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Flourish was an open source conference hosted at UIC. It was organized by a joint-team between UIC ACM, UIC LUG, The Computer Science Department of UIC and a host of volunteers and alumni.

Flourish was given a new planning committee, but eventually the committee did not have the manpower or ambition to keep the conference going, with the “great ambitious ones” living their normal working life. Flourish was now entering into a thing of the past.

Flourish was once again cancelled due to lack of interest.

With new leadership, Flourish was once again cancelled due to lack of interest.

Flourish 2016! was the last held Flourish, championed by Chase Lee. After seeing that 2015 failed to materialize within the UIC dorms, Chase felt compelled to revive his beloved conference. Chase would be seen working on Flourish at day and night.

The conference consisted of free talks, a mini-expo and panels. Tech enthusiasts from all over the country came to discuss and learn about open source technology. Comparatively, 2016 had a lower attendance than 2014, possibly because of the lack of bitcoin to some, of the general lost interest in open source by the local community.

2015, the atmosphere began to shift away from Flourish. With Chase Lee and Nathan Hurde unable to organize the conference the chair position was given to another. With new administrations and lack of student involvement in the ACM/LUG Flourish 2015 was cancelled.

Flourish 2015

Flouish 2014 had record high attendance numbers and for the first time ever had a heavy focus within the world of bitcoin. This was three years before the Bitcoin crazy of 2017. Cole Gleason, from UIUC also help with the conference and gave a talk on bitcoin. There was also a panel on KickStarter(Crowdfunding).

Flourish 2014

Flourish 2013 began the “Chase Administration” of Flourish and led Nathan Hurde to not only help organize, but give his on talk at the conference. To keep the flames fanning for Flourish, it was clear the scheduled speakers and sponsors would need to be a priority. Every meeting consisted of making sure the schedule was filled and the budget was kept. Ruth Suehle( Redhat) also gave a heartfelt talk and was received as the crowd's favorite. Ashley Riley and Aisha Halim were also critical in helping with the event speaker list and allowing 2013 to be built upon the foundation of past Flourish conferences.

Flourish 2013

Flourish 2012 was organized by both Aisha Halim(Orbitz Worldwide) and Stephen Liang. Their ambition would lead to igniting the sparks into the future of open source within the Chicagoland area. Chase Lee, was the lead developer for Flourish, with his resume headlined by being a programmer for the ACCC and his portfolio of freelance work.

Flourish 2012 was a great conference and introduced Nathan Hurde to the event for the first time. Among many of great speakers Ryan 'Icculus' Gordon, the lead developer of the SDL library gave a powerful talk.

Flourish 2012 was a large conference and as the conference ended Chase Lee was announced as the next leader of Flourish, supported by both ACM and LUG members.

Flourish 2012

Flourish 2011 was held April 1st thru 3rd with Ryan Gordon and Daliah Saper headling April 2nd with talks on law and gaming prospectively. The conference also featured an Ubuntu Global Jam, Python Sprint and a Mini-Expo.

Flourish 2011

Information coming soon.

Information coming soon.

Information coming soon.

The inaugural Flourish.With it's sister school having Reflections Projections running since 1995, it was time for UIC students to organize a conference of their own. The topic being open source. The Linux Tux was front and center to prove to many naysayers that open source was a viable career path.

Flourish 2017 also had an afterparty at IBM's Innovation Center, Thanks to Cedric Hurst a huge supporter of the conference and Chicago Tech.

Leticia Gomes is the creator logo for the Flourish conference.

What happens when you put Microsoft and a penguin together? Would you believe Flourish got its roots from this odd couple pairing? It's true! Tux at Flourish 2008! In the Fall of 2006, the University of Illinois at Chicago Linux Users Group (UIC-LUG) were distributing GNU/Linux CDs outside the Microsoft Internship Information Session on campus. Many students accepted our CDs and many more got a good laugh from our mascot, a UIC-LUG member dressed in a full body Tux the Penguin costume. After the information session had started, a man walking by commented about wondering why Microsoft would arrange to have a person dressed as a Penguin outside their information session. The student dressed as Tux explained to the man that we were not from Microsoft and that we were there to spread awareness of GNU/Linux and FLOSS software. The man then asked us a very good question, “Does Linux bring jobs to UIC?” In response to the man's question, the UIC-LUG decided to organize a conference to explore if FLOSS trully provides jobs and opportunities for growth. As a result, our annual Flourish conference was born. -Copied from https://flourishconf.com/2011/history