If you aren’t a Michigander, it might surprise you to learn that we’re working hard to become known as a hub for entrepreneurs and technology, digital and art enthusiasts. From Quicken Loans Founder & Chairman Dan Gilbert committing to turning a portion of downtown Detroit into a center of software and high-tech innovation, to five-day events like Art X Detroit that present newly commissioned works from local artists, the creative revolution that has quickly gained ground over the past several years is both infectious and long overdue.

The Girls in Tech Detroit chapter wants to educate our GIT counterparts around the world about how our region is contributing to the development of the technology and digital spaces, so we’d like to start by introducing you to the FutureMidwest Conference (disclosure – I’m part of the communications team), taking place April 28-29 in Detroit.

FutureMidwest is the Midwest’s largest digital business conference. Initiated in 2009, the two-day conference is designed for executive management and decision makers from corporate, small and midsized businesses, entrepreneurs, brand managers, marketing, communication professionals, students and professionals in the digital/technology spheres. Presenters offer advice on implementing digital strategies to engage audiences and boost company profitability. FutureMidwest focuses on the impact of technology in five areas: integrated marketing, user experience, mobile, business intelligence/analytics and regional growth.

In two conference sessions, led by digital and marketing professionals, participants will learn about emerging business technology trends and ways to incorporate digital strategies into their marketing and business operations. A third session will be devoted to networking with professionals from the startup community, venture capital firms and other industries.

One new element added to the FutureMidwest Conference this year is Funded By Night, a one-day competition to fund technology startups that will compete to win a $100,000 convertible note from two metro Detroit local venture capital firms.

Not the typical conference you would expect to take place in Detroit, right?

While the conference program differs each year, you can check out the following presentations from 2010 presenters Joe Jaffe and Ken Burbary to get a sense of what you can expect.

I welcome you to check out the FutureMidwest Conference website, Facebook page and Twitter stream to learn more about this technology and digital conference. Feel free to ping me directly on Twitter with questions.

What technology events or movements are happening in your neighborhoods that you want the GIT community to know about?

Photo credit

Tags: Art X Detroit, business, creativity, Dan Gilbert, Detroit, digital, entrepreneurs, facebook, Funded By Night, FutureMidwest Conference, Girls in Tech Detroit, innovation, Joe Jaffe, Ken Burbary, Michigan, Quicken Loans, technology, twitter
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JB

J. Briganti

Thanks to advanced technology, you know longer need to be a professional photographer to capture a unique moment in time.  Although it is true that photography is an art, even those of us just snapping away as a hobby can achieve exceptional photographs with the right camera in hand.

The Olympus SP-59OUZ will provide you with photographic pleasure.  It is an affordable camera appropriate for someone taking up photography as a hobby and can also be easily enjoyed by all members of the family.  It comes complete with lots of valuable shooting features such as optical zoom, shadow ADJ for brightening the subject against backlight, exposure compensation for adjusting the brightness and macro shooting for taking great close ups.   And let’s not forget the self timer so that all of your family or friends can be in the picture.

Taking a good photo is not really as difficult as you may think.  You don’t need years of experience or the most expensive camera.  What you do need is inspiration.  Where to find it?  It’s all around.  Take time out to notice your natural surroundings including your own garden, local parks or distant landscapes.  Family pets or small animals like birds, squirrels and rabbits make wonderful photos too.   Zoom in on your own family members when they’re not looking for photos with a natural complexion.

Here are some simple steps that you can follow and you’ll be on your way to photographic bliss.

• Get up close and personal to your subject, when possible.
• When shooting animals get down low on their level.
• Hold your camera in a vertical position for a change.
• Look for a simple, uncluttered background.
• Shoot with the sun behind you.
• If your outdoor subject is in the shade, turn on the flash.
• Use a tripod for extra steadiness.
• Make use of macro shooting for great close ups.

In addition to these simple tips, take the time to read your camera’s manual; by doing so you will learn how to operate the different camera modes available.

Have fun and enjoy your photographic journey!

Tags: Athens, camera, digital, GIT, Olympus SP-590
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Girls in Tech Portland chapter(GIT PDX) hosted an event for inspirational speaker, Katherine Durham, Vice President of Marketing, Imaging & Printing Group, Americas, Hewlett-Packard. The event started off with social networking among women with backgrounds in technology who reside in Oregon. We had a great mix that included engineers, developers, social media specialists, marketing and PR professionals, entrepreneurs and others. The evening ended with a great presentation and Q&A during which Katherine shared her passion for the HP business and connecting with end users.

Katherine started off by sharing her background and then quickly dived in to how to shift the digital marketing and technology mindset to harness the power of an integrated approach. With constantly emerging digital trends and a new media-mix landscape, how does HP harness these trends and measure success?

Effective marketing has remained the same for years: connect the right customers with the right message at the right time and in the right place. What’s changed is that consumers are spending more and more time connecting through social networking, video and mobile.

In fact, consumers are now devoting more time online than to any other media, averaging a total of 14 hours/week or more. This amounts to more than 40% of their free time. In the last year, microblogging and social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, Blogger, Baidu and more have exploded in popularity. Video and mobile technology trends all continue to point up. There is huge opportunity if you look at total media consumption vis-a-vis the total U.S. advertising spend.

HP concentrates on maximizing the cross-channel shopping opportunities online, in-store and via advertising. This creates a synergy that delivers results.

Take “Pioneer Woman,” one case study in success. The campaign features Pioneer Woman, a blogger with a growing following. HP reached out to her niche audience by having Pioneer Woman show how she incorporates HP solutions into her life. By leveraging this already-existing social community, they were able to bring more credibility to the message, in that the audience is not being told what to do, but is having information shared with them.

One key takeaway from the HP social networking presentation was how important and effective it can be to find ways for your brand or business to share and collaborate in the social media space.

Katherine closed with a few takeaways:

• Digital AND social media are the future…how do they work with and impact other assets?
• Use the data AND trust your gut if you have a good compass (or get someone who does)
• Leave enough room for innovation AND experimentation
• Traditional AND emerging measurement are both important

Thanks to 24Notion for the event sponsored. As well as for everyone who attended the lecture. For more info about Girls in Tech Portland, check out our Facebook group

Tags: 24notion, digital, girls in tech, HP, Ivo Lukas, marketing, media, Portland, social media, technology
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Tags: digital, marketing, social media, technology
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A little over a year ago, Helen De Michiel in an editorial to the SF Chronicle suggested something very interesting in light of today’s economy and the technological ranking of the US among other countries of the world: What this country needs, she claimed, is a “Digital New Deal.”  So, what exactly did she mean by this?
She founded this proposal on the fact that, although one of the world’s wealthiest countries, the US ranked surprisingly low in its Internet infrastructures. We ranked “4th – in network readiness to compete globally” and only “24th among industrialized nations in broadband.”  This was shocking to me; and I thought – How is this possible — We are in the Silicon Valley, the home of nearly every other Internet start up, right?

To change this, she suggests that we need to encourage the youth of this country to engage widely in an effort to create a “new online public sphere” or a national public media depository, if you will. Thus, after graduating college they can become part of the solution to create an even greater and larger social networking/information exchanging/fully- connected online community. This in turn will create jobs, bolster the sharing of ideas and innovation, and create a new generation of broadband access.  This can be achieved by teaming with more experienced specialists in the area, and will hopefully also bolster community-building and multi-generational participation.

De Michiel invited us to “Imagine after the 2008 election, a swarm of arts and culture leaders, public interest and policy advocates, energetic young software developers, philanthropists, media reformers and forward-thinking politicians banding together in a broad coalition to construct this Digital New Deal.”

“Creative potential will be unleashed through new media and social networking pathways in ways we have never experienced, influencing where we live and how we work.”
With Twitter, the iPhone & its many apps on the App Store, among other applications to do what we want in this realm…perhaps we are getting there!
- quotes copyright SF Chronicle, 2008
(To read De Michiel’s full OpEd, go to www.sfgate.com, Opinion, & search archives: “Digital New Deal” -or- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/11/EDJU103F1U.DTL)

Tags: digital, social networking
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