The State of Innovation (SOI) is our annual pillar event focused on the people, businesses, trends, and topics that are shaping the city's tech community and economy. Throughout the year, we host several niche SOI meetups that spotlight an individual category, company, or theme. Food Inno, our next meetup, is presented by the National Foodworks Services, a new food incubator based in Decatur, Illinois.
Chicago's a food town. And, as we remind you daily, the city's an emerging hub for innovation, as well. Fortunately, Chicago's also a place where these two traits intersect, as represented by a number of fast-growing CPG brands, food tech companies, delivery startups, F&B-focused funds, and much, much more.
On Wednesday, 9/28, we will host Food Inno, an exploration and celebration of the local innovators that are operating at every corner of the food industry, from agriculture to retail. The meetup will be keynoted by a 30-minute panel featuring several early-stage food brands, with the dialogue revolving around scaling a startup within the industry and the difficulties/experiences that are unique to the space.
Prior to the panel will be the Inno Showcase, consisting of several 5-minute presentations from companies and experts that are relevant to the theme. For Food Inno, the showcase will spotlight businesses and individuals from every level of the supply chain, including growers, venture capitalists, marketers, and more.
Finally, the meetup will open up with and conclude with the Inno Marketplace, a collection of startups that will be demoing their products and devices.
Here's everything you need to know about Food Inno:
Time & Place: Wednesday, 9/28 from 5.30 - 9at WeWork Grant Park, 332 S. Michigan. Complete schedule is below.
Panel: The panel will feature Simple Mills, the fast-growing maker of almond-flour baking mixes, Limitless, a new high definition coffee and tea brand from the founder of Protein Bar, Soozie's Doozies, the maker of refrigerated cookie dough, and RXBAR, a line of protein bars made with real food. The panel will be moderated by Andrew Bluestein with Bluestein Associates, a family office that invests in food businesses.
Showcase: The Inno Showcase will feature:
- Growers: Plant Chicago In a circular economy, conventional waste streams from one process are repurposed as inputs for another, creating a circular, closed-loop model of material reuse. Plant Chicago, a small & scrappy nonprofit, is working to develop circular economies of food production, energy conservation and material reuse, while empowering people of all backgrounds to make their cities healthier and more efficient.
- Capital: Sandbox Industries, a Chicago-based venture capital firm that invests in, amongst other categories, food and agriculture technology.
- Marketing/Innovation: Fifty Gazelles, an agency that develops actionable innovation ideas then commercializes them using external partners and creative business agreements. Clients include General Mills, Boulder Brands, and Kellogg's.
- Data/Safety/Transparency: Label Insight, a Chicago startup that provides product and food transparency through data science.
- Retail: InContext Solutions, a company that uses VR to simulate in-store experiences, allowing CPG brands and retailers to gather virtual insights before physically executing.
- Food Delivery: Eat Purely, a Chicago-based healthy food delivery app that serves up chef-crafted organic meals with ultimate convenience and an attention to quality and taste like no other. With a mission to enable and inspire healthy living, healthy dinners are made using fresh, organic, locally sourced ingredients delivered straight to customers’ doorsteps. The food is delivered – ready-made and chilled to preserve optimum quality and maintain the high levels of nutrients in the food. The meals are ready to eat after just a few minutes in the microwave or oven. That way, the food is enjoyed the way the chef intended--cooked to perfection. There are no chemicals, preservatives or GMO’s used in any of the meals or in the company’s scratch-made kitchen.
- Prepared Meals: Nurture Life: Nurture Life prepares fresh, wholesome, organic, ready-to-eat meals for babies, toddlers and kids and delivers them weekly, straight to your door.
Marketplace: The Inno Marketplace will feature:
- Tovala: An innovative countertop food device that can make healthy meals in under 30 minutes. Tovala won the University of Chicago's prestigious New Venture Challenge last year.
- Üllo: A device that uses a patent-pending polymer to filters sulfates from wine. The product raised over $300k on Kickstarter last summer and officially launched earlier this month.
- Farmbox: FarmBox offers a turnkey solution for growing food indoors profitably while making a positive social impact. Their community-based indoor farms provide hyperlocal products using highly efficient and sustainable hydroponic processes to organically grow fresh, non-GMO, salad lettuces without pesticides. This enables their clients and investors to build out and break even faster than other methods typical in the urban farm industry, and share the benefits with their local communities. To schedule a visit to their prototype farm located in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, or to learn more, visit their website at www.farmboxfresh.com
- Oak Bottle: A small container that people can use at home to quickly age their alcohol to give it that full, oaky taste.
Meetup Schedule:
5.30 - 5.35: Check-in at WeWork Grant Park: 332 S. Michigan, 60604 5.35 - 6.05: Inno Marketplace, Networking, Food & Drink 6.05 - 6.15: Welcome, Opening Remarks 6.15 - 7.00: Food Inno Showcase 7.00 - 7.35: Panel & Questions 7.35 - 8.30/9: Inno Marketplace, Networking, Food & Drink
Space is limited; grab tickets today here.
TICKETS:
Thanks to our Sponsor:
