Date: July 14, 2015
Time: 3:45pm to 4:45pm EST
Price: FREE (presentation deck included)

Webinar Playback

As the third largest city in the United States and the recipient of numerous major awards for innovation—Chicago provides the ideal backdrop to explore the nexus of energy, infrastructure and innovation occurring today. As a prime example of the resurgence in technology and invention taking shape across the Midwest, this webinar will highlight the path of two enterprising organizations working across the region’s energy, tech and startup scenes to develop the next phase of cleantech innovation in the US.

The Midwest’s foundation is strong – earning it $1.2B in DOE awards between 2009 and 2014, more than double that of any other region, and it is home to more than 200 energy startups with many more taking root because of the region’s unique assets.  On July 14, we’ll unveil how the combined force of ComEd’s grid modernization efforts and impact venture fund, Energy Foundry, has created undeniable momentum in the Midwest energy scene, and how various collaborations are helping to build the ecosystem and strengthen connectivity across the utilities, corporations, entrepreneurs, researchers and all levels of government – an important driver for the emergence of Chicago as an energy tech innovation hot-bed.

Join Joseph Svachula, Vice President of Smart Grid and Technology at ComEd and Sara Hochman, Managing Director of Energy Foundry for a discussion about how Chicago is ushering in the infrastructure age, and how energy transitions and grid innovation simultaneously catapults entrepreneurship and regional economic development.

Focal Points

• Chicago’s rich history in energy technology innovation is the key to its future success: A case study on the nexus between energy, infrastructure and innovation – how Utilities, Investors and Corporations in Chicago have spurred economic growth by collaborating with startups, academia, civil society
• ComEd investing human capital, technology, and building collaboration on grid modernization efforts in the greater Chicago region
• The creation and portfolio of Energy Foundry – a first and best in class model for catalyzing cleantech energy investment and innovation
• A sampling of tangible collaborations across utilities, venture capital, entrepreneurs, public and private interests, an active ecosystem of thoughtleaders and research laboratories

Webinar Thought Leaders

About ComEd

Today ComEd is undergoing a massive shift into the future-ready smart grid. With over 3 million smart meters to be deployed and a Future Energy plan that has already prevented more than 3.3 million customer interruptions, reliability in the top 10 percent among utilities and outage restoration has saved more than $175M. Beyond keeping the lights on, ComEd has supported the collaborative work across the region in smart cities and technology adoption under the leadership of Joe Svachula.

About Energy Foundry

Energy Foundry has invested in seven startups that are creating major avenues for growth in the cleantech and energy sectors. Hear more about how partnerships with agile entrepreneurs is helping ComEd address the energy challenges of tomorrow as an opportunity for community leadership today.