World Business Chicago

We're delighted to welcome Grindr's new engineering hub to Chicago! 🌈🏙️ Grindr's decision to expand here underscores Chicago’s reputation not just for top tech talent, but as an affirming, welcoming city where everyone can be their authentic self. The office and engineering team in Chicago are led by Joel Keating, with plans to grow the overall team to nearly 100 members over the next few years. Grindr is specifically hiring in roles focused on Android, iOS, Java/Kotlin, Full Stack, Data Engineering, Cloud Engineering, and Engineering Management. We look forward to having company CEO George Arison, Joel and the #Chicago team as active participants in the city's tech and innovation ecosystem. “I could not be more excited to celebrate the opening of Grindr’s engineering hub in Chicago,” said Grindr CEO George Arison. “With its leading business community and its vast talent pipeline, Chicago represents the ideal location for Grindr to expand its vital engineering function as we continue to grow our team and work to create a world where the lives of our users are free, equal, and just.” #ChicagoTech #Innovation

Today, we are proud to lead a business delegation with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to Canada (Ville de Montréal) promoting Chicago's commitment to becoming a leader in the blue and green economy. Today's business roundtable featured leaders in the sustainable development, transportation, water management, and clean energy sectors with an interest in investing or expanding in Chicago. Chicago's robust infrastructure, university, and research network, and actively engaged elected officials working alongside business leaders, position us incredibly well to drive growth in sectors that prioritize long-term environmental and economic health. A special shout out to the Chicago contingent joining the mayor on his first business prospecting meeting out of the country including Charles Smith, Vice Chair, World Business Chicago, Alaina Harkness, Executive Director, Current, Adrienne Tongate, Executive Vice President, World Business Chicago, and Angela Tovar, Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Chicago. #ChicagoLeads #SustainableChicago #BlueGreenEconomy

This week, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson joined Mayor Valérie Plante of Montréal, QC, Mayor Bruno Marchand of Québec City, QC, and Mayor Cavalier Johnson of Milwaukee, WI, in signing a historic pledge to transform the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Basin into a thriving blue-green economic corridor - including a 10-year plan to foster sustainable, inclusive and resilient economic development while protecting the basin’s freshwater resources. “This international mission of the Mayor, conjugating policy and economic development, set the stage for more business opportunities, cultural exchanges and attraction of investment in the Chicagoland. As a North American leader of social policy and green economy, we see Chicago as a natural partner. The mayor’s visit is a unique opportunity to unite our forces and even more.” -Jean-François Hould, Québec’s Delegate in Chicago Joining the mayor were the City of Chicago chief sustainability officer, Angela Tovar, WBC Vice Chair Charles Smith, WBC EVP of Global Strategic Initiatives Adrienne Tongate, and Current Executive Director Alaina Harkness.

As the nation’s hub for food innovation, Chicago boasts the largest food manufacturing workforce in the U.S., supported by rich farmland and a robust transportation network. Generating $10.4 billion annually—a growth of 41.7% over the past five years—and leading in food science education, the Chicagoland region is setting the stage for what promises to be an inspiring week. Explore how Chicago's food and beverage sector continues to innovate and drive growth as we prepare for Future of Food Week! We've even gamified the week thanks to our partner foode! #Chicagoland #FutureOfFoodWeek #EconomicDevelopment

WELCOME to Chicago, Bedrock Materials! "On behalf of Chicago's residents and businesses, I extend a sincere welcome and congratulations to Bedrock Materials for choosing our city as the location for its Research & Development headquarters,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. "This decision reflects the strength of Chicago's talent pool, our esteemed research and academic institutions, and the vibrant tech ecosystem emerging here. We look forward to the positive impact Bedrock Materials will have on our city's growing tech sector."

Current has spearheaded Great Lakes ReNEW, a regional innovation engine, that has awarded up to $160 million over 10 years from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to invent new ways to extract valuable minerals and toxic chemicals from our wastewater. This is the type of business and innovation that we hope to continue to spur and invite into our city.

🎬 NEXT WEEK at The Music Box Theatre... ‘Songs of Earth’, directed by Margreth Olin – a documentary that explores the profound resonance between nature, our lives and the stories we tell. Don’t miss the limited-screening next week – including a special Q&A with the director following its debut showing! Use voucher code: STRAND before checking out for $2 off tickets

As part of the #GETTransition we shared earlier today, we are SO excited to announce we will soon welcome Elle Ramel to our team to lead our new Gender Equity Office! Elle will be transitioning from her role as Director of GET Cities Chicago as part of the initiative's Transition to Community. Elle will play a pivotal role by continuing to convene the Tech Equity Working Group, its scaling pilot projects, and the Tech Equity Network, and ensuring that all economic activities center gender justice as a throughline. Reach out to get involved! #GETTransition

We're turning the city of Chicago into a dining game board with @worldbusinesschicago! With participating venues and at official Future of Food Week events, you can earn foode loyalty points for dining gift cards or exclusive restaurant perks! When you dine out at participating restaurants or attend an event, enter the Foode VR space, hold up your camera, and find the drop in the room! You can claim your perks and points from there. Learn more and sign up here! https://lnkd.in/gybMaMRC

Did you hear? GET Cities, an initiative we have been proud to partner with in co-creating an equitable tech industry in Chicago has announced that it will be closing its doors as it transitions the work into the broader community. As it begins this transition, we want to celebrate the incredible journey so far and the impact made on our tech ecosystem!  Read the. news here: https://prn.to/3ykPDRj GET Cities has been at the forefront of driving change and promoting equity in the tech industry, with a special focus on gender. Especially in #Chicago, where we've been thrilled to collaborate on multiple interventions in the Tech Equity Working Group as it has continued to thrive and grow, including the expansion of our Travel Fund for women entrepreneurs! GET Cities' impact speaks volumes: from deploying $3.2 million to support equity in tech, hosting over 200 events, and piloting 37 interventions, many of which have successfully scaled and spun out to partners already – the dedication and hard work have made a real difference. So, what's next for gender equity in Chicago? While we're sad to see GET Cities close its doors, we are SO excited to share that they have chosen World Business Chicago to carry the work forward in Chicago that was piloted at GET Cities! They've also chosen two other amazing partners, Radical Partners and Last Mile Education Fund to continue to build on other aspects of the portfolio of work they incubated. We can't wait to see how the work continues to evolve and believe this transition to a community model should inspire us all to be innovative when prioritizing sustainable impact, fostering resilience within communities, and encouraging strong relationships to take on a life of their own within the ecosystem! Stay tuned as we make some more exciting announcements as part of this #GETTransition in the coming days! Want to learn more, or connect with us on this new endeavor, reach out to Nicole McCarthy.