houston technology center Archives - Tendenci

2014-09-262014-11-02

Photos “A Celebration of Entrepreneurs” Gala, Honoring Raymond Plank

Photos from a recent client event – “A Celebration of Entrepreneurs” Gala, Honoring Raymond Plank by the Houston Technology Center.

I was honored to be one of the recognized Entrepreneurs although definitely not in the same league as the people crossing the podium!

While I always joke that I live on an airplane, Houston is home. So it is still such an honor for me to know that to know our Open Source Software serves clients like the HTC and learn firsthand just how amazingly funny but determined a man like Raymond Plank is.

And this last week I got to see an inspiring and truly amazing personal friend of mine speak. None other than Grace Rodriguez who now works with TED. She spoke at one of our other client’s luncheon this month, the American Advertising Federation of Houston. A few of those photos are on the Tendenci AMS site as well and cross posted to the AAF-Houston site. I am a former board member and have been involved in AAF Houston for years.

Grace Rodriguez photo gallery — Grace Rodriguez Speaking at AAF Houston

The best part about attending client events, well there are several really, but they include things like:

Attending a client event – It’s a chance to say thank you to our client! With over 300+ that we host it gets harder and harder to say thank you as I don’t know many of you personally. A while back we added up a count of users logging in different Tendenci sites just in our data centers (we have three). Just the totals of course with no identifying data, and it was over 1.2 million souls. It makes me proud and also nervous when we tweak the Tendenci user interface!
Attending a client event – I listen and YOU tell us how to improve what is both yours and our product! Yes, Tendenci is fully open source and you can download it from github at https://github.com/tendenci. So there may not be a direct financial benefit. Yet that is truly OK as Tendenci is clearly not just about the money. And a lot of y’all do host with us. We appreciate both the developers who use and tell us how to improve and the clients we host and manage everything for them.

Speaking of feedback – be sure to tell us how to improve the software on our new community discussion forum at http://community.tendenci.com. We talk to a lot of developers on github so the forum is more for…. you know… humans who use the software day to day. What are your needs? What would you like to see in Tendenci?

What is your priority on our Roadmap for example?

I’ll do another blog post about the Tendenci community forums soon. (This also means that we now have forums integrated with Tendenci. We found another great Django based open source project named Misago which works great with Tendenci given we also use Django. Next is the single-sign-on server process….

Onward! And have a great Friday y’all!

2011-08-092014-11-02

7 Tips for New Entrepreneurs from Tech Champs

7 Tips for New Entrepreneurs Presented by Welcome Wilson Sr. — Welcome WIlson Sr. Shares Tips with Houston Technology Champions

Last Friday, noted Real Estate Developer and Entrepreneur Welcome Wilson Sr. shared great advice for new entrepreneurs along with some terrific jokes at the August Technology Champions event. The Houston Technology Center hosts a monthly Technology Champions breakfast and Tech Champs members represent Houston’s entrepreneurial and technology leaders and experts.

Although the event is focused on technology start-ups, I believe nonprofits and other organizations looking to succeed in this economy can also apply Welcome Wilson Sr.’s “7 Tips for New Entrepreneursâ€.

Tip #1: Never Trust an Expert More than You Trust Yourself!

If someone presents themselves as an expert and their evidence or reports don’t quite add up to you – trust your gut and do some research yourself, and get a second opinion. There are a lot of “experts” out there who are more skilled at taking your money then providing your business with real value if you let them.

Tip #2: It is Safer to be a Copycat than a Pioneer!

Take MySpace versus Facebook or Internet Explorer versus Chrome and Firefox, and remember it isn’t always the person who comes up with the idea first that succeeds. Most successful companies began by taking an idea that already existed and then found ways to improve on the idea, the marketing message or both.

Tip #3: You are NOT Invincible, Despite What You Think!

It takes a lot of courage to start your own company and that same attitude can also lead to an abundance of fearlessness. Take a moment to analyze those big make or break decisions because you can make a mistake and your business can run out of money and fail.

Tip #4: Deal with the Major Set Backs, Then Forget About it and Move On!

Sometimes you make a mistake and some things are out of your control – like the economy. When something happens that steers you off track – analyze your situation to determine how it happened. Think about it for a little while and then if you make plans to go ahead, move on and forget the failure and remember your successes.

Tip #5: Schmooze Important People!

Welcome Wilson Sr. said it best: “Any success is a group effort”. Find people who can help you succeed and then get to know them. Think of what you can do to help them and offer that help.

Tip #6: Never, NEVER Burn a Bridge!

You never know who you may need to partner with down the road, and good relationships are critical in business deals. Treat people with kindness and respect, no matter how nasty they are in return. You’ll earn their respect, the respect of those around you, and you’ll be remembered as a good person to do business with.

Tip #7 “Be Prepared and Show Up!”

This final tip is applicable to pretty much any situation I can imagine in life – you have to show up to the event with the items and information you need to accomplish your objectives.

I’ll conclude with one of the hilarious jokes Wilson Sr. told Friday after proclaiming he and his Alma Mater, the University of Houston are both 84 years old: “You know you’re getting old when you tell your best friend that you are having an affair, and he wants to know who’s catering it.â€

The Technology Champions Networking Breakfasts are just one of many events the Houston Technology Center hosts. This Wednesday August 10th, HTC has partnered with NASA/Johnson Space Center to offer “Resources for Entrepreneurs” orientation meetings at the Gilruth Center in Clear Lake. Register to learn how to find the tools and resources you need as an entrepreneur.

View future entrepreneurial events at the Houston Technology Center’s Calendar and check out photos from Friday’s Tech Champs networking breakfast.

2011-07-202014-11-02

Shonali Burke Leads IABC Houston Workshop at HTC

shonali-burke-IABC-HTC-2011 — Shonali Burke leads IABC Houston Chapter workshop at Houston Technology Center. Photo by Mark Hiebert. (www.hiebertphotography.com)

IABC Houston hosted it’s latest workshop for PR professionals: Commo at the Speed of WARP.

The workshop was led by award-winning communications consultant Shonali Burke, and PR professionals from varying disciplines in the Houston-area gathered at HTC for the training.

Community-centered public relations was the focus of the workshop along with, tools to make your Social Media time more effective, and a real-time tweetchat with Klout.

Community Centered Public Relations – Three Case Studies

Burke highlighted three case studies as examples of organizations who effectively implemented the strategy to grow their brands.

In “The Case of the OKC Jeweler” the Samuel Gordon Jewelers team was able to increase their revenue, drop their ad spending and increase foot-traffic to their brick-and-mortar location by interacting with their audience. Samuel Gordon Jewelers doesn’t sell their product online, so being able to engage an audience online in a way that increased revenue is perhaps the most interesting part of the case study.

Pledge to End Hunger was an example of combining an online community with an actual event to highlight child hunger. The campaign was primarily goal driven: 1,000 pledges in 7 days. It was a Twitter-based campaign, so the target audience was active Twitter users. The offline event was SXSW – so timing was a significant component as well. The organization collected more than four thousand pledges with the call to action “1 click feeds 140 children.” The end result was 560,000 servings of food to foodbanks in four cities.

Finally, The Blue Key Campaign relied on a community of bloggers to drive the conversation around raising funds to help refugees and displaced people. One goal of the campaign was to get sign-ups for 1000 keys a week for six weeks. Fifty percent of the goal was met in a single event: a 24hr tweetathon. Because the campaign relied on decentralized components (bloggers in different parts of the U.S.), determining which factors to measure was essential to the success of the campaign. Tweets tagged with #bluekey were tracked, and the team used a Google Analytics campaign to measure and review traffic sources to the main website.

Tools

The common factor in the case studies were tools used to track, measure, and monitor online outreach. Our favorites from Burke’s list include:

Google Analytics – Provides in-dept site statistics and campaign monitoring tools. Free.

WP Editorial Calendar Plugin – WordPress plug-in for planning content. Free.

WP Touch – WordPress plug-in that creates a mobile template version of your WordPress site for easy reading.

LiveFyre – Blog commenting application that connects commenters with with Facebook and Twitter.

Tungle – Scheduling tool that integrates with Outlook calendars.

Post Planner – Strictly for Facebook. Allows users to schedule post and preview exactly how the scheduled post will appear on your Facebook wall.

Major Takeaway

One major takeaway from Burke’s workshop is that when you implement community-driven PR outreach, you build trust. And that’s part of what motivates people to action.

Shonali Burke offers additional insights on blogging, PR, and social media on her site Waxing Unlyrical.

2011-03-10

Steve Ballmer Speaks at Houston Technology Center Forum

HTC welcomes the CEO of Microsoft!

A gorgeous day downtown, the great folks at Houston Technology Center and guest Steve Ballmer – CEO of Microsoft drew dozens and dozens to Minute Maid Park’s Union Station for today’s Houston Technology Forum.

The Houston Technology Center is known for affording education, insight and more to entrepreneurs needing to climb the ropes to commercialization. The topic of the day, presented by Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, was “Strategic Implications for Houston as a Center for Innovation.”

“The most grand commodity of all is information” – Steve Ballmer

High Tech Talk

Highlights included the path that technology has taken in the last decade and where it’s going in the next. Hand-held devices, resources technology and virtual worlds where business takes place with Avatars were all topics of discussion. The forum mainly, however, focused on informations technology and the important and continuing role it will play on business development in the years to come.

Steve Ballmer also spiced things up wit ha sneak peak of some great Avatar based progra ms for X-Box360 even giving away an X-Box to a lucky attendee at the end of the program.

Hugs to Houston Technology Center

Sheila Whanger did a great job organizing the event and it was wonderful to see Walter Ulrich, President & CEO of Houston Technology Center up on the stage as well. Let’s not also forget the welcoming faces of Downey Bridgwater, Chairman of the Board – HTC and Larry Kellner, Chairman of the Board – Greater Houston Partnership.

It was great, everyone. Thanks so much to HTC!