If you haven’t heard of cryptocurrency, you might want to start doing your research because it’s the latest craze in the digital asset exchange universe. Ellie is a stay-at-home mom in Toledo who started investing in cryptocurrency in order to pay for a $50,000 roof. She referred to cryptos as “the future of money.”

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital assets class used as a means of exchange. Bitcoin is the first known example of cryptocurrency and alternative coins have followed since.

Ellie was first turned on to the idea of trading crypto coins while listening to Max Keiser several years ago. That’s when she and her husband decided to look into it more, and she even started doing her own research.

“If something happened to him I would have no idea what to do with it, so that’s when I started looking into it,” Ellie said.

The more she looked into it, she realized there were more than just Bitcoins, but also other types of cryptocurrency such as Litecoin and OMG. She hopes to pay off her daughter’s medical bills with what money grows from the Litecoin, and she has some OMG that she hopes will turn into money to buy an RV for traveling around the country. Some are predicting that the value of OMG will increase tremendously within a few years, which will supply Ellie with enough money for the RV she wants.

Because Ellie is downsizing, she sells a lot of her stuff on eBay that she would have otherwise thrown away. She takes the money she gets from eBay and puts it into cryptos. She said it’s like free money in her mind.

There are several platforms you can use when trading crypto coins. One of the platforms Ellie uses is ABRA. On ABRA, you can invest in 25 kinds of cryptocurrencies. She anticipates that the money she has on ABRA will grow and pay for the roof she needs. Other exchange sites that Ellie has used include Coinbase, KuCoin, ForkDelta and EtherDelta.

“Then you want to get your coins off of whatever platform you have it on and you want to have it in a wallet,” Ellie said.

Just like any currency exchange, cryptocurrency is a gamble, but tends to be more volatile than other money markets. Ellie explained that you have to have “a strong stomach” when trading cryptos because there’s always a chance that the market can go to zero, and it’s a risk you’re taking just like with the stock market. She plans to continue trading cryptocurrency for the foreseeable future.

The $5,000 she invested on ABRA has the potential to grow to 10 times her money by January, and she’s looking forward to using that money to pay for her new roof. She encourages everybody to try Coinbase, even if they were just to buy $100 of Bitcoin and $100 of Litecoin, forget about it for five years and see how it grows.

“I strongly feel that what the Internet was to communication, cryptos are to banking,” Ellie said.

Trading cryptocurrency leaves Ellie time to devote to her other hobbies. When she’s not taking care of her kids or researching the crypto exchange world, she likes to work on her vegetable garden, scrapbook and play with essential oils.

About the Women of Influence Award Ceremony

Attention women in the Chicago tech field: You might want to check out Chicago Business Journal’s fourth annual Women of Influence celebration taking place on Wednesday August 8th at the Fairmont Millennium Park hotel. The event includes a luncheon and a panel discussion, and will honor a handful of businesswomen and their accomplishments.

More than 100 women whose business efforts impact Chicago economy were initially nominated. Out of those 100 nominees, a panel of judges chose 37 honorees to be celebrated at the Women of Influence event. The celebration welcomes curious and work-oriented individuals who are interested in networking with the business savvy women.

Kitty Ratcliffe, President of Explore St. Louis, is set to be the moderator of the panel discussion. The other panelists include co-founder of GrowthPlay Amy Dordek Dolinsky; Vice President, Marketing Partnerships of Chicago Sky, Watchen Nyanue; and last but not least, founder and CEO of McCann Partners, Megan McCann.

McCann Partners is an IT recruitment firm that was founded in 2011 whose mission is to provide companies with the IT services and talent they need. The company’s portfolio of clients includes several global companies and Chicago startups. The team consists of both IT and recruitment professionals with the combined skills to provide their clients with the best IT talent for their situation. The company will be celebrating its anniversary within the next few weeks.

Megan McCann is a Chicago resident and has also been an active member of i.c. stars for over a decade, and she became a board member several years ago. The organization is a Chicago-area workforce development training program for low-income adults to evolve into leadership roles in technology.

Women in The Tech Industry

Megan McCann, Founder and CEO of McCann Partners

She said that while working at McCann Partners in the recruitment stage, a lot of her time is spent speaking with direct hiring managers in technology and other employers who are looking to hire.

“I spend a lot of time talking about the importance of diversity and how building more diverse teams can make for more productive, profitable organizations. There’s no shortage of literature out there on the topic,” McCann said.

Here’s a common statistic you may or may not have heard: Women make up about 24% of the computer driven tech field. Some colleges, though, are seeing more women than men graduate with computer-science degrees. Even though a great number of people believe that work teams that are made up of a group of diverse individuals are the best at problem solving, technology is still a male-dominated industry.

“My commitment for the next generation is to try to change that,” McCann said.

She said that she has been very fortunate in her career with the mentors she’s had, and that not everyone has been able to receive mentorship like she has. She encourages women to seek out mentorship when trying to advance in the tech world, whether it be a peer mentor, male or female. A big portion of what she does is help promote the advancement of women into leadership roles.

“Part of it is just being a woman and wanting to make certain that there is equal opportunity for other women,” McCann said. “I want to make it better for them and I think the way that I can do that is to try to create awareness around this topic.”

McCann said that she would encourage any woman seeking a career in technology to go for it.

“It’s a growing, robust field. I would encourage them to seek out organizations and other women who have been trailblazing in the industry so that they can learn from them, whether through formal mentorship or even just hearing them speak and sharing their stories.”

Influential Businesswomen of Chicago

McCann was a winner of the 2018 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards in the “over $1 million and up to $2 million in annual revenues” category… Soon, she will be honored at Chicago Business Journal’s Women of Influence event along with several other inspirational businesswomen.

She said that she is humbled and honored to be recognized.

“I think it’s wonderful to have someone recognize you and kind of give a nod to the work that you’re doing. I’m so passionate about the work that I’m doing every day, both through McCann Partners and through the other organizations of which I’m involved,” McCann said. “I know a couple of other women on the list, and it’s really lovely to see them being honored and recognized, as well.”

See the full list of Women of Influence honorees.

Bot Battle At The 2018 Ohio State Fair

Build your own robot to bring to the Robot Combat event at the 2018 Ohio State Fair. The National Robotics Challenge (NRC) is the longest-running robotics competition in the world with 32 years of challenges under its belt. The NRC and EduEverything will sponsor the Robot Combat event at the Ohio State Fair on August 2nd. The competition runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tad Douce, Director of Events for The NRC and Executive Director of EduEverything, said that the NRC has held the Robot Combat competition for about 4 years now.

Participants will have the chance to bring in a prebuilt remote-controlled robot assembled to destroy its robot competition. Douce said he mainly sees participants who are of high school age, adults, and some middle school students participating in the Robot Combat event, though it is open to people of all ages.

Challengers must build their robots according to Standardized Procedures for the Advancement of Robotic Combat (SPARC) Robot Construction Specifications v1.1. The rules allow for robot competitors to fit inside a 14” x 14” x 14” space. Robots that do not meet these standards will be disqualified, depending on the violation. Challengers can make modifications and repairs to their robot to make them compliant to these requirements during the event if needed.

“Sometimes if it’s a weapon violation we just require them to unplug the weapon so that it can’t be used,” Douce said. “If it’s size or something that can be a real hazard, they have to bring it into compliance before they can compete.”

The robots will battle it out in brackets with a set time limit. If one robot stops functioning, the other team wins the competition. If both robots are still standing by the end of the bracket, then three judges vote on who the winner is. Their decision will be based on a specif rubric, judging who is most aggressive and who had the least damage.

Douce will be directing the event, overseeing the setup and administering safety inspections. Competition winners will receive a special plaque.

More On NRC Competitions

While the NRC has held several events at the Ohio State Fair over the years, this will only be their second Robot Combat competition at the festival. Douce said he would like to see more competitors this year.

The NRC holds their main annual event in April. Douce recalls that during one of these competitions, a piece of a robot broke off and flew across the combat arena. The piece hit the Plexiglas border and actually cracked it. The team had to make repairs and add aluminum plate along the bottom for protection of the arena before the next robot battle.

“The robots are getting faster and more powerful, and so we’re constantly having to upgrade our arena to hold them in,” Douce said.

Douce’s son started building his first combat robot for this year’s April competition, but he didn’t finish it in time. He used Autodesk Inventor to design the bot and used a 3D printer to print it. They are now trying to finish working on the robot so he can compete at the Robot Combat event at the Ohio State Fair this year.

Supporting Diversity In Robotics Careers

“Robotics seems to fit a wide demographic,” Douce said. “It’s a young enough field that it doesn’t have the gender bias that some other things do like rockets or cars. Both males and females seem to identify with robots, so you get a lot more interest and a broader range.”

Douce said that the NRC is always looking for partners, whether it be schools, Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops, 4-H clubs or organizations that want to be involved with robotics competitions. He welcomes companies that show interest in encouraging and supporting curious individuals to talk with him about possible sponsorship of the NRC.

He said that schools nowadays focus a lot on testing and less on hands-on learning that could be beneficial to certain career openings that are out there. The robot competitions allow participants the opportunity to get a feel for working with robotics and to see if they might want to make a career of it.

“I wanted to find something that every kid could relate to,” Douce said. “You can design robots to draw a picture. You can design a robot to make an ice cream cone. You can make a robot to battle. It’s a really open field.”

Interested individuals can sign up for the Robot Combat event here!

Indy Women in Tech (IWiT) will be hosting their annual IWiT Summit on Tuesday, August 14 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pavilion. IWiT will also be hosting a number of related events—a panel discussion, an LPGA Golf Tournament, byte @ The #IWiTCHAMP and The Eureka! Exchange—which will all be taking place during the same week.

How IWiT Supports Women in Tech

Greg Ballard, Co-founder of IWiT and Former Mayor of Indianapolis

“The salaries they get when they’re done is stunning compared to what they were getting,” Ballard said. “We actually pay for people to go through the courses and bring them out on the other end, and it’s been a spectacular success.”

A recent study by Microsoft indicates that few women have interest in STEM fields by the time they reach middle school and their interest declines even more over time. The study also shows that girls are more likely to feel “empowered” when participating in STEM activities if they know a woman who works in the STEM field. Whether it’s due to the lack of encouragement young girls receive from parents and mentors, the lack of exposure they have to STEM activities or because they just don’t see themselves pursuing a career in that field, tech is a male-dominated industry.

“We lose the young women in middle school, so we want to keep them interested and show them that ‘you can do this’ because look at all these other women who are dong it right now,” Ballard said.

Tech in Indiana has been progressing, now with 900 elementary school VEX robotics teams. IWiT is the head sponsor for VEX State Robotics Championships, the second largest VEX robotics competition in the world. They also sponsor a STEM day at a college campus every year for over 600 middle school girls.

IWiT Championship Week 2018

Jody Dedon, Executive Director of IWiT

“I think it’s really about those change-makers,” Dedon said.

IWiT Summit Keynote Speaker

Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani, will make an appearance as Keynote Speaker during the Summit. Girls Who Code is a non-profit organization with the mission to close the existing gender gap in the technology field throughout the U.S. The organization has had huge success, reaching almost 90,000 girls of diverse ethnicities and races.

Panel Discussion

Last year’s topic of discussion was on gaining awareness for women in tech. This year’s topic will kick it up a notch by asking, “What’s next for tech in Indiana and what actions are we taking to promote women in the field?” The panel discussion will take place on the day of the Summit and will be led by various industry leaders.

“It’s not enough to just get women into tech,” Dedon said. “We have to look at ‘What’s the culture of tech in our community?’ and being able to say what kind of culture are we creating in tech that includes it for everyone where voices are heard, where people are welcome, where women and men are equally supported.”

IWiT LPGA Golf Tournament

Lexi Thompson, professional golfer and winner of last year’s IWiT Championship

The Eureka! Exchange (TEE)

This program will bring in over 1,000 Indianapolis middle school students from select schools to participate in STEM hands-on activities. These students will have the chance to work alongside current female tech leaders. TEE will be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway East Chalet, with participants from Indiana School for the Blind.

byte @ The #IWiTCHAMP

Yes, there will be food! Save your appetite and get a taste of the delicious food and beverages from some of Central Indiana’s restaurants and breweries. Tickets for byte are $20 for each day for adults and children.

#SeeYourselfHere Campaign

“We are starting a movement in Indianapolis, and it is all about seeing yourself in Indiana, seeing yourself in tech and seeing yourself at the table,” Dedon said. “So what can we do as business leaders and as leaders of our community to make this community inclusive for all?”

One of Dedon’s favorite moments with IWiT was when two of their students contacted the program director to tell her that they both received their first paycheck. They were overjoyed that they had made so much money. One of the women was previously struggling to buy school supplies for her children. Her new career in tech provided her with the money she needed to pay for the supplies and more.

Dedon said that by 2024 we’ll have over 10,000 new tech jobs.

She said, “I think the biggest takeaway for this year’s Summit is ‘How can we make Indiana a place that will attract the future workforce that’s going to be needed to sustain itself by the year 2024?’”

Key Reasons to Attend Digital Summit Detroit

The Digital Summit series is headed to the Midwest! We’re especially looking forward to Digital Summit Detroit that’s being held September 12 and 13 at the Cobo Center Grand Ballroom. If you’re a marketing entrepreneur looking to network with fellow marketers and digital businesspeople, you won’t want to miss the event. Be sure to stay organized and take notes with the considerable flow of information and ideas that will be spewing out during the conference.

The event invites a wide range of people in the digital industry such as content creators, marketers, researchers, brand storytellers, account executives, social media strategists and more. Advance your marketing skills and insight by joining in on the sessions and workshops that will be offered. Conference topics range from SEO, video marketing, audience engagement through social media, content strategy through storytelling, email marketing, augmented reality, mobile marketing, lead generation and so much more.

“Outside of the content rooms will be several hours of networking for both attendees and the latest vendors and technologies in the digital marketing world,” said Autumn Quarantotto, Attendee Experience Coordinator for the Digital Summit series. “Lots of great surprises as well wrap up what will be a highly rewarding 2-day experience for attendees.”

The Summit is a platform for brands and companies in the digital industry to network and to share information, a decent-sized portion of the visitors being startups. Attendees will receive presentations and recordings that they can later refer back to after the conference. Free Wi-Fi will be provided.

“Attendees are very active on twitter (@DigitalSummits, #DSDET),” Quarantotto said. “Another great tip: Bring a sweater! These venues can actually be quite cold, so I always recommend attendees come prepared with layers.”

Prominent Leaders at Digital Summit Detroit

Photo Courtesy of Detroit.DigitalSummit.com.

“We’ll be discussing her history and lessons learned as a producer, author and comedian. What takeaways can marketers use here to better tell their brand stories?” Quarantotto said. “This will be lively interactive discussion that we hope will be both entertaining and insightful to kick things off.”

Other well-known speakers who will be sharing a bit of their expertise at the event include Scott Dikkers, founder of The Onion, Cap Watkins of BuzzFeed, Peter Weinberg of LinkedIn and more.

Digital Summit Series Across the U.S.

Digital Summit will also be traveling to other prominent cities throughout the U.S. In the Midwest alone, aside from Detroit, the Summit will also be held in Chicago (September 26 and 27). Speakers and discussions at each Summit location will vary.

The Chicago Summit will feature Spotify’s Mayur Gupta, co-founder of Netflix Mitch Lowe and other industry leaders from Twitter, Instagram, Google, BuzzFeed, Reddit, Facebook, NPR and more.

The digital industry is now a critical asset to just about every major company, especially if you want to get the word out about your brand. When people want to get more information about your company, they will usually Google it and search for the website. Marketing through email, social media and SEO is essential to informing and engaging customers about your company. Digital Summit has the power to take you one step closer to developing a successful digital marketing strategy for your brand.

“The vibe on site is always exciting and fun,” Quarantotto said. “We work hard to plan each detail of the conference and put on an overall great event, so it’s always rewarding to see that come to fruition. More than anything, we love to see attendees having a good time and enjoying these Summits year after year.”

Calling all online retailers: It’s time to start planning for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Yes, it’s only the end of August, but experts say that stores should be preparing for Black Friday two months prior.

According to a study by the National Retail Federation (NRF), about 40% of customers begin their holiday shopping October and before. For some customers, that includes researching the best holiday deals.

It’s also becoming increasingly popular to shop online rather than beat the crowds at a busy store. Another survey from NRF shows that in 2016, Black Friday was the busiest shopping day online.

“On the Amazon platform, Prime Day is a huge day as is Cyber Monday as you’d expect, but Black Friday is a giant sales day, and I think sometimes it’s underestimated how big of a sales day that can be,” said Josh Owens, CEO of SupplyKick.

About SupplyKick of Indianapolis

Photo Courtesy of Josh Owens

Owens said SupplyKick works with brands in home and garden, outdoor, tools and hardware, baby, pets and more categories.

“We help brands who have national distribution, are selling their product in big-box stores, on their own direct consumer website, in stores across the United States and are in need of a competent and long-term Amazon strategy that matches well with their other sales channels,” Owens said.

Inc. 5000 ranked SupplyKick as one of the “fastest-growing private companies in America” in 2017 and in 2018. SupplyKick also ranked third in Indianapolis Business Journal’s Fast25 2018 Fastest-Growing Companies.

Preparing Your Brand’s Amazon Presence

Retailers who sell on platforms like Amazon sometimes can’t keep up with posting listings on the back-end, reviews and customer service. Amazon has very specific policies set in place for listings that retailers often overlook, so do your research before setting up your Amazon account and listing for your company. Make sure your company has ample time to set up and maintain your online marketplace account, especially around the holidays.

“On the Amazon side, right after Prime Day is the right time to start planning for the holidays,” Owens said. “Effectively, I think you really need to have your strategy in place by September 30th at the latest.”

Owens said that there are a few components needed to make sure your Amazon strategy is in place. First, make sure your marketing is up-to-date. This includes photos and keywords on your Amazon listing. Second, be sure you have the logistics down such as having the right amount of inventory. By September, freight companies will be busier and take longer to ship out due to higher traffic, so timing is crucial.

“The closer you get to November 1st, the longer it’s going to take to get inventory checked into distribution centers,” Owens said.

Third, be sure you have a customer service strategy. For Amazon sales, this means selecting designated employees who will be customer service reps 24 hours of every day leading up to the holidays. As more sales come in, more customers will be requesting assistance from a representative.

Lastly, make sure you’re capturing the customer reviews for all the sales that are coming in and that you have a strategy in place in regards to customer critiques.

“The holidays are busy, but really the work to make sure that you have a great holiday is done in September and October,” Owens said. “If you do that really well, then you’re really taking advantage of the higher traffic in November and December.”

SupplyKick provides these services to their brand partners not just during the holidays, but all year round.

“That’s kind of the bread and butter of SupplyKick and it’s what we do every day for these brands that we work with,” Owens said.

Startup Grind Columbus recently hosted a conversation called The 15 Year Exit with Andrew Graf who co-founded and later sold a company called TeamDynamix based in Columbus, Ohio. TeamDynamix is a B2B company focused on providing nonprofit organizations, colleges, universities and other non-corporate companies with work management software that was created to help companies make their business more efficient and organized. If you were unable to make it to Startup Grind’s event, there’s still a chance to read up on some of Graf’s insight when it comes to B2B startups.

When Graf was working as a technology consultant back in the late 90’s and early 00’s, he realized he did not have the best management system for a project he was working on.

“We were working on a large international project and we did not have good tools to manage these initiatives, so the communication between people was only email and spreadsheets and sometimes even physical documents,” Graf said.

His business partner developed a prototype in an effort to make the sharing of documents easier and more convenient. In 2001, Graf and his partner decided to take it to the next level and turn their idea into a business which is now known as TeamDynamix.

Based on his experiences, Graf had some helpful advice for entrepreneurs who are looking to build a startup.

1. Save Money Or Work A Side Job

Some experts recommend saving in advance before starting a business, and some experts recommend working a side job. There are a multitude of jobs you can go for in the tech field like SEO, graphic design or freelance web development. Whatever you decide on, it’s important that you have enough money to support yourself while working on your new business.

Graf recommends saving money beforehand so that you don’t have to worry about the bare necessities of simple living while growing your business. He said that he didn’t accept paychecks for two years when first building TeamDynamix.

“That’s not what I remember about starting the business,” Graf said. “I remember the excitement and the long days, and it was fun.”

2. Customer Input Is Crucial

All businesses should be listening to what their customers think about their products and services, especially in the beginning stages of business development. Graf explained that larger companies that are already quite developed don’t always need to focus as much on customer service as startups do.

“When you’re a startup, that’s your differentiator,” Graf said. “These customers need to get more attention and have more say in the product. We were able to do that, but it was exhilarating every time we landed a new client.”

Graf said to get a product to market, get it into the hands of customers and give your customers a voice. That way, your company can analyze what’s working for your customers and what’s not working and determine how to fix that.

“I think my favorite part of the beginning was serving those first few customers and really seeing that, wow, people will get value out of this,” Graf said. “They are willing to pay for this. That really was very motivating.”

TeamDynamix also came up with a strategy to promote their customers in the customer’s industry. They would sponsor clients to speak at a conference in their industry about TeamDynamix. To have someone else speak on the company’s behalf gave TeamDynamix more credibility because they weren’t just self-advertising, but they now had someone else who could vouch for them.

3. Figure Out Who Specifically To Sell To

With defining your brand comes finding your audience. Graf said that it’s hard to figure out who to sell to when you don’t come from a sales background. In TeamDynamix’s case, it would have been a waste of time to try to sell their services to Fortune 500 companies. They were able to deduce that non-corporate organizations would be more likely to be interested in their products and services and would benefit from them in the long run.

“Figuring that out was a real problem,” Graf said. “Once we did, it made all the difference, but learning those lessons was tough. We survived those mistakes and a lot of startups don’t.”


4. Hire The Smartest People You Can Find

Graf likes to hire intellect over experience. Productivity starts with an idea, and the brightest minds come up with the ideas that work the best. It’s important, though, that the people that you hire are good people and work well with others. Graf said that hiring jerks can be toxic to your organization and it’s not worth putting up with their baggage just for their genius. Focusing on hiring smart, good people is key.

Selling TeamDynamix

While Graf and his business partner could have sold the business after three to five years, the money they would have made from it at that point would not have made a major impact on their lives. They waited to grow the business before selling because they wanted it to be life-changing. They eventually decided to sell TeamDynamix in 2015.

Graf remained an investor and is actively involved in the company as Chief Product Strategist. Every six months he asks himself five questions:

1. Are we doing meaningful work?
2. Do I like the people I work with?
3. Am I having fun?
4. Am I learning something substantial that will help me in the future?
5. Is our opportunity going to be lucrative?

He said that when he is unable to answer “yes” to all of those questions, he will leave TeamDynamix and move on to other opportunities.

“There’s a lot to be learned,” Graf said. “At every stage of evolution, I’ve looked at ‘what do I have to gain by sticking around’ and ‘is that going to be important for whatever I want to do next.’”

If you weren’t able to make it to Digital Summit Detroit this year, here’s what you missed. Startups based in the Rust Belt brought their game as they gave speeches, networked and spread the word about their businesses. Here are some brands in the Rust Belt that left their mark at Digital Summit Detroit 2018.

Human Element

John Tucker, Marketing Strategist for Human Element

Human Element works with a variety of eCommerce businesses as a Magento Developer and manages work on client branding, SEO and more. The company is made up of about 40 employees and has clients all over the U.S. but takes pride in their ties to Michigan.

“We always have this little nostalgia for the Michigan companies that want to team up,” said John Tucker, Marketing Strategist for Human Element.

Last year, the company decided to launch their own show called Next Conference which features speakers in the tech industry and is an overall networking platform for tech junkies. Now, each year, they invite friends and business partners of Human Element to attend the conference. The 2nd annual Next Conference was a success this year, held on September 11th at the Scarab Club in Detroit.

“Every single discussion or every single presentation turns into a roundtable, and everyone is encouraged to ask questions and have conversations,” Tucker said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Clients and partners of Human Element can look forward to the Next Conference again in September 2019. Human Element also hosts the free eCommerce Ann Arbor Meetup a few times a year, which is focused on sharing knowledge on the latest technology tools and trends.

Lumavate

Lumavate Team Members

Lumavate is primarily focused on taking care of all the grunt work when it comes to building Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) or cloud-based mobile apps for their clients.

“Really what we enable brands to do is to create not just one mobile experience, but multiple mobile experiences that are tied to different moments in the customer journey, so they’re always providing highly relevant and personalized content to their consumers,” said VP of Marketing for Lumavate, Stephanie Cox.

Cox said that the team at Lumavate is made up of several enterprise SaaS veterans. She and three other team members attended Digital Summit Detroit this year.

It was a full house as Cox gave her speech on Wednesday about the advantages of putting mobile first. The majority of the audience members raised a hand when she asked, “How many people in this room have your mobile device either in your hand right now or right next to you?” Then she asked how many people sleep next to their mobile devices. Again, the bulk of the audience members raised a hand.

She said that mobile is the only channel that matters anymore because we do everything from our phones and we’re spending over three hours a day on them.

“I think one of the things that’s really important for us is really challenging how marketers think about mobile,” Cox said. “Part of what has been happening over the last three to five years is we’ve been advancing mobile as the phone advances, and we’ve never took a step back and said, ‘Is this how we should do it?’”

Cox said that PWAs allow us to think differently about mobile and ask a few fundamental questions: Will our mobile strategy be the right plan of action? Could doing it differently produce higher adoption and engagement rates? She said that when she has seen brands work with Lumavate and ask those questions, they end up with outstanding results.

Lumavate was also a sponsor of Digital Summit Detroit this year.

Social Media Association of Michigan (SMAMI)

Sola Obayan, Founder of SMAMI (Photo Courtesy of Sola Obayan)

“Our focus is to help our community achieve success in their social media activations,” said Sola Obayan, founder of SMAMI. “When we were founded five years ago, the ecosystem was very different: a lot of discomfort with dipping toes into the social media sea, especially for local corporations.”

SMAMI members consist of client-side entrepreneurs, students, marketers, HR leads and personal brands who are looking to succeed in their social media operations. The organization hosts monthly Lunch & Learns in Detroit on various topics. They also host a variety of social events and two conferences every year.

You can find more information about social media and resources provided by SMAMI on their Facebook page, or you can join their Facebook group.

DontGo

Justin Smith, Sales Executive for DontGo

About three years ago, founder of 1-800-HANSONS, Brian Elias, tried using the automated bot on his website and got phenomenal results. He bought the company and had the name changed from Please Don’t Go to DontGo.

Elias was a designated speaker at Digital Summit Detroit on Thursday. He gave his speech on the process of turning individuals who browse a website into potential leads or buyers.

“Brian doesn’t care about clicks,” said Justin Smith, Sales Executive for DontGo. “Brian cares about converting those potential customers into clients, so he’s going to be talking about some strategies that have done really well on his Hansons website that now we’re doing at DontGo.”

Other prominent businesses based in the Midwest that attended Digital Summit Detroit include Americaneagle.com, Rehmann and BNP Media. BNP Media, based in Troy, has been coming to the Summit for several years.

“I’ve learned a lot, especially about the future and engagement and personalization, so I’m excited to apply that to what I do every day,” said Taylor Hill of BNP Media.

Digital Summit Brings in Canadian Brands

Cara McCarron, CEO of The Content Company

“We don’t get credit for any of the pieces. They’re all ghost written, but there’s integrity behind it,” said Cara McCarron, CEO of The Content Company. “The other distinction is that every piece of the puzzle is done by a human.”

The Content Company is primarily focused on delivering high-quality content to their clients as opposed to companies who focus on creating higher quantities of lower grade pieces.

“It’s not just content. If we look at it as a broader spectrum, if you’re not writing good, compelling copy, you’ve lost an opportunity,” McCarron said. “That stuff actually can make a difference in one person’s life.”

The startup will soon celebrate its fifth year anniversary.

Event Speeches to Remember

Speakers at the event include John Thies, CEO of Email On Acid in Colorado, Rob Lawson of Google, Garth O’Brien of GoDaddy, Cailin LaVallee of Waze and more. Audience members scribbled and typed notes as they took in the outpouring of information.

Keynote Speakers Chelsea Handler and Scott Dikkers had the audience laughing in tears during their speeches. Dikkers, founder of The Onion, told his story on building a brand, which happened to sum up the Summit perfectly.

“And that’s all it is,” Dikkers said. “It’s living the most outrageous version of yourself that you can and living your mission and creating all the success that you can.”

Closing Keynote, Andrew Malcolm of Evernote, wrapped up the Summit with his speech on growth hacking, and now begins the anticipation for next year’s event.

PonCon 2018 Highlights and Speakers

On Saturday, The Technology & Networking User Group (T.NUG) hosted the first Pontiac Technology Conference (PonCon) at the new United Shore headquarters in Pontiac, MI. Attendees had the chance to learn from several tech professionals who spoke at the conference.

Starting off the speakers, Senior Web Developer of Cleveland Tech Events Sarah Dutkiewicz spoke about servant leadership in the tech industry. The following speakers for the day were Chase Aucoin of AppDynamics, Gaines Kergosien of UBS, Eric Potter of Aptera Software, Wolfgang Goerlich of Strategic Security Programs and mental health enthusiast Arthur Doler.

“Sarah is a great speaker. Gaines is a great speaker,” said attendee Dustin Kingen, a developer at WambaTech in Royal Oak, MI. “I’m going to see so many good talks that I haven’t seen before and I’m going to get to meet people.”

Sr. Vice President of Strategic Security Programs for CBI, Wolfgang Goerlich

Goerlich said that his top priority is speaking at new conferences and events that reach out to him because he wants to encourage fellow techies in the sharing of information and building strong communities.

“I’m a Detroit native; I grew up in the Rust Belt. I’ve watched Detroit come back and embrace technology,” Goerlich said. “It’s always been a part of me to give back and start communities, so I’ve started a number of security communities and I’ve supported new communities.”

Goerlich speaks at tech conferences across the U.S. and has even traveled overseas for conferences.

Vice President of T.NUG, Hussein Farran

“I wanted to be able to offer them some sort of speaker lineup that didn’t just alienate them, like those super heavy technical details,” he said. “That’s why we have Sarah Dutkiewicz who gave her servant leadership talk this morning, and we have Arthur Doler giving a talk about maintaining your mental health and being cognizant of how you’re working.”

Farran said that next year’s PonCon isn’t set in stone, but there has been talk about making it “bigger and better.”

Overflow of Tech Resources in The Midwest

Getting involved is now easier than ever. Farran said that MeetUp.com is a great place to start. You can also email an organizer of a local group, and the organizers should be welcoming and happy to chat with someone who has similar interests.

Another great source for finding tech events in your area is Eventbrite. Just choose “Tech” from the Search Menu of types of events in your county.

Nowadays, the Rust Belt alone as well as the rest of the U.S., has plenty of tech resources such as websites, conferences, courses and more.

Nora Lim of OpenSymmetry

Attendee Nora Lim who works for OpenSymmetry out of Austin, Texas recently moved back to Michigan. She said that PonCon was a way for her to network and that she would like to attend more tech conferences in the future aside from PonCon.

“When you work remotely, you don’t get an opportunity to meet other colleagues that are in similar IT professions,” Lim said. “This is my way of meeting the local people and getting more involved in the community and just kind of finding out what’s out there.”

The Importance of Mental Health in The Workplace

This year, T.NUG invited Art Doler, software engineer and mental health advocate, to speak at PonCon. His was the last speech of the day, setting an ambiance that attendees will hopefully take with them to implement the value of mental health at work.

About three years ago, Doler started traveling mostly across the Midwest to speak at technology conferences.

“I swiftly ran out of technical topics that I cared about and moved into starting to talk about cognitive biases in technology,” Doler said. “I realized that I had a lot of passion around that topic and it was a way for me to not only talk about the stigma and prejudice with people who have mental health challenges, but to also help us build more resilient, robust teams and better performing software that reacts how our users would expect it to.”

According to an article from Psychology Today, companies who place value on their employees’ mental health report a lower turnover rate and more productivity from employees. The four factors that the article denotes as beneficial to an employee’s well-being include appreciation of the employee, a balanced work-life dynamic, available mental health resources and overall healthy living.

According to the World Health Organization, depression and anxiety account for $1 trillion in loss of productivity per year in the worldwide economy. Addressing the issue of negativity in the workplace can lead to clearer communication amongst employees and a positive work atmosphere.

Entrepreneurs in the tech industry who are building startups work long hours and can be prone to high stress levels. University of California surveyed both entrepreneurs and a group of other participants and found that a higher number of entrepreneurs reported having some sort of mental health issue.

According to an article from STAT news, the tech industry has been starting to address mental health in the workplace and even come up with ways to help with disorders such as nicotine addiction, phobias and public speaking anxiety.

There have even been events based entirely on mental health in the tech industry. This year, the very first Anxiety Tech conference was held in San Francisco. The event urged solutions for positive mental health in the workplace and shared ways that technology can be of help.

Software Engineer and Mental Health Advocate Art Doler

He also spoke about his own experiences with mental health stemming from back when he was a kid and feeling different from his peers. He spoke about his personal experiences with ADHD, his anxiety disorder and having panic attacks.

“I found my personal road to recovery and I’ve been walking that ever since,” Doler said in his speech.

Doler said that just talking about mental health challenges at work and showing empathy and compassion can help to create a more positive work environment, but to also remember that it is not your job to solve your coworker’s mental health problem. That’s where a psychologist or another form of support for your coworker would come in.

He also gave some tips to help manage mental health challenges on a daily basis: Meditate, try the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP), seek therapy and treatment, and maintain a healthy diet and exercise.

“If you have a diagnosis with mental health or even if you don’t have a diagnosis and you’re having mental health problems, just know that you are not alone and that there are people out there who can offer you support,” Doler said. “Even if you don’t find them, we’re out here rooting for you.”

If you are experiencing mental health challenges or thoughts of suicide, here are some resources Doler mentioned in his speech: OSMI, Mental Health First Aid training, Mental Health America, the Omaha Mental Health User Group (OMHUG) and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Tech savvy entrepreneurs in the Rust Belt: Get ready for Techstars Startup Weekend Chicago powered by Google for Entrepreneurs this weekend! The Chicago Startup Weekend team welcomes individuals in Chicago and surrounding areas to join them for a weekend of networking and knowledge-sharing free of charge at Blue Lacuna in Chicago.

The overall goal of the weekend is to help attendees design a tech-oriented company that will in some way, shape or form be beneficial to society. Attendees will have a chance to receive expert advice from business and community leaders—including investors, founders, sponsors and Google staff members—and be provided with time to work on idea pitches. Each person will then get to vote for their favorite pitches.

“Participants will have an opportunity to network, pitch, form teams and have uninterrupted work time over the weekend,” said Jen Riedel, Eastern US and Canada Regional Manager for Techstars Startup Programs. “They will also meet with industry experts and mentors, receive guidance, and ultimately work towards pitching their ideas again during the Final Pitches session which takes place on Sunday evening.”

Riedel first got to know Techstars when she participated at a Startup Weekend event in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2013.

“Since then, I have participated, organized, facilitated and now work full time for Techstars to manage our amazing community leaders and events across the Eastern United States and Canada,” Riedel said.

The Startup Weekend event coordinators recommend bringing your laptop and teaming up with people who you don’t already know.

“Keep an open mind,” Riedel said. “The best teams I’ve seen have been open to feedback and are willing to iterate, iterate, iterate.”

Full meals will be provided and participants will also have the opportunity to win various prizes. There will be plenty of downtime to mingle, network, eat and drink coffee throughout the weekend.

Techstars will also be hosting Startup Weekend Mansfield this weekend in Mansfield, Ohio.

Are you unable to attend this weekend? Startup Weekend will be held in several locations in the Rust Belt over the next few months. Techstars Startup Weekend will be coming to Detroit, Michigan and Muncie, Indiana from October 5th through the 7th; to the Cleveland, Ohio area from October 12th through the 14th; and to East Lansing, Michigan from November 2nd through the 4th. Here’s the full list of Techstars Startup Weekend locations.

Techstars was founded in 2006 in Boulder, Colorado and grew into a successful startup accelerator.

The program hosts a range of events throughout the year in U.S. cities including Startup Weekend and Startup Week. Events hosted by Techstars date back to 2007. Over the years, their events expanded across the U.S. and then worldwide.

Techstars Startup Weekend event sponsors include .CO and Google for Entrepreneurs.

Get the daily schedule of events for Techstars Startup Weekend Chicago here.

Tech248 Monthly Meetup

Oakland County, Michigan’s Tech248 program hosts free monthly meetups featuring a different tech brand each month. On Thursday, Tech248 hosted their networking event at 24G’s headquarters in Troy.

According to Tech248, Oakland County is the place to be for tech jobs with 2,000 tech firms and 42,000 tech jobs. Tech248’s goal is to help entrepreneurs connect with the other techies and businesses in Oakland County at their monthly gatherings.

Gregory Doyle, Supervisor of Oakland County One Stop Shop Business Center

“We’re getting a lot of really great feedback from attendees that are coming here and getting exactly what they’re expecting,” Doyle said.

The program began about three years ago. Each monthly event is two hours long and focuses primarily on networking. The featured tech-oriented firm for each event delivers a short presentation and the rest of the time allotted is used for networking.

“If you have a small business, give Tech248 a try,” Doyle said. “There’s really nothing to lose. Meetups are free. Joining the network is free.”

24G of Troy, Michigan

This month’s meetup featured the Oakland County company 24G. 24G CEO Scott Wiemels and CTO Dallas Smoke gave their speech on Demystifying Artificial Intelligence.

Scott Wiemels and Dallas Smoke, Demystifying Artificial Intelligence Presentation

“When we started it, we were all working for different agencies and what we saw was that there was a need for digital to be done better,” Wiemels said.

Over time, the company grew to be the size it is today with about 85 employees. Their new headquarters is a bowling alley turned into an office space. They kept the bowling lanes and snack bar which makes for a fun and unique place for social gatherings.

Wiemels said that 24G is a bootstrap organization that has been self-funded from the very start. The company is currently working on an event series that will be held quarterly which will feature an educational session from select tech influencers.

Meet the Attendees

Tech248 was developed for networking, information sharing and getting to know the community.

Sheila Denstaedt of Troy Chamber of Commerce

“You’re bound to leave with a nugget of information no matter what you do or who you are,” Denstaedt said.

Another attendee was Barry Walton, founder of Endless Media in the Detroit area, a company focused on providing brand storytelling for their clients.

“I left the agency world about nine months ago to get in front of the movement of brands and their interests to tell their stories on social,” Walton said. “I’m a firm believer in the idea that we’re moving into a new age of social content in the way that we’ll tell stories.”

Walton said he’s attended a handful of Tech248 events. He said the event is a useful networking platform, but that he’s mostly concerned with the content you can gather from the presentations.

“I’m interested to see what these guys have to present with regard to the AI space,” Walton said.

Ricardo Gonzalez and David Newhouse of Michigan Economic Development Corporation

“Ricardo and I come to events like this because it enables us to get the word out about the various programs the state has available for companies to increase their business or for companies looking for assistance,” Newhouse said.

MEDC has a group called Planet M which involves Michigan mobility organizations partnering to implement emerging mobility technologies. Planet M hosts a number of events throughout the year in Detroit.

They will be a sponsor for Detroit Moves taking place on October 10th and 11th. The free outdoor festival will showcase mobility companies who would like to teach the public about new transportation technologies, which can also help in gaining brand awareness for those companies.

JOURNi’s Youth Tech Exploration Course

At the end of September, JOURNi held their monthly Youth Tech Exploration Cuts & Code Edition course at the Ford Resource and Engagement Center in Detroit.

JOURNi’s Youth Tech Exploration Course

Tamika Jaja of Warren, Michigan said that this event was her son Ryan’s first coding class. Ryan is in third grade.

Ryan has an interest in computer graphics and likes to download different editing apps. He has even asked for his mom to buy him a green screen.

“We’ve come to a couple events here,” Jaja said. “Their website is very informative about upcoming events and it sounded like a really good opportunity for him.”

JOURNi ran their very first programs in 2016: My Brother’s Keeper Detroit, Grow Detroit’s Young Talent and Eastside Community Network. The non-profit organization is focused on providing an inclusive tech environment for residents of Detroit through courses and job opportunities.

JOURNi Co-Founder Richard Grundy

Grundy said that these courses have been entry points for students into some of JOURNIi’s longer programs and that JOURNi is always looking for volunteers. The volunteer tech mentors are each selected to help out with a designated station at the Youth Tech Exploration class.

“I’m always impressed by volunteers who come out to these events and give up their Saturdays,” Grundy said.

Course Volunteers

Youth Tech Exploration Instructor Donovan Brown

He said that when he was learning to code, he didn’t have a mentor to help guide him and that teaching is his way of giving back to the community. He said that he sees kids building a future with these courses.

“I’m jealous of these kids in a sense because I wish I had this when I was younger,” Brown said. “I would have ate this up for breakfast.”

Annmarie Diener started volunteering for JOURNi this past fall.

“What I personally observe is less of ‘now I know x, y and z’ and more ‘that was fun and interesting and I’m excited to talk about it,’” Diener said. “Which I think is probably more important.”

Diener said she thinks that it’s more important for the kids to know that they had a fun time learning and want to continue to do so than to know HTML.

Demetrius Moncrease, Volunteer for Youth Tech Exploration

Moncrease has been interested in becoming a scientist since he was 6 years old. In high school he started to develop an interest in math, robotics and aerospace. He now works as a mechanical engineer in Livonia, Michigan.

“I wish I was a part of something like this when I was their age,” Moncrease said.

Superheroes and Video Games Encourage Rising Interest in Tech

One of the mothers attending the event in support of her daughter was Fatima Majid. Majid attended Martin Luther King High School which has a STEM oriented curriculum. She then went on to major in mechanical engineering in college.

“I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and being from the Motor City, I think a lot of the students in schools are bred for engineering because we’re of the automotive industry here,” Majid said.

For a while, she worked as an Industrial Hydrauloics Engineer and later took time off to focus on her family.

Her 8-year-old daughter Josephine attended the Youth Exploration Event for the first time in September. Majid said that her daughter’s favorite character from Black Panther is Shuri and she loves that technology was used to heal people.

“Now that she has earned some responsibility, I am now going through the process of getting engaged with my career and at the same time she gets to be exposed to some of the things that I do as an engineer in tech,” Majid said.

Majid also said that Josephine enjoys playing video games, and that parents should not be afraid to allow their children to play video games with the right moderation. She said that exposure to technology is progressive and that it can be useful to understand certain tech tools in order to prepare for the future.

“I started out in hydraulics coming out of my career, but I’ve always been passionate about the medical industry, so I’m actually going towards biotechnology,” Majid said. “Anything is possible. There’s no time-frame on anything. There’s no age limit. There’s no man versus woman. Stop with the limitations.”

Majid said that she would like to come back to JOURNi’s Youth Tech Exploration course as a volunteer because she’s also part of the National Society of Black Engineers Detroit Chapter.

The Importance of Gender Inclusive Technology Courses

Parents of Students in Youth Tech Exploration Course

“The focus is so much on girls that I’m struggling to find STEM programs that include boys,” Rahaman said.

Rahaman said that while she’s all for the Women’s Movement, along the way we’ve forgotten about the boys and should also be focusing on providing more STEM courses for them, too.

She said that she thinks JOURNi’s program is great, and that she would also like to see more science and advanced research courses.

Some Rust Belt-based grocery stores are jumping on the bandwagon that Amazon Go seems to have created with their cashierless stores. While Amazon Go does already have two locations in Chicago, IL, other grocery stores in the Midwest have taken it upon themselves to implement the new concept at their own stores.

Earlier this year, both Meijer and Kroger decided to test out a program that allows customers to scan products as they shop. Customers can bag the items as they go along, and they only have to pay at checkout when they’ve finished shopping.

Meijer’s Shop & Scan Program
Source: Meijer.com

Kroger, the Ohio-based grocery store, recently implemented their Scan, Bag, Go program of the same concept.

The difference is, at Meijer, customers scan the items with their mobile phone while at Kroger, customers have the option to use their mobile phone or they can grab a scanner that is supplied for them in store and use that to scan their items. According to an article from the Detroit Free Press, the program is currently available at participating Krogers in Northville Township, MI; Ann Arbor, MI; Rochester Hills, MI and Canton, MI.

Toledo, OH resident and frequent shopper Mallory Wolf has tried Kroger’s Scan, Bag, Go program in Holland, OH and she said it was an easy process.

“It was quick and easy,” Wolf said. “You just bag the things as you go. I like it a lot better than having a customer service rep because when you’re ready to check out you just scan and go.”

After customers shop and scan their items at Kroger, they should proceed to the checkout line to scan the barcode that indicates they are finished shopping, then pay and leave.

“I do it at the self checkout,” Wolf said.

While some shoppers prefer the convenience of scanning while shopping, both Meijer and Kroger still provide cashiers for those shoppers who prefer a more traditional shopping experience.

From A Marketing Perspective

Nicola Smith, Founder and CEO of Rebel & Reason (Photo Courtesy of Nicola Smith)

Smith founded Rebel & Reason in 2016, but she has been working in technology-based marketing for 15 years.

“Rebel & Reason is a brand marketing and innovation consultancy firm based in Atlanta, Georgia,” Smith said. “We really focus on helping brands understand and redefine rebellion as a positive trait that helps to drive really innovative thinking within their organizations.”

Smith said that “rebel” is often thought of in a negative context such as “rebel without a cause.” She said that people who have challenged certain norms, however, are often the ones who have made progress throughout history, whether it be civic leaders, artists, scientists or inventors.

Smith said that she thinks the benefits of having a cashier or not having a cashier depend on what you’re selling and who your audience is.

“The reality is, if you are selling a financial product to folks that are boomers today, the likelihood is they’re not going to be comfortable making that type of a purchase decision without a person present,” Smith said. “I do think we will see an evolution towards that, especially as we think about more everyday retail types of purchases, but I think there will definitely continue to be places for human interaction.”

Smith said part of having a rebel mindset is being fearless and adaptable. While she’s very open to emerging technologies, she also wants to make sure that she understands any potential risks when making the decision to purchase or use new technology.

While she believes that technology will solve many world issues, she is also skeptical about people being able to make good decisions about how to use new technology to our advantage.

“You can be rebellious and still be skeptical of technology if you like,” Smith said.

Smith referred to smart home devices as an example. According to an article from The New York Times, smart home devices are being tied to domestic abuse cases where abusers have power to control or watch or listen to their victims. Using an app on their cell phone, abusers can control devices in the home to try to harass or scare their victims. This is one drawback of the emerging technology.

Smith said that having a diverse team is imperative to addressing these types of issues before launching the product.

“Through a lot of my work on positive rebellion and strategic rebellion, I’ve found that having more diverse voices in the room forces people to question their assumptions and often brings a perspective that would not automatically be considered,” Smith said.

She said that she thinks that retail brands have a big opportunity to become leaders and experiment with new ideas, and that consumers would likely be open to new innovations.

If you weren’t able to make it to the Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo in Novi, MI, here’s what you missed. Local to international brands came together for the expo at the Suburban Collection Showplace last week to spread the word about what their companies are doing in regard to autonomous vehicles.

Rust Belt Brands

Measurement Instruments (see main photo) dedicated a full aisle to representing their brand and displaying the features of their company. The electronic parts supplier is headquartered in Blairsville, PA and has several locations in the Rust Belt including Farmington Hills, MI; Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Dayton, OH and Indianapolis, IN.

President of Measurement Instruments, Michael Gwinn said that the company has been supporting the autonomous vehicle world for a few years now.

“That’s the future. Autonomous vehicles are going to be in the marketplace and going to be taking over quite a bit. Combustion engine is probably going to be around much much longer, but there will be autonomous driving vehicles and it’s critical that we be here to support it,” Gwinn said.

Another Rust Belt-based brand that made an appearance at the expo was P3 North America of Southfield, MI. P3 North America is an engineering and consulting service company that provides solutions to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier One companies in the U.S. automotive industry.

David Agnew, Head of Business Development for Dataspeed Inc.

Dataspeed Inc. of Rochester Hills, MI was also at the event representing their brand.

“We essentially support the autonomous vehicle development community with robotic vehicle platforms,” said David Agnew, head of business development for Dataspeed.

Agnew said that autonomous vehicles has been the company’s focus for the past four to five years because that is the biggest market.

Another brand located in the Rust Belt that made it to the expo was imc DataWorks of Novi, MI. The supplier provides measurement and control systems for data acquisition needs.

Outside of the Rust Belt

VSI Team Members

“The best way to predict the future is actually to build it,” said Danny Kim, Partner & Director of Advisory Services for VSI.

Right now, they are focusing on the Ford Fusion Hybrid.

“Our governor just put out an executive order recently to put together an advisory council to figure out how Minnesota can be best prepared for autonomous vehicles,” said Sara Sargent, VSI Sales Support Engineer.

International Visitors

Marketing executive of Moshon Data Steph Setch was representing the company which is based in Oxfordshire, England. Moshon Data creates foam or inflatable soft targets for autonomous vehicle testing. The company also creates 3D cars to test auto parallel parking mechanisms.

Haltermann Carless Team Members

Haltermann Carless of Hamburg, Germany was another company representing their brand at the expo. The company produces specialty fuels for automotive, aerospace and marine testing.

“The event was a wonderful venue for us,” said Bill Bovensiep, Sales Director for Haltermann Carless.

Haltermann Carless will soon have a location in Troy, MI.

The North American International Cyber Summit welcomed Michigan Governor Snyder as its host and industry experts this past Monday at Cobo Center in Detroit. This year’s cyber summit theme was Taking the Lead: Collaborating to Solve National Cyber Security Problems.

Cyber Dog Steals The Show

Kibbey the Michigan State Police cyber dog, and perhaps the star of the summit, drew in a packed room of spectators. Visitors took up all the seats and some were standing to see the 2-year-old lab in action.

Kibbey is referred to as a “cyber dog” because she is trained to locate electronic evidence in investigations.

“We call her a cyber dog; a lot of people think it’s a robotic dog that finds stuff for us,” said David Cardenas of the Michigan State Police Canine Unit. “It’s not a robotic dog. She’s a real dog, but she finds electronics.”

David Cardenas of the Michigan State Police Canine Unit and Cyber Dog Kibbey

Cardenas said that the electronics that Kibbey uncovers are found for the Computer Crimes Unit. They also conduct searches for digital evidence in drug teams, homicide scenes and breaking and entering scenes.

Kibbey has been a cyber dog for about a year and a half. In order to become a cyber dog, the dogs have to pass a test. Cardenas said that the dog should have a high prey drive.

Cardenas was recently approached by the Michigan State Police Fire Investigation Unit who mentioned that the Alexa device is being used to start fires and that Kibbey could be of help in finding these devices.

Kibbey lives with Cardenas as they are on call 24/7. When the the dog’s retirement comes, their handler has the option to keep the dog or give it away. Cardenas said that most of the handlers in his unit keep their dog or give them away to someone who is close with them.

“We’re still getting the word out that we’re here,” Cardenas said. “Not a whole lot of people know that this dog is available and when they do, like I said, they think it’s a robot.”

After the Michigan State Police Canine Unit realized that Kibbey was a successful cyber dog, they ended up training a second dog for cyber searching in Northern Michigan. They are one of the largest canine units in the U.S.

Sponsoring the Event

Chris Krieger of Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University’s College of Technology was a sponsor for the summit this year and for the last couple of years, primarily as a means to bring in new students who participated in the featured high school challenge. The summit is also a networking platform to meet industry leaders who can potentially provide their current students with career opportunities.

“It’s small enough that you can actually talk to people,” EMU part-time lecturer Chris Krieger said.

Krieger has been teaching for 6 years. He said that he would like to see more colleges sponsoring the event to recruit students because they ultimately need more people interested in the cyber security field.

Retired Major General of the U.S. Air Force and CISSP Earl Matthews was representing event sponsor Verodin, a security instrumentation company.

Earl Matthews of Verodin

“We believe that organizations have already spent enough money on cyber defense products,” Matthews said. “We want to help them test to make sure that they don’t have gaps and misconfigurations of what they’ve already spent before they go and buy yet another product.”

Matthews gave a speech at the summit about a five-step process on how to implement cyber security in a different manner than we are currently.

“I’d like to give kudos to Governor Snyder,” Matthews said. “I think Michigan has really led the way in addressing cyber security as being an issue, especially during the almost eight years of his term.”

Are you looking for a tech job in Detroit? Integral is a software consulting and development firm that was founded in 2017 in Detroit. The startup hosted an event for their program called Integrate Detroit this past week.

Integral Co-founder Ashok Sivanand

“The six months turned into a one-year assignment, and somewhere along the line I realized that the reason I was extending it was because I like Detroit,” Sivanand said.

Integral consists of employees who moved to Detroit from New York, Chicago and more. Their Integrate Detroit program was built as a talent source in order to train interested individuals the skills it takes to join their team and to stress the importance of diversity in tech.

“You notice it even more in a city like Detroit that’s 82 percent African American and nowhere near that when you walk into a technology office,” Sivanand said.

Each of Integral’s cohorts participated in the Integrate Detroit program for a set of four months. Each cohort builds upon the previous cohort’s work.

“We are hoping to hire as many of these students as possible,” Sivanand said.

For every cohort that Integral has, a Demo Day is held to show the work that the students completed on their first big project. The Demo Day takes place mid program.

Previous Integrate Detroit Student William McKelvey

“One thing I loved was the mentors, especially from Integral, the actual company coming in and actually helping us learn the code but also working with us to improve our code,” McKelvey said.

Aside from McKelvey, there were several other alumni attending Demo Day to support the second cohort.

Current Students and Demo Day Presentation

Integrate Detroit’s second cohort presented the codebase projects they’ve been working on. Part of their presentation was focused on test-driven development (TDD) which means creating a test that is meant to fail first, then making modifications to the production code to make it pass the test.

They also discussed their journey with pair programming. Pair programming involves two programmers working at one work station. The driver of the pair writes the code and the navigator reviews the code as it is being typed. The programmers switch roles throughout the work period.

Another method they used was mobbing or mob programming which is when a team works on the same project at a shared computer at the same time. This method was a favorite of the current cohort as the team was able to put their strengths together and brainstorm ideas.

During their presentation, the students also emphasized the importance of diversity in the tech field.

This cohort’s students include Stephanie Vaughn, Joya Puryear, DeShayla Cisero, Kim Sanders and Clark Vaughan.

Integrate Detroit’s Co-founder and Instructor Samah Majadla

“Samah is a very bright person and a very dedicated teacher,” Vaughan said.

Vaughan said he had previously been disappointed with other programs he had been in because he needed more time to digest the material. He had a harder time retaining the material in an immersive six-week course. It was easier for him to retain information over an extended period of time with the four-month Integrate Detroit program.

Vaughan also said that he had tried learning some tech on his own, but that he doesn’t recommend doing that because you can get stuck focusing on one area and end up not understanding how the whole system works. In contrast, Integrate Detroit taught him how the whole system works together.

DeShayla Cisero of Detroit had heard rave reviews about Integrate Detroit from a previous cohort member at the Grand Circus program.

Once Cisero found out that she was officially invited to be a part of Integrate Detroit, she was so excited that she changed her whole schedule to fit around the program.

“Samah intentionally picks students who are passionate, and that’s why we kind of drill down on diversity because we’re all really passionate about that, as well,” Cisero said.

The cohort will present their final project at a second Demo Day.

Integrate Detroit’s Commitment to Diversity

Kim Sanders of Southfield, MI said that prior to joining Integrate Detroit, she was learning from an online boot camp and she was having a hard time getting her foot in the door. She didn’t have a lot of confidence while applying for jobs. She found Integrate Detroit on Twitter and decided to apply.

Sanders said that the program is really hands-on and she is learning tools that she would actually use at a job. The students learn how to break a project down step by step.

Sanders also said that a lot of Detroit tech companies lack a diverse work environment.

“There needs to be more women. There needs to be more people of color. There needs to be different personality types really for these companies to thrive,” Sanders said.

Find out how some prominent tech-based companies rank in diversity here.

Professionals gathered together for Startup Detroit Happy Hour at WeWork in Detroit on Tuesday. Startups not only got the chance to mingle amongst fellow businesses who are in their beginning stages, but they also got to enjoy refreshments and sushi in a relaxed environment.

Detroit Venture Partners (DVP) and re:purpose work together to put on Startup Detroit Happy Hour. The event is sponsored by Postmates, a delivery and pickup app for meals and groceries.

Detroit startup re:purpose helps individuals who are looking for jobs match with a Michigan tech company or startup they can potentially work for. Their Happy Hour networking events take place once a month on the fourth Tuesday of the month.

Happy hour host Jessica Katz of re:purpose said that re:purpose and DVP originally came up with the idea for the event about a year ago when they were brainstorming how to both retain Detroit talent and attract talent to Detroit. The very first event was a success with about 100 visitors, and since then about 100 to 150 people show up every month.

“It’s not about re:purpose. It’s not about DVP,” Katz said. “It’s about Detroit and people growing together and building a community.”

Metro Detroiter Ryan Landau founded re:purpose two years ago.

“If you want to start and grow something, I think Detroit is a great incubator to make that happen,” Landau said. “Start your product, prove your value proposition and then really scale it to the world from there.”

Landau said that re:purpose plans to expand the Happy Hour to San Francisco, New York and Chicago next year.

Meet The Detroit-Based Talent

Founder and CEO of Detroit Aircraft Corporation, Jon Rimanelli

“Essentially you can skip traffic for the price of an UberX ride,” Rimanelli said.

Detroit Aircraft Corporation started working with Uber about a year and a half ago to develop aircraft that will be used through the Uber app. Uber Air will begin test trials in 2020 and is set to implement the aircraft officially in 2023.

Another visitor at this month’s Happy Hour was Steven Hawring of Royal Oak, MI. Hawring is the founder and Principal Creative Director of Hexagon Creative.

Hexagon Creative is a creative agency specializing in different types of media including web, graphic design, digital marketing, animation, motion graphics and video production. It became an official LLC in 2017.

Still from Jeffrey Wegner’s “Plastic Movie” (Photo Courtesy of Jeffrey Wegner)

“I knew that it was going to be a good networking event for like-minded individuals to express their thoughtful ideas and their action plans,” Wegner said.

Wegner wrote, directed and produced a feature-length narrative called “Plastic Movie.” His company is Movement Film Studio of Detroit which focuses on providing visual and digital campaigns for clients.

Wegner has traveled to other cities across the country and met different brands throughout his journey, and he said that he continues to be impressed by Detroit talent.

“There’s no feeling like working with Detroit-based entrepreneurs and startups because they really understand what I consider ‘digging through dirt, looking for gold,’” Wegner said. “They’re doing it so well and it’s incredibly amazing to see that resilience.”

The Detroit ACM SIGGRAPH chapter organized the CG Artists Meetup that took place at Dassault Systèmes – 3DEXCITE in Royal Oak on Wednesday. Computer graphics (CG) artists and animators networked and some even presented their work at the event. Non-artists also came to show their interest and support.

Get To Know The Artists

Steven Wolfgang of Metro Detroit attended the CG Artists Meetup. (See main photo of his artwork). Wolfgang works for The Quintek Group, an art studio in Sterling Heights, MI.

Wolfgang wears a lot of different hats at his job. He’s a general manager, retoucher, illustrator, and he also does work in creative visualization, 3D and KeyShot. He got the job through one of his professors at The College for Creative Studies (CCS) of Detroit in the 90’s. He’s been working for the same employer ever since.

Wolfgang said that he has attended these meetups previously and that it’s exciting to meet people who are open to talking about their creative work.

Before (top) and after (bottom) photo of Greg Good’s MIDI Controller (Photos Courtesy of Greg Good)

Now he is getting his feet wet with designing for manufacturing. He started learning Autodesk Fusion 360, a 3D CAD, CAM and CAE program with capabilities to export to flat files to do water jet cutting and laser jet cutting.

Good is also a musician and decided to modify his MIDI Controller with the tools he learned for Autodesk Fusion 360. He took apart his MIDI Controller so that he could add some other parts that he designed with the Autodesk program, and then he built a finished product.

Dawn McArdle visited the meetup to network and potentially find a job. McArdle has done animation and rendering for more than 20 years. As an industry expert in VRED software, her focus is mainly on automotive design.

Another visitor at this year’s event was Mark Willis of Niles, MI. Willis has been a member of the Detroit ACM SIGGRAPH for about a decade.

Willis does compositing and worked on the film “Trespass” with Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage which was released in 2011. He currently enjoys designing with ZBrush and recreating trailer shots.

Meet The 3DEXCITE Presenters

Marc Stanyk of 3DEXCITE

“Detroit is all about art and music and there’s so much talent here,” Stanyk said.

Presentations at the meetup help with sharing of information about computer graphics with other individuals who are just starting out or interested in learning more.

“I had other artists when I was in school spread their knowledge to me and help me out,” Stanyk said. “This is a way for me, during my professional career, to spread knowledge to other people and bring people into 3DEXCITE.”

Randy Rockafellow, Treasurer of the ACM SIGGRAPH Detroit chapter and organizer of the CG Artists Meetup, also gave a presentation at the event.

Rockafellow said that the meetup is a place where artists can pitch their ideas. The event has led to several individuals receiving jobs.

“The best thing that can happen is that professionals meet and talk to others and see cool skills on display that might lead to opportunities,” Rockafellow said.

Are you looking to pursue a career in tech but need access to more resources to get started? To help you get going, Philly KEYSPOT offers free use of their computer labs which are located across Philadelphia.

KEYSPOT provides opportunities for access to and training in technology through public, private, and nonprofit organizations.

“It provides Philadelphia access to computers and technology which might not seem like a lot, but in a city with a 25 percent poverty rate, there is a lack of access to personal computers and access to high-speed internet,” said Farrah Parkes, Director of Digital Initiatives for the Office of Adult Education. “It’s important for folks to be able to access these services to help their kids with homework, search for jobs and do all the things that you and I take for granted (assuming you have your own personal computer).”

In fact, based on data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS), Philadelphia was ranked number 8 on the National Digital Inclusion Alliance’s Worst Connected Cities Of 2017 list.

How Philly KEYSPOT Got Its Start

KEYSPOT was created in 2010 through the Freedom Rings Partnership as a result of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The purpose of ARRA was not only to create new jobs after the Great Recession, but also to provide projects dealing with topics such as education in order to help the economy.

One of the projects that was created was ARRA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) which provided funding to promote digital literacy and broadband access in Philadelphia. 80 KEYSPOT sites were created through the money that was provided by BTOP. The money also went to digital literacy training and access to computers for individuals with little to no technological resources.

Years later when these funds ran out, the city of Philadelphia wanted to see the community continue to flourish, so they helped provide the funding for Philly KEYSPOT. The program now continues through the Office of Adult Education, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation.

Resources That KEYSPOT Provides

Most of the KEYSPOT computer labs offer training for individuals who need educational guidance with using the internet.

“A lot of folks who don’t have personal computers and didn’t have access to that education in school are not prepared for the kind of jobs where they need digital literacy skills, even basic digital literacy skills,” Parkes said. “Even if you’re applying for a job in a warehouse at Home Depot, you have to fill out the application online.”

The KEYSPOT sites also offer assistance with signing up online for internet services and with signing up online for Lifeline smartphone service. Lifeline is a government program that helps low income individuals get access to free smartphones and phone service.

There are currently 50 KEYSPOT sites located across Philly. 18 are operated by the Office of Parks and Recreation, 2 are operated by the Free Library of Philadelphia and 30 are non-profit sites.

“It’s a program that’s able to help parents, grandparents and children,” said Chelsea Reed, Communication Manager of the Office of Adult Education. “It’s really a city service for everyone.”

Find out how else you can benefit from KEYSPOT or read some of their stories on their blog.

Learn how to master your mental capabilities and techniques for learning various subjects online for free. Barbara Oakley, an engineering professor at Oakland University, wrote the book “Learning How to Learn” and created an online course that goes along with it. Those interested in participating can take the course through Coursera.org.

While there isn’t a designated age group for the course, most of the participants range from 25 to 35 years old. Oakley recently launched a kid’s version of the online class called “Learning How to Learn for Youth.”

Taking the course is free, but students have the option to pay for a completion certificate if desired.

Popularity and Reviews

Oakley said that roughly 5,000 to 6,000 people sign up for the course a week.

“Learning How to Learn” has a very high completion rate and thousands of positive reviews on class-central.com. Based on more than 6 thousand reviews, on average, the course has a 4.9-star rating.

“The popularity of the course is really a tribute to the fact that people are starving to learn more about how to learn effectively. It’s not just teachers who want this information; it’s everybody,” Oakley said. “I think it’s just a wonderful thing that we actually have the capability, because of the new online platforms, to spread this great information for free.”

The course gained so much success that it was even featured in an article in The New York Times. Article author John Schwartz refers to the “Learning How to Learn” class as “arguably the world’s most successful online course.”

More on Author Barbara Oakley

Oakley enlisted in the Army right after high school. The military designated her a Signal Corps officer, but she didn’t know much about the equipment.

Initially, Oakley wasn’t interested in math and science. She later realized that the West Point Engineers she worked with had a lot of career opportunities they could take.

That’s when Oakley decided to begin working her way up from learning high school algebra to becoming a professor of engineering at Oakland University.

She had previously volunteered for a while in Pontiac to help improve kids’ math skills.

“What I found was that the kids were great, but the system had a lot of problems,” Oakley said. “How can you reach kids like that? You certainly can’t do it, for the most part, through books.”

She said that you can, however, reach them through videos.

Aside from “Learning How to Learn,” Oakley also authored “Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential,” “A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science,” “Cold-Blooded Kindness” and more. You can find more of her work here.