TechWeek opened its gates at eight-thirty this morning to about 600 people eager to attend the standing room opening kickoff session.
What they heard was an assessment of Chicago’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by speakers from event sponsors, Motorola.
Despite the early crush, the two-dozen-plus orange-shirted registration volunteers quickly moved to process each attendee in about four minutes, according to David Rosenblatt, Managing Director of Techweek 2013.
And, despite the $650 conference and expo badge charged to those who missed early registration, onsite registrants arrived throughout the day.
“People are hearing about it through seeing signs around River North, the Mart, a lot of our media partners are putting it on their publications right now,” says Rosenblatt. “We wish they knew sooner and they could have been part of Techweek months ago, but we’re excited to have them today.”
The eighth floor of the Merchandise Mart, where the event was also held the previous year, had been arranged into an organized labyrinth or aisles that wound its way from a set of designated elevators, through registration, and into the Expo floor. Compared with last year, the number of exhibitors seems to have doubled. ❒
