IT in the D

We had a pretty full house for episode 98 of our weekly live podcast.  With Hatch Detroit in to talk about their $50,000 contest for the third year in a row to what Rocket Fiber has going on downtown and into the world of things downtown and a little mayhem with the Daily Detroit crew and some insight from Andrew The Man Expert that had us all rolling and unable to recover, it was just simply a blast of a night...

The latest news and events that caught our attention, as well as our own event on Wednesday, July 1st kicked off the show.

From ultra conservative religious southerners to Donald Trump, who's having the worst week?  Drones getting shot down.  Our insane weekend.  All kinds of whacky nonsense in this week's round up.

This Wednesday, July 1st we'll be hitting The Whisky Parlor, which is on the 2nd floor of Grand Trunk downtown.  Can't wait to check it out, and we're really looking forward to seeing everyone there.  It's located at 608 Woodward Avenue, again up on the 2nd floor.

5pm start time.  No cover charge to get in.  No speeches.  No agenda.  No sales pitches.  Just networking with some of the best and brightest folks here in and around the metro Detroit information technology community.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Details can be found here on the site - https://itinthed.com/meet/, on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, or in our Meetup group - http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/

Segment two dove in with Vittoria from Hatch Detroit.  For the third year running, she joined us to talk about their great $50,000 contest for entrepreneurs downtown.  Lots of great information in here if you're looking to apply - what sorts of businesses they're looking for, tips and tricks on how to best get through the selection process, and a bunch more good data.  Applications are open now, so head on over to their website and get rolling: http://hatchdetroit.com/

Our third segment focused in on Marc Hudson from Rocket Fiber.  By now, you've surely heard about their efforts downtown to increase internet bandwidth and capacity...but you might not know about everything else they have going on with television, or how you can get your neighborhood / town on their list of places to investigate coming to, or their work with more than just the business district downtown.  Give it a listen, and then hit them up at http://www.rocketfiber.com/

Segment four was...well, it was sort of a free for all.  We had the Daily Detroit crew talking about some recent shenanigans.  Andrew the Man Expert chimed in with his wit, humor and views on everything going on throughout the night and more.  Just a blast of a segment, and it's been a long time since we've laughed that hard...but be warned, this is definitely a segment full of topics for the 18 and over crowd.  Catch Daily Detroit at http://www.dailydetroit.com/, and you can read some more of Andrew's wit and wisdom in articles like this one: http://www.brobible.com/life/article/douchebags-you-see-out-at-night/

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As always, we can be found:

On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com

On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 

On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

We had a pretty full house for episode 98 of our weekly live podcast.  With Hatch Detroit in to talk about their $50,000 contest for the third year in a row to what Rocket Fiber has going on downtown and into the world of things downtown and a little mayhem with the Daily Detroit crew […]

IT in the D was pleased to be a part of Social Media Day Detroit on Friday, June 26. Listen to the opening panel discussion during the VIP reception...which was originally supposed to be about new ways to use technology to solve some problems in Detroit, but wound up being a deeper discussion about what those problems are and how they impact people's lives...

Some great folks were on the panel including:

Guests of Honor:

David Anderson, CoFounder at Bamboo Detroit

Piper Carter, CoFounder at Detroit Digital Justice Coalition

Jake Cohen, Partner at Detroit Venture Partners

Michael Evans, Senior Developer at Loveland Technologies

Edi Demaj, CoFounder at Rocket Fiber

Jill Ford, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the City of Detroit

Niles Heron, CoFounder at Michigan Funders

Alicia Jones, CEO at Harmony Point ITC

Alyssa R. Martina, CoFounder & CEO of Memloom

Marlin Page, Founder at Sisters Code

So give it a listen.

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IT in the D was pleased to be a part of Social Media Day Detroit on Friday, June 26. Listen to the opening panel discussion during the VIP reception…which was originally supposed to be about new ways to use technology to solve some problems in Detroit, but wound up being a deeper discussion about what […]

Episode 97 saw us joined by Sola Obayan of SMAMi.org to talk Social Media Day Detroit, Matt Roush to talk about the Engineering Society of Detroit and his own Tech Century tech blog, and Mike Brennan to talk about the latest goings on with MITechNews, and a whole lot more.  From cyber-bullying to social media best practices, this episode was a ton of fun...

As always, things kicked off with our take on the news, stories and events that caught our eye over the past week.  We also took care of some of our own business as we chatted about our event last week at Blackfinn in Royal Oak and our event next week at the Whisky Bar downtown.  Then we dove in to talk about Pixar's latest film "Inside Out" and our conflicting takes on it, the suck that is QR codes and the harsh lesson that Heinz learned about using them in conjunction with domains that you forget to renew and get snatched up by people who don't exactly have your company's best interests at heart, AT&T getting slapped with an enormous fine over bandwidth throttling, a fake Facebook post that led to hundreds of people gathering at a church in Flint thinking they were there to find out about jobs at GM...but no such luck...and even more.

We came back with segment two to talk with Matt Roush and Mike Brennan, two guys with a lot of history as journalists here in the area and elsewhere.  Mike runs MITechNews.com, our content partner behind the "News" tab up above and the "breaking news" widget in the right rail.  Matt's the Director of Communications and Public Relations for the Engineering Society of Detroit, but we've known him since his days of working at Crain's and then from the Great Lakes IT Report (GLITR) that showed up in our inbox for the longest time with news and information we paid attention to.  They've got some great perspectives on things here in the area, including the new Maker-based economy, 3d printing, tech in general and tons more.  It was great having them in, and we're looking forward to helping them launch their own show in the near future.

For segment three, we dove in with Sola Obayan from SMAMi.org, the Social Media Association of Michigan, to talk about this Friday's Social Media Day Detroit event.  There's a VIP reception.  There are some great speakers.  There will be a ton of people in attendance that you want to meet and chat with.  Best of all, the main session from 7-10 is completely free of charge, and it's the one place in the planet where having a conversation while staring at your phone is not only tolerated, but expected.  Tickets are still available for the VIP reception portion of the evening as well...and rumor has it we'll be doing a live broadcast from the event with whatever guests we can collar as they walk by, so we're looking forward to seeing you there.

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Our fourth segment doubled back on a topic that we started getting into during our third segment but wanted to break to give it enough time for an actual talk about it - cyber bullying.  What it means in the world today, and why it's different than when those of us around the table were growing up.

Then a little sappy sentimentality since it was Bob's anniversary, and his wife actually sat in with us for the night to hang and have some fun.

That brought our latest broadcast to a close, and we couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Oh, and Matt hung out all night just so he could get put on the spot and drop a one-liner...

Again, our guests can be found at:

Matt Roush: http://technologycentury.com/ and http://ww2.esd.org/home.htm

Mike Brennan: http://www.mitechnews.com/

Social Media Day Detroit: https://www.facebook.com/events/372049809658834/

Social Media Association of Michigan: http://www.SMAMi.org

As always, we can be found:

On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com

On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 

On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

Episode 97 saw us joined by Sola Obayan of SMAMi.org to talk Social Media Day Detroit, Matt Roush to talk about the Engineering Society of Detroit and his own Tech Century tech blog, and Mike Brennan to talk about the latest goings on with MITechNews, and a whole lot more.  From cyber-bullying to social media […]

Even widespread power outages couldn't stop Episode 96 of our weekly live podcast from happening.  We lost one guest due to the reschedule due to travel commitments, but we were joined by some really great guests for some fun discussions about everything from best practices with making and using video, an event next week that you should check out, a new dry cleaning service that'll pick up and deliver not just for you but for companies as well, as well as some stories and items around the city...

As our 1996 based intro closed out, we got rolling with the latest news, events and items that have caught our eyes over the past week.  Naturally we talked a little bit about the power outage that caused us to roll on a Tuesday night instead of our usual Mondays.  Good times.  As noted, we lost one of our guests in the midst of the chaos due to travel requirements, but we'll have him back on as soon as his schedule permits.

We chatted about our event tomorrow (Thursday) night over at Blackfinn.  As always, we'll be in the back room starting at 5pm, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Details can be found here on the site - https://itinthed.com/meet/, on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, or in our Meetup group - http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/

We talked about the (and we use this term loosely) "hacking" story coming out of Major League Baseball, the OPM breach that has an impact on anyone who's ever had a security clearance or any of their references, more fun and humor with Amazon product reviews and more.

For segment two, we talked with Scott and Kris from Make Moore Media.  From working with Herman Moore of the Lions to our own "What Is IT in the D" video, these guys have done some great work since launching and we couldn't be happier for them.  A good series of conversations about best practices with video, what's realistic and what isn't, why "4k" is the buzzword causing migraines and more.

Check them out at http://makemooremedia.com/

In our next segment, we talked with the guys from YumVillage about the Professional's Night Out - Detroit event taking place next week.  Kicking off its inaugural year, Professional's Night Out (PNO) will provide a semi-formal networking and dining experience for you, the entrepreneur, the working professional, the creative, the foodie. A first of its kind, 3-part indoor + outdoor event, PNO will exclusively bring super-achievers from across Detroit, together for the dual purpose of connecting and building with world-changing thinkers and innovators, as well as experiencing and enjoying some great eats and art. The evening will kick off with our Innovator's Meet & Greet, presented by Dreamers+Doers, which will run from 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m., followed up by our Dining With Doers Dinner Party, from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. and close out the night with our Dessert Afterglow.  Check them out at http://www.pnodetroit.com/, and use discount code ITintheD to take $15 off the ticket price!

Our last segment dove in with the guys from Dryv, a new Uber-esque dry-cleaning service that's just launching here in the area.  They come to your house, pick everything up, get it cleaned, and then bring it back to you...without killing you with a heavy price markup thanks to their model and volume based relationships.  They're also offering programs for companies and their employees, so you should definitely talk to your HR folks about a setting up a new office perk.  They're still building out their service areas, and you can help shape things by grabbing the app and signing up at http://dryv.com/detroit/, and best of all, they went ahead and setup an ITintheD discount code while we were on the air with them so you can get rolling on the cheap.  Check them out at http://dryv.com/detroit/

And just as a little bonus, we had Daily Detroit in the house talking about some of their latest stories, info around the city, and more.  Check them out at http://www.dailydetroit.com/

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Again, our guests can be found at:

Make Moore Media: http://makemooremedia.com/

Professional's Night Out - Detroit: http://www.pnodetroit.com/ (discount code ITintheD)

Dryv: http://dryv.com/detroit/ (discount code ITintheD)

Daily Detroit: http://www.dailydetroit.com/

As always, we can be found:

On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com

On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 

On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

Even widespread power outages couldn’t stop Episode 96 of our weekly live podcast from happening.  We lost one guest due to the reschedule due to travel commitments, but we were joined by some really great guests for some fun discussions about everything from best practices with making and using video, an event next week that […]

Episode 95...and on our fifth episode from the new studio, we had a pretty packed room with guests covering all sorts of topics.  Open data in the city of Detroit and an upcoming hackathon to find better ways to use it.  Updates from our friends at Detroit Beer Press about their latest issue.  A check in nearly two years later with Batch Brewing Company on how things are going downtown.  A look at the state of the Detroit tech scene from the eyes of someone still in school and breaking into the industry.

Don't forget you can get 10% off Squarespace's offerings by using discount code IT during the checkout process: http://www.squarespace.com/, and you can try QuickBooks for self-employed tryselfemployed.com/it

And so, so much more...

After our 1995 themed intro came to a close, our opening segment kicked off with a recap of our last event and information about our upcoming events, the depressing information that both The Goonies and Ferris Bueller's Day Off are now both thirty years old, the hilarious (to us) story about a member of ISIS posting a selfie that led to an airstrike less than 24 hours later, a very concerning tale about how the Red Cross spent over $500 million in Haiti after the terrible earthquakes there...and yet somehow managed to only build six houses, Gamestop's purchase of ThinkGeek's parent company, our lovely new kegerator stocked with the Scurvy Dan Blood Orange IPA from Falling Down Beer Company and more.

In our second segment, we dove in with our guests David Lingholm, the Director of Digital Media and Community Engagement for the City of Detroit, and Erin Sommerville, Media Relations Specialist for Automation Alley.  There's a hackathon coming up this weekend, #Hack4Detroit, that's looking to find some better uses for the massive amounts of data that the city has accumulated over the years, and there's some decent prize money for those who can help.  Designers, coders, and even just folks with ideas are welcome...but the signup cutoff is Wednesday, so hurry: http://www.automationalley.com/Events/Calendar/Event-Detail.aspx?uniqueid=16840

In segment three, we checked in with our friends Courtney Ochab, Ian Burk and Tony Barchok from Detroit Beer Press and Stephen Roginson of Batch Brewing Company.  Batch Brewing was on waaaaaaaaay back in episode 10 of our show when they were a finalist (and eventual winner!) of the Hatch Detroit competition in 2013, and they've come a long way since then.  Not only are they open, but they're in full swing with production of a number of great beers, have a solid kitchen, and have a monthly "feel good tap" where a portion of the proceeds go to a local organization.  Can't beat that.

Detroit Beer Press isn't doing to shabby either, with their latest issue in breweries, distilleries and locations throughout the area...which hypothetically might include another IT in the D style rant.  Updates about their Howler Club Membership program and more await your ears.

In our fourth and final segment (no, still no infamous fifth segments in the new studio as of yet), we talked with Kevin Hill, a local guy still in college at RIT, and working his way into the Detroit tech scene.  We met Kevin at our Hopcat event back in May, and absolutely had to have him join us in-studio to continue that conversation on air.  He's got some great perspectives on how things look from his point of view - what he sees going well, going wrong, what works, what doesn't, and just a great take on things in general.

And that brought us to a close.  Tune in next week as we're joined by Right Brain Networks to talk about DevOps among other topics, Make Moore Media to talk film and production, and Yum Village to talk about their group's organization and event.

Don't forget you can get 10% off Squarespace's offerings by using discount code IT during the checkout process: http://www.squarespace.com/, and you can try QuickBooks for self-employed tryselfemployed.com/it

Again, our guests can be found at:

The City of Detroit: http://www.detroitmi.gov/

Automation Alley: http://www.automationalley.com/

The #Hack4Detroit event: http://www.automationalley.com/Events/Calendar/Event-Detail.aspx?uniqueid=16840

Batch Brewing Company: http://www.batchbrewingcompany.com/

Detroit Beer Press: http://www.detroitbeerpress.com/

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As always, we can be found:

On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com

On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 

On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD

Episode 95…and on our fifth episode from the new studio, we had a pretty packed room with guests covering all sorts of topics.  Open data in the city of Detroit and an upcoming hackathon to find better ways to use it.  Updates from our friends at Detroit Beer Press about their latest issue.  A check […]