Heh DC, Put Up and Show Up !
April 5, 2008
Of course we all know of the local chatter revolving around the fact that DC is or is not a good place to bring up a budding business. Many around, including me, like it here and think there are good things in the works. However, others, especially VC’s, think greener pastures are elsewhere. Well it is our chance to show them they may juts be wrong.
I was chatting with Keith Casey of Casey Software and WhyGoSolo a little while back and he was telling me about this business plan competition coming up in the area, and he said it would be a great opportunity for the local tech communtiy to stand up and be seen and heard.
The competition Keith was talking about is the Mid-Atlantic Business Plan Competition
That day is the no-holds-barred deathmatch of entrepreneur vs entrepreneur. There are presentations in the morning, a round of eliminations, and then the culmination of the entire contest… the finalists get to present in front of a public audience affectionately called the STARTUP SMACK DOWN.
The panel will include several VC’s, professors, and other local entrepenuers. Keith makes a great point when he states :
I think it’s time to put up or shut up. If we storm the place… if we completely pack the final presentations with the best and brightest from the DC Tech community, people will notice. The VC’s will do a double take. The professors will take note. The students competing will reconsider immediately leaving for friendlier places.
I am all in as they say in Texas Hold’Em. What about you ? We would love to get everyone we can in that auditorium as Keith says to make people take notice that we are here and ready to flourish. If we can start the create a minor shift in the perception of some of the panlists, they may take that back with them and start a little buzz. And that would be good for all of us.
So here are the details:
Date: Saturday, April 26 2008
Time: 1-5 PM
Where: ICC Auditorium, Georgetown University (Building 26 on this map)
So what do you say ? Stop by and join the Facebook Group I created: DC Technology Business Plan Competition Crashers if your interested.
DC - A Technology Hub in the Making ?
April 4, 2008
I was perusing my Facebook page this evening and saw a post by my friend David Patton of Trafficland. It was a link to this article, “D.C. Capital Region Is A Major High-Tech Hub“
Apparently our little corner of the world is doing pretty good. The article is based on a study recently conducted
Cyberstates report detailing national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages, and other key economic factors. The report, Cyberstates 2008: A Complete State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry, covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The study found that this area is starting to become a hub for technology and innovation. Virginia has the highest concentration of high tech workers in the country with an average high tech salary if nearly $87,000, not too shabby huh ?
The DC Capital region may not immediately come to mind when people think of high tech, but it should,� said Matthew Kazmierczak, Vice President of Research and Industry Analysis, AeA. “Proximity to the federal government, including its major research centers, combined with a highly educated workforce, has made the area a key location for innovation. If you were to combine DC, Maryland, and Virginia, you would have the 2nd largest cyberstate by tech employment, slightly ahead of Texas.�
�What is hard to understand is that so many policymakers in Washington do not see the tremendous value of a high-tech workforce and are not committed to policies that would help it grow,� continued Kazmierczak.
I loved this quote. While many don’t see the value of the tech community, it is here and growing and maybe soon people outside the area will take notice.
Thanks David for pointing out the study !
Lawmakers Move to Repeal MD Tech Tax
April 3, 2008
Our friends over at the Tech Council of Maryland did an outstanding job of brining the tech community in Maryland together to fight the proposed Tech Tax. Had it passed it would have leveied a 6 percent sales tax on the following computer services:
- Computer facilities management and operation.
- Custom programming.
- Computer system planning and design that integrate computer hardware, software, and communication technologies.
- Computer disaster recovery.
- Data processing, storage and recovery.
- Hardware or software installation, maintenance, and repair.
Anyway, luckily for us MD resident computer workers the
Legislators took a first step Wednesday toward repealing Maryland’s new computer services tax and replacing it with an income tax surcharge on millionaires, the most significant victory yet for business groups warning that the levy could destroy the state’s high-tech economy. (Baltimore Sun)
This is great news and we thank everyone at the Tech Council Maryland for working for us and fighting the good fight !
Has Twitter Jumped the Shark
April 3, 2008
So to speak ? Or at least Twitter users. I don’t know about you but I have really noticed a big jump in the number of what I will call “fishing followers.” You all know the type. They are the ones who follow you in hopes that you will follow back. However, I am not the just follow everyone back type. I like to gain some value out my Twitter use.
In any case, I have been seeing an alarming number of followers with a huge ration gap of Following to Followers. And their twitter streams usually boil down to a bit of spam (see Nick O’Neill’s post on Twitter etiquette).
For instance here a couple I have received in the last few days tripixdesigns and even better was this one subbiejournal (this is an interesting one, check out the blog .. says her “Master” was sick the other day, so no spankings for her :))
Anyway, as this trend continues to increase, I wonder is this the future of Twitter. is it to become the next MySpace where we are barraged with spam of all sorts and our meaningful converstaions with each other get lost in the mix ?
Have anyone else noticed this ? Any thoughts ?
Local Focus: Jeremy Epstein
April 3, 2008
One thing I wanted to use Local Focus for was to shine some light on the various people that come togther to make up such a great community. Of course I will focus on the "Rock Stars" that many of you know, but I also want to show a sampling that many of you do not know in the hopes that you will then know them and what they are all about.
My focus this week is on Jeremy Epstein of Microsoft. I met Jeremy at Jeff Pulver's breakfast several weeks back. We had a great conversation and hit it off and have been in touch ever since. My tag line at that breakfast was Passionate Technology, it could have been the same for Jeremy.
Read on to learn more about Jeremy and his take on all things.
jeremy epstein, senior partner community manager, Microsoft public sector
2. Are you working on any startup venture ideas ?
No. To test my skill and theories about social networking (think of it as ‘sharpening the saw’ work outside of my day job), I am consulting New York Times bestselling author, Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, to prepare and execute his online strategy for his upcoming book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need. We’re using GraffitiCMS for this, a truly great product. His holding page site is at www.johnnybunko.com
3. Tell us a bit about your company or what you do ?
Don’t think I need to introduce Microsoft. As a partner community manager, I am responsible for recruiting Microsoft partners into a relationship with the Public Sector team, providing value so that the relationship holds, creating and executing scalable marketing engines to drive the sale of Microsoft products. There are over 2000 partners US wide.
4. How are you using social media tools for your job and/or business
I have had a personal blog for over 7 years (jer979.blogspot.com) since before Blogger was purchased by Google and that experience persuaded me of the value of the medium. As a result, I started a blog at Microsoft “Igniting the Revolution: Change the Way Microsoft and Our Partners Do Marketing…or Get Fired Tryin’” (http://blogs.msdn.com/maamktg) to help build the relationship with our partners and put a human face on MSFT. I have enough anecdotes to show that it is working.
It gets over 100k views/month. It also *may* be the most highly ranked marketing blog at MS (preliminary research verifies that, but need to validate) Plus, I’m encouraging my extended team to have links to their LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter, Tumblr or whatever to build that relationship level. On a grander scale, we’ve partnered with PartnerPoint as a community center for our partners and have a Facebook group for our partners.
We’re looking at leveraging Ning as well, but that’s early stage. We’ve also got plans for using Dopplr to help facilitate contact between MS field people and partners around the country to encourage the meet-ups. We find that the face to face touches go a LONG way to building the relationship. The social networking technologies have to result in a face to face at some point. That “keeps it real.” And we do that w/some of our larger partner conferences throughout the year.
I will be the first to admit that these social networking sites for MS parnters haven’t “taken off” yet, but we’re trying. Have no choice, really. Part is momentum. Partly is internal to Microsoft. The understanding of the power of these tools hasn’t permeated the organization yet. It’s growing, but Microsoft a big ship and not so easy to turn.
5. Are you from the DC area ? Why did you stay and/or move here ?
Yes, born at Georgetown hospital. Grew up in Chevy Chase. Graduate of the Jewish Day School in Rockville. After living around the world (Frankfurt, Germany; Tokyo, Japan, and NYC), my wife and I decided that being close to family was a high priority for us (she’s from Albany, NY and aside from Eliot Spitzer’s latest stuff, there’s not much excitement for us there!) Plus, being at the center of world politics is rush and, I’ve found, a lot of people from around the world come through here, so you can more easily maintain relationships than if you lived in Omaha.
6. How have you found the local area with regards to support and technology adoption ?
This is all my opinion, of course. There are a ton of super-intellectuals in this area. I’m particularly excited about the folks I meet in the political consulting arena who are trying to tap into tech to drive their agendas. There’s a robust commercial sector that is as innovative as anywhere. However, the 800 lb gorilla is the Fed Gov’t and that makes it tough because this is such a government-town and the desire for innovation (outside of defense, of course) is driven by that. The gov’t isn’t an early adopter and the incentive for greater productivity wouldn’t be as high as a Silicon Valley, for example, to its challenging.
7. What are your thoughts and ideas to help grow and support the local tech community ?
I think the recent uptick in DC networking events is going a long way to doing that. And anything else you want to add. I LOVE meeting up with others who are smart and passionate about technology (remember your tag at Pulver, eh?). connect via any one of the platforms.
Anyone else have any good questions to focus on ? Or someone for us to showcase, let us know.
Cisco Looking To Help Entrepenuers
April 2, 2008
I came across this post yesterday about a new program Cisco is going to start a national program aimed at helping entrepenuers develop.
Cisco is targeting business-wannabes in Phoenix, Washington D.C., and Northeast Ohio. According to a report in the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland, Cisco is developing an entrepreneur training program with the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (Eli), which received an undisclosed cash injection from the network giant. Eli aims to begin training teachers in the coming months.
Should be an interesting item to keep your eye on out there. Nice to see them in the local DC area.
Enough Already. Lets Pretend it’s April 2nd?
April 1, 2008
For the love of all things holy in this world, please please please (yes three times) lets forget about Apil Fools Day. I mean whoever made up this assinine "day" should be taken out back and have the sh*t beat out of them. If there were more greeting cards for the day, I would swear it was another phony Hallmark ploy.
Now I will give you this. Some of the "stories" out there today are a bit funny. Then in the calvalcade of the rest of them, it gets seriously old very fast. Google: Do you not have more important cloud computing and Double-click layoffs to worry about than telling me your new feature is pre dating my emails so I do not appear to be late ?
I am looking over the Blogrunner stories this Am and cannot for the life of me figure what is real and what is not !! Enough ! Some may say I am a crimudgen. Many who know me would agree … but lets get back to the totally un-original blog posts that have become so popular.
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