How I Spent My Lunchtime

What fun!  I was invited to join a roundtable discussion organized by Mark Kelly of the Birmingham Weekly.  Look for the write-up in the coming weeks.  This was held in the “Bottle Room” of the B&A Warehouse.  A stenographer typed all of our comments and recorded them on tape.  Mark facilitated some lively discussion where the participants toyed with ways to improve things in the Birminghm region.  Want to know more? Keep an eye out for the 2nd in a bi-monthly series. :^)

TechBirmingham lives!

It took a little extra time, but TechBirmingham installed its new 2008 Board of Directors this afternoon, the SIXTH go-round for the local tech-industry leadership alliance.  Stepping down as past Chairman was David Gray, CEO of DAXKO.  Stepping up to take TechBirmingham where it needs to go is the new Chairman…Jennifer Skjellum, President of Verari Systems Software, Inc. of Birmingham.

Jennifer Skjellum moved her company ”MPI Software Technology” here during 2003 from Mississippi.  She merged her companywith a San Diego, CA-based company in 2004 and spends many days each month on the left coast as part of Verari’s management team.  This gives her invaluable and unique insight about Birmingham and how it relates to the outside world.

Celebrated at the board meeting were the recent TechMixers, the recent TechBirmingham Ecycling Day, monthly TechFridays, and the annual Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (held in partnership with the Birmingham Venture Club).  On the drawing board (still) are TechMixer University, now scheduled at the end of the summer, and a new and improved web presence. 

Birmingham is Flat (and so is the rest of the world)

I encourage you to attend this week’s TechFriday, a monthly gathering of people who come from all walks of life in the technology community.  The breakfast meeting occurs on the 2nd Friday of each month and features guest speakers.  At last month’s meeting we heard from Susan Matlock, President of Innovation Depot.  In the past, I used to lead the discussions but now I get to enjoy just being a participant.

This month’s speaker will be Tanveer Patel, Founder and CEO of CircleSource.  Her company is headquartered here in Birmingham and has development offices in Bangalore, India.  The published topic of the morning is “The Impact of Offshore Globalization”.  She is an engaging speaker and will give you insight that is lacking when the popular media covers the topic.

So, won’t you come join everyone at this week’s TechFriday breakfast?!?  New Horizons hosts it and provides a light breakfast. The meeting starts at 7:45am and is usually complete before 9:00am.  You are welcome to remain and network with others following.

Friday, May 9, 2008

New Horizons Birmingham
601 Beacon Parkway West Suite 106
Birmingham, AL 35209

Please RSVP to Bill Ivey @ 205-533-9714
or william.ivey@newhorizons.com

Fergie vs. Soccer vs. Motorcycles vs. UAB vs. Math Bee vs. Startup

If any of you were home and bored to tears on Saturday, then SHAME on you… there were some major activities from which to choose:

• Fergie (and others) @ Crawfish Boil
• Olympic Women’s Soccer: USA vs. Australia @ Legion Field
• WERA motorcycle races @ Barber Motorsports Park
• UAB Commencement Ceremonies @ UAB (of course!)
• National Math Bee @ McWance Science Center
• Birmingham Startup weekend @ Innovation Depot

Don’t miss events like these in the future… refer to the Terminal’s Timetable for great suggestions!

Startup a Startup FRIDAY NIGHT

Birmingham Startup returns for a second-go-round this weekend at the Innovation Depot.  Around 6 (maybe more) companies will get a kick-start as they work all weekend to build and refine their Internet-based business idea.  Participants will receive expert instruction/guidance from a team of organizers who will coach them throughout the “Business Development Weekend”. Then, one week later, those same participants will pitch their ideas to a roomfull (hopefully) of developers and other specialists (i.e. project managers, marketeers, sales, and QA staff) to see who will join their team.  They’ll have one “Implementation Weekend” to quickly develop the web-based software/application/website to be judged on Monday night by an audience of their industry peers, lawyers, venture capitalists, etc.

Last November, the group staged a similar event which was documented by Alabama Public Television in a 50-minute show that aired in January. You can watch the episode online to get a flavor of how the event goes.  While we modeled our event after the startupweekend concept, we improved upon it for that first event rather than just copying it.  Now, this event we upped the ante once more.

Want to be involved in a new startup?  Join the online community for all of Birmingham’s entrepreneurial endeavors at BirminghamStartup.com today to learn more about how you can have the opportunity of finding your place in our growing entrepreneurial ecosystem!