Chicago Ideas Week kicks off Monday
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The fourth annual Chicago Ideas Week kicks off Monday, providing a rare opportunity to interact with some of the world's most well-known thinkers and successful leaders.
Mario Batali from ABC's "The Chew," hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, filmmaker George Lucas and country music singer Naomi Judd are just a few of the 150 heavy hitters who are descending on Chicago this week. They are sharing their insights and expertise at Chicago Ideas Week, the brainchild of tech mogul Brad Keywell.
"Every evening during Chicago Ideas Week are these magnificent events and walking on-stage and seeing people from all parts of the community who gather together to just open their minds and be exposed to interesting, hopefully mind-bending ideas. That gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction," said founder Brad Keywell.
The week-long ideas platform features 21 90-minute talks and two summits. Topics range from politics and business to sports and pop culture. The festival also will host nearly 100 hands-on labs across the city that offers behind-the-scenes access to Chicago fixtures ranging from the operations of the CTA to inner-workings of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Mark Doyle worked as part of an anti-corruption task force in Afghanistan then he started a silk-screening company to employ homeless veterans. He will be speaking on life after military service for veterans.
"We'll be talking about how hard it is when they come back, what their struggles are and hopefully a little bit of hope of this is what we do. This is how we're making a difference. And we'll actually be running a lab here on the 19th," Doyle said. "They're going to design their own t-shirt. We're going to have everyone's input. Then they're all going to get on a machine and print their own shirt."
Tickets are still available for many of the events. ABC7 is proud to be the official media partner of Chicago Ideas Week and will be streaming many of the talks live. For a complete list of our streaming talks and to watch, CLICK HERE.
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