paul O’Connor of World Business Chicago. Citing Chicago’s gifts to the world such as the skyscraper & the cell phone, Mr.Edwardson urged Chicago’s corporate and cultural leadership to encourage risk and reward as the bedrock for future innovation.

This year, the Innovation Awards honored 10 recipients:

The American Cancer Society
Development of comprehensive patient-care information services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Arryx
A hi-tech tweezer of sorts, Arryx employs holographic laser steering at microscopic and nanoscopic levels, improving manufacturing and processing productivity in multiple markets that are dependent upon miniaturization.

Big Mouth Filer
Developed by Wilson Jones, a business unit ACCO Brands, the Big Mouth is an upright gusseted filer with five, brightly colored, removable poly folders inside, for use by both students and professionals.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade
Breakthrough organizational concept focused on clearing trades at both exchanges.

Digital Kitchen
Developed concept of Brand Theater, a new approach in the application of commercial films for use in adverting and marketing campaigns.

Mark Ratner
Recipient of the 2004 Visionary Pioneer Award, Mark first envisioned the idea that atoms and molecules could be used to process and store information, an idea now commonly known as Molecular Electronics.

Orbitz for Business
A division of Orbitz Inc., this unique business service represented the first of its kind in the business travel arena, allowing companies to save money and better serve its business clientele.

“WOW” Pizza Oven
Developed by Middleby Marshall, a division of Middleby Corp., this smart pizza oven reduces energy consumption by over 30 percent, using hot jets of air to reduce cooking time by almost one-third.

nPhase
A machine-to-machine (M2M) integrator, Steve Pazol and his team leverage the IT infrastructure, software platforms and resources to deliver remote management solutions for real-world physical assets.

TriTeq Lock & Security LLC
Developer of locks, latches and security systems. Inventor of the Auto-Trac wireless locking system, installed and in use by a number of vending machine operators throughout the world.

Whether they are bringing your food to your table quicker or enabling complex computer systems to speak with one another, the building blocks that these honorees bring to the world are shaping our lives in ways that are both seen & unseen. As such, they follow a long line of Chicagoan’s who share a unique and rich history as innovators of the world.

To name just a few, Chicago inventor Mr. Whitcomb Judson invented a clasp locker in 1893 that would ultimately come to be known as the “Zipper.” It made its commercial debut that same year at the Chicago World’s Fair, but nobody really found the need for Whitcomb’s device. It would seem things have changed a bit since then.

Sarah Goode, a Chicagoan and furniture store owner, was the first African-American woman to receive a patent in the United States for her famous folding cabinet bed design for rolltop desks.

Sarah Goode, a Chicagoan and furniture store owner, was the first African-American woman to receive a patent in the United States for her famous folding cabinet bed design for rolltop desks.

From our youthful years, Chicago native, John Lloyd Wright, son of famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, invented Lincoln Logs in 1916, giving small children everywhere the materials they needed to build their own cabins, forts and fences.

And it was in Chicago where America’s First Automobile Race took place. At 8:55 a.m. on November 28, 1895, six motor cars left Chicago's Jackson Park for a 54 mile race to Evanston, Illinois and back through the snow. The Chicago Times-Herald, sponsor of the race, declared, "Persons who are inclined to decry the development of the horseless carriage will be forced to recognize it as an admitted mechanical achievement, highly adapted to some of the most urgent needs of our civilization."

Hats off to the Illinois Institute of Technology, Microsoft Corporation, UNICARE, and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company for sponsoring this year’s 3rd Annual Chicago Innovation Awards. An additional round of applause should be offered to Dan Miller of the Sun Times and his fellow organizers at Kuczmarski & Associates, without whom this celebration would not be possible.

We’re certainly looking forward to 2005…so keep your eyes and ears peeled for the Chicago innovators who are revolutionizing the personal and professional lives for all the occupants of this tiny little planet called earth.

 Four Seasons Ain’t Just a Hotel

Quick question: Name a city with less wind than Boston, and more clear sunny days than Miami. Here’s a hint: its river is dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day.

You’ve got it, it’s Chicago.

Surprised? Many people are. Of course, that’s probably because average Chicagoans like to think of themselves as the toughest individuals in the world, able to withstand viciously cold winters, summers humid enough to wash your car without turning on the hose, and gale force winds powerful enough to blow the tourists on Michigan Avenue back to wherever they came from.

Indeed, we take a perverse pleasure in the image of a bundled-up football fan (icicles hanging from the moustache) cheering his heart out for his beloved Bears in the middle of a blizzard.

The truth, though, is that there are plenty of American cities whose winters are much colder than Chicago’s; summer humidity here is distinctly average; and the only way a tourist is going to get blown around in Chicago is if they take a sailboat out onto Lake Michigan.

All in all, the weather in Chicago is embarrassingly pleasant for our macho image, with many a clear sunny day, four distinct seasons to enjoy, and a pleasant lake breeze that originates from the 174 trillion cubic foot heat sink that is Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan acts as a cooling influence in the summer, and a warming influence in the winter, not the other way around as Chicagoans might have outsiders believe.

Some statistics to chew on:

• In the dog days of August, Chicago’s average high is a pleasant 81.8 degrees - lower than New York, Atlantic City, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Denver, Washington D.C. (Let’s not even talk about places like L.A., or Phoenix)…
  
• Chicago’s annual average low of 39.5 degrees is warmer than Colorado Springs, Reno, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis…
  
• There is precipitation in Chicago an average of 125 days a year. Other cities get rained on a lot more: Boston, Miami, Cincinnati, San Juan, Asheville, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Seattle, Portland (Oregon and Maine)…
  
• How about “The Windy City?” We’ve got wind, but a whole bunch of cities have more: Dallas, San Francisco, Cleveland, Kansas City, New York, Honolulu, Boston…
  
• There’s nothing better than a crisp clear day, and Chicago has a lot more of them than Colorado Springs, Cincinnati, Miami, Portland OR, Detroit, Cleveland, and Seattle…
  
• Nobody likes humidity, and if you’re waking up in Chicago, you’re experiencing equal or less humidity than Key West, Cleveland, Dallas, Austin, Rochester, Kansas City, Atlanta, Atlantic City, St. Louis, Washington D.C., San Antonio, Santa Barbara, Miami, Seattle, San Francisco, Tampa, Daytona, New Orleans, Orlando, and Houston

Even more embarrassing for the image of the ‘tough Chicagoan’ is the complete and utter lack of natural disasters in Metro Chicago. So while others elsewhere face the very real fears of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and mudslides, all the poor Chicagoan can do is ruminate on the time that “truly vicious” thunderstorm knocked out the electricity and made them miss the last 10 minutes of the latest reality show.

So the next time a Chicagoan starts spouting out about their bad weather, simply pat them affectionately on the shoulder, and say “yes, I know, you’re very tough,” and keep to yourself the fact that they didn’t seem to mind the cold last winter when they were warming by the fire with a cup of cocoa, and that the heat didn’t appear overly egregious when they were playing volleyball on one of Chicago’s 33 beaches.

Maybe, one season soon, when pennant hopes again bloom for the Cubs as they do every spring, they will still be alive when the leaves turn in fall. But you can count on wearing “icicle chic” Bears wear every winter because we Chicagoans consider domed stadiums acts against Mother Nature.

Chicago by the Numbers

World Business Chicago
177 N. State Street, Suite 500
Chicago, Illinois 60601

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