ooking at a map of Chicago can really make a non-native lose his or her perspective. The endless boundary lines of the countless neighborhoods, all with different names and varying sizes, are liable to make one think that one is looking at a new map of some Balkanized country, fresh from a revolution.

When asked where he/she is from, a Chicagoan will never give this response: “Chicago.” You will instead hear “Pilsen” or “Greektown” or “Edgewater” or “Sauganash.” The city of Chicago is the product of its wildly diverse and ethnically unique neighborhoods. Perhaps no city in the country is more ethnically diverse, and therefore more unabashedly American, than Chicago. Such diversity has made Chicago what it is today: a big city of small neighborhoods that has become one of the world’s great economic, cultural and artistic centers.

	Second to None: A list of Chicago firsts • Founded in 1891 by African-American surgeon Daniel Hale Williams, Provident Hospital in Chicago was the first interracial hospital in the United States. • The first television soap opera, “These Are My Children,” was broadcast in Chicago in 1949. • On December 2, 1941, Enrico Fermi and his team at the University of Chicago released the first controlled atomic nuclear chain reaction. • In 1937, Chicago became home to the first blood bank in the United States. • In 1942, Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, became the first baseball park to feature organ music.

The City That Smells
Although the Potawatomi Indians were native to the area, the first permanent settlement in what is now Chicago was founded in 1781 by a Haitian fur trader named Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable. The city’s current name was taken from the Potawatomi word “Checagou” that roughly translates to “field of stinking onions,” which might be the most humble nickname given to a city whose propensity for innovation and influence would garner countless other less “odorous” nicknames.

The town of Chicago was organized on August 12, 1833. Its population numbered 350. Upon being given a city charter in 1837 by the state of Illinois, however, the city began a growth spurt the likes of which had never been seen in the United States. Thanks to Chicago’s geographically ideal location and proximity to waterways, it was soon to be the transportation hub of the United States. In 1870, the city’s population had grown to around 300,000. By 1890, it was the second largest city in the nation, having grown to 1.1 million people in less than 60 years.

The Art Institute of Chicago

Later, just as Chicago had dominated commerce and transportation through water routes, railroads and highway, it became the center of the air travel universe as well. Soon after its completion in 1927, Midway Airport (originally known as Chicago Municipal Airport) was the world’s busiest until the early 1960s, when its Chicago neighbor, O’Hare International Airport, took that title away.

Growing UP
One of the most memorable events in the nation’s history happened on October 8, 1871, when the Great Chicago Fire destroyed 3.5 square miles of the city, killing around 250 people and destroying 17,450 buildings. Following in line with a pattern of toughness and determination for which it would soon come to be famous, the city did not lament long about its losses. Instead, the fire was seen as a golden opportunity for Chicago’s citizens to rebuild the city on a clean slate. And build they did.

In 1885, the 10-story Home Insurance Company Building became the first ever building to be built with an internal iron and steel frame rather than brick. And in 1891, the world’s first “skyscraper” was erected, the 16-story Monadnock Building. From that point on, Chicago became synonymous with groundbreaking architecture. Chicago sports the world’s largest commercial building, the Merchandise Mart, and the tallest building in the United States, the Sears Tower, which was the tallest building in the world from 1973 to 1998. Currently, three of the top five tallest buildings in the United States are in Chicago.

My Fair City
It was around the time of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (a.k.a., the Chicago World’s Fair) that the city picked up perhaps its most famous moniker, The Windy City, so named because of the residents’ fondness for boasting about their accomplishments. The World’s Exposition attracted 27 million visitors — one-half of the entire U.S. population at the time! The many products and innovations introduced at the fair quite literally changed the lifestyles of people in the United States and the world. Among the new products introduced were Cracker Jack caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts, Cream of Wheat, carbonated soda, Pabst Beer, Shredded Wheat, the Ferris Wheel and the concept of the carnival. Also, that most ubiquitous and American of foods, the hamburger, was introduced to the United States during the fair. More importantly, though, the World’s Columbian Exposition established the United States as a key player in world economics and politics, and its success was a testament to Chicago’s burgeoning “I Will” energy and spirit. That spirit can still be seen in the structures built for the exposition that stand to this day. The Field Museum, Soldier Field, the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium are permanent reminders of Chicago’s vibrant past and its current standing in world culture and the scientific community.

Chicago’s most popular destination: Navy Pier

The City That Keeps Working
Perhaps no other U.S. city better exemplifies American productivity and inventiveness than the “City That Works.” The same attitude that saw the city’s meteoric rise to prosperity in the 19th century is still alive today. Modern-day commodity trading and futures were established in Chicago, and it is a little-appreciated fact that the city’s gargantuan pork and beef industries in the 1860s represented the very first global industry. Henry Ford modeled his Model-T assembly lines after Chicago’s efficient and successful meat-packing plants. Currently, the Chicagoland area is home to the second largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the United States. And here’s a statistic that really puts Chicago’s economic impact on the world in perspective: If Chicago were a nation-state, its gross domestic product would rank 18th in the world!

The People
Chicago’s geographic location is no doubt much of the reason for its economic and cultural successes. But it’s the people that made, and make, Chicago work. Waves of German, Irish, Italian, African-American and Polish immigrants flocked to Chicago in its formative years, and new immigrants continue to add to the city’s melting pot. There are more people of Polish descent in Chicago than any place other than Poland itself, and the city has the largest population of Swedish-Americans and the largest Assyrian population in the country, to name just a few of the diverse ethnicities that mark the city and its neighborhoods.

Annual Meeting Kind of Town
Chicago is the birthplace of jazz and urban blues, and home to one of the world’s most prestigious symphony orchestras. It is the birthplace of the iconic Walt Disney, and was the home of infamous gangsters Al Capone and John Dillinger. It can be one of the coldest U.S. cities in winter, and one of the most stiflingly hot in summer. It is home to some of the most highly regarded fine dining establishments in the world, and its favorite dish is pizza. It is a city separated North and South by rival baseball teams with rabid loyalties. It is a city of neighborhoods of wild contrasts that manage to work together just well enough to make it one of the most important, efficient and influential cities on earth.

The Old Water Tower on Michigan Avenue

So when you come to Chicago for this year’s Annual Meeting, no matter who you are, you won’t have to look far to find a place that you can call home, at least for a little while.