The May Report: 5/29/2011: PART I of 3: MIT-EF White Board Challenge First place goes to Blood Vessel “BullsEye” Locator presented by Colin O’Donovan; Second place to Fun Captcha presented by Bryan Arturo; and Third place to I-GO Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing presented by John Brophy; 80 people attended and Ron analyzes six years of awards to 18 presenters; Why Ron is fuming right now at Melissa Harris, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who didn’t call out Wiskowski, Profita, and Stukel for being men of such “good” character — NOT — as she reported on a study we’ll be discussing a lot done by Ted Zoller of UNC Chapel Hill; and Craig Bradley, are you brain dead?; Plus Bennett gets some national attention for his writings but hopefully, it will not go to his head; and more…

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944.

Assistant editor: Melanie Adcock, iPHONE: 312-259-0610, melanie_adcock@msn.com

If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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The May Report congratulates the winners of the 2011 MIT-EF White Board Challenge

First place with a prize of $3,100 went to

Blood Vessel “BullsEye” Locator Colin O’Donovan

Second place with a prize of $1,600 went to

Fun Captcha Bryan Arturo

Third place with a prize of $600 went to

I-GO Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing John Brophy

Note to readers: Use the code name Greenleaf if you want to use the peer-to-peer service provided by I-GO

Note that a last minute new sponsor gave $100 in additional prize money to each winner.

Congratulations to the seven other finalists:

ENERGY DISTRIBUTION UNIT OR EDU Eduardo Sampedro
M.O.R.E. Life (Mobile Operating Room Engineering) Henna Eassa
Green Zephyr Inc. Michael R. Weinman
Energy Recovery Technologies Ron Fleckman
CommuniTeach Sarah Press
Fear Experiment Saya Hillman
Heavy Equipment Transmissions Thomas Capote

Each presenter used the White Board, each presenter had microphone and PA system problems to contend with, but nonetheless all the presenters successfully expressed their enthusiasm and passion for their ideas. Some did it with dramatic flair such as Saya Hillman and Bryan Arturo and some did it with the cool, calm and steady approach of a railroad engineer (Mike Weinman of Green Zephyr).

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Going Mobile – Web Content 2011 Conference – June 6 & 7
Gleacher Executive Conference Center – Downtown Chicago

Register here (Fewer than 35 seats remaining)

www.webcontent2011.com/

15 mobile-focused sessions over 2 full days featuring speakers including:

Gian Fulgoni, comScore, Inc. – Today’s Mobile Mainstream
Robert Rose, Big Blue Moose – Context Aware Everything!
Colleen Jones, Content Science – This Mobile Moment
Erin Scime, HUGE – Content Strategist & Designer Talk Mobile

Plus BONUS WORKSHOP:

“Smart from the Start” – Content Strategy ½ Day Workshop by Brain Traffic

“In the world of online content, mobile is the new black! Join national content experts, marketers, strategists, developers and other industry thinkers June 6th and 7th in sunny Chicago at WebContent 2011 www.webcontent2011.com/ .” – CMSWire

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

– Two events this week from the Canright Calendar: Executives’ Club on Wednesday June 1st and IBM on Healthcare on Thursday, June 2nd
– After many years in administration at UIC, Brenda Russell confirms that she is stepping down effective May 31st and returning to teaching and research full time
– Art of the tech deal in Chicago needs more movers, shakers
City falls short in dealmaker category, according to professor’s study
– Briefly noted, by Ron May
End of part I
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Start of part II

– Briefly noted, by Ron May (continued)
– Jeff Scheur of www.noredink.com responds promptly to Ron’s query about what his business does which is more than Ron has gotten from Adam Saffro, John Braun, Jeff Meredith, Rod Shrader, Matt Raymond and others (and this includes not returning calls) — these guys are going into the stockade for a month
– Arash Amini who also attended MIT-EF’s WBC describes his business which is the next generation of sensors and analytics (the secret to commercial urban organic farming)
– Ron’s letter to Professor Zoller Sunday afternoon with details on deals done in Chicago
– — Information on Ted Zoller, the UNC professor who conducted the study and did you know that there is a Nebraska publication called Silicon Prairie News?
– Freescale Barely Rises After IPO Priced at Bottom of Sharply Reduced Range
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End of Part II
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Start of PART III

– Tom Bennett takes a coffee break on his site
– Tom Bennett gets some national press as Barbara Hollingsworth of The Washington Examiner writes “Where’s Tony Rezko?”
– More Bennett stuff
– Bennett again: NUCLEAR | CHICAGO: USA v. Blagojevich: Now Showing at a Theater Near You: Blago’s Last Stand? Team Blagojevich Now Forces US A
– Has Jerry Mitchell gone stark raving mad? He’s now sending me his multi-level marketing crap
– Tuesday, May 31: MEF- Wheaton meeting on marketing
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The Business of Cloud Computing

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

8 a.m. – Noon

IIT’s Rice Campus in Wheaton

Join us for a Cloud Computing seminar oriented to business and co-sponsored by Illinois Institute of Technology and NewGen Business Solutions Inc.

Key Topics

• Hype vs. reality

• Moving to a cloud-based world

• The Cloud Computing Roadmap

• The Private Cloud: The answer to security and privacy concerns

• How the Cloud benefits business

• Cloud architecture: Operating your full business cycle in the cloud, from CRM to general ledger

Business owners, professionals, senior managers, IT technical staff, and educators should attend this event.

Location

Illinois Institute of Technology

Rice Campus

201 East Loop Rd., WheatonIllinois

Wednesday June 1, 2011 , 8 a.m. – Noon

Cost

Advance Registration: $40.00

$50.00 at the door the day of the event

Registration includes continental breakfast

Register Today!

Visit www.cpd.iit.edu/cloudcomputing

Questions? Call 630-682-6001 or email pfeiffer@iit.edu

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SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING WORKSHOP – STILL TIME TO REGISTER!

Join 12 Social Media experts in this 5 week “Social Media for Business” Training Workshop starting Wednesday, May 25 – June 22, 2011.

Great group of attendees representing over 37 states and 15 countries across the globe!

There are a total of 15 sessions conducted by leading social media authors & industry experts including few of Chicago’s own.

As a special bonus for May Report readers, Instant E-Training is extending an exclusive 10% off their listed fees.

So, why wait?

Click here to sign up:

instantetraining.go2cloud.org/SHE

Here is the list of authors and speakers training this workshop:

* Dan Zarrella, Author of Facebook Marketing and Social Media Marketing book
* Ramon De Leon, Dominos Pizza
* Hollis Thomases, Author of Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day
* Krista Neher, SXSW Speaker & Author Social Media Field Guide
* Eric Enge, Author of The Art of SEO
* Simon Salt, Author of Social Location Marketing
* Fionn Downhill, Instructor & CEO, Elixir Interactive
* Barbara Rozgonyi, Founder Social Media Club Chicago
* Marshall Sponder, Author of Social Media Analytics
* Bob Tripathi, Trainer & Industry Speaker
* Nicole Duhoski, Social Media Manager

Look at the detailed training agenda. There is something for everyone to learn:

instantetraining.go2cloud.org/SHE

Here is how this Social Media training workshop is different:

* Live video streaming makes you feel like you are in a classroom
* Real-time Q&A features as well as questions you can ask experts during the training
* Recorded training available for 90 days
* Free Access to 10 training video worth $897 in value
* Certificate of completion awarded

Learn more about this

instantetraining.go2cloud.org/SHE

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The Scoop section:
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Two events this week from the Canright Calendar: Executives’ Club on Wednesday June 1st and IBM on Healthcare on Thursday, June 2nd

The Executives’ Club of Chicago’s Centennial Technology Summit. Tech Tools & Tips to Maximize Your Personal Productivity will welcome some of the leading minds in the Chicago technology industry to showcase some of the most innovative technological advancements. There will also be rare opportunities for on-site visits with two of Chicago’s most advanced technology ventures; Microsoft’s Technology Center and CME Group’s Global Command Center. 7:00 am – 5:00 pm, Wednesday, June 1, The Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
Details and RSVP

centennial.executivesclub.org/centennial-summit

Transforming Healthcare – Healthcare Leadership Exchange. IBM hosts industry experts, influencers, and thought leaders to discuss some of the most critical issues facing healthcare information technology today as well as into the future. 8:00 am – 2:00 pm, Thursday, June 2, IBM Innovation Center, 6th Floor, 71 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago.
Details and RSVP

www-304.ibm.com/isv/iic/events/enroll.jsp?eventloc=CH0602114

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After many years in administration at UIC, Brenda Russell confirms that she is stepping down effective May 31st and returning to teaching and research full time

Subject: Re: Brenda, I got word last night that you have recently left UIC. Is that true?
Date: 5/27/2011 12:36:00 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: russell@uic.edu
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

Yes, I officially retire May 31 because of the uncertainties in the state pension situation. I will be reemployed in fall as a professor to continue my NIH funded research and teaching. No more university administration or CBc though. However, I will have more time to devote to my cell habitats company.

On 5/27/11 12:13 PM, “RONALDMAY@aol.com” wrote:
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May here. My understanding is that this is about preserving pension money for Brenda and many others at the university who may see their pensions fooled with by the legislators in Springfield. This way, Brenda can take a much lower salary and rely more on her pension for money. There will be others doing this and there will be a limited window of opportunity to do it.
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Art of the tech deal in Chicago needs more movers, shakers
City falls short in dealmaker category, according to professor’s study

www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0529-confidential-zoller-20110529,0,7880457.column

Art of the tech deal in Chicago needs more movers, shakers
City falls short in dealmaker category, according to professor’s study
Share18(3)
Melissa Harris

CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL

May 29, 2011
Ted Zoller admits being unfamiliar with Chicago.

But he is confident he has diagnosed a problem within its tech community: a shortage of dealmakers.

Melissa Harris

Chicago trails Austin, Salt Lake City, Denver and Minneapolis in the ratio of dealmakers per capita, according to Zoller, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Zoller defines a dealmaker as someone who owns a stake in three or more early-stage technology companies at the same time. Zoller’s team has identified 100 “dealmakers and emerging dealmakers” in Chicago and 98 in Denver, a city with about one-third of Chicago’s population.

These risky investments typically range from $50,000 to $250,000 per company.

“What you have is a small number of dealmakers doing more than their fair share to support early-stage technology companies,” said Zoller, who is on leave from UNC while leading the entrepreneurship program at the Kansas City, Mo.-based Kauffman Foundation. “That creates highly channeled, highly hierarchical dealmaking. A really vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem would have broader participation.”

Today the Tribune is publishing its second annual overview of Chicago’s technology startup sector. The list is not exhaustive. It shows that the sector grew during the past year, but the major local sources of funding remained the same.

Given Chicago’s growing reputation for entrepreneurship, “many of the promising ventures must be funded through equity outside of the region,” Zoller concluded based on his research and without reviewing the Tribune’s information.

Zoller culled his data from Capital IQ, a financial information service from Standard & Poor’s. According to his analysis, the second most important dealmaker in Chicago is New Enterprise Associates managing general partner Peter Barris. Although Barris grew up here, he neither lives nor works in Chicago.

At the top of the list is former R.R. Donnelley & Sons Chief Executive John Walter, who shares investments with Barris in MediaBank, Echo Global Logistics, InnerWorkings and Groupon, which Forbes has labeled the fastest growing company ever. Those companies were either founded or co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Eric Lefkofsky or Brad Keywell, who have gone on to start venture capital firm LightBank, through which they’re launching even more companies.

Barris, Lefkofsky, Walter and Keywell have invested in technology startups together so many times that Zoller calls them a syndicate.

Another such group identified by Zoller’s research consists of Lee Wiskowski, Douglas Stukel and Michael Profita. They jointly lead NaeroDynamics, a “data-cleansing company” for telecom networks. [Editor's note: May here. Melissa, this is the sentence that has gotten my blood up since these guys are in my opinion of questionable character, shall we say? The bold type is my doing.]

“The serial entrepreneurs and serial investors who tend to know one another build a rugged economy, an economy that creates new firms,” Zoller said in an interview with a University of North Carolina publication. “In Silicon Valley, for instance, 98.6 percent of serial entrepreneurs and investors know one another. In any other hot spot in the United States … the ratio is roughly 60 percent. That’s a big distinction.”

Still, Zoller’s “dealmaker algorithm,” which identified and then mapped connections among 8,192 Chicago investors and entrepreneurs, contains gaps. For instance, some venture capitalists don’t invest in their own names and instead do so through third parties or companies they own.

Zoller said one such example is J.B. Pritzker, founder of New World Ventures, one of Chicago’s most active venture capital firms. Pritzker is notably absent from Zoller’s list of top Chicago dealmakers.

Zoller designed the algorithm to help entrepreneurs identify potential investors. But the data, which formed the backbone of his dissertation, is not widely available.

It’s a great tool for getting an unbiased assessment of an important sector of Chicago’s economy.

In March, for instance, The Economic Club of Chicago breathlessly declared that the city’s tech startups “will rule the new decade.”

But given Zoller’s research, I’m not convinced that will happen unless more Chicagoans with the means to take risks on startups do so.

Melissa Harris can be reached at mmharris@tribune.com or 312-222-4582. Twitter @ChiConfidential.
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Briefly noted, by Ron May

* This just in:
Twitter to leave empty CTO post unfilled?

www.pcworld.com/article/228486/twitter_to_leave_empty_cto_post_unfilled.html

Meaning?

* A number of people have asked me what it is that Dalka did to save my life and the answer is that he called the ambulance and held my forehead up with the ice pack and he kept me from falling over.

* I had been planning to get this report out by Friday at noon, but events intervened.

One such event was Melissa Harris’ column. For those who don’t know, Melissa writes the Chicago Confidential column for the Chicago Tribune and she has done some good work, even by Ron May standards.

But today Melissa has set me off my rails.

Before I get into that, congratulations to Helen Yang who used to be Jerry Mitchell’s business partner for doing business in China before she dumped him.:-)

Helen was on TV twice this weekend, once at 5:30pm Saturday on Channel 9 and again on CLTV today (Sunday) for her hometown which I won’t misspell here, but they are known for brewing beer. Helen gathered a group of 20 Chinese people from her area in China to watch the show and today I think she was with some other folks. She is sending us a note about why it is that she came to Chicago and the place she studied at. One point emphasized in the program was how much Chicago has in common with the city Helen is from in China.

Her column today (above in this report) is a must read. It is based on the research into the connections between entrepreneurs and what the researcher (professor Ted Zoller at UNC Chapel Hill) calls Dealmakers which he defines as people who are invested in three start-ups at one time. Start-ups are really start-ups in the $50K to $250K funding range. Zoller has developed an algorithm for helping entrepreneurs find the right investors.

Here’s the sentence that has made me apoplectic.
++++++++++++++++
Another such group identified by Zoller’s research consists of Lee Wiskowski, Douglas Stukel and Michael Profita. They jointly lead NaeroDynamics, a “data-cleansing company” for telecom networks. [Editor's note: May here. Melissa, this is the sentence that has gotten my blood up since these guys are in my opinion of questionable character, shall we say? The bold type is my doing.]
+++++++++++++++++

I know about the Harris column today since Bill Anthony sent me this email with an attached file that contains Melissa’s column and Bill, it took me forever to open it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: lee wiskowski?
Date: 5/28/2011 3:50:11 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: anthonylawoffice@gmail.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

former clients mentioned here, Ron.

–
William D. Anthony, Attorney at Law
Anthony Law Office, 20 North Wacker Drive, Suite 2520
Chicago, Illinois 60606, Telephone (312) 332-6405, ext. 267, Cellular (630) 854-0009, Facsimile (312) 332-2657

*********This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above and, if connection with legal representation, may contain confidential or privileged communications protected by attorney client privilege and/or by the attorney work-product immunity. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. Thank you very much.

Any advice in this email (including any attachments unless expressly stated otherwise) is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, for purposes of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on any taxpayer.
+++++++++++++++++++++++

May again. Bill, what is this baloney about not allowing people to use your advice to avoid paying taxes?

Look, in my opinion, based on the outright lies that Profita and Stuckel told at their FFF presentation on December 8th which I taped and others who have come forward to tell their stories, and that includes both lies of commission and omission, people need to know about these guys. Is Craig Bradley of Wildman Harrold brain dead? Craig, are you not aware of the problems with www.affluence.org? Craig, David Beazley who dumped them sat right next to you on May 4th at the judging panel on the second stage. Nonetheless, my information is that your organization, Wildcats — the NU equivalent to Hyde Park Angels — is taking a look at them.

Steve Mitchell, the founder of Affluence.org, has gone after these guys for the money they owe him and here are a few of the lawsuits. Also, Lee Wiskowski who is part of their operation, is up to his eyeballs in legal troubles.

I am not sure what case or cases this is since I could not open the file. securities.stanford.edu/1035/AEI01_01/200448_r01n_0000382.pdf

Lee Wiskowski: hrsclaimsadministration.com/cases/pix/
Mitchell v. Stukel: dockets.justia.com/docket/florida/flmdce/8:2010cv00139/240638/

I’ll leave it there for today, but I am even thinking about going to UNC Chapel Hill to interview Ted Zoller. I’ll take Lundin or Melanie to do the camera work. Lundin saw the test version, actually there were four test versions because the document keeps coming into my AOL as a zip file and he said that he does not do lowly jobs like videographer and I should take Dalka instead. Lundin and Fred Hoch need to get into a grudge match with the winner doing ____________________ to the other with Maura O’Hara officiating. Steve and Fred hated each other when they planned the Midwest Venture Summit together and Maura had to intervene and tell them to stop acting like children. Steve admits it was largely his fault since he kept putting Fred down. Of course, Fred has a big ego too.

* I meant to mention that there were two women standing outside the Federal building on Wednesday when I was sitting there after my court appearance and they are both interns for some organization against political corruption. One goes to UIC and the other to Valparaiso in Indiana. The woman from Valparaiso is from Ottawa, IL and I asked her if she had heard of the name Thornton since the Thornton family is very big in Ottawa. She knew of the name because there is a park named for Thornton. That is Tom’s dad.
I also heard that Tom Thornton has connections to Dr. Ronald Michael and a group of bio-angels.

While I was sitting there talking to the two women interns outside the Federal building, they got a phone call. They were in! They were getting seats at the Blajo trial.

So the thought occurred to me: Why isn’t Tom Bennett here? Is he off pouting in the corner? Is there a real reason he can’t get in or is he just getting distracted by his having been taken out of the building by two federal marshals? Why is Tom sitting there waiting for Clerk Dobbins to call him?

Tom and others are asking legit. questions like “Where’s Rezko?”

But I can’t understand, Tom, how you can do the reporting job if you are not there to report. One might argue that the trial itself is just a dog and pony show but the theater is part of the story. Then again, the mainstream press can cover that effectively. By following Twitter feeds, Tom did find out that Patrick Fitzgerald was there on Friday, I believe. That he told me was not reported in the press he found. So it is important for someone who is monitoring the things that everyone else may not be paying attention to to be there.

Tom, I don’t care about Barbara Hollingsworth or even that you were on Drudge for a few hours on Friday, today. You are not reporting what is happening now. The Rezko stuff is old news. Yes it may be important, but it is beating a dead horse. Do you have something new to say about why they did not call him?

I told Tom on the phone Friday night not to get distracted by his publicity. That will have a corrosive effect. Don’t believe your own press, positive or negative, Tom. And don’t let it go to your head. Stay focused on the job of reporting at hand.

I meant to mention that one of the people who attended the FFF event on May 4th was a founder of Fox & Obel, the deli place in the East River area. I think it was Obel, but he sold out.

Also, going to the MIT-EF for the White Board Challenge yesterday, two people, one man and one woman who live on Aldine Street north of Briar, helped me get to Broadway and get a cab. Thanks. They work for a web development firm called GGP, General Growth Properties, that does work for shopping centers.

www.ggpmalladvertisingnetwork.com/bd/index.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=fy11

* I have not made up my mind yet about the MIT-EF White Board Challenge. The attendance was noticeably lower than in previous years. My estimate is 80 including presenters and judges. They had 120 or more attendees in years past.

The quality of the presentations as presentations was pretty good. Two presenters who had a high level of energy and enthusiasm plus were good story tellers were Bryan Arturo from Fun Captcha which came in 2nd and Saya Hillman from Fear Experiment.

Sarah Press did a good job presenting too, but it was a bit more rehearsed than Saya and Bryan who were noticed for their raw energy and excitement. Sarah worked for Bain & Co., a top tier management consulting firm after graduating from UNC Chapel Hill in 2008 in political science. Her boyfriend is a grad student in astronomy at The University of Chicago.

On a strictly business level, looking at the business model and the revenue potential and the capital required to get to market, things get more complex. A firm like www.greenzephyrinc.com which is in the transporting vegetables by rail cars business has potential. Not all innovation has to be high tech, you know. The mobile operating room has possibilities, but any time someone is relying on third world countries for distribution, it can get tricky.

I actually voted for the winner and while it was not a highly analytical decision process, looking at my own gut feel analysis, it comes down to this:
1. I get what they do since my own health problems highlight just how commonplace this problem is.
2. I get the benefit of their solution.
3. The capital required to get this off the ground is not out of line.
4. The revenue model makes sense.
5. A targeted market and channel to that market makes sense.
6. It is a concrete solution to an easily understood concrete problem. Palpation en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palpation is too unreliable and ultra sound is too expensive.

They also don’t appear to be up against a big player that could squash them in an instant.

I know that for similar reasons, a few people probably voted for Fun Captcha which takes the “work” out of all those anti-spam and hard to read “words” you have to copy to enter a site. It is an area where reforms are needed. A CAPTCHA–also known as a ‘Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart’–is type of response test used to distinguish real live humans from computer ‘bots.’

I have to get in touch with Bryan since fun CAPTCHAs are not new and they seem to have had a checkered past:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/funny-captchas-fails-the_n_487166.html#s70889&title=ufcker

goinglikesixty.com/2008/11/fun-with-captcha-including-the-most-difficult-captcha-image-in-the-universe/

I-Go has been around a while and is not setting the world on fire, but their peer-to-peer idea may get some traction. More people are buying cars again if I heard correctly.

www.igocars.org/?gclid=CMGypbeajqkCFcO8KgodpxNOsw

All three winners this year had easy to understand problems and easy to understand solutions which large numbers of people without any domain expertise could relate to.

Nancy Munro’s husband asked me if this was the best year of the WBC ever. I would have to say that I will have to think about that. Leaving out business models and revenue models, the presentations themselves were solid and there has usually been one or more weak presentation but even though a few people just ran out of time when that five minute bell rang, all presenters did a good job.

I wish they had gotten more people, but the combination of bad weather and the Bulls playing cut attendance down, I suspect. Steve Swibel suggested that explanation and he told me that he is no longer on the official “high priest” board of the MIT-EF which included Paul Fricke, Bob Lepkowski, Steve and two others. I got the impression when I called him today (Friday) that this board is no longer recognized in any way by Cambridge, MA.

This year Ted Wallhaus has been the chapter chair and next year it will be Nancy Munro. In my view, Nancy has been running things already for some time, not to take anything away from Ted and Ted did bring in an additional sponsor which added to each contestant’s winnings.

I am still curios about why the local chapter has not said anything about the changes at the national level. MIT-EF chapters no longer report to the alumni association. They are now going to report to the MIT Technology Review.

How is that going for you guys? Nancy and Ted, or Bob Lepkowksi who is an MIT grad, can you tell us?

Ungaretti & Harris is happy with the MIT-EF, according to David Brown of Ungaretti whom I called today, Friday, and guess what, he answered his own phone. So since MIT-EF got jettisoned by Drinker Biddle and then by K&L Gates, it is good to know that Ungaretti is hanging in. David Brown said that they have not even considered setting a time limit for sponsorship and these guys did come up with the funds for the WBC.

Dave said that he and Irv Michaels had discussed at the WBC sitting down in June to discuss finances prior to the end of the MIT-EF fiscal year at the end of June. That’s good because one of Darren Cahr’s beefs with them (from Drinker Biddle) was that they did not massage the relationship at the board level with the key sponsor. It sounds like there is interaction this time.

Ungaretti has their fiscal year ending in September.

They’re just discussing this on Chicago Week in Review. Former Mayor Daley is getting $100K a year for the next five years ($500K) to ORGANIZE lectures at the University of Chicago.

How much taxpayer money for security for the former Mayor? He is also expected to get $50K per speech as an honorarium. This could really rack up.

I think the students would like to hear lectures in a small seminar type class. Of course there is no way to prevent what he says from leaking.

The MIT-EF got 90, get that 90, submissions for the White Board Challenge. In 2008, they had 67 applications, from which 13 finalists were selected to present.

Where were the 81 people who submitted but did not make the finalists?

This is a big problem with the WBC. One year the winners came from the University of Chicago and various labs there. Northwestern has contributed some winners. And don’t forget UW-Madison.

My point is that we already have those connections. They need to widen the net.

The Big Idea Forum is used to review submissions and one submission had ties to IIT Knapp Center and that was John Brophy of I-GO who presented a different business having to do with batteries to TBIF under Nik Rokop who was there Thursday night and who told me he is tied into them.

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THIS SECTION IS SO LONG, I HAD TO SPLIT IT INTO TWO PARTS SO THIS IS THE END OF PART I OF THE BRIEFLY NOTED SECTION.
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END OF PART I