We are 50 days away from the 2014 Brand New Conference and have a few updates and notes to share:

1) After-party
The venue for the after-party has been contracted at the very ample upstairs area of John Barleycorn on 149 West Kinzie Street. Non conference attendees and friends of conference attendees and nice people are welcome to attend at no cost — you’ll just have to pay for your own booze and not eat the food.

2) New sponsors
Every year we are fortunate to have relevant and supportive sponsors. Since we first launched this year’s site and speaker list we’ve added four new sponsors: MOO, Extensis, FontShop, and Airbnb.

3) VSA Partner speaker change
Due to a client conflict, VSA Partners’ Jamie Koval will not be able to present. Lucky for us they have a deep pool of talent and Sol Sender — you know, of Obama ’08 logo fame — who joined the company in 2011 will be taking his place.

4) Attendee geography
We have nearly 500 attendees and we are delighted with this number so far. Our goal is 750 and we hope we can make it happen. We obviously have a big crowd from Illinois at 135. From the nearby Midwest we have 27 from Indiana, 13 from Michigan, 12 from Ohio, and 8 from Wisconsin. California is coming in strong with 32. Over 75 people are coming from outside the U.S.! From London, Stockholm, Spain, Moscow, Guatemala, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong. We love this. But we do have to ask: Where are the New Yorkers? Only 40 so far. Maybe you are offended we took the conference away from your home court? It’s a quick flight to Chicago, so c’mon down, okay?

5) Ticket giveaway
On September 8 or 9 we will be doing our usual ticket giveaway courtesy of sponsors who may have unused tickets and our matching giveaway.

6) Last day for online registration
Finally, a reminder that online registration will close September 18. Walk-in registrations will be accepted.