http://www.dind.com/blog/getting-out/ en-us Fri, 18 May 2012 19:40:21 PDT Fri, 18 May 2012 19:40:21 PDT SiteCrafting.com GearBox 1.1 (beta) http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/baby-congrats-lunch-bowling-1/ So last Friday was a great afternoon. After visiting our customer  Primo Grill for a celebration lunch, we proceeded to Chalet Bowl for a couple games of bowling. It was good to get out of the office for a bit to celebrate the upcoming birth of Hiromi's baby (no, we don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet, but will soon). We all pitched in and purchased a Baby Bjorn and a baby wipe warmer. Kevin claims that a happy baby is a baby with warm wipes. Speaking from experience, I'm not so sure. Sometimes nothing, not even promises of hundred dollar bills will silence a crying newborn.We had a fantastic time, complete with an out of body bowling experience by SiteCrafting's own David Poole. Dave's penchant for turkeys (three strikes in a row) allowed our team to coast to victory in both games. To view more pics, have a look at Kevin's blog Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:51:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/going-to-boise/ Got up at 3:11 to drive through the ice to Sea-Tac for an early flight to Boise, Idaho. I was asked to present to the Idaho Pest Control Environmental Care Association at their annual conference on the need or non-need of a website for their businesses. The group was welcoming, the bagels fresh and the coffee warm. I think the presentation a success.Now I'm off to the Boise Airport for my return trip to Seattle. As promised to the group...the pdf of the presentation and a copy of the handout. Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:35:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/sitecraftinger-burns-up-at-hells/ SiteCrafting'er Joe and his band This Shirt Is Pants had a gig last Friday here in Tacoma at Hell's Kitchen. A gaggle of co-workers and friends showed up and had a great time playing some pool and listening to the band. I'd further encourage Joe and This Shirt's success but, on the selfish side, the we might lose him when they become rich and famous. Nevermind no office romance, how 'bout no office bands! ;)More photos over at KFnet Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:49:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/clients-on-road/ With all the different companies and organizations we work with, I'm bound to run into them in the "real world". Seeing people around is one thing. Seeing ads is another pretty common one. Lately, however, the signs of our clients I've been seeing are mobile ones. For the last few months there's been a bit of a blitz on local buses being skinned in one ad or another. Here in Tacoma a few of them don the black and orange of SoundBuilt Homes I've become so familiar with since working on their internal web apps. Just yesterday a few blocks from our office I saw a red pickup pulling a product manufactured by another of our clients. It was an Airstream Basecamp that had customized trim to match the truck pulling it. Then this morning while sitting at a light downtown a Toyota Prius drove by skinned similarly to those buses but instead advertising long time SiteCrafting client Northwest Trek.It's great to have reminders here and there of the broad array of folks we work with and it blew me away I've seen so many of them on the road lately. I wonder... If we had a fleet of vehicles, what would they be? Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:56:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/friday-office-creativity-gets-hand/ Who knew a seemingly innocuous internal email would make for some good laughs and groans? I sure didn't when I invited folks from the office to join in a Friday after work pseudo-tradition.Local pub Meconi's is known around downtown Tacoma as a solid place to grab a pint and a bite to eat. Add a foosball table into the mix and you've just convinced every twisty-wrist minded guy or gal at SiteCrafting to stop by. Somewhat earlier in the summer we made it there nearly every Friday but, as office and regular life tend to get busy when the Sun's high in our skies, attendance and interest waned.This week my schedule was clear enough (and those onion rings and cheese sticks were beckoning) that I sent out a quick email to everyone here. I let everyone know a few of us were "headed to Meconi's after work for foos, booz, eats and meets (sorry 'bout that)."Little did I know that pointing out the accidental rhyming would spawn such a clatter. It started off, innocently enough, with replies like "I, too, intend to attend," and "Since it's rhyme time, I'm in to win."Here's a transcript of some of the gems that followed:"Oh yeah? Well if it's foos you choose, prepare to lose!""I'm probably heading to the Fair, so I doubt I have time to spare.""Now that sounds like fun! But if I go I'll have to soon run.""Its been a really long week in sitecrafting land, Having a drink with you guys will be quite grand."And it all finally, thankfully and appropriately ended with this from Mark and Sarah:"Enough rhyming now, I mean it!""Anybody want a peanut?"Let this be a warning, spread far and spread near, creativity abounds working here for the Gear. Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:02:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/interact/ We want to stay connected with our customers. We want customers to meet other customers.  We want our potential customers to see just how easy it is to take control of their website and make it more successful. We want to give you the chance to meet others that are using our tools, that is why we have created "Interact".We realize that people are busy. In fact, most people, when they get to the office, don't have time to even think about much of anything other than the hottest potato that has been thrown in their lap on that particular day. Rarely do they have time to get a few minutes to update their websites, even more rare, the time to strategize ways to make their website make their lives easier.  That is why we believe Interact is so important. Let me start by letting you know what Interact is not...it is not:A place to be sold something new...if you wanted that you'd check out a timeshare in Vegas (At least you'd get a FREE trip)A place to reveal how much or little you believe you know about the InternetInteract is:A place to learn new things and find practical ways to maximize the use of what you have right nowA quiet place to work without the distractions of your officeA place to get access to SiteCrafting web experts ("Gearus" or Gurus if you prefer) who will give you tips/pointers.A place to network with other web users looking to improve their websitesA place to meet and understand that programmers are people too :)Whether you can make it or not this month, we'd love to have you visit in the future. SiteCrafting's doors are always open. Remember, space is limited, so sign up now. Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:32:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/2007-sitecrafting-company-retreat/ The SiteCrafting team spent the first weekend in October enjoying the Hood Canal area as part of this year's company retreat. Being as we suffer from a distinct lack of petty office politics and other Dilbert-esque characteristics,  "company retreat" is not synonymous with "endless torture" for us here. The getaway was designed to allow the team to take a break from the office routine and gain capacity to review and offer input on company strategy, successes and our roadmap for sustaining growth. As usual, our collective wit, insight and sarcastic humor made these discussions interesting, informative, motivating and memorable. The retreat downtime allowed our team to channel their creativity in cool/hillarious ways they don't get the opportunity to do back at the office. Michael launched the next great Web 2.0 idea with Beachipedia.com. It takes web applications to the next level by offering a free waterfront based social editable platform that allows anyone to read, edit, and engage in location based information. (For those not fluent in marketing speak: it's basically about writing on a sandy beach with a stick) Another great result of retreat downtime is Nick's gear-geous wallpaper that many of us our proudly displaying on our desktops. If you would like to raise the "cool" factor of your desktop by a considerable margin, you can download a zip with the most common resolutions here. And feel free to contact him if you would like a particular resolution not included with the above archive. There was also Wii gaming, Halo 3 shooting, wireless surfing, sleeping, scenic viewing, wiffle ball home run derbying, Mickey Mouse pancake cooking, guitar strumming, beach walking, nuclear submarine watching, silly certificate awarding, and Texas Hold' em playing. All in all, everything made for a good time and a great chance to get to know everyone we spend so much time with each day at work. Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:23:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/office-halloween-costume-contest/ Fully one-third of the staff at SiteCrafting participated in our office Halloween contest today. Though we dressed up to win today's prize a few of us even wandered about the streets of Tacoma on our way to and from a party at local design and architectural firm BCRA. A software pirate, blogging ninja, head-crab zombie, and "J" blockhead walking down Pacific Ave. certainly drew a bit of attention.Let's see if you can pick out the contest winner.Joe as "The Dude"Mandi as "You Should See The Other Guy"Kevin as "Blogging Ninja"Sarah as "Software Pirate"Nick as "Head Crab Zombie"Michael as "J Blockhead"The Line-UpWhat'd you and your co-workers dress up as? Happy Halloween! Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:48:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/office-star-trek-tng-marathon/ That's what we did a couple Fridays ago here in the office. Brian's wife Julie is an avid Trekker and was excited to plan a Next Generation marathon with us. And we definitely put her complete series DVD collection to good use. From about 5:30pm on we watched episode after favorite episode. After a pile of snacks, some great pizza, sharing Star Trek memories, 7 episodes, it was half past midnight and time to wrap it up.Thanks to Julie for making the trek (ha!) up and for those killer communicator cookies. We'll definitely have to do it again sometime.Pics after the break. Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:18:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/jay-ray-think-lab/ I was honored to be asked to present at Jay Ray's Think Lab earlier this month. The day long event was focused on marketing / technology solutions for regional health care providers and was held at The Inn at Gig Harbor. The program included practical tips and discussion on a variety of topics, including my presentation, How to Wow! Website Innovation. Other presenters included Andrew Fry and JayRay staff. My presentation,  of course begged the question...How does one wow with the web? Most of the time we think of wow we think of something visual, maybe Flash or beautiful design. Oftentimes, however, that beauty can truly be only one pixel deep. I decided instead of focusing on style and visual impact the point of the presentation would be to focus on making the interaction and functionality "wow" worthy. I opened with the premise that branding and visual design are extremely important and just because they were not the focus of the talk did not mean they were not important or secondary. My point was to accept those as given, and instead to take the discussion a step further, to wow the users with ease of use, with thoughtful functions, with the website as a tool.So what is good web innovation? What can we build into sites to make them more compelling and usable? Define the PurposeBeyond demographics, beyond preferences, answer,  what is the reason for this website? What tasks do I want people to be able to accomplish? How will this site make my customers lives easier, make my life easier, save time or make money? Answer these questions and eliminate all things that are not in alignment with that goal. Develop user scenarios and outline paths users may follow in order to accomplish your stated purpose. Make sure the purpose is clearly defined, easily perceived, and simply executed.A perfect example of this is Google. When is the last time you were wowed by the visual design? My guess is you have been repeatedly "wowed" by the results...Establish a Thoughful Process and Eliminate Bad ProcessesThink about moving time consuming or cumbersome processes online. In the Health Care world there are a lot of forms to complete when you visit a doctor for the first time. Let's fill these things out online ahead of time and make them part of my "profile". Give me a login so I can update my info at any time. It is important here to pause and remember that it is best to take baby steps in this area. Don't try and give your users everything all at once, instead start small, have them experience success every time they visit or interact with you and your website and then build on it.  So using the above example, I'd start with allowing me to edit my personal information, insurance info, etc. THEN after awhile add scheduling, test results, etc. Each new feature is a new chance to market the services and solutions. The example I used in the Think Lab presentation was for lettermansclub.com. This website has streamlined the process of designing, fitting, and purchasing a lettermans jacket. Instead of taking a couple of hours to design and fit in the store, the customer can design it all online, view pricing and submit an order. The purpose and process of the site is crystal clear.Partners - Choose WiselyThe final area we discussed was on selecting partners. It is important to focus on your core business. If you are a health care organization, don't try and be a web development company or a software development company, or a printing company. Instead find partners that share your values and offer non-restrictive, open solutions. I cannot stress that enough.Do not limit yourself to a closed proprietary system. Make sure your content is easily distributed across a variety platforms, make sure your data is safe and easily shared among your systems, and make sure your partners understand your need for access, security, stability, and support. Overall, it was a fantastic event and I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to present. I am looking forward to next year's event. Mon, 19 May 2008 22:23:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/volunteering-emergency-food-network/ There's something extremely satisfying about doing for others.  It's not very hard, doesn't take very long, yet makes a huge difference for those in need.  Saturday, November 15, some co-workers and I headed over to the Emergency Food Network's Distribution Center for their monthly Repack Project.  Giant bins of frozen vegetables are repacked into 1-2 pound bags for distribution to over 70 food banks, hot meal sites, and shelters throughout Pierce County.Our group arrived at 9am, were given hairnets and gloves, and put to work.  Several of us were placed around a large metal table and given bags and scoops.  Once a bag is full, it is passed to a team that seals the bags.  Sealed bags are packed into produce boxes and stacked on a pallet.  With 22 volunteers for the morning shift, work went fast.  In 2 1/2 hours, we repacked 8,890 pounds of frozen carrots.  We were actually sent home a little early so the afternoon shift would have something to do.  A group of 22 volunteers is a bit of an anomaly.  The Emergency Food Network tries to arrange for at least 10 volunteers per shift, and need the most help during the afternoon.8,890 pounds of food translates to roughly 7,100 meals.  Last year, Pierce County food banks provided 7,310,089 meals.  Each month, more than 130,000 Pierce County residents seek help finding food.  7,100 meals sounds like a lot, but only makes a dent.After our shift, we stood in the parking lot warming up and chatting about our various jobs inside the warehouse.  We realized that a small commitment can make a big difference and that we definitely wanted to do it again.  Besides, nothing screams "Style" like a hairnet.To join in the fun, visit www.efoodnet.org.  Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:41:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/lemay-americas-car-museum-visit-1/ It's always fun to visit the places we do business with. It's even more fun when you go as a team and you go as an actual visitor and not as a vendor to a meeting. Such was the case Friday afternoon, when we decided to caravan out to Marymount to visit the LeMay Museum.  The museum offers guided tours and our group was led by the personable Pierce. He escorted us around the grounds through several buildings and answered our questions in a way that made even the least car-knowledgeable person feel at ease. The Marymount grounds are home to over 300 collector cars (a fraction of the entire collection I'm told). The list of cars is extensive and rare - including a Tucker (#7 or 51 I believe), a 1912 electric that traveled 112 miles on a single charge (still there 100 years later), and a solid line up of domestic cars from every year and era  The museum is currently open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm - Sunday  12pm-5pm (June-September). Admission is by guided tour only and reservations are recommended.  For more information on hours, admission and for directions -  Visit the LeMay Museum website.  SiteCrafting is a proud Collector's Club Sponsor of the LeMay America's Car Museum. Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:09:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/sitecrafting-tours-ywca-facilities/ Today, SiteCrafting teammates were given a tour of YWCA facilities in downtown Tacoma. We had the pleasure of having our tour led by Executive Director Miriam Barnett and Marketing Manager Kelly McDonald. Miriam provided some great education on history, purpose and even shared stories of current and past clients. This organization has an amazing history. YWCA of Pierce County was started in 1905 and in 1976 opened the state's first shelter for battered women. It was the largest shelter in western states at the time. We toured this shelter and learned a lot about the building utilization, client services and the organization's plans for the future. The YWCA of Pierce County is in desperate need of additional shelter space and recently purchased a nearby building that we also toured. This new building provides a lot of potential for the organization as, in the least, it will provide more apartment style shelter space for women and children. They are currently in the midst of a campaign to raise the funds to fully convert this new building into shelter space, and SiteCrafting is a proud partner in this campaign. Thanks very much to Miriam and Kelly for this thoughtful and thorough tour of YWCA facilities. You both make it very easy to be inspired and excited to support YWCA initiatives.  Additional pictures of the tour are available at SiteCrafting's Flickr photostream. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:40:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/sitecrafting-attends-lemay-auto-show/ SiteCrafting attended the 32nd Annual LeMay Car Show & Auction at Marymount Academy in Tacoma, WA on Saturday, August 29th. As the Official Website Provider for LeMay- AMERICA'S CAR MUSEUMŽ, SiteCrafting set up an informational booth at the event where we showcased sites we developed and made ourselves available to talk about our partnership with LeMay and other community initiatives we take part in. Despite the gloomy skies in the morning, the event had a fantastic turnout and attendees enjoyed great weather and an amazing showcase of automobiles. Those of us from SiteCrafting that attended as booth volunteers had the chance to view the 120 cars that participated in the judged car show this year in addition to the vehicle auction. The museum and hundreds of vehicles on display around the property provided plenty of opportunities for any level of car enthusiast to enjoy something they would never normally see on the roads. SiteCrafting is proud to be an Official Provider of LeMay- AMERICA'S CAR MUSEUMŽ and we're looking forward to attending this event next year. And, based on the conversations had with event volunteers, we have to mention that if you're looking for some amazing volunteer opportunities, please check out their volunteer information. Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:57:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/appreciating-clients/ I recently had the pleasure of visiting Disneyland for my wife's birthday. While it is (by my opinion, and many others') the "happiest place on earth," there are certain things that made this trip even more enjoyable. Not only did my wife receive hundreds of "Happy Birthdays" from the cast workers (due to the birthday button you get on your birthday), but I got to see some of our clients' represented as well.The first time I saw a t-shirt with this particular client's logo on it, I didn't think much about it. But then I started seeing a couple more of the same. By the end of the night I had seen 5 or 6 t-shirts with various versions of the "To Write Love On Her Arms" logo.It's a lot of fun working with such a wide variety of clients. It's even more fun to work with clients who are doing such a great job helping others. To Write Love On Her Arms is no exception. This fine organization is aiming to help those struggling with depression, addiction, self-inflicted injury and suicide. Their site is a very cool blend of textual content, social media, interactive features, and multi-media presentations, and receives quite a lot of traffic every day.It was great to see this non-profit organization so well represented in the "happiest place on earth." Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:08:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/side-project-demo-night/ Thursday, October 22 from 6-8pm, SiteCrafting will host a Side Project Demo Night in our conference room. Led by Erik Hanberg, the demo night is an opportunity for local developers to meet, mingle, snack, and show off what they've been working on. If you'd like to attend, please email Erik Hanberg at erikemery@gmail.com. Read more about it on the FeedTacoma Calendar. Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:32:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/theres-no-place/ During my freshman year at PLU, I woke up to two friends throwing my coat and shoes at me and telling me to get dressed and come outside to see all the snow. I jumped right up and did what they said because I heard it rarely snowed in my new town so there was no time to waste. We ran outside and I couldn't believe my eyes. People were making snowmen, snow angels and dragging sleds in a whopping inch of snow. Talk about disappointment. I mean I realize you've got to work with what you've got (so more power to you west side residents) but this just wasn't doing it for me. In Spokane an inch is no blizzard and it better get 24 inches bad to even think about canceling school.So here I am back in the land of Bloomsday, the Big Red Wagon and the Zags. And let me tell you, it feels good. Except this time I am not wearing braces or wishing the Monroe Street Bridge would open already. Nope, this time the bridge is open and I am working at SiteCrafting's Spokane office and every day I learn something new. Not only about working here but also about my hometown. The importance of such things as buying local and investing in community are not just campaigns, they are what local Spokane businesses and people are doing. When I learned that SiteCrafting was expanding to Spokane I didn't think much about why this location was chosen. But having worked here for almost two months I now realize why. This is a different side of Spokane that did not exist to me in high school. With every meeting and event I go to I meet people that truly care about SiteCrafting's expansion to Spokane and not just to say we are here. They are invested in our growth and have been before we even settled in. Greater Spokane Incorporated (GSI) and SIRTI, to name two, have both been vital in this transition in helping us make connections as well as just checking in to see how we are doing as a company and as fellow community members. I am excited to learn even more about a city I thought I knew everything about, and web development which, for the record, I have never pretended to know anything about. So as I prepare for the bitter cold, eventual blizzards and go Zag mania around the corner I can't help but be excited to be back home experiencing the sometimes quirky, yet always entertaining, things that make Spokane home. Skipping around my new-old town in my ruby red slippers and SiteCrafting t-shirt I have to think that although I admit that munchkins singing, flying monkeys and an all powerful OZ are all pretty cool sounding, there really is no place like home. Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:57:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/stackoverflow-devday-seattle-conference/ On Wednesday, I had the pleasure to attend and volunteer for the StackOverflow DevDays conference in Seattle. StackOverflow is a programming Q&A site, much like Expert's Exchange except without the nagging to register. It boasts over 1 million page views per day and something like 20 thousand active users.There were many interesting topics covered, from ASP.NET to Qt, and there's a few new ideas that I want to try out now.The conference started off with a keynote presentation by Joel Spolsky covering everything from business sense, to the conflict between simplicity and sales. According to Joel, more features means more sales. However, most users only use 20% of their software, so we have to find the balance between making software simple and intuitive but also offering enough features to attract a large number of users.Also notable from this talk was "you are not in charge of what your users do" and "interrupting your users is a bad idea" (ie dialog boxes). Scott Hanselman talked about ASP.NET MVC, as well as demoed Visual Studio 2010. There are some neat features in both the MVC and VS. However, I'm more of a Mac Guy.Next up was Cody Lindley from Ning to talk about jQuery. He is very active in the jQuery community, as well as the original creator of Thickbox (an incredibly versatile tool for jQuery). He covered many features of jQuery, as well as the 5 Key Concepts behind jQuery. Find Something, Do Something, ie jQuery('p').hide(); Create Something, Do Something, ie jQuery('Something').appendTo('ul#nav'); Chaining, ie jQuery('p').addClass('hover').css('color', 'red'); Implicit Iteration - Automatically going over each item of a selection jQuery ParametersAfter Cody was Daniel Rocha from Nokia to talk about Qt (pronounced 'cute'). The first part of the presentation felt like a Nokia advert, but that was because he wanted to get to the real meat of the presentation, the demo of Qt. I was very impressed by the versatility of the Qt platform. In a few minutes, he was able to code up a simple application, and build it for Windows, Linux, and a Nokia phone. Developing with one language for any of the 6 (!) platforms that Qt runs on is absolutely incredible.Next was Ted Leung to talk about Python. Python is an incredible language, and Ted touched on only a little bit of it's power. His presentation was hampered, however, by terrible choices for font colors in his code. It's a shame, because I think that turned many people off to what he had to say.Dan Sanderson talked about developing for Google App Engine. It's very simple to setup and get developing, and hosting sites on Google's servers means that you've got a high degree of reliability and scalability.The final presentation of the day was from Steve Seitz from UW. He and several other people have developed a tool which is so awesome, words cannot describe it. Also, very tough programming. Check it out: grail.cs.washington.edu/rome. It's the technology behind photosynth.net.StackOverflow is a great site, and this was a great conference. I'd suggest that all the programmers out there make sure to go next year.Also notable (and fun) was that Amazon was there recruiting with code puzzles. They had one - how do you create a function that returns (boolean) true exactly .31416 % of the time? There were some interesting solutions (Amazon seems to like overly complicated ideas), but I thinkreturn rand() <= round(Math.pi/10, 5)is the best. Oh yeah, that was my solution too. ;) Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:42:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/vanessa-behan-tour/ Last week Michael and I had the opportunity to spend some time with the staff of Spokane's Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. As a Gear Grant recipient, we'll be working closely with the crisis nursery on giving their website an overhaul, updating it to better serve their current needs. Amy Swanson, the nursery's Executive Director, gave us a tour of the location and let us in on both the sad and really positive things that come with running a crisis nursery. Some of the stories make you really feel for the children that can't do anything about the situations that they are in, but the amazing success stories shore up the positive work that they are doing. The Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery directly serves the Spokane and surrounding area children between the ages of birth through six. Nearly all the children served come from situations that put them at increased risk of child abuse and neglect. The number of children being served each month at the nursery is approaching 400, with that number expected to grow. The nursery itself is very cool: indoor and outdoor play areas, a nice big kitchen, plenty of beds, laundry facilities, medical room, plus a big conference room for parenting classes and other meetings. They've expanded from the original 1920s house that served as the first home for the nursery to a new facility that does a much better job meeting their needs. Not only does the nursery provide a safe environment for children, it also a serves as a non-threatening resource for parents to help them alleviate the crises in their lives. As families continue to struggle with stresses arising in the current economy, places like the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery are needed more than ever. Completely funded by the community, the nursery really is a team effort. Without those donations of food, diapers, clothes, and more, the nursery wouldn't be able to provide such a wonderful environment for the kids. We're proud to be working with such a great organization that does so much for the children of the Spokane area. I'm personally pleased that our first Gear Grant in Spokane is going to such a deserving group, one that positively affects lives everyday. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:43:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/in-stars-in/ I had the privilege of being on a panel discussion this morning at the South Sound Technology Conference. Our panel consisted of Derek Young from Seasonal View, John Dimmer from FIRS Management and Tacoma Angel Network, Mark Briggs of SerraMedia, Graham Evans of the WTC, and myself. Our topic was on Entrepreneurship in the South Sound.  The panel had input on a variety of topics including mentorship, building connections and the importance of community for companies and start-ups here in the South Sound. After the discussion I enjoyed a bit of networking before heading out for what turned into a very long conference call, but that's how it goes. A few points I thought of that fall into the "why didn't I say that" category occurred to me after the presentation, and while I touched briefly on a few of them, I'd like to expand on them here. The first is that I think the South Sound needs to stop looking at other areas for guidance on how to do things. When I say this I am not just talking about Seattle. I am talking about looking around the room and realizing there is some tremendous local talent. Instead of aspiring to some false idea of what others have defined as a hotbed for start-ups, we should roll up our sleeves and build it here.  Secondly, companies have got understand that they are missing out our greatest natural resources - people. "Brain drain" is a serious issue, not just for companies but for our community. We should not allow our best and brightest to graduate and leave the area. We hear a lot about the "creative class", well, frankly we as a company "get it" and are looking for as many of these graduates as we can get our hands on.  Tacoma has world class universities, community and technical colleges all within a few miles of downtown. What can we do to keep these graduates here? Why aren't we doing it?  I can say that a primary reason we elected to open a second location is Spokane this year was due to it's colleges, universities, and technical colleges. Students in Spokane want to raise their families in Spokane not move to other areas - the City of Spokane and Greater Spokane Inc. get this and are working diligently to attract and retain those businesses that keep the brains in the community. The South Sound has some exceptional local resources: Great educational institutions who pump out graduates every year. A sane standard of living Great natural beauty  Organizations like Tacoma Angel Network looking to invest in local companies - I was stunned by the lack of South Sound Companies applying for TAN funds. Established businesses that can help start-ups get connected Individuals of great expertise and experience Instead of looking to the stars for inspiration, let's look within ourselves.  I'm looking forward to being involved however I can be. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:20:00 PST