Free shipping day, which fell on Monday, Dec. 17, saw sales skyrocket by 76 percent, to $1.013 billion, and even on Christmas Day, sales jumped 36 percent to $288 million, the report says.

Despite the growth, the 14-percent final tally fell short of Comscore's 16-percent growth forecast. After four weeks of growth, the next three weeks of the November-December holiday season failed to surpass a 12-percent growth rate, Comscore reported.

Shoppers' worries about the economy and Congress' fiscal cliff budget negotiations contributed to the December "swoon," said Comscore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Four days after the Sun-Times column hit, ParkWhiz won $2 million in venture funding and put on its board new investors, including Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of social news website Reddit; Garry Tan, partner at Y Combinator venture fund, and Amreesh Modi, managing partner at Caprigo Ventures and former chief technology officer at Chicago-based digital maps-maker Navteq Corp.

And then, 42 tech and mainstream media picked up on ParkWhiz's funding story.

Hey, remember the Bright One. Think Wrapports, too -- the "rapport" of new technology and the "wrapping" of a traditional print newspaper.

The Jan. 21-24 McCormick Place show highlights how robots are playing increasingly important roles in helping businesses save money, and how they are becoming more sophisticated in working side-by-side with humans.

The Jan. 5 robot competition at IIT is expected to attract nearly 800 people from 40 Chicago-area teams of 9th through 12th graders. The teams will spend the coming months designing, programming and testing their robots to compete in the Midwest Regional Competition in April.

"We see Chicago as a huge hub for talent and it's lower-cost than in Silicon Valley," said Salcedo, who worked as a public relations spokesman in Chicago before leaving in June 2011 to start his own company in Burlingame, Calif., just south of San Francisco.

Salcedo estimates the 1871 center here would save 60 percent to 70 percent of his costs in California, including talent, space and transportation.

Meanwhile, Chicagoans can still pool their purchasing power to get wholesale prices by using the mobcart site. Salcedo, 26, and Pinho, 23, who are joined in the venture by partner and chief marketing officer David Vosburg, 25, started the site so retailers could sell more goods and shoppers could take advantage of wholesale prices.

"You've got to get to two (women on a company's board of directors), and three is better," said Gordon, head of the Westchester-based corn processor and food ingredient maker and a member of the board at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the Executives Club and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

In refreshing comments, Gordon offered intriguing insights into how some government mandates for women to serve on boards are working:

"They've caught up to the United States. In the past, I would have said, 'Mandates don't work. You don't get the right quality.' But when I looked at some of the women who've gone on to serve on boards in Europe, I've seen some great progress. Whether it's a mandate or the leadership insisting on equal candidates, it's about being very pro-active," Gordon said. "We have to get busier as a community and help drive that. We're doing our part, but one can always do more and we're always looking for excellent talent."

Gordon spoke on a three-member panel that also featured Groupon Co-Founder Brad Keywell and Patrick Ryan, former Aon Corp. founder and chairman who now heads Ryan Specialty Group. The panel's moderator was Christie Hefner, former chairman and CEO of her father's Playboy Enterprises and the executive chairman of Canyon Ranch Enterprises, which operates its namesake health resorts.

Gordon has won some powerful recognition to back her stance. Corn Products ranked No. 1 in a recent Chicago Networks census of the percentages of women serving on the area's 50 largest public companies' boards. And Gordon ranked No. 42 -- up 16 notches from last year -- on Fortune magazine's latest list of "most powerful women CEOs" based on a near-doubling of the company's stock price since Gordon took over in 2009 and its success in passing on rising corn costs to customers while forecasting more than $6 billion in revenue this year.

Ryan disagreed with the need to "get numbers." He touted being "blind" on gender and race so as not to typecast people, and instead for companies to search for particular talents with the idea of seeking greater diversity.

Another insight for change agents: Keywell ticked off two not-for-profits he credits for leveraging technology: DonorsChoose.org, an online charity that connects donors with teachers in need, and CharityWater.org, which brings safe water to developing countries and uses technology to show donors where their money goes and what happens after a water well is dug.

Though Gordon, Keywell and Ryan had no problem expressing their opinions, when Hefner asked if they'd run for office, each answered an emphatic, 'no.'

The award presentations weren't all serious ponderings, however, as a duo from the Second City comedy troupe made light of native Chicago "des" and "dos" and big guys who like to eat, a la the 1991 Saturday Night Live skit about Chicago Bears' Superfans. Their definition of innovation included Chicagoans electing someone not named Daley as mayor (or "mare," as the pronunciation would have it).

Besides the 10 Innovation Award honorees, which the Sun-Times profiled Wednesday, the event recognized 10 Up-and-Comer finalists -- start-ups in an early stage of development that show great promise.

The finalists are:

Power2Switch, which enables consumers to switch to the lowest cost electricity provider.

Tap.Me, an in-game, mobile advertising platform that connects gamers, games and brands.

FeeFighters, an online comparison tool where businesses can search for the best bid from credit card processors at the lowest prices.

Nexvu, which delivers analytic solutions to the retail industry that optimizes in-store technology in real-time.

Eved, an online meeting and event marketplace that connects members of an event supply chain, allowing them to interact and transact online.

Clean Urban Energy, which determines how much to pre-heat or pre-cool a building during off-peak hours.

GiveForward, a crowdfunding website where family and friends can contribute to loved ones during times of need.

Alltuition, which allows students and their families the ability to better navigate financial aid systems.

Excelerate Labs, a successful Chicago start-up incubator and accelerator.

Technori, which writes magazine-style articles profiling Chicago entrepreneurs.

Also recognized were Abbott Labs Chairman and CEO Miles White, the Visionary Award winner, and William "Beau" Wrigley, Jr., former chairman, president and CEO of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., who oversaw the sale of Wrigley to Mars, Inc. in 2008, cited as this year's Distinguished Innovator. Both gave pep talks urging the crowd to take risks, follow their hearts and honor capitalist traditions.

Wrigley revealed that his latest interest is promoting an effort to protect the world's oceans by creating a single index that would function like a "Dow Jones of the ocean." The Wrigley Foundation has provided a $2.5 million research grant that aims to figure out how to determine the "health" of the world's oceans and identify gaps in the kinds of information that's been collected underwater.

Congrats also to graduate student Islam Ismailov of the University of Illinois at Chicago for acing the top score in the graduate-student category. He walked away with a $1,000 cash prize.

** The Illinois Technology Association, in partnership with Chicago restaurant-ordering site GrubHub , offered the Fall Challenge in which college students competed for cash. Supporting sponsors included Allscripts, Backstop Solutions Group, GE, Centro, Groupon, Model Metrics, MPS Partners and Redpoint Technologies.

Students started by taking a quiz.

Top scorers competed in a Final Challenge in Chicago for a chance to meet tech leaders.

The top three students received $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 in cash prizes.

Here's another source for tech enthusiasts:

So I was intrigued to see a study by bona-fide tech researchers that ranked retail stores on their digital savviness.

Macy's won "Genius" status -- along with Victoria's Secret and Nordstrom -- in the survey by digital think tank L2 and Facebook marketing firm Buddy Media that measured 350 data points.

Macy's won its ranking by investing in social and mobile strategies, featuring engaging Facebook tabs, offering cross-platform mobile commerce and building a responsive Twitter handle.

Other findings:

• Victoria's Secret was the faraway winner in Facebook "likes" with 14.5 million. Second-place went to Abercrombie & Fitch with 5 million, followed by Ralph Lauren with 3.4 million, Coach at 2.1 million and Bath & Body Works at 2 million. Macy's racked up 1.9 million "likes."

• Chicago's own Threadless, the T-shirt crowdsourcing innovator, ranked No. 1 in number of Twitter followers, with 1.6 million, followed by No. 2 Urban Outfitters with 433,000.

• Top-viewed YouTube videos originated from Victoria's Secret, Diesel, Cartier, Sephora and Tiffany.

Welcome to Digital Second City Scoops, my new blog that will provide insights into innovation in Chicago, and accompany my renamed, 11-year-old technology column, Digital Second City Scene.

Besides sharing comments, I welcome your news and insights -- consider it the Sun-Times' version of innovation news crowdsourcing.

Though big companies print regular volumes touting their social responsibilities, I find that young people seem to intuitively leverage technology to do good at the grass-roots level.

For anyone like me who has lived in the Lake View neighborhood, a major fashion statement among the blue-haired, pierced-nose set comes from a great surplus or second-hand store. I secretly wish I could be so daring.

Sleevecandy got its start when four T-shirt enthusiasts -- then-MBA students at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management -- decided they wanted to help the Salvation Army get more profit from its inventory. Sleevecandy donates 30 percent of each sale to the Salvation Army's rehabilitation programs.

** The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce has expanded its disability-awareness training under the new name, Disabilityworks Training Institute. The institute now has two full-time staff members, in addition to four other staff people who continue to lead periodic training sessions.

The lead trainer is Joe Chiappetta, author of "The Back Pain Avenger," a non-medicated memoir of his rehabilitation from a lifetime of chronic back pain. Chiappetta helped found and served as statewide coordinator of the EmployAlliance network of job developers. He serves on Chicago's Mayoral Task Force on the Employment of People with Disabilities and facilitates the Workforce Developer Network in Chicago.

One in five Americans has a disability, and their unemployment rates are far higher than the national average.

Welcome to Digital Second City Scoops, my new blog that will provide insights into innovation in Chicago, and accompany my renamed, 11-year-old technology column, Digital Second City Scene.

Besides sharing comments, I welcome your news and insights -- consider it the Sun-Times' version of innovation news crowdsourcing.

Don't look now, but two overlooked new state laws could push these seemingly wildly optimistic ideas into reality.

Two new state laws got me excited because they aim to do just that, and remained buried in news obscurity until now.
Here are the dreams:

** A medical district in the Roseland neighborhood, patterned after the three medical districts that already operate near UIC and in Springfield and East St. Louis. A new state law that Gov. Quinn signed on Aug. 5 creates a commission to come up with a plan to attract high-tech businesses, medical research facilities and academic institutions to the area.
The district's boundaries are West 110th Street to the north; South Stewart Avenue to the west; South Michigan Avenue to the east, and 112th Street, east and west, to the south.

** Wind-power turbines operating in Lake Michigan. A law that Quinn signed Aug. 7 creates the Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Energy Advisory Council within the state Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to review the potential for offshore wind energy projects in the waters of Lake Michigan.

I know through my daily technology reporting (see http://www.suntimes.com/business/6579271-420/feds-award-4.5-million-to-community-lenders and suntimes.com/technology/guy/4717741-452/invenergy-ge-plan-innovative-solar-farm-in-illinois.html) that community and non-profit groups in Chicago's needy neighborhoods who would love to see more businesses jump into these programs. Local non-profits lenders include IFF, the Chicago Community Loan Fund and the Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan Association .

Here's one that shows that newspapers aren't the dinosaurs nearly everyone assumes.

And I'll admit, it also soothes us newspaper types' anxieties a bit.

The data -- the latest available for the month of June -- show that 14 million people, or 6.2 percent of people using mobile phones, scanned a barcode or a QR code, the latter a Rorschach test-looking square pattern that works like a barcode in accessing information wirelessly. The No. 1 source for 49.4 percent of the codes were print newspapers and magazines, followed by 35.3 percent a product package.

Even more surprising about comScore's findings is that more than half (53.4 percent) of the QR or bar-code scanners were people ages 18-34, followed by 36.8 percent ages 25-34, and more than one of every three QR code scanners (36.1 percent) had a household income of $100,000 or higher.

So much for today's digitally savvy tech geeks never interacting with print media.

In fact, I hope to offer lots more head-twisters every weekday.

Welcome to Digital Second City Scoops, my new blog that will provide insights into innovation in Chicago, and accompany my renamed, 11-year-old technology column, Digital Second City Scene.

Besides sharing comments, I welcome your news and insights -- consider it the Sun-Times' version of innovation news crowdsourcing.

After all, Chicago's entrepreneurs were the founders of crowdsourcing (witness CrowdSPRING, and have made their own headlines through their use of crowdfunding and QR coding (see column).

So what's Tolva's dream app? One that would tell him in real time when the bus and train are coming to his stop and at the same time alerting him to the nearest taxi and open parking spots. On a 20-below-zero day, the app would let Tolva and everyone else choose the quickest route to warmth. During the summer, the app could be used to find where rental bikes are available throughout the city.

What's next for app developers? Open 311. It is a platform that will let software developers come up with apps to allow people to use their smartphones and computers to track services such as pothole repairs and watch how and when they are fulfilled.

Tolva talked first to the Sun-Times just days after he started his city job. He wants Chicago to become known as the Digital Second City.

In the short run, a digital Chicago could enable people to receive city services faster, see how efficiently a government agency is working or receive wirelessly and in real time a variety of transit options for running an errand.

Read more from my exclusive interview