• 1871 (map)
  • 222 West Merchandise Mart Plaza
  • Chicago, IL, 60654
  • United States

This month we are joined by Catapult, ShotTracker, Milestone Sports, Swingbyte and TRAC to look at how wearables are changing the game of sports. This is a free event for members. Sign up and register on Meetup.com. 

Equipped with sensors and access to our bodies 24/7, wearable technology is changing the game of sports. Professional and amateur sports teams are employing wearables to measure and monitor athletes, improve performance, train, scout and even mitigate the risk of injury. 

The night will kick off with a presentation by Catapult, the global leader in athlete analytics who will present their sports tech before hearing from ShotTracker, a wearable system that boosts basketball players' performance by measuring shot attempts, makes, misses automatically. This will be followed by a panel discussion exploring the impact of wearables on sports, both professional and amateur, especially looking at how wearables are impacting training and performance.

Catapult, ShotTracker, Milestone Sports, Swingbyte, Optimal Design and TRAC will also have their tech ready for demo in the exhibitor area. And of course, pizza and beer will be served!

Spread the word! #WWCHI

Agenda

6:00-6:30: Registration & Demo Area Opens (pizza and beer served)

6:30-6:35: Opening Remarks & Welcome

6:35-6:55: "Wearable Athlete Analytics" presented  by Boden Westover - Director of Marketing, Catapult

6:55-7:10: "Wearables and Team Sports" presented by Davyeon Ross, Co-Founder & COO and Lori Gery, Chief Marketing Officer at ShotTracker 

7:10-7:30: Panel: "The impact of wearable tech on sports" moderated by We Are Wearables founder, Tom Emrich

  • Boden Westover - Director of Marketing, Catapult
  • Nathan Wojtkiewicz, Co-founder of Swingbyte
  • Davyeon Ross - Co-Founder & COO, ShotTracker 
  • Stephen Suydam - Director of Research, Milestone Sports

7:30-9:00: Demo Area Open + Bar & Food

A big thanks to our sponsors Uproar PR and Optimal Design for making this event possible. and to our community partner 1871 for hosting us again this month.

 
 

About the Tech

Catapult empowers elite coaches globally with scientifically-validated metrics for the advancement of athlete performance. Catapult engineers wearable technology that provides objective information behind athlete risk, readiness and return to play. The company was born out of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and a scientific research organization and provides an all-encompassing solution with research-based insights in to athlete management.

TRAC is a company focusing on simplifying the track and field experience via an integrated RFID timing platform.

Milestone Sports is comprised of dedicated technologists and athletes who strive to develop wearable technology that improves the performance and health of athletes and connects them with retailers and brands to increase loyalty and consumer engagement.

ShotTracker: You can't improve what you don't measure, which is why Davyeon Ross and Bruce Ianni created ShotTracker. ShotTracker is a wearable tech for basketball that tracks shot attempts, makes, and misses. It is comprised of a net sensor, wrist sensor, which slides into a wristband or compression sleeve, and an app that work together creating a personal shooting profile for each user. Co-founded and headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, Ross and Ianni develop consumer's technology for players who want to improve their shooting. 

Swingbyte is a motion analytics company that provides meaningful insights by tracking and analyzing motion data. Its namesake product is an affordable mobile golf swing analyzer that helps users identify flaws and improve their golf swing. The Swingbyte sensor, which attaches to any club, driver through putter, captures key metrics and transmits impact data and an interactive 3D image of the swing to a smartphone or tablet device and is available for iOS, Android and Google Glass. Swingbyte has been recognized with several distinguished awards including a 2014 Chicago Innovation Award and an Alpha Award at the 2014 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. 

About the Speakers

Davyeon Ross - Co-founder & COO, ShotTracker: Prior to founding ShotTracker, Ross was Founder/CEO of Digital Sports Ventures, an interactive technology company with rights to Division I college sports video across seven major conferences. DSV exited to Digital Broadcasting Group, a top-5 video ad network, in 2011. Davyeon, born in Trinidad and Tobago, came to the States via collegiate basketball scholarship. Ross earned his B.S. in Computer Science from Benedictine College and an MBA from Mid-America Nazarene.

Lori Gery - Chief Marketing Officer, ShotTracker: Lori leads all things marketing and is responsible for spreading the ShotTracker love to ballers around the world. She has strong consumer experience from a long career at Unilever where she worked on brands like Suave, Dove, Degree and AXE. More recently, she flexed her B to B marketing muscle at Innovadex.com. Lori received her MBA from Chicago Booth and her BFA from The University of Michigan.

Boden Westover, Director of Marketing, Catapult: Boden is Catapult's Director of Marketing, overseeing all communications, public relations, branding, social media, and company workshops and events. Boden has been with Catapult for almost three years, seeing the company grow from a 15-person Melbourne-based operation to a 95-person global company. Boden was previously Head of Sport for Pagemasters, a sub-division of the Australian Associated Press, leading a team in the editing and publication of a dozen major mastheads. Prior to joining Catapult, Boden played professional basketball in Australia and claims to have dropped six threes on Kevin Durant in high school. 

Nathan Wojtkiewicz - Co-founder & COO, Swingbyte: Degreed engineer with diverse experience in operational roles. Former Global Procurement and Supply Chain expert at W.W. Grainger. Natural inclination for efficient execution. University of Chicago / Booth Alum. 

Stephen Suydam - Director of Research, Milestone Sports: Stephen is an expert in gait and movement analysis and the Director of Research at Milestone Sports.  Before joining Milestone Sports, he worked in prototype development for the small electronics and mobile phone industry.  His passions for sports and athletics has driven him to try everything from rugby to kickball to hurling. Stephen received a Ph.D. in Biomechanics from the University of Delaware and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri.

About Our Sponsors

1871 is an entrepreneurial hub for digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart, the 75,000-square-foot facility provides Chicago startups with programming, access to mentors, educational resources, potential investors and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs that help them on their path to building successful businesses. Recently ranked 9th in the world in the 2014 UBI Index list of top university-associated business incubators, 1871 has become a global leader in the entrepreneurial community. 1871 is the flagship project of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. For more information, visit www.1871.com.

Uproar PR is an innovative consumer technology public relations and social media agency. Along with their other technology practices, the firm has successfully built brand recognition for its wearable tech clients.  Within the Toronto and Waterloo communities, Uproar works with Thalmic Labs, Bionym Kiwi Wearables and PUSH.  With Uproar's media relations experience, those companies have been featured in media outlets including The Today Show, Business Insider, New York Times and CNBC, just to name a few. The firm specializes in developing campaigns that drive awareness and sales, creating industry buzz.  For more information, visit www.uproarpr.com.

Optimal Design is an award winning product development and internet of things (IoT) solutions firm offering services from technology R&D, industrial design, engineering, software, and rapid prototyping. The firm provides these expertise specifically for the consumer/industrial electronics, medical, consumer durables, and housewares industries. Operating out of their headquarters in the Chicago suburbs, Optimal employs a creative staff of 35 designers, engineers, and model makers to assist clients in delivering innovative solutions that enhance the user experience. Involved in generating over 150 patents over the past 15 years, Optimal also has a proven track record in creating patentable I.P. that protects the client's investment. Learn more at www.optimaldesignco.com.  

Want to help out at the event, speak or present or sponsor? Contact the Chicago team at chicago@wearewearables.com.