Yes, the South Sound Entrepreneurship Weekend is Happening

It may be a bit late to say it, but the South Sound Technology Conference was quite excellent this year, with an outstanding line up of speaker and panels and attendance that blew the doors off the last several years. It was also a lot of work put in by a great group of people.

If you attended then you may know that the intent of course was to follow that up with a South Sound Entrepreneurs Weekend, which had tentatively been scheduled for May.

Well the SSEW is not happening this May, but it does have a date and a location and sponsors and everything.

I have been busy with a lot of activities here in Tacoma and the South Sound. Not just work and play related, but also including everything that may be attached to having a son in little league and Webelos, a daughter in track and dance and piano, another daughter in gym and cheer leading and the eldest in her final year of high school and as a daffodil princess. Things won't slow down much, but I have identified a free weekend to make SSEW happen.

Please save the weekend of September 14th, 15th and 16th for an opportunity to ideate, plan, prototype, (maybe fund) and launch a business in a 54 hour time frame. It starts with open mic pitches on Friday in the early evening. Both individuals and teams of people try to build teams based on their ideas and ability to gather interest. Saturday and Sunday is spent on prototyping, designing and developing a business plan. We will have a panel for judging and feedback on Sunday, and are planning on having prizes as well.

With a starting pair of sponsors and more to come, at the very least there will be coffee, pizza, t-shirts and a good time. There may even be a few companies launching as startups at the end. A group of great people have already started building on the ideas for the weekend, but I am always looking for more. The event will be held on the campus of the University of Washington Tacoma in William Philip Hall.

If you are interested in being part of the event as a speaker or a participant, let me know.

First Robotics at CenturyLink Field

You may remember a few years back with the FIRST Robotics competition was held in the Tacoma Convention Center. Back in 2008 SOTA, with the help of Bellarmine Preparatory School entered their first robot into the competition and came in second place, also taking rookie of the year honors.

I was able to attend the FIRST competition last Friday at the CenturyLink Exhibition center and it was as fun as always. These competitions treat the engineering and science competition as if it were a rock concert. Music was blaring, bleachers were filled with cheering fans, many people were dressed in costumes or as mascots for the three on three basketball competition being waged in two large arenas.



For those who wonder where the future Computer Scientists, Computer Enginhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeers and Information Technology professional may be coming from, it is definitely time to check out this event. I didn't get the official count but their were around 45 different teams competing and cooperating at the event. Two students from a visiting California high school gave myself and a fellow WTIA board member a tour of the grounds and a walk through the pits. One of the high schools had 80 team members. Four visiting HS teams were from Turkey.

Bellarmine was there, as was Puyallup High School and SOTA as well, this year creating a super team with the students of SAMI.

I hope next year that I keep a close enough eye on the calendar to promote the event to others.

Here is a much clearer set of pictures from the event from the Seattle PI.

Heartland Weimaraner Rescue Project Launch

It is finals week at the end of the quarter for the Managing Technical Teams class and the student groups have launched their projects. This team helped to rebuild and add features to website for an organization, Heartland Weimaraner Rescue, dedicated to the adoption of and care for abandoned Weimaraners. A fitting response to my directive that they "make a contribution to the community utilizing technology".

Below is one of the teams release, which resulted in their getting posted in Press Release Central of the Kansas City Star.

UW-Tacoma students launch updated website for Heartland Weimaraner Rescue of Pleasant Valley

HWR Tech Team from UW Tacoma: From left to right: Robert Flood, Tom Rochat, Mary Kozy, Brad Shellman, and Alfredo TabulinaFresher, more visually engaging, and up-to-date web design with social media integration helps Pleasant Valley group to help abandoned Weimaraners find their forever homes.

Tacoma, WA (February 27, 2012) – Pleasant Valley-based Heartland Weimaraner Rescue (HWR), a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of rescuing and placing unwanted Weimaraner dogs, has recently
launched an updated website, www.heartlandweimrescue.org. The website update was taken on by a group of University of Washington Tacoma Information Technology & Systems (ITS) students for a team management class project with the main focus being contributing to the community using technology. Not only was the website brought up to date in its look and feel, but an advertising video was created and added to the home page to help showcase the group’s amazing work.

New functionality added to the site includes an e-commerce page utilizing Google Checkout that allows visitors to purchase merchandise in one location with trusted payment processing. In addition, a $10,000 grant was garnered from Google to offset the per transaction cost and keep the funds with the organization. Social media tie-ins that aid visitors in locating HWR’s Facebook presence (as well as Twitter functionality being added) will also help drive traffic to both venues. A simple “Donate” button was added to each page to increase potential for monetary donations. In addition, more intuitive dropdown navigation makes finding content easier for site visitors and the overall design was created with future expansion of the site and content in mind.

One of the challenges facing HWR was overall maintenance of the site and keeping information about adoptable dogs up to date. Embedded content that reflects information posted to the HWR’s rescueportal.org page makes those updates a one-step process. Gail Orth-Aikmus, founding director of HWR, stated, “What an honor it was for our rescue group to be chosen as a project by the University [students]. While most groups would appreciate the work that has been done, I can honestly say that the work that [the UW ITS team] did for us saved our rescue group, and kept me involved in my ‘quest’ to save as many Weimaraners as I can.”

Storehouse Food Bank Project Launch

It is the end of the quarter for the Managing Technical Teams class and the student groups are launching their projects. The one requirement given was that "it must make a contribution to the community utilizing technology".

They have done a great job this quarter. One of the deliverables to me was a press release. Below is one of the teams releases, which resulted in their getting an article in a local paper there. I may post a few more when I have the time.

University of Washington Tacoma Students Reach Out to a Small Covington Food Bank

Covington, Washington, 2/14/2012 - Tuple Thunder Technical Team, a team of University of Washington Tacoma (UWT) students, reached out to the Storehouse food bank of Covington Washington to upgrade their database technology and provide on online presence. This upgrade in technology will allow the Storehouse to expedite their food tracking donations.

Since late 2006 the Storehouse has been using an older dilapidated database to track their distribution records. The software was out of date and no longer effective. A member of Covington Christian Fellowship Church, Brad Urich, had written a new software program in 2010 but the Storehouse was lacking technical knowledge to transfer information from one database program to another. The purpose of UWT Students effort’s demonstrated the ability to harness information collection, and to streamline data collection.

The Storehouse never had an online presence thus making it difficult for churches and families to share information about current donation programs and events. The UWT Students created a website to provide a forum to disseminate informational flyers to family's and supporting organizations and announcements of future events.

A recent contract with Home Depot of Covington donates damaged or closed out items to the Storehouse. The UWT students prepared a new MS Access database to specifically track the donation of Home Depot items.

If there are individual people and/or families in need and are within or near the Covington area, the Storehouse will provide basic food items, no questions asked. The Storehouse has been around since 1999 and continues to this day.

The students of UWT in the Information Technology and Systems program are required to take a variety of course that prepare them for real life experiences in the workplace. Amongst these courses is TINST490, Managing Technical Teams. Although this course edges towards the less technical side of the program, student will still be gaining essential skills that will prepare them for future situations. Students are learning to organization, communicate and facilitate in teams while providing a positive contribution to the community through the use of technology.

Steve Jarvis as Morning Keynote for SST

Steve Jarvis, Vice President of Product Operations for Expedia U.S. will be the morning keynote at this years South Sound Technology Conference, held March 9th in William Philip Hall on the University of Washington Campus. The morning segment and following panel which includes members of the local technology community and industry will focus on the explosion of mobile application development over the last year.

As the VP of Product Operations, Steve is responsible for the health and growth of all lines of business. Jarvis carries P&L responsibility for the air, car, hotel, package, cruise, insurance, and destination services businesses of Expedia’s US operation.

Prior to joining the Expedia leadership team, Jarvis was Vice President of Marketing for Concur’s Small & Midsize Business segment providing strategic leadership for brand, differentiation, advertising, and market development functions.

Prior to joining Concur in 2010, Jarvis was Alaska Airlines’ Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Customer Experience. In this role he was responsible for design of the airline’s customer experience, setting priorities for differentiation in a lower cost industry environment. He also led customer research, brand and advertising, sales functions, marketing programs, customer care, and in-flight product.

Prior to joining the Alaska executive team, Jarvis served as Vice President of E-Commerce and Acquisitions for Destinations.com, a Seattle-based online travel portal. Jarvis has held technology related positions at Autodesk, Intermind, and AT&T Wireless. He started his career at Boeing as a design engineer after graduating from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering and master’s degree in business administration.

This is just another great addition to a lineup of speakers and panelists which include experts in cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, data integrity and networking both socially and technically. With an lunch keynote by White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt it is sure to be a well attended and interesting event.

Register now for the SST Conference 2012

Howard Schmidt to Keynote at SST 2012

Big news for the SST Conference 2012, one of the keynoters for the event will be Howard A. Schmidt, the U.S. Cybersecurity Czar (official title Special Assistant to the President and the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator) for the United States.

Howard is the former Chief Security Officer for Microsoft and Vice President of Security at Ebay.

The South Sound Technology Conference is scheduled for March 9th in William Philip Hall with breakouts in different rooms.

The steering committee has met a few times and a program is being developed. Though not firm, we are looking at a more fully realized track in mobile applications this year. Last year we had a popular panel, but wondered if there was enough going on in mobile development in the South Sound to be impactful. That question has been answered over the last year with a boom in development and solutions. Therefore were bringing back a panel at a minimum and likely expanding to a second breakout session.

On May 18th, 19th and 20th we will be holding a South Sound Entrepreneurs Weekend. This is an offshoot from last years conference as well. In order to prepare for it, we will be asking several companies and organizations from the area to describe for us what type of tech company in the area would help their business grow and what solutions would they provide. Basically, we want to drop some business ideas into the hopper for a little fermentation before we break them out at the entrepreneurs weekend. (It must be close to a holiday for that metaphor to exist).

As the program solidifies more information will be forthcoming. As always, your ideas are welcome. Remember to save the date: March 9th.

Virtual Scavenger Hunting Once More

It is that time of year when the students of Living and Working are sent virtually scavenget hunting. It is a reasonably large class this year, so ten teams are competing for grades and prizes. Since I first started sending folks off on the hunt several years ago, the ability to find items has become far easier. The first hunt listed ten items that they were to find or create on the web. The list is up to three pages and nineteen items, some with several parts necessary to be complete.

Though I once had the teams send URL addresses or screen shots when they were found, the hunt has gotten large enought that it is far easier to have them gather up the items in two batches, and send them off bundled together.

Also, the seach items have gotten a bit harder. My favorite now is to find out the married name of my oldest sister. It is also a scary one. Keeping in mind that many people have their security questions for log in's as family member names (consider the often used "mothers maiden name"), you would expect that this is an impossible task without knowing me personally. Not so. Even though I have not posted this information anywhere, it is possible to discern the answer through a combination of publicly accessible sites.

Whether I am asking for directions to a home that costs below market value and fits a particular set of characteristics, or local news that is over twenty years old, it is designed to cover a multitued of search techniques, sites, search engines and indexing.