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Arras Keathley & LeanDog Boat Christening Celebration

Blog Date
Author(s)
Stuart O. Smith, Jr.
Tags
Cleveland
Technology

LeanDog and Arras Keathley Invitation!
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I have been to the LeanDog boat many times for tech meetings or for Cleveland GiveCamp-related activities, but when I received my invitation to attend the Arras Keathley (@AKACleveland) and LeanDog (@LeanDog) boat christening celebration, I knew that this would be different -- that this would be big!

The christening invitation for the Thursday night, October 23, 2014, event indicated that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Arras Keathley President Jim Hickey, and LeanDog President Jon Stahl (@JonRStahl) would all take part in the champagne christening. I also heard that famed Cleveland singer Alex Bevan (@AlexBevan63) would be performing. I was excited to hear this, since I had never seen him perform in person.

Arras Keathley & LeanDog Boat Christening Celebration Schedule
Read Event Schedule

225

LeanDog and Arras Keathley Boat - no225.com
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What is 225?

The transformation: Kearsarge > Barge 225 > Hornblower's Restaurant > No. 225 LLC, formed by LeanDog and Arras-Kealthley Advertising

Learn about LeanDog and Arras Keathley, and the history of the boat transformation on the no225.com website.

no225.com Properties
Go to no225.com Website

(Also, here is a PDF fact sheet with the same information provided on the 225 website)

Here is the video I took of Alex Bevan's 225 dedication song! It is a great tribute not only to the work of Jon Stahl (@JonRStahl), Jim Hickey, and all their staff, but also to the city of Cleveland. Alex captures the spirit of innovation in Cleveland -- or should I say Believeland -- today. Warning: If you listen to the song, you will have the chant "225" stuck in your head.

I was able to get most of the song, but unfortunately, my iPhone cut out before the end of the song. If you want to see not only the full song, but also the christening ceremony and the music of Welshly Arms (@welshlyarms), I highly recommend seeing the full streaming video here on the Boxcast LLC (@BoxcastLLC) website.

Go to full Arras Keathley & LeanDog boat christening celebration video
Go to Full Video

I was very impressed with the quality of Boxcast LLC's broadcast from the event, and they were very responsive to my questions -- another Cleveland tech company about which it would be good to learn more.

 

People

LeanDog and Arras Keathley Boat
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In addition to talking to people I knew from LeanDog and the people I met from Arras Keathley, I was able to talk to friends from other tech companies who were there to support the success of 225. It was great that the conversations with the majority of the people focused on growth! Some of the things that were discussed included:

  • Issues of growing pains as staff sizes double
  • The need to hire more qualified professionals
  • New ways of managing growth

I also met some of the volunteers that make the USS Cod Submarine Memorial possible. During the christening celebration, there were shouts of "fire in the hole," each time followed by the USS Cod crew firing a cannon to honor 225. The USS Cod's first use of their new @USSCod Twitter account was the direct result of the event. Here is their first tweet:

In the area of small world coincidence, my sister and her husband also attended the christening. While I knew the people of LeanDog, they were good friends with Jim Hickey of Arras Keathley. I learned from my sister that Jim Hickey is very supportive of young professionals in our community.

Community Involvement

There is a poster just inside the LeanDog boat that lists all the technology meetings that are hosted free of charge at the boat. Jon Stahl (@JonRStahl) has made his boat our boat (by our, I mean the tech community of Cleveland). I know that there are more Cleveland tech groups that use the boat than are listed on that poster. It is a very open place for those who want to make a difference in the tech community of Cleveland. Go to the LeanDog blog and look on the right-hand side for a list of some of the tech meetings on the boat.

Go to LeanDog's Meetup List
Go to LeanDog's Meetup List

 

Jon Stahl (@JonRStahl) is also active in working to bring the SkyLift aerial cable car system to connect Cleveland's lakefront, river, and other attractions. To learn more about this vision for Cleveland, I invite you to visit the ClevelandSkyLift.com website and follow @CleSkyLift on Twitter.

Jon Stahl (@JonRStahl) and the LeanDog staff have been very, very supportive in bringing GiveCamp (@GiveCamp) to Cleveland and facilitating Cleveland GiveCamp's (@CleGiveCamp) five years of success. Providing free technical assistance to Northeast Ohio charities, this national program has flourished here in Cleveland to to become, it is believed, the largest GiveCamp in our nation! Learn more by reading the Cleveland GiveCamp News web page, following @CleGiveCamp on Twitter, and reading my blog posts about the event:

Summer 2014 GiveCamp Sponsors
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My first time I attended a function on the LeanDog boat was at the February 26-28, 2010, Advance 2030 Web Development Weekend. Web developers, programmers, graphic designers, and other passionate members of the community came together to build a website for the Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club (@CP2030). Before I even met Jon, I was amazed how he fully opened the LeanDog boat to supporting this event.

February 26-28, 2010, Advance 2030 Web Development Weekend

 

The first time I met Jon and mentioned how I provide free web development education through my WebSigCleveland.org meetings, he immediately offered use of the boat if I ever needed it. Again, I was amazed that he was so supportive of a person he had just met.

Tweets and Retweets

Here are my tweets and retweets about the christening. They include my photos and Vine videos from the event, along with links to articles about the celebration and others' photos/videos.

 

It felt like all the press in Cleveland attended the christening. I shared some of the media coverage in the above tweets, but I know that there is much more. If you know of additional press items, please feel free to add titles and links to them in the comment section below.