
The second annual Tech Month Chicago will take place September 1 – 30, 2017.
Tech Month Chicago declares the month of September 2017 as Technology Awareness Month, a month for Chicagoland to celebrate technology, and our city’s diverse genius in technology innovation, business, and education.
Here is some more context around what we’re doing this year:
- Our website is: www.techmonthchicago.com
- Tech Month Chicago #TMC2017 is a one month event calendar in September that promotes all of Chicago’s tech events to the public at large for a Technology Awareness Month across the Chicagoland area.
- It’s geared toward families, kids, and the non-techies out there.
- We will have a great deal of advertising out there in late August and September to help get the word out to the city. We will be advertising in places like DNAinfo, The Chicago Reader, New City, Time Out Chicago, SouthSide Weekly, Streetwise, and the Lumpen Times.
- If people attend more than three tech events during the month, they will get a participation certificate and some other cool stuff.
- We will be encouraging civic engagement and tech education throughout the city as well and working with companies, schools, venues, event coordinators, and more.
Tech Month Chicago prioritizes events and projects that:
- are free and open to the public
- are geared toward the non-techie or people outside of the tech industry
- increase public access to and participation in technology-related tools, gadgets, knowledge and ideas – especially among underrepresented populations
- involve every demographic in the city from senior citizens, teens, business people, companies, organizations to any and all interested participants
- encourage collaboration between neighborhoods, schools, genres and anything else
EVENT TYPES:
Submissions will be accepted for the following event categories:
- Tech Events for kids and families
- Company Open Houses
- Educational Outreach and Job Training
- Tech Expert presentations and panels
- Networking, parties, festivals
- Demonstrations of Technology
- Audio such as Radio and Podcasts
- Virtual such as Webinars and Hangouts
- We are open to your creative ideas as well
EVENT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Anyone can submit an event for Tech Month Chicago. We want to be as inclusive as possible as we believe that technology should belong to everyone. Tech Month Chicago seeks to engage all city residents to participate and attend events through promotion of our calendar. We imagine events like coding for kids, celebrations, maker tutorials, technology related music and art events, professional networking, job training, and more.
We also suggest that you adopt a “code of ethics” at your event, to make all people feel welcome and safe. Here’s an excellent template to get started: geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Policy
WHEN SUBMITTING YOUR EVENT:
Please make sure to tell us your name, number, email, and social media accounts.
EVENT PROMOTION:
All events submitted prior to September 1, 2017 will be promoted in a robust marketing campaign and public outreach effort including online and social media. Event coordinators will be invited to meet for an information session whereupon they will be given additional materials to distribute and help promote their events.
NEED AN EVENT SPACE FOR YOUR SEPTEMBER #TMC2017 TECH EVENT?
For those needing a space to host tech events this September, the following sponsors have generously donated their space (subject to availability for dates and times) to help celebrate Technology Awareness Month this September. Please contact them directly for booking info and space availability in September 2017:
National Able Network
567 W. Lake Street, Suite 1150
Chicago, Illinois 60661
Contact Person: Wok Barry
Contact Info: jbarry@nationalable.org • 312.858.0830
Website: nationalable.org
Additional Details: They would love to host a hackathon and any other events they can.
Clique Studios
410 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 801
Chicago, IL 60605
Contact Person: Brent Williams
Contact Info: bwilliams@cliquestudios.com • 312-279-9329
Website: cliquestudios.com
Coalition Impact
405 West Superior Street
Chicago, IL 60654
Contact Person: Andrew Ettenhofer
Contact Info: andrew@coalitionspace.com • 312-757-5905
Website: coalitionspace.com
Fin Tank
333 S. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL 60604
Contact Person: George Vukotich
Contact Info: george@fintank.org • 708-259-3686
Website: http://fintank.org
House of the Apocalypse
1908 S. Halsted Street #1F
Chicago, IL 60608
Contact Person: Melanie Adcock
Contact Info: melanie@techmonthchicago.com • 312-259-0610
Additional Details: Small space holds 30-50 people
Metis
1033 West Van Buren, 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60607
Contact person: Nathan Vermeiren
Contact Info: nathan@thisismetis.com • 646-780-0191
Website: thisismetis.com
Northeastern Illinois University (Center for College Access and Success)
770 N Halsted St #420
Chicago, IL 60642
Contact Person: Meghan Hausman
Contact Info: c-hausman@neiu.edu • 262-424-8136
Website: neiu.edu
Roosevelt University- Chicago and Schaumburg Locations
Chicago Campus:
430 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605
Schaumburg Campus:
1400 N. Roosevelt Blvd, Schaumburg, IL 60173
Contact Person: Eric Wierzbicki
Contact Info: ewierzbicki@roosevelt.edu • (312) 341-2406
Website: https://www.roosevelt.edu/
HELPFUL REMINDERS:
You can hold your event for Tech Month Chicago anywhere. It is not limited to the above locations. It can be at another tech venue, business, coffee house, restaurant, night club, and more. The above locations are offering to host free of charge, so that’s a huge bonus, but again your Tech Month Chicago 2017 events can take place anywhere throughout Chicagoland.
It is free to post events to the Tech Month Chicago calendar.
Click here to post your event!
Questions? Need Help? Want to Donate your venue? Please contact Melanie Adcock at 312-259-0610 or melanie@techmonthchicago.com