{"id":29290,"date":"2016-02-11T19:57:15","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T01:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=29290"},"modified":"2016-02-11T19:57:15","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T01:57:15","slug":"ice-cold-warehouse-to-tech-hot-spot-googles-new-chicago-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/ice-cold-warehouse-to-tech-hot-spot-googles-new-chicago-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice Cold Warehouse to Tech Hot Spot: Google\u2019s New Chicago Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Katie Murar<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Lecinski, head of Google in Chicago, predicted the company\u2019s new West Loop location will help create a tech hub in the Windy City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to draw a triangle from 1871 at Merchandise Mart out west to Fulton Market District, north to Goose Island, and then back down on the diagonal to 1871, that is now the physical zone to be the innovative tech hub of Chicago,\u201d Lecinski said to a room of business men and women on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The event was sponsored by the Business Marketing Association and was held at the Standard Club in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Lecinski, vice president of Americas Customer Solutions for Google, said the company moved from its previous River North location due to size constraints. He said he hopes young workers will contribute to the city\u2019s technology industry at the new location.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the students right out of school with their bachelor’s or master’s in software engineering go to London or Singapore, get that experience, have a world view that\u2019s beyond the Midwest, and bring that experience, skill and energy back with you to Chicago and help make it great,\u201d Lecinski said.<\/p>\n

The new office, a 300,000 square-foot\u00a0space at 1000 W. Fulton Market, was once the former Fulton Market Cold Storage Company, where Lecinski\u2019s grandmother used to have her ice delivered \u201cfor her ice box, in the pre-Frigidaire days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big brick windowless building that had been in great disuse and disrepair for many years,\u201d Lecinski said. \u201cIt was frozen, with stalagmites of ice covering floor to ceiling. There were no elevators, stairs, bathrooms, nothing in this building that was frozen over. But we thought, that\u2019s the kind of challenge we wanted to take on, it felt like a \u2018googleventure.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The office officially opened in November last year, and as of two weeks ago, now has\u00a01,000 employees.<\/p>\n

Lecinski devoted the rest of his speech to inform the business professional-filled audience of ways to use digital marketing to promote\u00a0a product and engage consumers, and also to stay ahead of competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of digital engagement, people immediately jump to advertising, and that\u2019s certainly important but I often start with thinking about what you have done to digitize your core offering,\u201d Lecinski said. \u201cFor example, Monopoly digitized its board game to where it\u2019s now a BYOT game\u2014Bring Your Own Tablet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lecinski emphasized mobile engagement, for which \u201cthe deadline was yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team did a study on Sunday, where we found that 82 percent of all searches that were done related to Superbowl ads were mobile. Only 7 percent were on tablet, and only 11 percent were on desktop,\u201d Lecinski said. \u201cIf 82 percent of your business is going to come through mobile, are you ready for that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lecinski said when thinking of ways to engage customers, it is crucial to understand how to connect with your audience. Thomas Joseph Willett, an audience member who founded his own marketing company, said this notion \u201cwas right on the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to know your audience, and asking questions to get to know your customer will help guide the strategy for your company,\u201d Willett said.<\/p>\n

Audience member Deborah Sasak, of\u00a0the Maine Community Youth Association Foundation, a Park Ridge non-profit, commented that while audience engagement is crucial, the manner in which you do it is heavily dependent on your company, and your company\u2019s core audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work with high school students, and while we\u2019re not doing enough digital engagement, we don\u2019t want to be shoving it down their throats at the same time,\u201d Sasak said. \u201cThe thing that has worked best for us is putting a poster on a store window, so in that sense it is also knowing your audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lecinski\u2019s final advice to the audience was taken out of Google\u2019s training strategy for new hires: be nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must be a life-long learner, and please be kind,\u201d Lecinski said. \u201cKindergarden rules apply. Our jobs are hard enough, let\u2019s just treat each other with respect and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google VP Jim Lecinski spoke to a room of business professionals at an event sponsored by the Business Marketing Association on Thursday. (Katie Murar\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Katie Murar Jim Lecinski, head of Google in Chicago, predicted the company\u2019s new West Loop location will help create a tech hub in the Windy City. \u201cIf you were to draw a triangle from 1871 at Merchandise Mart out west to Fulton Market District, north to Goose Island, and then back down on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":29294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nIce Cold Warehouse to Tech Hot Spot: Google\u2019s New Chicago Home - 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\/ice-cold-warehouse-to-tech-hot-spot-googles-new-chicago-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ice Cold Warehouse to Tech Hot Spot: Google\u2019s New Chicago Home - 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