Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the New Venture Challenge and the end of UChicago Innovation Fest at the Polsky Innovation Showcase.
Event Details
The Polsky Innovation Showcase is an interactive celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration in the university community. Set up like a "science fair," entrepreneurs and innovators from across the campus community will demo their start-ups, products and/or technologies at different tables in the Winter Garden. Attendees are invited to take an interactive and in-depth look at the flourishing entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University of Chicago. Winners of all tracks of the NVC—Traditional, Social, Global, and College—as well as the winners of the UChicago App Challenge will be announced during this event. Presenters include Steve Kaplan, faculty director of the Polsky Center and Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Chicago Booth, Ellen Rudnick, executive director of the Polsky Center and clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth, and a special keynote from Matt Maloney, MS '00, MBA '10, founder and CEO of GrubHub. GrubHub won the Edward L. Kaplan, '71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) in 2006, completed its IPO in April 2014 (NYSE: GRUB), and is currently operating in 900 U.S. cities and London. This event will serve as the grand finale to UChicago Innovation Fest 2016.
UChicago Innovation Fest, a three-week celebration of the University of Chicago's entrepreneurial and innovative advances and solutions, kicks off May 12 and runs through June 2, with more than 35 sessions scheduled across the city and UChicago's downtown and Hyde Park campuses. Join us to share big solutions to problems in Chicago and across the globe, find new collaborators, and rub shoulders with leaders in business, health care, tech, and social and environmental policy. Highlights of this year's celebration include the 20th anniversary of the Polsky Center's Edward L. Kaplan, '71, New Venture Challenge, a behind-the-scenes look at life as an entrepreneur at the university's Chicago Innovation Exchange, and events featuring faculty who are bringing groundbreaking advances out of the lab and classroom.
This annual festival is led by UChicago's innovation leaders, including Arete, the Chicago Innovation Exchange, the Institute for Translational Medicine, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Social Enterprise Initiative, and UChicago Tech. Additional sponsors include UChicago Urban, UChicago Urban Labs, and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.