Cleveland

I had a blast!

On Wednesday, February 11, 2015, LaunchHouse transformed its building into a showcase of experimentation and experience, as the latest LaunchHouse Accelerator companies demonstrated their original product ideas at the LaunchHouse Accelerator Expo (LHXPO).

I use the word "experimentation" because this year, the focus was on hardware products and the science behind them. The active involvement of NASA Glenn Research Center with this year's LaunchHouse Accelerator supported this new level of experimentation.

I also use the word "experience," since attendees could get up close and personal with many of the products by actually trying them out.

It was a fun evening, and I particularly enjoyed meeting new people. I have been to other Cleveland TweetUps, and it seemed like there were more first-time attendees at this one.The great thing about a #CLEtweetup is that you can walk up to strangers, find out you have something in common, and look forward to seeing them again at the next #CLEtweetup.

The Northeast Ohio Software Association is now OHTech!

The new name, OHTech, reflects the change in the composition that has already occurred within the membership of OHTech. No longer is the organization limited by the word "software" in its name. It is a professional association that supports the full gamut of the technology arena, not just software development.

The "OH" reflects a new strategic emphasis -- to grow to be a resource throughout the entire state of Ohio.

I was fortunate to attend TechPint Cleveland V: Winter Jam on January 22, 2015, at the Beachland Ballroom. As the name implies, this was the fifth TechPint in Cleveland (there have also been Akron TechPints).

As in the past, the interesting location is also part of the draw of the event. Beachland Ballroom allowed for a creative atmosphere. With tickets sales exceeding 300, it was great that the Beachland Ballroom was able to open their back room to accommodate an additional 50 attendees. I heard that TechPint came very close to selling out all 350 tickets -- a big congratulations to the TechPint leadership team!

After attending six of the Cleveland Foundation's centennial events in 2014, Stuart was disappointed that he would not be available on December 30th for the final event due to work commitments.

Then, unexpectedly, he was given two extra days off from work! This allowed him, on December 29th, to enjoy a day of hiking on the Buckeye Trail in the Cleveland Metroparks and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. On December 30th, he was able to return to both parks and University Circle for Cleveland Foundation's Family Fun Day.

What follows is information about this final centennial event, and our photos/tweets of our activities of the day. Before we share our experiences from this one day, we want to share with you, the reader, Cleveland Foundation's "Enduring Trust" video. Understanding the worldwide importance of the first community foundation is more important than our thank-you message for one day of family fun.

I was not able to attend the City of Cleveland and OneCommunity's November 21, 2014, announcement. I watched it via Twitter, and thought it was very important to write this blog post to say:

Congratulations, @CityOfCleveland and @OneCommunity...

...for making Cleveland the first city in the United States to have a commercially available 100-gigabit fiber network!

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 and 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 would all take part in the champagne christening. I also heard that famed Cleveland singer Alex Bevan would be performing. I was excited to hear this, since I had never seen him perform in person.

On Wednesday, October 1, 2014, I was invited to attend two events about the positive things going on with the growth of technology in Northeast Ohio, and the new challenges created. In this blog post, I will share my notes and the related tweets. Since I could not capture all that occurred, I recommend reading the tweets, particularly for the Tech Town Hall event. We had some pretty impressive live tweeters for this Cleveland event.

• Amplify Speaker Series - Cleveland Technology

• Tech Town Hall Cleveland

Cleveland Technology + Art = Ingenuityfest Weekend!

Every year, the tribe of people interested in supporting artists and technologists in our community comes together in an annual gathering called Ingenuityfest. 2014 marked the 10th anniversary of this gathering.

My goal is to share a little bit of Ingenuityfest 2014. To truly experience it, though, you must attend this annual Cleveland event.

On Saturday, September 27, 2014, despite already having planned to spend the day and evening at the Cleveland IngenuityFest, we added attending the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Open House and Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant tour to our day's schedule. The day before the event, we received an email stating that they had over 500 people registered for the tour. We had no idea that so many others would be interested.

Our main interest was twofold. First, we wanted to understand the technology behind how all the wastewater for our region is handled. Secondly, and most importantly, we had already learned about the importance of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District from the Cleveland Foundation Centennial Gift: Weekends on the Water cruise and wanted to learn more.