Refresh Savannah

September’s Refresh: Innovation = Hard Work

Kevin Lawver — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:43:21 +0000

September’s Refresh is fast approaching, so it’s time to get my act together and tell you what we’re talking about, right? This month, Ron Pearl is going to talk about “Innovation”. Wait, stop… don’t run away! We’re not going to be talking about the amorphous, poorly defined, silly buzz word version of innovation – we’re going to talk about the real thing, why it’s so difficult to actually innovate and then go over some tools for gathering ideas and boiling them down to actual innovation. We’ll be going over some of the brainstorming stuff we didn’t get to last month, which should be a lot of fun.

So… bring your brains and get ready to have them blown to smithereens.

We’ll be at ThincSpace again, and this month we’re trying an earlier start time. So, be at 35 Barnard at 6PM on 8/21 and get ready to innovate!

Also, if you’d like to sponsor, let me know (kevin-at-lawver.net). I think everyone enjoys the beer and it seems to get things off on the right informal track.

August Refresh Recap

Kevin Lawver — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:40:32 +0000

Thanks to everyone who came out last night, and especially to Marty Scott, who gave a great presentation that led to an interesting discussion of the issues. What struck me was how many oceans there are to “boil” in the problem of patient safety – patient education, processes and cultural (multiple cultures that need to change). It was a fascinating evening, and I appreciate everyone who participated. And, thanks again to Focus Lab for sponsoring! The pizza was great.

If you missed this month, here’s the video of Dr. Scott’s presentation from TEDx Creative Coast:

And remember, next month we’re going to try starting at 6PM instead of 7. Next month’s presentation will be on “innovation” by Ron Pearl! I hope to see you all there (9/21 – 6PM at ThincSpace)!

August’s Refresh: Is It Safe? Patient Safety and Brainstorming

Kevin Lawver — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:10:57 +0000

We’re going to try something a little different this month. Marty Scott, who spoke at TEDX, is going to give us an overview of the problems hospitals face with patient safety. Then, we’ll go through a brainstorming exercise to see what solutions we can come up with. We’ll go over successful brainstorming techniques and how to narrow down the product of a brainstorming session into actionable products and features.

We’ll be back at ThincSpace again at 7PM next Tuesday (8/17). I hope to see you all there!

We don’t have a sponsor this month yet. If you’d like to provide beer, sodas and/or snacks, please let me know (kevin@lawver.net). There should be a good crowd there this month and you’ll get a couple minutes at the beginning of Refresh to talk about pretty much whatever you want.

Focus Lab has stepped up and is sponsoring this month’s Refresh! Focus Lab specializes in creating engaging web sites that help businesses grow and achieve more online. You don’t want to work with them if you’re looking for a boring and ineffective web solution. Word on the street is that they’re a fun bunch too.

Thank you, Erik and Bill!

Slides from Marvin’s Presentation

Kevin Lawver — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:09:21 +0000

Marvin did his own writeup of last night’s Refresh, so I don’t have to! Here are his slides (which were excellent):

Introduction To Agile Refresh Savannah July20 2010 V1 4

View more presentations from Marvin Heery.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and especially Marvin for presenting. I thought it went really well and think everyone got something out of it.

Stay tuned for details on August’s Refresh, which will hopefully be a mashup of Savannah’s medical and web communities to see if we can help save some lives. Sounds interesting, right?

You Should Speak at Geekend

Kevin Lawver — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:46:03 +0000

Yes, you. No, I’m not talking to anyone else right now, just you. What have you got to lose? You know stuff; you should share it. You have two more days to submit your proposal for Geekend, and now is a perfect time to submit something. What should you speak on? What do you know? What should you propose a panel on? Something you don’t know but know people who do. You’ll get at least 30 minutes on stage to pick their brains about whatever it is you want to know.

Speaking at conferences is fun and a great way to build confidence. It can only help that Geekend is local and run by cool local people. Still not convinced? Why not? Think you’re not smart or good enough to speak at a conference? Well, I’ve spoken at conferences all over the world, and I’m not any smarter or better than the people in the audiences where I’ve spoken. I’m just willing to get up in front of them and share what I know (or what I think I know). It’s not hard, really. It’s not even that scary once you’re up there.

So, submit your proposal today, and let’s see some more local talent on the schedule!!

(and don’t forget – July’s Refresh is 7/20 at 7PM at Thincspace – and we’ve only heard one “Yay for bowling shirts” comment, so if you’re interested in a Refresh bowling shirt, please let me know or post a comment!)

July’s Refresh: Agile Development, Plus a Quest and a Question

Kevin Lawver — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:41:34 +0000

It’s July already and that means it’s time to tell you all about July’s Refresh! This month we’ll be talking about Agile Development (which a lot of you voted for on the poll), presented by Marvin Heery. I’ve already seen the slides and they’re jam-packed with goodness, so I expect a good discussion! Marvin’s already created a blog post to kick off the discussion if you want to check it out beforehand.

Here are the details:

What: Agile Development Practices
Where: Thincspace – 35 Barnard St
When: Tuesday 7/20 @ 7PM
Who: Marvin Heery

And while we’re here… I was talking to Erik Shulz last week about getting Refresh bowling shirts made. Being the busy bee that he is, he’s already gone off and talked to shirt people about it, and well, here we are. It turns out we need a few things before we get shirts printed:

A logo
maybe a sponsor
a rough idea of how many people want one

So, if you’re a designer and want to throw together a logo… awesome! Erik has already told me that I’m not allowed to do it, and he’s right. Also, if we want to keep the cost down, a sponsor would be cool. Your logo would be on the back of the shirt along with the Refresh logo and we’d love you forever. And, if you think you’d want one of these limited edition beauties, post a comment or e-mail me and let me know!

Lastly, a few folks have suggested we move the time up to 6 or 6:30 since there isn’t as much traffic in Savannah as there is in DC, and once folks get home inertia will likely keep them there. I’m willing to try it if there are enough people who want to move the time. Otherwise, I’m fine with 7. If you have strong feelings either way, post a comment or shoot me an e-mail stating your case for either one.

There you go, an announcement, a quest and a question. I hope to see everyone on the 20th!

(one last thing, if you’re a frequent Refresh attendee and have a blog, let me know so I can add you to the old school blog roll we have going on over there)

June Refresh Recap: Link Dump and a Request

Kevin Lawver — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:45:48 +0000

Thanks to everyone who attended Refresh last night! I think it went really well and I learned a lot about the different types of funding, when to go for them, and what to expect. Big thanks to Mark Bandy and Kevin Johnson for presenting, Kevin and TAG for sponsoring, and everyone who participated in the discussion.

Kevin Johnson posted several links to Twitter last night about angel funding and the “veil piercing” he mentioned:

Farmville and game theory came up. I learned pretty much everything I know about game and learning theory from Kathy Siera’s blog and her presentations at SxSW. Another great introduction to game theory is Jane McGonigal’s excellent TED talk. Phil mentioned the Skinner Box as well… I’m not sure Farmville is exactly a Skinner Box, but he may be on to something.

And now for the request. We had some new folks there last night, and that was great, but I’m having a hard time getting the word out (I am a geek not a marketer). If you know someone who you think could get something out of Refresh Savannah, please tell them. Refresh groups work best when there’s a good mix of skills (not that we don’t have that already, but we are a bit geek-heavy), and I’d love to see more designers, marketing folks (but not too many, I’m allergic), project managers and other disciplines in the mix! So, please help me spread the word and let’s see what we can turn this into!

We’ve got some great topics coming up in the next three months (yes, I can’t believe it either, we have the next three months lined up): agile development, ideation and the problem with hospitals and innovation. I’ll post more about them each when they get closer!

Also, if there are topics you’d like to learn more about or better yet, present to the group, please either post a comment or send me an e-mail (kevin@lawver.net)!

June’s Refresh: Startups and Funding: Featuring angel investor Mark Bandy and an overview TAG’s Economic Gardening program

Kevin Lawver — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:55:12 +0000

Yeah, I know I put up a poll and everything and asked you what you wanted to cover, but I’m going to pretend that was for the future and not for June. Why? Because I went out and got an actual angel investor, Mark Bandy, to come talk to us about starting a business, when to seek funding and what the angel funding process is like. Yeah, I know!

We have to push June’s Refresh back a week to fit his schedule, but I think it’s worth this one time to disrupt the normal schedule. So, June’s Refresh will be June 22nd at 7pm at Thincspace!!

And since the beer went over so well last time, if someone would like to sponsor the evening, you’ll get a chance to make your pitch (about 3 minutes) to the assembled throng and all you have to provide is some refreshments. If you’re interested, send me an e-mail (kevin@lawver.net).

We still need volunteers to present for July and August – so if you’re like to present on one of the topics (someone’s already volunteered to cover Agile Development, so NoSQL is up for grabs, or anything else you want to talk about), ping me at the e-mail address above. Remember, you don’t need to be an expert, and if you’re not used to presenting in front of crowds, friendly groups like Refresh are great places to practice. You won’t find a friendlier audience, or one more willing to pitch in and help out if you get stuck. So, if you’d like to eventually speak at industry conferences, I highly recommend speaking at Refresh!

I hope to see you all in June!

Update: And as a last minute addition, we’ll have a short presentation by Kevin Johnson from the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG for short). They recently launched an economic development program called Economic Gardening here in the Coastal Region that focuses on growing small businesses, specifically high-tech or tech-enabled businesses. Angels really like this program because it focuses on getting companies the best marketing research on the market —something that according to local angel investor, Ray Wenig, is the most lacking part of business plans he receives. And, because the services offered by the program are subsided by government, they are really affordable. So it’s a great tie-in. Oh, and TAG is helping with the food and drinks, too!!

June’s Refresh: What’s Next?

Kevin Lawver — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:35:33 +0000

May’s Refresh was great fun. We have a new venue, there were refreshments and a lot of people showed up (and almost all of them stayed for the whole thing!). Now it’s time to plan June’s… and we don’t have a speaker. I’m going to start asking around and see if I can find someone, but if you’d like to speak, please let me know (kevin-at-lawver.net). I just need a title and a description from you and you just have to come up with something to present on the third Tuesday in June. And remember, you don’t have to be an expert – you just have to be willing to do a little research and start/lead the discussion.

I think the sponsorship stuff worked out really well (y’all really like your beer), so if someone wants to sponsor June’s Refresh, just let me know.

To help spur your imagination, I’ve created a poll with some ideas. Vote, volunteer and then show up!

May’s Refresh Savannah: How To Make A Dollar (Then A Million)

Kevin Lawver — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:45:10 +0000

It’s May already and that means it’s time to get organized for this month’s meeting! May’s Refresh will be held on Tuesday, 5/18 at 7PM at Savannah’s brand-new co-working spot – thincspace! It’s right downtown (35 Barnard St), and bonus: right next to the Ellis Square parking garage. The best part? No more cramming into our conference room, or climbing all those stairs!

May’s presentation will be by Rad Harrell from TalentSoup. And here’s the description:

How To Make A Dollar (Then A Million) – “Lifestyle Business” are not dirty words

Standing on the shoulders of giants (aka, stealing great ideas) and the carcasses of his past start up failures, Rad will present how to get your business idea off the napkin and into action in order to flesh it out. The main points of this talk are to:

challenge your assumptions about technology businesses (how to start one and what success really looks like)
how 90% of what you think you should do to start a business is wrong
how the business media is paid to lie about start ups
making a dollar is the watershed, everything else is scale
how the only barrier to participating is you

So bring your business ideas, come to listen, maybe learn something and certainly push back if want! The savior of our economy is in people that start businesses and Rad believes those people are all around Savannah

And because we’re breaking in a new venue, I’m going to try something new this month. Thincspace has the space and facilities for “refreshments” so I’m looking for a sponsor for May’s meeting! This is extremely informal and the only requirement is that you provide some kind of refreshments (punch and cookies, beer and chips, whatever you want), and you can put out your business cards, literature, whatever, in the communal area. You can also give a short pitch at the beginning if you feel like it (no more than 3-4 minutes, pretty please). If that’s interesting to you, ping me at kevin-at-lawver.net and let me know!

Update: That was quick! The lovely folks at Rails Machine are going to sponsor this month’s meeting. Thanks, Brad, Jimi & crew!!