ThinkChicago’s fall flagship event ThinkChicago Homecoming 2021 took place on November 4th-6th. We invited top-tier university students from across Chicago and around the country to take a behind-the-scenes tour of Chicago’s thriving tech & innovation sector.

The three-day immersion event included:

• Keynote remarks by:
  • Colleen Egan – President & CEO, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition & Institute
  • Thru Shivakumar – CEO & Cofounder, cohesion
  • Kristen Sonday – COO & CoFounder, Paladin
• A company showcase where local company/startups representatives connected with ThinkChicago participants on current job/internship opportunities.
• A civic tech challenge where student teams proposed innovative solutions in response to the City of Chicago’s Recovery Task Force (RTF) report.
• A series of panel discussions and networking sessions with various leaders of Chicago’s tech and innovation ecosystem.
• Career exploration opportunities with startups from 1871, 2112, Duality, MATTER, mHUB, Techstars, Workbox, and others.
• And career exploration opportunities with innovative companies like Additive Monitoring Systems, Ahh Towel, Bring Me That, Cameo, CampfireSocial, CareBand, Cast21, Cohesion, Duality, Enzyme by Design, Improovy, Kavnia Coffee, Lava, and many other official ThinkChicago company partners.

As World Business Chicago’s national STEM talent attraction and retention program, ThinkChicago is supported by anchor partners: the City of Chicago, the University of Illinois System, and City Colleges of Chicago.

ThinkChicago is made possible through the generous support of sponsors, like tastytrade, ThinkChicago’s 2021 sponsor, and GET Cities.

Below is a gallery of photos Saturday’s in-person session.

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