Keynotes

FRIDAY MARCH 1    10:30 AM

RICK VALICENTI

THIRST  

“Being All Creative Chicago-Style”

Rick Valicenti is the founder and design director of Thirst/3st, a communication design firm devoted to art, function, and real human presence. He has been influencing the design discourse internationally since 1988 and is a leading presence in design as a practioner, educator, and mentor.

Valicenti was honored by the White House in 2011 with the Smithsonian Cooper-­‐Hewitt, National Design Award for Communication Design. In 2006, he received the AIGA Medal, the highest honor of the graphic design profession, for his sustained contribution to design excellence and the development of the profession, and in 2004, was recognized as an AIGA/Chicago Fellow. Valicenti has been a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since being invited in 1996.

For the past three decades, he has publicly presented his works to over 100 professional and college audiences on six continents in the form of presentations, workshops, and critiques on the design industry. A 356-­‐page monograph on the Thirst work titled, Emotion as Promotion, was published in 2004 by the Monacelli Press.

FRIDAY MARCH 1    3:00 PM

CHRIS KASKIE

PITCHFORK MEDIA  

“Overload: Cultivating a Trustworthy Brand and Cutting Through the Noise”

Chris Kaskie is the President of Pitchfork, the award-winning online music magazine the New York Times calls "The most prominent brand in online music journalism." With more than 4 million unique visitors each month and 500,000 visits each day, Pitchfork has one of the Web’s most loyal audiences and is considered one of the world’s most popular, trusted, and influential music publications. Starting in 2004 as Pitchfork's first full-time employee, Chris has overseen the company's day-to-day operations, guiding its development and growth -  the Pitchfork Music Festivals (Chicago and Paris) and Pitchfork.tv being just two of numerous success stories. Chicago's edition of the Pitchfork Music Festival has been hailed as “one of the best, brightest ideas in Chicago rock history.” Chris has also recently led the expansion of Pitchfork's coverage beyond the music world into the world of design and visual culture with Nothing Major and is continuously exploring new ways of reinventing how Pitchfork can push its content forward and reach music fans worldwide. He resides in Chicago with his wife and two children, working out of the company's headquarters in Logan Square.

SATURDAY MARCH 2

10:30 AM

CHRISTINE CIKOWSKI, JOSHUA KULP

SUNDAY DINNER CLUB + HONEY BUTTER CHICKEN 

“Building A Food Life”

Like many food lovers and budding cooks, Chefs Josh Kulp and Christine Cikowski wanted careers rooted in all things culinary and wanted to create a meaningful dining experience. They founded Sunday Dinner Club, an “underground restaurant”, as a solution to the grind of the standard restaurant environment and hierarchy. Eight years and hundreds of dinners later, Kulp and Cikowski have grown that dining experience into a full time business with employees, highly-structured communications, licenses, accountants, taxes and, above all, really great food! From sourcing peek seasonal ingredients direct from farmers, to exploring traditional cuisines, to serving thoughtfully composed menus to a community of diners, they have developed a workplace devoid of the trappings of the conventional restaurant. They will discuss the regulatory challenge of building a company that defies conventional processes and whose profit motive has been replaced by a quest for a sustainable food life.

Christine Cikowski and Joshua Kulp

Chefs and Owners of Sunday Dinner Club

Christine and Josh founded Sunday Dinner Club eight years ago, after graduating from Kendall College. Their multi-course dinners, served in a home setting, feature the best of what’s available from city farmers markets and often are a collaboration with other chefs, food and beverage artisans and local businesses. The food that they cook is the food they want to eat — seasonal, simple, clean but also refined and painstakingly handcrafted. In 2013 one of their popular menu items will get a restaurant space of its own. Honey Butter Fried Chicken will serve up some seriously tasty fried chicken, seasonal sides, desserts and, of course, a big ol’ dollop of honey butter. 

Christine has previously cooked at Blackbird and Milk & Honey Cafe; Josh at Tweet and Restaurant Magnus (WI.) Their writings have been featured in Chicago Magazine, The Chicagoist, Ruhlman.com and on Josh's food blog, Parcook.com