All are welcome to attend the Oct. 26 launch event at 303 E. Wacker with special guest Alisa Starks!
Our featured speaker is Medill alumna Alisa Starks, Chairman/CEO and majority owner of Inner City Entertainment, and the Manager of South Shore Commercial Properties LLC.
Date and time: Thursday, October 26, 2023, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Location: Medill Space at 303 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago, 60601,16th Floor
Program:
6 p.m. to 6:30 – Welcome Drinks and snacks
6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. – Keynote discussion with Alisa Starks
7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. – More drinks, snacks and mingling!
Cost: There is no cost for this event – but registration is required for the front desk security list!
More about our speaker:
Starks is developing and will be operating a new multi-“Eatertainment” center which will include a seven-screen, dine-in cinema, a Creole restaurant, an eight-lane boutique bowling center, and a rooftop event space. Responsible for all aspects of both companies, she brings 30+ years of marketing expertise, 16+years of film exhibition experience and a remarkable real estate development background to the business.
Starks founded Inner City Entertainment and made history in November 1997 when she and her former husband launched ICE Theaters. It was the first chain of Black owned and operated movie theaters in the country. These movie theaters were also the first in the city of Chicago to have stadium seating. This $40 million project involved new construction of three multiplex movie theaters in Chatham, Chicago Lawn, and Lawndale, and provided hundreds of jobs to minority residents.
Active in local nonprofit organizations for many years, Starks founded the Black Perspectives film program of the Chicago International Film Festival in 1997 while on the governing board of Cinema/Chicago, the festival’s producer. Most notably, she was appointed by former Mayor Richard M. Daley to the board of directors of Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority; she served on this board for more than 10 years and chaired its affirmative action committee.
RSVP required: https://secure.ard.northwestern.edu/s/1479/02-naa/16/interior_no-utility.aspx?sid=1479&gid=180&pgid=43791&cid=77251