CoderDojo returns — add coding to your kid’s school curriculum

CoderDojo, the international movement of kids coding clubs for kids 5-17 years old, is returning to Cedar Rapids this Saturday, September 6th, just in time for the start of another academic year. The Cedar Rapids rendition began last Spring, when a rag-tag group of tech and developer dads got it off the ground and saw immediate […]

Dev/Iowa: Just What An Entrepreneur Needs

On Wednesday, July 9, 2014 I was asked to come and address a classroom of aspiring developers at Dev/Iowa, presented by the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. The students have heard from a number of professionals in the software/web development arena this summer, so my talk took a look at the "business" side of the [...]

The workplace is changing: Workplace Revolution

I’ve worked in non-profit, corporate, and now self-employment environments in the last 15 or so years and during this time one thing has remained true: change. Aggressive change has been seen in technology, services, client needs, and employee work. Perhaps the largest changes has been in our workplace expectations – including mine. This week in Cedar Rapids an […]

Learning to trust, collaborate, be authentic, believe, & do at EntreFEST

Thanks to Bart Schmitz (@bschmitz14) for snapping this photo of me presenting "Taking Your Email Inbox From Ridiculous To Inbox Zero" on Thursday of EntreFEST. Download the slides of that talk. Last week in Iowa City, EntreFEST 2014 entertained around 500 entrepreneurs, business people, and community members who shared an interest in innovative business ideas [...]

Don’t Miss EntreFEST Next Week & Learn Inbox Zero From Me

Next week on May 14-16, 2014, you'll want to make plans to attend Iowa's entrepreneurial and business innovation mecca, EntreFEST 2014 in Iowa City, Iowa. This year's program is again produced by my friends Amanda West and Andy Stoll (both of Seed Here Studio). Andy has been quoted stating EntreFEST as "If #SXSW had a half-brother in Iowa." If EntreFEST lives [...]

Startup Weekend Cedar Rapids “The Movie” from Cycle Studios

A few weeks back, our pals over at Cycle Studios released their short film documenting this Winter’s first ever Startup Weekend Cedar Rapids. I can say from firsthand experience, Will Lenzen Jr. and his team were all over the event, start to finish, recording all elements of the happenings. I have no idea how they […]

Kids coding: it is not dorky anymore, it is necessary

Back in the day... When I was in High School I recall signing up for a free Geocities website, a pretty dorky thing to do in the mid-nineties.  What was perhaps even more dorky was it was to create a webpage for my High School marching band's drumline. A friend of mind and I started [...]

Join me for Taking The Leap & WordPress Security talks this Wednesday!

On March 26, 2014 I'll be presenting two - yes count them two -  free talks sharing a bit of my knowledge on entrepreneurialism and web development.  You still have time to join me and my fellow Creative Corridorians at the events (see signups/info below). Vault Startup School: Lunch w/ Joshua McNary [Beta]: Take the Leap, [...]

Follow The Creative Corridor Twitter List

Last week David Tominsky cornered Sarah Binder and I at Vault Co-working asking about who in the Eastern Iowa business community were the movers and shakers to watch on Twitter. We made a list on a whiteboard and it started to balloon. I noted I'd make a Twitter List version for us all to gain [...]