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Chicago Ideas
Chicago Ideas is a 501c3 nonprofit organization which hosts year-round programming events throughout the City of Chicago including the largest affordable ideas festival called Chicago Ideas Week. Chicago Ideas, known as “The Ideas Platform for Everyone,” is a platform for turning ideas into actionable results. It has featured globally recognized speakers, such as Bassem Youssef, Hillary Clinton, and Deepak Chopra. Due to its affordability and wide range of influential speakers, Chicago Ideas has been covered by various news outlets, such as the Chicago Tribune, WGN Radio, and Forbes.

The Chicago-based nonprofit was founded in 2011 by Brad Keywell, co-founder of Groupon, Uptake, Lightbank, Mediaocean, and Echo Global Logistics. The organization was born out of the belief that ideas festivals should be accessible to anyone, no matter one’s background. Per the website, Chicago Ideas is a movement built on one core belief: “When a broad spectrum of thinkers and instigators share ideas, we have the power to transform our world”.

Chicago Ideas Week is the largest event presented by Chicago Ideas. “CIW” is held in October with venues dispersed across the Chicagoland area. Talks, Conversations, and Labs examine a range of subjects from education, entrepreneurship, food, music, entertainment, scientific discovery, politics, health, and more. Notable speakers include Hillary Clinton, Alec Baldwin , Martha Stewart , Mario Batali, Bill Clinton, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, City of New York Mayor Bloomberg, Wayne Brady, David Gallo, Founder and CEO of Buzzfeed Jonah Peretti, and many more.

Many of the events are documented and shared for public viewing through their main website. Users can also read digital news posts by Chicago Ideas that relate to alumni speakers, current issues, and Chicago Ideas updates.

(2011-2017) Founding and recent growth
Chicago Ideas was founded in 2011 by Chicagoan entrepreneur, Brad Keywell and Creative Director and Executive Producer Carrie Kennedy, who decided that Chicago was hungering for an ideas festival to help inspire change within our community. The festival would attract globally-recognized speakers, have a keen focus on social innovation and, perhaps most importantly, be financially accessible enough for a wide range of thinkers to come together. With that, Chicago Ideas Week was born. Through the years, it has expanded to provide outlets for engagement beyond the ideas festival. Such initiatives include The Co-op, CIW YOU(th), Brain Trust, and the Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation (BHSI) Fellowship. There are also Meet-ups and member events in which Chicago Ideas stimulates new initiatives, ventures, and creates new connections and collaborations.

Chicago Ideas Week
Chicago Ideas Week, also known as CIW, is the largest affordable ideas festival in the country. CIW comprises more than 30,000 yearly attendees across 150 events. The programs take place throughout the City of Chicago and include a variety of onstage talks and panels, as well as more interactive, hands-on labs.

Curiosity Series
The Curiosity Series program takes places February through June and features onstage events, as well as a lineup of action events that aim to help attendees not only learn about important issues on a large scale, but also uncover tangible ways to make an impact in their communities, cities and beyond. Examples of action events include a roundtable discussion and a set of behind-the-scenes tours at topic-related spaces.

Past subjects and speakers include “Reimagining Prison” with the Vera Institute of Justice, “Improving Society Through Tech: A Conversation with Joi Ito” , “The Joke is Mightier than the Sword” with Bassem Youssef" , “In Conversation: Alec Baldwin Beyond the Screen” and “Future of Intelligence: Human, Machine and Extraterrestrial.”

CIW YOU(th)
YOU(th) is a unique program that provides 1200 high school students from at-risk communities in Chicago direct access to Chicago Ideas Week programming, the opportunity to go behind-the-scenes of companies and organizations, and a direct pipeline to globally recognized speakers for more intimate small group interactions. In addition, the program offers professional development opportunities to the students. The goal of the CIW YOU(th) program is to empower students to seek new opportunities, pursue their passions and walk away with a newly inspired outlook and sense of their own potential.

In 2017, Chicago Ideas piloted a series of “Ideas Day” events in high schools throughout Chicago. The organization collaborated with their student YOU(th) ambassadors to curate speaker presentations and interactive activities for the high school students.

Bluhm Helfand Social Innovation (BHSI) Fellowship
The Bluhm Helfand Social Innovation (BHSI) Fellowship recognizes social entrepreneurs 35 years or younger, whose nonprofit and for-profit ventures tackle significant social challenges through innovative business models. The BHSI Fellowship is committed to empowering entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds by providing them a platform for growth. Fellows gain exposure to nationally-recognized business and civic leaders, establish a community of support with past Fellows, are awarded $10,000 in financial support toward their work and participate in and get to speak during CIW. Since its inception in 2011, the BHSI Fellowship-created by philanthropists and entrepreneurs Leslie Bluhm and David Helfand- has awarded more than $500,000 to the Fellows through contributions and in-kind services.