Author Archives: Chad

Why We Invested in BarCamp Cedar Valley

I’ve always believed in community involvement; that we all have a responsibility to give back to the places we live and work.  Last July, I attended Cowtown to Boomtown, hosted by SeedHere in Cedar Rapids.  Keynote speaker Tom Chapman (former … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Community, Entrepreneurship, Fun | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Let’s Bring BarCamp to the Cedar Valley

BarCamp is a world-wide network of unconferences.  Participants in these events provide all of the content, with all sessions open and participatory.  You can read more here about what happens at BarCamp.  The first BarCamps were focused on early-stage web applications … Continue reading

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Why You Need to Attend Big Omaha

I’m going to follow the advice Micah Baldwin gave in his Big Omaha speech and start this out with some brutal honesty.  When Kate and Jason approached the partners earlier this year and said we all needed to go to … Continue reading

Posted in Entrepreneurship | 2 Comments

Other Networking Opportunities in the Cedar Valley

In a recent blog post, we covered networking opportunities for IT professionals in the Cedar Valley. Now we’d like to highlight events and groups more focused on small businesses, entrepreneurs, and other business professionals. MyEntre.Net MyEntre.Net is a website dedicated … Continue reading

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Networking Opportunities for IT Professionals in the Cedar Valley

Highlighting some of the networking groups and events we’ve participated in that are focused on IT professionals. Next time, we’ll follow up with some things more targeted to small businesses and other business professionals. Our hope is that this will increase people’s awareness and drive more participation, leading to even better events and groups. Continue reading

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Introducing Google Web Fonts

Tired of using the same old, boring “web safe” fonts, like Times and Arial, on your website? If so, we’ve got good news for you! Google has introduced a service allowing the use of hundreds of previously non-web safe fonts on … Continue reading

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If you use Twitter give Seesmic Desktop a test drive.

After reading Chris Brogan’s blog entry on Aug 12, titled My Twitter Presence, I realized that there were better tools for keeping track of Twitter and other Social Media than what I was currently using.
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Tools you should be using… Speedfiler and SnagIt.

There are a ton of tools out there to help small business owners stay organized, communicate better, and be more efficient.  Here are two of my favorites I think everyone should check out. Speedfiler – This is, without a doubt, … Continue reading

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Is it Time to Use an Email Marketing Service?

If you regularly communicate with groups of people, whether they be customers, vendors, or organization members using email or a print newsletter, you may be able to do so more effectively, saving yourself valuable time along the way. To determine … Continue reading

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Does Your Website Help Potential Customers Find You?

I was recently on a website for a retail shop that couldn’t answer the following questions…  At least not without combing the entire site, front to back, and top to bottom. What does the business do or sell? Where is … Continue reading

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