Millennium Park to host 'world class gallery of the future'
Chicago's Millennium Park will offer a look into tomorrow's technology. But you'll have to wait until September.
Wired Magazine is hosting NextFest (www.wirednextfest.com) that showcases companies worldwide, including those from the Chicago area, with innovative products, machines, interactive art, games, humanoid robots and more.
Researchers, designers, inventors and others have gathered for the annual event since it started in 2004 in San Francisco.
Chicago's Mayor Daley sent some of his representatives to check out that debut and captured it for three days at Navy Pier in 2005, said the fest's Executive Director Victor Friedberg.
"Our vision was to bring to the public a world-class gallery of the future," said Friedberg.
When NextFest returns to Chicago, it will expand to two weeks starting Sept. 27. A tent will shelter many of the exhibits, but others will be scattered around the park. About 40 or more exhibitors are expected to show how technology will change our lives in the next decade.
Organizers are expecting as many as 50,000 people to visit.
And those visitors likely will have a chance to create an avatar, or a computer-generated animated character, using an image of themselves that can be dropped into scenes from "Indiana Jones." That same avatar then will be e-mailed to the participant and can be used in other movie scenes.
Another attraction will be hybrid vehicles that are so sleek that passengers actually sit directly behind the driver in a straight line, instead of side-by-side.
Also, an interactive gaming kiosk will offer 360-degree views, taking video games to another level, said Friedberg.
"We want to show the changes in technology and how they cross commerce and culture and will affect our lives in the future," he said.
Surfing: If you travel by train to go to work, you likely saw a bunch of monkey characters at the Metra stations in downtown Chicago on Friday. They were hyping the new www.NetworkingMonkey.com for business professionals. It posts upcoming networking events and opportunities in the Chicago and suburban area.
•The Web site, www.elginducks.com, recently launched to promote the 10th annual Elgin Duck Pluck on Sept. 6. Elgin-based MHN Internet Marketing (www.marketinghelpnet.com) and Gilberts-based Gilmore Marketing Concepts (www.gilmore-marketing.com) helped launch the new site and the online store for the Boys and Girls Club of Elgin's 2008 Duckapalooza Music Festival.
•Telestial, an online travel communication retailer, has debuted the SIMple Calling SIM card, a new prepaid card for calling overseas from a mobile phone in the United States. The SIM slips into any GSM phone and can be used without monthly fees, contracts or long-term commitments. The SIM card sells for $29 on Telestial.com.
•Chicago-based Midway Games Inc., an interactive entertainment industry publisher and developer, said it will release "Mortal Kombat: Kollection," a special collector's edition box set with three of the most recent Mortal Kombat releases, for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system.
akukec@dailyherald.com