Colony 5 Civic Tech Challenge Announces Judging Panel

CHICAGO - Nov. 17, 2020 - PRLog -- The judging panel for the 2020 Civic Tech Challenge has been finalized.  The Civic Tech Challenge was launched in September 2020 on the National Day of Civic Hacking.  CTC20 invites entrepreneurs, coders, and engineers to brainstorm, collaborate, and compete on tech-enabled business concepts that would be tech-enabled to thrive in distressed retail corridors.

"The goal of the CTC has always been to transition the very best from apps competitions and hackathons beyond traditional resources limitations and mindsets.", Steven C. Philpott, Sr. CEO XtraMedium Communications (parent company Colony 5).  "Applied innovation is the most likely tool for economic impact and the CTC is where we farm and fish for business prototypes deemed economically sustainable, investment worthy startups to rebuild these areas for the post Covid-19 economy."

Now in approaching its fourth year, the CTC20 model is focusing on a specific 1-mile corridor in Chicago.  The innovative entrepreneurship and disruptive approach is meant to activate concepts generated by excellent community business programs like Englewood Accelerator, Greater Southwest Development Corporation and Chatham Business Association.  The contest is open to the public and participants have joined from all around the world since the September launch.

The 6-month campaign is dedicated to coupling the most robust prototypes with go-to-market resources and strategies to ultimately become new companies on Chicago's South and West Sides.

The 2020 CTC Judges are:

·        Brenna Berman - Executive Director, City Tech Collaborative

·        Carlton Nolan - Commissioner Innovation and Tech City of Chicago

·        Willie "JR" Smith Director, Chicago Beverage Systems | Reyes Holdings

·        Bo Rodda - Senior Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies - Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship

·        Betsy Ziegler - Executive Director, 1871

Judging of the finalists will take place in January 2021.  Judging criteria and information about the campaign can be view online at https://ctc20.devpost.com.