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midVentures25 was a success, with over 500 entrepreneurs, investors, VCs and members of the Midwest tech community checking out the coolest new tech startups!

Congratulations to G2.fm, who won our prize pool of over $16,000 in cash, prizes and services.

Inventables CEO Zach Kaplan presents G2.fm their $1,000 cash prize check.

The top five startups selected by our expert panel of judges were bln.kr, G2.fm, Genlighten, JoeMetric, and Watermelon Express.

But all 25 startups who showcased their investor-ready companies at the conference showed that the Midwest is a thriving region for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Photos
Please visit the gallery of photos available from last night’s event: http://www.ajrjphotography.com/photos/midventures25/

Thank Yous
A big thank you to our judges: Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton, Jason Heltzer of OCA Ventures, TradingBlock CEO and RedBox co-founder Biju Kulathakal, Adam Siegel, CEO of Inkling Markets, and Ted Souder, head of regional industry - travel at Google.

Thank you also to our volunteers who worked so hard to set up the event, and our sponsors and exhibitors who made the event possible.

More to come soon!

midVentures25 is the first Chicago-based startup demo day & conference: 25 of the best investor-ready early-stage startups will pitch their products in an open-floor expo.

We have over 22,000 square feet of demo space, where you can meet each startup team at their table.

The top 5 startups will have a chance to pitch to an audience of entrepreneurs, VCs, angels, bloggers, media and Chicago’s tech community.  A panel of expert advisors will ask the tough questions — ultimately choosing one company to win over $15,000 in cash, prizes, and services from our partners.

Agenda

5:00pm – 6:00pm Registration / Open-Floor Expo

6:00pm – 7:30pm Welcome / Open-Floor Expo

7:30pm – 7:35pm Welcoming Remarks

7:35pm – 8:15pm Top 5 Startup Pitches (3 minutes each)

8:30pm – 9:00pm Judge’s Results / Awards

9:00pm – 10:00pm Networking

The focus of midVentures25 is to show the national technology and investment community that the Midwest has an abundance of early-stage innovators within the technology, consumer, and sustainability space. You can expect to engage thought leaders in education, art, media, business, science, and technology during the conference. Dress is Web Casual.

You can purchase a ticket on midventures25.eventbrite.com or you can pay $10 at the door. You can also come any time from 5pm until 10pm. You can park at the garage on Adams and Franklin.

Hey midVentures. Our event last thursday was a big hit, with over 60 attendees and a panel discussion with crowdSPRING.com, ThePoint.com, InklingMarkets.com, and Cameesa.com which hopefully inspired many of us to pick up their apps and start utilizing crowd-powered work. My summary is below in the blog post….

Click here to see the event photos

Second, we have a new website. midVentures owes a debt of gratitude to Nate Kerksick, our go-to web designer who transitioned from design work on the Obama Campaign to assist our projects. Thanks to Zac Witte for the 48-hour turnaround on all css and html implementation.

Third, we have a new partner Ouethy Kadji. Read our stories here.

Summary of the June 4th Event

I initiated the talk with a brief summary of crowdsourcing. I defined crowdsourcing as assigning work to an undefined or unknown person / group of people, with an incentive or reward for the completed work. ‘What crowdsourcing is’ became a focal point a few times in the conversation.

I asked 3 core questions:

1. What type of work can I crowdsource?

2. When is collective intelligence more accurate than expert intelligence?

3. How can crowdsourcing help find get me more work?

These questions all circled around 1 core issue: what is the ’sweet spot’ for crowdsourced work with each application? Large or small projects? A large or small number of people collaborating? Does effective crowdsourcing require experts or the masses in order to uncover the best matches? Once a match is made (client and worker) do they leave the web system to sustain a relationship? Our audience asked a few questions regarding the efficacy of ‘crowd-sourced code’ vs. open source projects, the feasibility of the $10 billion chicago glass dome that will render winter obsolete, and the push-back from corporate staff who are worried their decision-making power is threatened by inklingmarkets.

This panel discussion definitely sparked more questions in my mind about the long-term potential of crowd-sourced applications within different industries. Perhaps a company could materialize from market demand and self-organize out of the crowds of professionals to produce a product or service. Unfortunately, the discussion ended before I could develop my idea.