FCB wins top spot as “Chicago’s Coolest Office”

FCB Chicago’s cool offices

“CHICAGO’S COOLEST OFFICES” is Crain’s Chicago Business’ annual effort to bring forth the best places to work, among the workplaces nominated by hundreds of enthusiastic, satisfied employee.

After Crain’s narrowed the entries down to a dozen finalists the winner was FCB Chicago’s “modern but comfortable offices” over five floors in the Hancock building that the agency moved into just last February.

The Chicago Tribune also runs an annual competition for Chicago’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For.  Ranking among the 101 winners for 2014 were DigitasLBI, Getty Images and Starcom USA. 

Now you know the coolest and best places to send your resume.

A GREAT WAY to start the New Year, the Reel hears from a reliable source, is director Steven Soderbergh producing a new TV series in Chicago!  You recall that Soderbergh, who has filmed in Chicago several times before, walked away from movies in favor of television where he feels he can tell the kind of stories that Hollywood doesn’t tell anymore.

His dark series, “The Knick,” set in a New York hospital in 1900 and starring Clive Owen, will return for a second season next year.

Meanwhile, in the here and now, Fox’ TV series “Empire is set to start airing in January on a date to be announced.  Here’s the YouTube trailer to give you a taste of what’s ahead. 

THE ELLA JENKINS DOC “We’ll Sing a Song Together,” was a long time in the making, says veteran music/media publicist Lynn Orman, who with music specialist and attorney Linda Mensch are the doc’s producers.  Jenkins has been their client respective client for 25-30 years, Orman says.  

“I got the idea fo a documentary when Linda and I were at the Grammy Awards in LA in 2006 and Ella, a children’s folk singer, was being honored with a lifetime achievement award,” Orman relates. 

“There were four, five honorees and they were all nicely applauded.  But when Ella was presented with the award, everyone in the audience stood up and gave her a thunderous ovation.  She told them, ‘I want to thank all the children,’ and she got everyone in the audience to sing her iconic song, ‘Did You Feed My Cow.’  There was Tony Bennett singing ‘squish, squish,’” she recalls.

CINESPACE STUDIOS’ CinespaceCares charitable foundation, is dedicated to “giving back to the community with meaningful programs,” says its founder/president Alex Pissios, as a way of continuing the legacy of Cinespace founder, philanthropist Nick Miropoulos, who died suddenly of cancer this summer.

Now, after months of organization and planning, the first invitation-only fundraiser will be held Nov. 3 at Cinespace to benefit the work of Big Cat Charities, dedicated to the hungry and homeless, and CineCares. Some 150 guests are expected at the flagship event.

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