{"id":20593,"date":"2015-11-17T17:31:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T23:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=20593"},"modified":"2015-11-17T17:33:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T23:33:47","slug":"calling-all-chicago-techies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/calling-all-chicago-techies\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling all Chicago techies"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lily Singh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tucked behind a bookstore and talking above the sounds of the restaurant housed above, Chicago’s sports technology leaders zoomed in on the landscape of the town’s tech talent.<\/p>\n

Panel discussions, classes and events were all part of Made in Chicago week, which ended Tuesday. Sessions aimed at highlighting innovation in town. Wednesday\u2019s event, “Get in the Game: A Sports & Technology Panel,” brought together speakers who work at the intersection of both arenas. The discussion was moderated by Danny Ecker, a reporter from Crain\u2019s Chicago Business.<\/p>\n

Early in the conversation, Ecker asked the big question. \u201cIs there enough talent in Chicago to fulfill the kind of needs that you guys have from a sports tech perspective?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Players in the Event<\/h1>\n

General Assembly Chicago<\/a>: The Chicago design and technology campus is celebrating its one-year anniversary by hosting Made in Chicago week.<\/p>\n

Time Out Chicago<\/a>: The local online guide to all happenings in the city has partnered with General Assembly to bring Made in Chicago week to life.<\/p>\n

Chicago Sports-Tech Meetup<\/a>: The group was created to bring together those interested in sports and technology and offer events to gather and meet new people.<\/p>\n

Goose Island Beer Company<\/a>: The Chicago-based craft beer company was on site to provide beverages to attendees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nathan Wojtkiewicz, co-founder and COO of Swingbyte, was the first to field the question. His company, Swingbyte, tracks golfer\u2019s swings by attaching a small device to the shaft of the club and is then able to analyze that data to be reviewed on the company\u2019s app.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of talent, I think, for the development of new products,\u201d Wojtkiewicz said. \u201cAnd we do all that – we don\u2019t use any of our offshore partners to do any of the really heavy lifting as far as research and development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wojtkiewicz pointed out that Chicago is home to top universities such as Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and other schools, places that are full of talented students.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the problem is not the lack of talent but the challenge of convincing the top talent that they should work at your company, according to Lisa Meyers Strasman, president of NCSA <\/a>Athletic Recruiting. She explained how Chicago\u2019s sports technology scene has evolved in recent years from a hiring standpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much more competition than there was even five years ago,\u201d said Meyers Strasman. \u201cWe would be looking for a developer and we\u2019d put out sports and people would come see our cool office and it was a lot easier than today where there\u2019s so much competition among other sports technology companies who also have really cool cultures and environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [of] developers who can build apps, I think you can find enough talent here to do that,\u201d said John Contreras, co-founder and CEO of Matchup. \u201cFinding people who do machinery and artificial intelligence is a much bigger challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contreras\u2019s company allows you to join in on fitness challenges with friends regardless of the wearable technology that you use to track fitness, such as an Apple Watch or Fitbit. Contreras finds it difficult to find a specific kind of programmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, I mean luckily we have currently enough talent in house to do it but at some point we\u2019re gonna need more and I think that\u2019s gonna be our hardest hire, no doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strasman had one thing to say to the programmers attending the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much great talent in Chicago but the development is definitely a challenge,\u201d said Strasman. \u201cSo if there\u2019s any developers in the room be prepared to work in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Panelists listen as fellow speaker, Kevin Brilliant, fields a question during Made In Chicago Week’s “Get in the Game: A Sports and Technology Panel.” (Lily Singh\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lily Singh Tucked behind a bookstore and talking above the sounds of the restaurant housed above, Chicago’s sports technology leaders zoomed in on the landscape of the town’s tech talent. Panel discussions, classes and events were all part of Made in Chicago week, which ended Tuesday. Sessions aimed at highlighting innovation in town. Wednesday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":20594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,509,29,31],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-20593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-fall-2015","category-health-and-science","category-sports","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nCalling all Chicago techies - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/calling-all-chicago-techies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calling all Chicago techies - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lily Singh Tucked behind a bookstore and talking above the sounds of the restaurant housed above, Chicago’s sports technology leaders zoomed in on the landscape of the town’s tech talent. 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