|
|
 | |
| | Back to List
|
| | 01/21/2010 |
| |
|
| | |
| | |
| | The May Report: 1/21/2010: Sernovitz bolts Chicago for Austin, TX; more on MIT-EF and K&L Gates; Off to the hospital; IfbyPhone buys Cloudvox
|
| | January 21, 2010
The May Report: 1/21/2010: Sernovitz bolts Chicago for Austin, TX; more on MIT-EF and K&L Gates; Off to the hospital; IfbyPhone buys Cloudvox
Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com, 773-525-3944.
If you missed an article, go here: http://www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
______________________________________
*******************************
What a better way to start 2010 than with an innovative gift that will last all year and recognize the "Excellence" of your top performer, key contributing employee, other valued individual or yourself.. Let them enjoy 24/7 attended parking privileges at the Field Harbor Condominium located at 165 N. Field Drive right across from Millennium Park on Randolph St. -- Pocket Change of $.22 per hour or $5.33 per day -- won't measure the appreciation you will receive from this gift. Call John Golde at
847-477 -9465 or e-mail: goldebus@att.net
********************************
______________________________
******************************************
Netbuilder2 Website Design & Online Marketing - Are you looking for an experienced yet dependable Web Development and Online Marketing Expert to boost online business in 2010? We are an Experienced and Affordable Web Marketing Firm that you should contact for your e-business needs. Our Expert Web Developers make sure you have a professional and well-trafficked web presence. We offer:
Site Design
Onsite/Offsite Search Engine Optimization
Social Network Marketing for SEO
Reputation Management
Shopping Carts
Pay Per Click Campaigns
Site Add-ons - Modules and Content
Blog Marketing
Link Building
Traffic & Search Rank Boosting
Please contact Mike at 1-602-697-6777
mike@netbuilder2.com
http://www.netbuilder2.com
ICQ 578033400
******************************************
__________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Scoop section:
-- Briefly noted, by Ron May
-- This just in: Adolfo Laurenti responds to Ron's comments
-- Ifbyphone, Inc., a leader in cloud telephony, today entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire privately held Cloudvox.
-- Remember our discussion on Twitter?
-- Bob Waldron: CrisisCamps
-- Michael Quintos on cell phones in Haiti
-- Rachel Kaberon comments on MIT-EF and Chicago high tech
-- Rob Hannah: K&L Gates drops MIT EF
-- Chris Rollyson: Wrote up the MIT-EF meeting
-- Adam O'Sullivan: Check out www.raiseitnow.com
-- TECH cocktail: Announcing MOBILE cocktail
-- Geckotech job opening - Cisco
_________________________________________
The Scoop section:
______________________
Briefly noted, by Ron May
* Sernovitz leaves town
http://tinyurl.com/yjesd5e
Adios Andy
Translation:
No one likes me here (wonder why)
No one has heard of me in Austin (new start)
There is no May Report in Austin
This is in a sense an obituary, because while he wasn't the poor man's Moriarty of Gary Slack, Andy Sernovitz (of gaspedal and WOMMA) was a decent fringe nibbling foil good for a fair number of entertaining articles along the years. And now, after slinking into town from New York several years ago, Andy is further downgrading his act and moving to Austin.
I had what you might call a checkered relationship with Andy -- as have many, many others. He entreated me to pick a public fight with him prior to moving to Chicago as a way of using my report to create awareness of his name and, presumably, align himself with those who didn't appreciate Old Ronnie Boy. Well - I didn't bite. As a matter of fact, on advice of people shrewder than myself in public affairs, I gave Andy exactly what he didn't want: no attention whatsoever. That is until he started having events, and reached out to me again to come to and cover his coming out party. I was considering it until he sent me a note uninviting me because Gary Slack made a stink that I was going to be there. Andy sent a long note that he wanted me to publish (to publicize his event) but nonetheless uninviting me, and I maintained my stiff upper lip and sent it directly to the trash. That note never saw the light of day and the battle lines were drawn.
And that's when I sprung the Secrets of The May Report on him. Andy was well outflanked with my move: having an event at the same time and the same venue as his launch party. The "smart marketer" was so out smarted that his head is probably still spinning at thoughts of that affair. And he'll need that equilibrium control -- for all those mechanical bulls he'll be riding down in Texas. I won't go into the whole event story - it's in my archives.
Andy's name could be counted to pop up with some regularity -- he was always embroiled in come spat or cat fight with some person or organization that outed him as a charlatan. As I recall the most recent Andy revelation was the fact that he didn't found WOMMA -- but clearly said he did to pad his resume. That raised a few hairs. But in classic Andy/Gary Slack style - he continued to hyperbolize (I'm being kind). And now he's gone. Packing up the Family Truckster and moving out.
We'll never know the real story behind his departure - just like we won't know why he left New York. He's another of those characters with such a distorted back story that it would take the Coen brothers to sort it out. So Andy -- there is no May Report in Austin, yet. My doctors have been telling me that I should start thinking about a warmer climate. In the words of John McClain: Happy Trails, Hans.
* It is coming to me in dribs and drabs, but I am getting a better picture of what was happening at K&L Gates and at Drinker Biddle.
1. Drinker Biddle did give MIT-EF a three month notice of the termination of their sponsorship. By no means did K&L Gates do that.
2. There were issues with respect to K&L Gates for at least two months before the end of the relationship. But the end was a surprise to just about everyone.
3. The people I have talked to heard about it only in the last week.
4. Law firms tend to be masters of understatement, I am hearing. This translates into a big F*** You from K&L to MIT-EF.
5. The key relationship between MIT-EF and K&L Gates was Bob Lepkowski and Jude Sullivan. Jude was not the head of the Chicago office, but the Chicago office lost budget control when the merger happened last March. That more than anything else may have influenced the outcome. But Lepkowski tends to perpetually be missing in action.
OK, I may have this partially wrong. The national office for the law firms is in charge of corporate marketing. The main office for K&L is in Philly but that does not mean that the local office is cut out of decision making. When MIT-EF was with Drinker, the partners here were always negotiating with the national office.
6. I was told by one MIT-EF insider that they are trying to improve their membership model to attract bigger sponsors like K&L Gates. Well, that may be, but they have a long way to go.
7. I may have been partially wrong on one point. I have learned that other MIT-EF chapters across the country do more to connect to the university than the Chicago chapter does. In fact, the national MIT-EF organization has a policy of paying for an MIT professor to visit a chapter each year and most chapters take advantage of that, but not the Chicago chapter.
8. Also, the national organization does provide some guidance to chapter heads on all sorts of issues, but it is not clear to me that the Chicago people have taken advantage of the training.
9. Irv Shapiro has had some modest role in the relationship with K&L Gates, but mostly just in the form of touching base with them.
10. One person suggested a theory to me that K&L Gates is laying low these days due to its Washington, D. C. political problems.
11. I have done some investigating and have information from the level of the national board. The woes of Chicago are not lost on MIT-EF global or its 12-member advisory board, but I was surprised to learn that Cambridge was totally unaware of the Chicago's loss of its 2nd host sponsor in as many years. Apparently, the communication between Bob Lepkowski and Cambridge is intermittent at best, although they are aware of the ongoing issues and decline of their chapter but choose not to interfere. There is a national board member responsible for Chicago, but she has not done anything to help fix things.
Of course, for the first year of his three year reign, Lepkowski blamed most of the chapter's problems on former chapter chair and president Peter Balbus, who had, despite personality conflicts with Lepkowski in particular, in fact, led the chapter to significant growth and recognition during his tenure, but now Bob has only himself to blame. Balbus was a turnaround guy taking over from Joel Berez.
My information is that the local board members responsible for Chicago have also abrogated their responsibilities with K&L, in part because Bob Lepkowski has been evasive and repeatedly failed to deliver on his previous promises citing personal issues. This has been going on now for 3 years. The national people are not happy and as I understand it, at one point the chapter was put on notice. BTW, Lepkowski has not informed national yet about being dumped by K&L.
Sponsorships across the board are harder to come by given the realities of today's business climate, but that means that organizations fortunate to have sponsors need to treat them well - be proactive in establishing rapport, carefully discuss and execute approaches for meeting their objectives, and as Tom Hanks said in his dying words in the movie Saving Private Ryan - "Earn this."
I have confirmed with a couple of local members that the reliance on Bob backfired big time since no one was really positioned to take his place. And that might explain the cheesy way K&L handled the break up. They felt they had been dissed.
I still don't know how much K&L was spending on a monthly basis for MIT-EF. I have heard that it was $2,500 per meeting and don't forget they were sponsors for the White Board Challenge, the fate of which is now up in the air. That just underscores how far MIT-EF has fallen.
$2,500 per meeting is logical. Consider something in the hood of $20 to $25 per person including drinks.
* Well, I am off to the hospital. I managed to do an end run on the ER at Northwestern by setting up a 2:10pm appointment with the medical outpatient facility on the 18th floor of Galter. That way we can discuss all my serious problems without my having to sit in the ER for 6 to 10 hours!
When I arrived at dialysis this morning, Liza, the nurse, called by kidney doc, Eduardo Cremer, to tell him that my hemoglobin has dropped to 7.8 from 9.5 in 18 days!
7.8 is dangerously low and probably transfusion time. Plus they are giving me the maximum on Epogen, the drug that made Amgen rich, at 28,000 units per session (three times a week).
I also have low protein at 3.2 (it should be at least 4.0) and low phosphorus at 1.7 when it should be a minimum of 3.5. The low grade fevers persist and the only good news is that my INR is now "normal" at 2.3, down from 7.5!
My current dosage of Coumadin is 1mg on MWF and 3mg on TThSatSun.
What helped to get the INR (a measure of the thickness of your blood) down was vitamin K, plenty of dark leafy green veggies such as broccoli. My blood was way too thin.
Don't worry, I am not planning to die anytime soon. I won't buy the farm until:
1. I attend Jerry Mitchell's funeral.
2. I see Terry and Fred fired from the ITA.
3. Bob Geras weighs 180 lbs and makes $20MM on ADT or Bias Power.
4. Scott Glickson and Dick Reck can tell me what they really did to investigate Noel and the ITDA.
5. Andy Sernovitz is out of biz, not just out of town.
6. Howard Tullman apologizes to me for anything.
7. Bill Weaver and Howard Tullman can fit their egos in the same 10x10 room.
8. Craig McCrohon of Burke Warren gives me his phone number and email.
9. I pay Sachnoff & Weaver the $90K I owe them and my mother the $200K I owe her.
10. My brother Paul stops glad handing people with "Hi, I'm Paul May."
11. My sister-in-law Trish says something mean about her own family
12. Kathy Liu apologizes to me for being so surly.
13. Steve Lundin has something nice to say about someone behind his or her back.
14. Jeff Willinger stops chasing women.
15. Jeff Meredith gives up his propensity to comment on politics.
When all fifteen of those things happen, I will be ready for my descent into Hell.
_________________________________________
This just in: Adolfo Laurenti responds to Ron's comments
Subject: Credit crunch discussion at MIT-EF
Date: 1/21/2010 2:08:55 P.M. Central Standard Time
From: alaurenti@mesirowfinancial.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Dear Ron,
thank you very much for your coverage of the MIT-EF event on Wednesday night. I sincerely appreciate the space that your newsletter reserves to our meeting.
Yet, I am a little puzzled by some of your brief remarks to my comments. It is a fact that the banks are not extending credit to small businesses. It is my job as an economist to explain why that is the case. And I did my best to point to a few reasons why the credit crunch persists:
in a weak economy, the pool of creditworthy borrowers is at best stable, at worst shrinking: that is not a favorable environment for banks to go out and make loans;
because delinquencies and defaults are expected to rise in the near term, it makes sense for banks to be defensive, and increase reserves against losses rather than loans;
regulators are pushing for higher capital reserves, and less risky loan portfolios -- again, forcing banks to be very conservative in the extension of credit.
Now, I can see two objections to my thesis. People could either deny the premise, and argue that banks are indeed lending (a position I doubt anyone can seriously support.) Or they could accept the fact, and counter my interpretation by advancing alternative explanations for the lack of bank credit.
In either case, I am not sure why you would expect the MIT-EF audience to boo. (Me? The banks?) Nor I understand how "a business owner who can't get a needed line of credit" would counterbalance my opinion, since we would agree on the basic facts. Needless to say, I would very welcome a discussion of different ideas about the causes of the credit crunch, and I would be ready to revise my interpretation if new and more compelling arguments were raised against my current understanding of the situation.
I thank for the opportunity to go on record and straighten up my point, if I did not articulate my views clearly enough on Wednesday. For sure, I am hopeful you were not inciting the MIT-EF audience to shoot the messenger (of bad credit news)!
Best,
Adolfo
Adolfo L. Laurenti
Deputy Chief Economist and Managing Director
Economic Analysis
Office of the Chairman
Mesirow Financial
353 North Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60654
______________________________________________
Ifbyphone, Inc., a leader in cloud telephony, today entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire privately held Cloudvox.
PRESS RELEASE
Ifbyphone, Inc., a leader in cloud telephony, today entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire privately held Cloudvox.
In addition to its suite of self-service Web configured and highly
customizable phone applications, the acquisition positions Ifbyphone as an
industry-leading application developer platform.
"By acquiring Cloudvox, we're sending a message to businesses of every size:
If you're interested in using telephone applications to automate sales,
marketing, business processes, and Web applications, we're the place to
start," said Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone. "Businesses can rent an existing
application from us and tightly integrate their business with that app. Or
they can now use Cloudvox to build their own portable, open application from
scratch and still take advantage of our cloud infrastructure and phone
expertise."
The addition of Cloudvox positions Ifbyphone as the only cloud telephony
provider that enables customers to rent a phone-based application, integrate
with an existing Ifbyphone app, or build a custom app. Cloudvox lets
developers automate phone calls using their own software - code they write
and control.
Cloudvox leverages the industry-leading Asterisk open-source phone server,
and is similar to "Asterisk in the cloud."
While Asterisk is quite powerful, creating a reliable, scalable,
feature-rich phone platform is difficult and capital-intensive. Cloudvox is
compatible with existing Asterisk applications and software libraries;
further, it is scalable, deployed in a carrier-grade environment, and simple
for developers to use.
Cloudvox is well known among developers for its unique, standards-based
solution. A hosted service, Cloudvox bridges Web apps with phone services,
enabling developers to place, receive, and control phone calls from their
own software (including Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C#, and simple HTTP/JSON).
"Cloudvox handles all of the telecom features, giving developers complete
control of the phone call and their app," said Troy Davis, Cloudvox
Co-Founder. "Cloudvox is the most practical way to launch comprehensive
phone services, and with Ifbyphone's infrastructure and experience, we've
created the best cloud model in the industry."
Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. For more
information about Ifbyphone's Cloud Telephony applications, including IVR,
Voice Broadcasting, Call Tracking, and Virtual Call Center, visit
www.ifbyphone.com. To learn about or use Cloudvox, visit www.cloudvox.com.
About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone provides businesses a suite of phone automation services to
enhance customer communications, increase sales, and lower costs. With
Ifbyphone's easy-to-use hosted services and tools, marketers, developers and
business users can quickly create telephony systems to drive customer
retention and acquisition. For more information, visit www.ifbyphone.com.
_______________________________________
Remember our discussion on Twitter?
Subject: Remember our discussion on Twitter?
Date: 12/15/2009 12:56:36 P.M. Central Standard Time
From: Name withheld upon request
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
NOT FOR ATTRIBUTION
http://www.webguild.org/2009/12/twitter-is-in-trouble-vc-cries-usage-celebrities-young-drop.php
I continue to think that it is more of a fad ...
_______________________________________
Bob Waldron: CrisisCamps
From: Bob Waldron bwaldron@gmail.com
Subject: CrisisCamps
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:11:12 -0600
To: Jason Rexilius jason@hostedlabs.com
Cc: ron@themayreport.com
Jason,
You were likely already in touch with organizers of CrisisCamps, but if not, it would probably be worth connecting with either them or the Haiti-project people at Google to spread the word about what you're doing and to request assistance/connections for the phones or other supplies that would help. Let me know if you want some help tracking down contact info for the CrisisCamp lead people.
Bob
Geeks and unconferences working to solve Haiti quake info and communication needs http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=9605365 ??It really is amazing the change in the way crisis response can be done now," said Noel Dickover, a Washington, D.C.-based organizer of the CrisisCamp tech volunteer movement?Tim Schwartz, a 28-year-old artist and programmer in San Diego, feared that with an array of social-networking sites, crucial information about Haitian quake victims would "go everywhere on the Internet and it would be very hard to actually find people ? and getSchwartz quickly e-mailed "all the developers I'd ever worked with." In a few hours, he and 10 others had built http://www.haitianquake.com , an online lost-and-found to help Haitians in and out of the country locate missing relatives. The database, which anyone can update, was online less than 24 hours after the quake struck, with more than 6,000 entries because Schwartz and his colleagues wrote an "scraper" that gathered data from a Red Cross site?two days later, Google had a similar tool running, PersonFinder, that the State Department promoted on its own Web site and Twitter?Christopher Csikszentmihalyi, director of the Center for Future Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, advocated online for consolidating all such tools into the Google version so the information wouldn't be stuck in competing projects?Schwartz agreed and folded his database into PersonFinder, which he thinks will become "THE application for missing people for this disaster and all disasters in the future."?Another volunteer project forged in the quake's aftermath is a cell phone text-messaging system that has helped the Red Cross and other relief groups dispatch rescuers, food and water?In another collaborative effort, the OpenStreetMap "crisis mapping" project, volunteers layer up-to-the-minute data (such as the location of new field hospitals and downed bridges) onto post-quake satellite imagery that companies including GeoEye and DigitalGlobe have made freely available. The digital cartography ? informed by everything from Twitter feeds to eyewitness reports ? has helped aid workers speed food, water and medicine to where it's needed most. One Colombian rescue team leader uploaded the maps to his crew's portable GPS units before the team arrived on the scene last week?CrisisCamp drew some 400 people in six cities including Washington, London and Mountain View, Calif., over the weekend to meet-ups where they devised, built and helped refine tools. Among them: a basic Creole-English dictionary for the iPhone that was delivered to Apple on Monday night for its approval?.Johnson also is the coordinator for "We Have, We Need," a project that was hatched in the CrisisCamp session and is about to be launched. It seeks to pair private-sector offers with needs identified by aid workers?More CrisisCamps are planned this weekend in Northern California, Miami, Atlanta, Washington, Atlanta, Brooklyn, N.Y., Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles??
________________________________________
Michael Quintos on cell phones in Haiti
From: Michael Quintos michael@media-fuse.com
Subject: Re: The May Report: 1/20/2010: Bulletin: After two years exactly, K&L Gates, fka Bell Boyd & Lloyd, suddenly and unexpectedly ends its sponsorship of MIT-EF leaving them high and dry with no venue for next month; A wake up call to MIT-EF?
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:55:39 -0800
To: The May Report ron@themayreport.com
Ron,
If NPR is a trusted source they had one of the Haitian gov't officials explaining that cell phone service was back up (just a few towers were damaged). I'm sure they still need phones but service was 90% restored within days.
Again; a long report on NPR but wanted to share.
Hope all is well.
Michael
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 20, 2010, at 7:49 AM, "The May Report" <ron@themayreport.com> wrote:
____________________________________________
Rachel Kaberon comments on MIT-EF and Chicago high tech
Subject: some more on Chicago Tech
Date: 1/21/2010 9:55:20 A.M. Central Standard Time
From: arkayuno@gmail.com
To: RonaldMay@aol.com
Hi Ron
I have to congratulate you on your honest analysis of MITEF....in fact without knowing all the details, I had told Terry much of the same thing about the limits of the panel to engage the sweet spot of the entrepreneurial community.
per your comments, as part of my ongoing preparations for a new course I'm teaching at IIT ID on Design Policy, that is using the Burnahm plan as a case study. I found this recording at Chicago Metropolis 2020
http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/amp_20091023-cplurbanpolicy.mp3
First, the Mayor talks about investing in building a talent pool base on technology workers...you have any idea who is taking the lead on this in the Mayor's office? or if Howard Tullman is somehow involved? If I find anything, I'll share it, and vice versa, right?
Second, there are some other things in here that might be fun for you...hope you enjoy the recording and the oxygen isn't holding you back...I took my mother everywhere with her portable oxygen, it's not really that hard to maneuver.
Best
Rachel Kaberon
Managing Partner
Arkay Solutions LLC
Measuring what counts. Counting what matters!
www.arkaysolutionsllc.com
_______________________________________________
Rob Hannah: K&L Gates drops MIT EF
From: Rob Hannah RobHannah@tsgre.com
Subject: K&L Gates drops MIT EF
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:18:08 -0600
To: ron@themayreport.com
Ron, I read your column this morning and am disappointed but not surprised. I have been a member for about a year and attended events prior to becoming a member. My firm is a partner of the MIT Center for Real Estate and I have dealings with the university as well as my experience with the EF. I agree that they are not the same. Mostly I want to say that the EF needs structure or it wil never garner the financial support it needs to survive. For instance, I have run a national trade association and planned and organized many business conferences and similar events. There are a few 'cardinal rules' which the EF has ignored.
1) NEVER serve drinks before the event...no one (or not many) will stay for the main attraction and that is when the sponsors get their P.R. time...without that why would anyone want to sponsor?
2) Control the attendees...At the Economic Club of Chicago, for instance, there are limits on the number of members per industry sector. Each time I have attended an EF event I have met 3-5 marketing people for every business person. In fact, I would estimate that the number of professional service providers far outnumbers the professionals. These (service providers) do not need or want the professional services offered by the sponsor. The EF should control membership and attendance so that there is a balance between entrepreneurs, corporate executives and the service providers that want their business.
There is an opportunity and a need that the MIT EF can fill in Chicago but it needs direction, leadership and structure to succeed.
Rob Hannah
President, CEO
Insight Real Estate, LLC
312-867-9720
______________________________________________
Chris Rollyson: Wrote up the MIT-EF meeting
From: "Christopher S. Rollyson" chris@rollyson.net
Subject: Re: The May Report: 1/20/2010: Bulletin: After two years exactly, K&L Gates, fka Bell Boyd & Lloyd, suddenly and unexpectedly ends its sponsorship of MIT-EF leaving them high and dry with no venue for next month; A wake up call to MIT-EF?
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:53:18 -0600
To: The May Report ron@themayreport.com
Ron I published my writeup last night: http://bit.ly/mitef2010 w pix
Cheers-
2010 Predictions & Advice: http://bit.ly/predict2010
Christopher S. Rollyson
Enterprise Social Networking Strategy & Execution
+1.312.925.1549
http://socialnetworkroadmap.com
http://executivesguide-web20.com
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 20, 2010, at 7:51, "The May Report" ron@themayreport.com wrote:
_________________________________________
Adam O'Sullivan: Check out www.raiseitnow.com
From: Adam O'Sullivan adam.osullivan@chase.com
Subject: RE: The May Report: 1/15/2010: Yet again, in praise of Scott McGarvey and Les Stern: It has now come to this: ChicagoBooth marketing roundtable has banned, among others, Todd Allen, Steve Lundin, Ellis Booker, Jeff Jarvis, Brad Spirrison, Andy Sernovit...
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:55:25 -0500
To: The May Report ron@themayreport.com
Hey Ron,
I am a faithful reader of your report...
Check out a website called www.raiseitnow.com. I am referring a lot of my non-profit clients to them as a supplement to their normal fundraising activities... maybe you can do an article about it.
Thanks,
AO @ Chase
____________________________________________
TECH cocktail: Announcing MOBILE cocktail
From: TECH cocktail » Chicago cofounders@techcocktail.com
Sender: noreply+feedproxy@google.com
Subject: TECH cocktail
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:29:55 +0000
To: ron@themayreport.com
TECH cocktail
http://tinyurl.com/yceqdee
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcing MOBILE cocktail
Posted: 18 Jan 2010 02:02 PM PST
Are you ready for Mobile cocktail?
We are excited to announce the launch of our MOBILE cocktail event series and media site. The site, found in the navigation of TECH cocktail or by visiting mobile.techcocktail.com directly, will cover the ever-changing mobile technology landscape by opening it up to the community to contribute and share their stories and knowledge either via email at tips@mobile.techcocktail.com or by becoming a writer or editor for the site (reach out to us if you are interested).
To coincide with the launch of the our site we are hosting our first MOBILE cocktail event in Chicago on Thursday, January 28th. The event will be similar to the TECH cocktail events we have all grown to know and love but will be focused on the ever emerging mobile technology space. While the focus of MOBILE cocktail might be a little different, the mission is pretty much the same:
To help better connect and amplify the local mobile technology community and have some fun doing it.
Whether you are an Android lover, iPhone developer or huge SMS texting social butterfly, this event will be the place to meetup in a casual venue, have a conversation or two, check out some of the latest local mobile technology businesses, exchange some ideas and maybe even beam your contact info to someone via your mobile phone. Isn't mobile technology brilliant?
Join us at MOBILE cocktail Chicago for an evening of fun with other mobile technology enthusiasts, developers, designers and entrepreneurs hosted by TECH cocktail co-founder Frank Gruber along with the help of Chicago mobile entrepreneurs Raymond Reinhardt and Keith McGorisk.
Event Details:
When: Thursday, January 28, 2010 ? 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. CST
Where: Touch ? interactive bar
What: A ?cocktail of MOBILE tech people?
Price: $15 (You must be 21+ to attend)
RSVP now to attend!
Mobile Startups
If you are a mobile startup or mobile enthusiast this is the right event for you. We will be showcasing some of the local mobile startups at the event in an expo-style, to submit your startup fill out this form.
Interested in sponsoring MOBILE cocktail?
If you would like to sponsor the event please check out the sponsorship options listed in the tickets section here. Let us know if you have any questions.
See you at MOBILE cocktail Chicago and be sure to subscribe to our MOBILE cocktail updates here to stay in the loop on upcoming mobile events and news. Also you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Photo Attribution: Android Cocktail by Don LaVange
_______________________________________________
Geckotech job opening - Cisco
From: Josh Robbins <jrobs@geckotechllc.com>
Subject: Geckotech job opening - Cisco
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:56:35 -0600
To: Josh Robbins <jrobs@geckotechllc.com>
Friends & Family -
Attached is an opening for a great career at Geckotech for a Cisco engineer with 5-10 years of experience. Please feel free to forward this - it's always better to get applicants through personal networks than those big, unfriendly job boards!
Thanks,
Josh
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Company: Geckotech LLC
Title: Network Engineer
Be a part of an explosive growth opportunity with a 6 year old CLEC specializing in Hosted VoIP for business,
which the Gartner Group terms "the fastest growing telco service in North America". Our company has grown
consistently since inception and has recently been named to the Inc 5000 list of the fastest growing private
companies in America. This is possible only with a team of solid, energetic individuals looking for a fast-paced,
high energy team environment with the energy of a start-up and an established customer base of satisfied
customers.
Role Purpose
Geckotech is looking for a highly motivated Network Engineer who wants to be part of a dedicated customer
service team. The Network Engineer is responsible for maintaining 100% uptime of our carrier routing, switching
and application environment spanning multiple POPs across the country as well as adding capacity and designing
and implementing new functionality/features as the company grows. The Network Engineer is also responsible for
multi-site customer network design including failover, BGP, Firewall Management and QoS to support a converged
voice and data environment. The Network Engineer will also assist in pre-sales network design for multi-site
customers with advanced requirements.
Key Success Criteria
Client and Partner satisfaction, complex issue management and exceptional verbal and written communication
with strong attention to deadlines and customer expectations. The Network Engineer will be accountable for
several technical implementations and problem management for core infrastructure and customers with proven
business knowledge and must be extremely organized. High level understanding of next generation voice and data
technologies is required. He or she will also possess the ability to handle concurrent projects as well as a proven
aptitude for telecom and data services.
Responsibilities Include:
• Strong demonstrated knowledge of Cisco routers, switches and firewalls, including CLI commands, IOS
upgrades, and site to site VPN tunnels and troubleshooting.
• Handle tier 3 support calls during business hours; carry pager for off hour's emergencies.
• Complex network design and deployment and some pre-sales technical assistance
• Advanced understanding of networking & routing protocols. (EIGRP, BGP, HSRP, GLBP, MPLS & various
QoS techniques)
• Ability to work flexible hours including night and weekends for required maintenance and testing.
• Monitoring systems such as MRTG, PRTG, What's Up, Solarwinds Orion & NCM, Cisco ACS.
• Ability to react quickly, concisely & professionally in a carrier setting.
• Advanced experience in network design, testing, troubleshooting and network deployment.
• Windows Server 2000 & 2003, SMTP, FTP, TFTP & DNS experience.
Education/ Work Experience
• BA/BS degree or equivalent work experience
with a focus on Business Administration,
Telecommunications and/or Technical Degree
• 3+ years working in a customer service
organization
• 5 - 10 years working in a technical environment
preferably telecom/ ISP
• Experience in Telecom/Data communications
• Cisco certifications are recommended.
Qualities, Abilities and Aptitudes
• Open and honest
• Customer Focused
• Strong networking and telecom knowledge
• Ability to grasp concept, processes and
technical knowledge quickly
• Multi-task & make decisions under pressure
• Understand customer needs
• Exceptional time management skills
• Possess a positive attitude
• Build ongoing relationships
Applicants must have a valid driver's license. This is an office position in our downtown Chicago location.
Geckotech is an equal opportunity employer. Full benefits include 401(k) with employer match, 100% paid
healthcare with option dental and vision, 3 weeks paid time off, a dedication to continuing education and a
guaranteed fun place to work. Salary is $75k-$90k DOE. Please send a resume and cover letter to
jobs@geckotechllc.com.
_____________________________________
Josh Robbins
Managing Partner , Geckotech LLC
www.geckotechllc.com
_____________________________________________
END OF REPORT |
|
|