Presentation to the Economic Development Committee of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce.  Listen to the audio version here. 

What Does Technology Have to Do with My Business?

As the owner of a company that builds digital technology, I am, obviously, ecstatic about the upcoming Spectrum of Technology Symposium hosted by the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce. It has been especially enjoyable being a part of envisioning the conference this year and watching it grow over the last three years.

But let me tell you what I’ve seen digital technology, like the types we’ll be exploring next week, do for all kinds of other businesses.

I have seen many reasons to be encouraged by the use of digital technology in Rome & Floyd County.

• In the last three years, I’ve seen a manufacturer become of aware of the way the web worked to organize and retrieve information and use that knowledge to increase their business and hire additional sales staff, an in-house sales manager, and more than twenty hourly employees. That same company has invested in manufacturing technology that has made them competitive with international companies.
• I’ve seen a financial institution make use of enterprise cloud technology in partnership with on-site servers to save money and increase security and uptime. I’ve seen that institution use an awareness of how their customers used mobile to access their financial information and implement a mobile-friendly website to decrease the amount of time a customer has to wait before getting to the information they want. They did that without spending the standard $25K plus for a native mobile application, because they were able to make an educated decision between a native application and a web application meant for mobile use based on knowledge of how these different types of technology worked and what would meet their customers needs at this time.
• I’ve seen a health-focused non-profit organization successfully implement web applications to manage forms and tests in order to eliminate 80+ hours of manual entry each semester — allowing those employees to be more productive, more engaged with actual service of their constituents, and to reduce error in processing hundreds of medical students arriving to or growing out of our county every week.
• I’ve seen that same organization and a hospital utilize enterprise cloud technology and custom web applications to manage the EMR access assigned to each of those medical students in a way that streamlines the HR operation, reduces error, and improves the experience of that student at the hospital, allowing the recruiters to focus on the important thing — training doctors and retaining the best to add to the local economy.
• I’ve seen a insurance company be the first in its industry to offer direct access to medicare supplement insurance via an online application and policy management tools which have changed the role of the agent and kept more jobs here.
• I’ve seen a local flower shop, wallpaper distributor, interior designer, and others use cloud-based services, web applications, software-as-a-service, and other digital technologies increase business capacity, lower costs, or provide functions and tools to the customer that make the local business competitive with larger, national companies. In many cases, this increase of productivity and competitiveness allow that business to bring on additional part-time or full-time staff.
• And in the life of my own business, I’ve been able to start from literally nothing to become a company that utilizes enterprise level software-as-a-service to manage payroll, transparent billing of customers, financial reporting and projections, and hosting of our client data in a way that has allowed us to double annually, remain profitable, and grow to a staff of six full time employees with benefits with one more being sought currently.

On the flip-side, I have seen many things that discourage me.

• I have seen high school and college students in our area who know nothing of these technologies.
• I have seen colleges allow the elimination of a Computer Science major in a time when software engineers have an unemployment rate of close to zero.
• I have seen individuals scoff that my company can even exist in Rome, Georgia, because they don’t recognize the way these technologies can be used in the life of businesses of all sizes and industries.

I have seen the incredibly inspiring and the downright disappointing.

And based on what I’ve seen, I believe that every person interested in growing our local economy, increasing our capacity for jobs across different sectors, or educating our kids to be sure they are competitive when they enter the job market should make it a priority to be a part of the conversation at this year’s Technology Symposium.

I believe that every provider of business services – attorneys, insurance agents, accountants, consultants should use the Symposium as an opportunity to become better able to serve their customers.

The truth of the matter is that health, manufacturing, and digital technology are intrinsically tied to economic development goals, the potential for businesses in our area to expand markets or do what they do more efficiently, and directly responsible for the next wave of innovators that we are raising and recruiting.

I hope to see all of you — and your coworkers, staff, and supervisors next week, joining in the conversation at this year’s Spectrum of Technology Symposium.

Three years ago this week, I walked into City Hall and bought myself a business license.  It was a move out of necessity as I had learned just two days prior that my salary would disappear in a week. It was August 2008, and no one was hiring. However, I was sure that I could find a handful of restaurants and local businesses that would hire me to do what I was good at:  sell events, design promotions, or fill a dining room or shop floor.  I refused to talk in “we” because the “company” was just me working from my house and Panera.

I knew what I believed in and before I made an official dollar, I wrote a philosophical statement (now, of course, it must say “we”).  I conceived of a web presence where the site itself was just the hub, the engine that would drive content and interaction in many different places. I took my stand on the side of permission-based email, authentic reviews, and fearlessness in the face of negative response.

And slowly but surely, people began to trust me, but more important to my mortgage company, they began to hire me! There is no thrill like the first signed contract. I will forever be indebted to the clients that took on the risk of a gal with a vision and some skills.

As the projects and ideas grew, I found smart people and the space to fit them (albeit extremely tight until now).  The thing I’ve learned is that it’s not really the clients that make the business a success, but the team. I am honored that my brother and brilliant designer decided to move states and give me a chance. And I’m the luckiest woman
in the world to have five extremely gifted, problem-solving innovators not who are constantly thinking of ways to improve and explore for both our company and our client projects.

The accomplishment of having grown during a recession and have the ability to provide meaningful jobs and benefits belongs to a community that celebrates local business, a Chamber of Commerce that works tirelessly to support start-ups, and to the established business leaders willing to give new ideas and new methods a chance while still offering their own wisdom in the face of challenges.

Today, we cut the ribbon on a new building where we can again double, and where, in the meantime, we can offer start-ups the shared office space and resources they need to begin the growth process. I am humbled by the last three years and cannot wait to see what the next will hold. Thank you to all who made it possible.

As Web Designer,  Sarah will help clients conceptualize digital projects and work to produce the perfect content management system, landing page, or email template to meet their goals.  As a former editor, she will be invaluable in post-production quality assurance – making sure functions, punctuation, and words are all in order.

For the last decade, Sarah has worked in the world of print journalism as the Rome News-Tribune, where she served (among other roles) as Web Editor. Managing a multi-user, around-the-clock publishing machine gives her an enormous set of skills that will translate naturally to client project design, training, and support.  She has lived and breathed deadlines for over a decade and doesn’t like wasting time on projects.  This trait is a perfect complement to our philosophy of sticking to timelines (and to be honest, she’ll probably make us better at it!).

Her technical skills include hand-crafting sites in HTML and CSS, as well as designing for and using modern content management systems. She also has experience in print design, as well as extensive text and photo editing.

And while she may be a new “official” full-time staffer, Sarah has designed several projects since the company’s beginnings including: Rome Boulevard, RJ Fricks, Outdoor Living Studio, The Season Events (in a weekend!), Profile Extrusion catalog, and State Mutual Insurance Company print materials.

While Sarah is the only non-caffeinated member of the production team, she adds major cool points for her love of video gaming, playing Fantasy Football, and nerdy book series’ like The Hunger Games and DiscWorld.

Remember in  A Christmas Story when Ralphie worked so hard to get his Secret Society decoder ring from the Little Orphan Annie radio show? After weeks of anxious waiting, and missing out on the daily “secret message” (which to a kid appeared very important) Ralphie is finally able to participate.

The radio show comes on. He is ready and poised with his decoder. The announcer starts reading numbers. Ralphie anxiously records each number and painstakingly decodes each one.

B-E    S-U-R-E     T-O    D-R-I-N-K    Y-O-U-R     O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E

“Ovaltine?! A crummy commercial?! Son of a bitch!”

He feels jipped, connived, taken advantage of.  He has put so much energy into getting the device only to be sold to?!

Here’s the deal.  This is how a lot of QR marketing these days is treating its scanners. People see a cool thing in a magazine, go find the app as instructed, download it, and scan the code…. only to arrive at A HOME PAGE?! In less time, they could have just entered the website address into their phone.  They have wasted not only their time, but they have been taken advantage of.

So, don’t be an Ovaltine commercial.  Make sure to give your QR scanner some VALUE. Make sure the page they land on is ready to be seen on a mobile device. Make sure it offers something they couldn’t get by just going to the web address. And give them a way to participate, to respond, to interact.

I’m about to send 10 tweets about Twitter.

Evan Williams warned an hour ago as the world waited to hear the next big announcement from the company. Like a countdown, he moved from big picture to statistic to the kind of definitions that would make Emily Dickinson proud.  She was great at saying a lot with very few words and would have thrived in a 140-character environment. 

10. Twitter is getting better—and bigger.

9. Twitter mobile users are up 250% this year.

8. Twitter is a real-time information network.

7. Twitter levels the playing field between creators and consumers of content.

6. You don’t need to tweet to get value from Twitter any more than you need to make a web page to use the web.

5. A lot of people are tweeting, though. flic.kr/p/8B132d

4. Twitter is the best way to discover what’s new in your world.

3. Infrastructure and performance are our biggest investment. They provide the foundation for new things.

2. Twitter.com has always been the most popular Twitter client. 78% of active users have used it in the last 30 days. flic.kr/p/8B12ZY

1. Today we’re launching a new Twitter.com—a faster, easier, and richer way to discover what’s new in your world. #NewTwitter

Check out the video that does the best job of visualizing the changes in functionality and integration with photo, video, and follower sharing:

Social networks described as “Very or Somewhat Beneficial” were Facebook (33%), LinkedIn (21%), Twitter (19%), MySpace (17%) and YouTube (15%).

Top business benefits?

• generating leads (50%)
• keeping up with the industry (45%)
• monitoring online conversation about their business or industry (44%).
• competitive intelligence (43%)
• improving customer experience (41%)
• finding vendors/suppliers (38%)
• resolving problems (33%)
• new employee recruiting (27%)
• background checks of employees and suppliers (27%).

This is great news for us, of course, because we have built our business on the notion that small businesses will be using social, digital, and measurable marketing tools more and more as a part of their standard marketing toolbox.  But it’s interesting in a much larger way.  You see, social media is fundamentally local and small.  The things that matter across social media networks are the things that matter to the people within each person’s community.  The really great stories of big companies using social media involve them acting a lot like a small business – personal response, addressing by name, not bringing up policies all the time, letting customers put photos up, acting quickly and acting apart from bureaucracy.  A small business doesn’t have to go through a training to know how to treat people genuinely.  The small business becomes the model when it comes to tending and maintaining a social media environment.

Finally, customers are wanting to do business with people, not companies, and they are gathering in places where the barriers to enter are extremely low.  This report is just one more piece of data that indicates it’s the perfect time for a small business to jump into social media for all its marketing, service, and relationship potential. Seemingly.

However, I am still left wondering if small businesses within a community outside the suburbs or city environment really think these things, and if social media is as effective as it might be with big city types. Is it just a matter of more prolific technology access and more small town folks joining in the social media movement?  Or is it a chicken and egg scenario, where businesses offering added benefits on social media networks work as the impetus to build the participation of local people? What do you think?

For a small business owner, the idea of keeping up with yet another “inbox” is daunting, much less a twitter feed, facebook profile and page, linkedin account, youtube channel or delicious account.  Now, of course, my first disclaimer is always that you don’t have to be everywhere to be effective (and often must not be everywhere to be effective) but all this aside, it is still exhasting to think about. So, I’m putting together a list of programs that can make some of it a bit easier (and for free).

SocialMention

This is one of the coolest social search engines.  You can search your company, your product, your industry, or your own name even on blogs, directories, reviews, and social media sites.  You can then filter by time of day or specific location. It even gives you a synapsis of content: positive, negative, or neutral, connected keywords, top contributors of content, and top sources.  So you can take the first step of any social media campaign: listening. Also, alerts can be set so that you can listen continuously without duplicate efforts.

Seesmic Desktop

This is my current favorite dashboard for posting to multiple accounts across Facebook and Twitter. In one place you can see any replies to multiple accounts, direct messages, as well as keep up with the news feed of folks you may be following or Facebook fans or friends.  While this doesn’t have many of the enhanced power of, say, multiple users or timed messages, it is extremely easy to setup, navigate, and participate with. (which is a big plus for folks with little time on their hands!)

TweetDeck

This dashboard is used by lots of folks smarter than me, so it must be good! I haven’t really connected with the black and yellow design, but it does allow maintenance of multiple pages on facebook, twitter, and myspace (I think there are still folks using Myspace!).  It allows a host of features like video capture, upload, and viewing; spam elimination; grouping of fans and followers by topic and some others.

MashDeck

So, I should admit that I have a huge geeky crush on Pete Cashmore of Mashable.  But it’s completely technological (mostly).  Not only is his company someone to listen to regularly and often, but they are developing a host of software products that integrate social media.  And with MashDeck, you get both – twitter management as well as newsfeed direct from the social media gods themselves. They claim it is “the ultimate Twitter app for the social media savvy.” So, if you fit in that category (or just want to one day, like me) then this is for you.

NetVibes

This guy says it’s “the new social media dashboard”. I haven’t tried it yet, but the screenshots are intriguing. It is more of a browser homepage that allows you to access multiple email accounts, social media accounts, as well as news or content in the fields that you are interested in (ie. sports, business, tech, etc).  It requires more of a commitment to setup, but may promise more time-efficiency.  I’m still a little obsessed with iGoogle as my homepage, and I like to be able to post to multiple accounts, so it’s not yet caught my fancy.

CoTweet

This is the mac-daddy of enterprise-level software.  This goes a step further than multiple accounts by allowing multiple users with various access levels to post, read, or direct message.  It offers a powerful brand-tracking element and just recently added over a dozen other social media applications that can also be managed (it was just twitter for awhile).  This is the place to go if you are a mid-size company looking to use various social media platforms by various people for various purposes (ie. marketing and customer service and CEO channel, etc)

What have you found? What works best to use your time most effectively?

Yesterday, a friend had this kind of outburst about old classmates from high school – it had been more than twenty years since he actually talked to many and yet he learned factoids and status updates about them every day.  There was something unsettling about the past rushing up and joining the future so quickly.

There’s a way to control what you see when you log in.  It’s just a little hidden, but here’s how:

1. Move your cursor to the top right area of the person’s information block as depicted in the picture.
2. When you hover there, a box will appear that says “HIDE”.
3. Click this and you will be given the option to either hide the person’s news altogether or to hide the application that is publishing the information (quizzes are the most popular thing to hide from my informal polling).
4. You should see a pop-up box that tells you that the “hiding” has happened and that person’s information should disappear from your screen.
5. That’s it! Facebook remembers your preferences and will either pull less information from your network or pull information from people you actually want to know about.

NOTE: The folks listed in my screen shot to the right are all folks whose updates I actually enjoy.

So why does Facebook have this function anyway?!

Facebook is all about connecting people to one another -  the best way to do this is to allow people to hear and see new things that others are doing or posting.  Ideally, that sort of “ambient findability” means that you can participate in someone’s life meaningfully by commenting or continuing the conversation — hopefully in “real life” too.  However, in “real life” we simply have preferences. So, Facebook gives users the option to shape the experience they have and the conversations they “overhear” or information they come across.

Next Up: How you can control the information that is distributed about you.

For our Mac users: Constant Contact is now offering the all powerful desktop widget.  Now you can manage your new subscriptions right from your desktop wihout having to login — which means you can setup your assistant or receptionist or teller to interact directly with your database without compromising security or login information. From the official Business Partner release:

The Contact Capture Tool Version 2.1 by Constant Contact is a free, downloadable contact import tool for your Windows or Macintosh desktop. It allows you to quickly add or update a contact without opening a web browser. It replaces the Constant Contact^® Contact Capture Widget Version 1 that runs on Yahoo! Widgets.

Features

• Quickly add a new contact to multiple lists – Add a new email address with up to four contact details to any or all of your lists in Constant Contact.
• Update an existing contact’s details and list subscriptions – Quickly update the list subscriptions and up to four contact details for a contact that is already in your Constant Contact account.
• Runs directly on your desktop – You do not need to open a web browser or any other software application to use it.

Technical Requirements

To install and use Contact Capture Tool v2.1, you need: Windows (2000/XP/Vista) or Mac OS X and an Internet connection

For our Salesforce aficionados, you know how tough it is to get all that good data into Constant Contact – fear no more! Our favorite email marketing provider has just unveiled the infoTransfer for Salesforce® Plug-In, saying:

We now offer a plug-in that makes it a breeze to upload and synchronize contacts in Salesforce.com with your Constant Contact account. You can rest assured, knowing your contacts are up to date, and comply with CAN-SPAM unsubscribe guidelines. Log into your account , click on the “Contacts” tab, and under “My Contacts” you’ll see the “Import Tools” link.

For help accessing these powerful tools or to get started with email marketing, please contact us!  As THE Constant Contact Business Partner in Northwest Georgia, we are your local source for email marketing solutions.

Market potential. High scalability. Deal flow. Due diligence. Committed funds. Co-investments.

When representatives from the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce escort a handful of curious investors to Athens on Feb. 5, they will be joining several communities across the state talking the language of “angel investment networking.”

Sponsored and run by the Kauffman Foundation out of Kansas City, “The Power of Angel Investing” will unite leaders and potential investors from Savannah, Augusta, Gainesville, Athens and Rome.

“An angel investment group fits into the Rome/Floyd 20/20 Strategic Plan Part II,” says Lowell Pratt, the chamber’s Small Business Coordinator, “by building ‘capacity’ or the ability to raise business from the ground up from within our community.”

The chamber hosted the first public discussion on angel investing at the Symposium on Technology in November and emphasized preliminary work at last week’s annual meeting. CEO Al Hodge says the chamber will serve as the facilitator of resources as investors direct and build the program as they see fit.

Don Betts, a speaker at the symposium, is Director of e2e Works, a state-funded organization based out ofGeorgia Tech commissioned to work with all communities to identify, connect and energize potential angel investors throughout the state. The program is the first of its kind in the country, growing out of The Georgia Entrepreneur and Small Business Coordinating Network created by Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2004.

“They exist everywhere but they usually don’t call themselves ‘angels’,” Betts said in an interview this week. “It’s happening organically and independently.” By building awareness, gathering investors and promoting an area’s network or fund, the opportunities increase both for the investors and for the community in which they live and operate, he says.

Angels are accredited investors according to Securities and Exchange Commission standards with high asset holdings who are looking not just to invest money but to bring their successful experience to bear on a new operation. They enjoy building opportunity for jobs and wealth in their communities, learning from each other and investing with like-minded individuals. They know the risk associated with the kinds of ventures they are investing in but also pursue every available best practice and measuring instrument to choose projects that are worth the risk.
A different kind of capitalist

Rather than “hunting” for opportunity outside of a community, the angel investment approach has been frequently compared to “economic gardening” – growing and nourishing business from within.

Further, angel investing is different from venture capitalism in that it works on a “lower rung of the ladder” of business building, says Betts. It functions more as “seed money” for start-ups or businesses with high operating costs who typically cannot secure bank investment given the nature of the industry they are pursuing.

While venture capitalists work in investments of “5 to 10 million usually,” angels may offer “anywhere from $10,000 to $1 million in operating capital” depending on the need and potential return and typically become equity partners with the entrepreneur, says Betts. While they are involved in counseling or advising business operations, they “don’t invest in lifestyle business, “ Betts says, but rather look for ventures that have exit strategies such as potential buyout.

Angel networks have different structures and truly are “organic” in the sense that they are shaped by the people who are doing the investing – background, capital willing to invest, and particular interests. While the type of businesses that will be funded depends on the expertise and interest of the angels involved, Betts says that generally companies working in biotechnology, medical devices, IT and software are perfect fits for angel investment.

Examples of angel-grown businesses in the state include:

-Carbon Motors, a law enforcement vehicle company in Savannah.

-Atlanta-based Asankya, developing novel technology to optimize the network traffic over wide area networks (WANs).

-Garrison Enterprises, the largest provider of Environmental Health Data Management Systems in the country.

Calling All Angels
The seminar in Athens is the second of its kind already this year, the first being held in Atlanta on Jan. 19. Should the Rome group continue its preliminary work, a seminar is likely to be held here. If the local interests works fast, they may be assembled in time to join the 2009 Angel Capital Association’s Annual Summit to be held April 15-17 in Atlanta.

“Sometimes all it takes is one person,” Betts says. “In Savannah, things took off after one investment banker got involved and motivated the group. They are now many years and many projects into it.”

While Betts warns that angel investing is “not a panacea to solve every entrepreneur’s capital needs,” it is a way for a community to build jobs, create wealth and cultivate a environment rich for business mentoring and accountability.

GEORGIA ANGEL NETWORKS:
Savannah: http://www.savannahangelpartners.com/
>With detailed entrepreneur application process:http://www.savannahangelpartners.com/eArticles.php

Atlanta:
Atlanta Technology Angels: http://www.angelatlanta.com/
>With director’s blog, which includes tons of links to articles and resources:http://angelatlanta.wordpress.com/

SeraphGroup in Atlanta and Palo Alto, Calif.: http://www.seraphgroup.net/

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES:
-Economic Gardening, particular attention to Georgia’s success: Click

-Inc. magazine, January 2009, article: Click

ORGANIZATIONS:
-Angel Capital Association
-Southeast Regional Network of Angel Investment Groups
-MIT Enterprise Forum
-Kauffman Foundation
-Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech

(Published on Hometown Headlines 1.28.09)

Thiel spoke from his experience as a successful American entrepreneur, hedge fund manager, and venture capitalist. After founding PayPal in 1998, he certainly enjoyed his share of the financial boom of yesteryear selling the successful internet commerce business to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.  The person-to-person (or P2P) transaction manager was a groundbreaking concept which allowed safe financial transactions online between individuals.

Peter Thiel as appearing in Fortune Magazine (Image Link)

The Chinese and Japanese have the “corner market on labor,” India is “chief of services,” and “France and other European countries control the market on luxury goods,” he said.  America, however, is defined by the “frontier,” an important concept he finds unique, saying that “in most countries, people are not of the nature to do new things.”  This nature of Americans to innovate or participate in an entrepreneurial capitalist system works, he said, “so long as there is some sort of frontier.”  He fears that the mistaken belief that the metaphorical frontier is closed might lead to “ordinariness” and the positioning of United States commerce against countries that are “simply better” at manufacturing, labor, services, and luxury goods.

No matter how Americans fall on issues of politics or religion, he said, most still believe that the country retains the ability to do unique and extraordinary things. This industriousness is what unites Americans above race or creed and ensures that, while the economy may get worse before it gets better, it will indeed bounce back.

Thiel believes that recent implosions in the financial market and pending failure of large automobile manufacturers will lead to a return to a spirit of entrepreneurship on the local and industry-specific level “not just in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, but across the country, wherever a frontier in business can be found.”

He argued that the current financial crisis is indicative of the problem of change on a policy level due to special interest groups and lobbyists. A firm believer in the power of the market, he conjectured that “maybe the way for the right change to occur is for the whole thing to break.”

While these are alarming words, they were couched in a deep sense of optimism in that which he does not think can be broken or changed—the American spirit of inventiveness, productivity, and industriousness. Of course, Thiel himself serves as the prime example of what inventiveness brings.  President of Clarium Capital Management, LLC. and Managing Partner of The Founders Fund, he invests in other small and start up businesses with the more than $6 billion in management capital the company has control over.  One such business was Facebook,  a phenomenon he instantly recognized as “frontier-type thinking,”and he still serves on its Board of Directors.

Read more from Peter Thiel:
Policy Review, The Optimist Thought Experiment, Feb/Mar 2008

Maureen Scumacher

Oct. 26, 2008 | ROME, GA. When Sergey Brin and Larry Page began work on their Stanford doctoral project to create a search engine that would better connect users to relevant information, it’s possible they envisioned the kind of global success their brand would have just ten years following their first $100,000 investment from Sun Microsystems even from their home garage office.  As Maureen Schumacher clearly articulated at Berry College’s Executive Round Table Dinner, the company is founded not just on the concept of connection to information, but on the notions of innovation – nine of them to be exact.

Maureen Schumacher is a  “googler” –the term used by employees of Google for themselves–of three years who comes to the company after sixteen years in marketing for the corporate giant, General Electric.  After a short, high-impact film visually showcasing the company’s growth from 10,000 searches a month in 1998 to over three billion in 2007 and a veritable cornucopia of corporate purchases and partnerships in the same time, she very calmly explained the philosophy behind the technological and workplace trendsetter.

The secrets of Google’s successful business model lie in the infrastructure, consumer products and applications, and media platform.  Over 450,000 servers in clusters worldwide make possible the speed that Google holds top priority. “Speed trumps perfection in today’s technological environment, and Google honors that priority by releasing as quickly as possible, and improving as quickly as possible following release,” Schumacher said. This willingness to try new things seems to be the common thread running through the development of consumer products and the ever-expanding brand marketing.

Because “innovation is imperative” Google lays out the kind of principles that make innovation possible beginning with staffing. “You are brilliant, and we are hiring,” Schumacher said of the company’s goal to hire only the best employees who will be “A people” and team players, willing to innovate both personally and corporately. This notion is complemented by the notion to “share everything you can,” the goal that guides Google office design to be entirely anti-office. “Every workspace is the size of a garage with shared workspace of teams of five to seven,” said Schumacher, “that way information is shared the most efficiently.”  But, don’t worry. Employees are also entrusted with the “license to pursue dreams” and given up to one day a week to work on ambitious projects separate from their given job responsibilities, in addition to the infamous free snack bar and cafeteria and access to a variety of recreational activities all on-site.

The value of transparency and an environment where “information isn’t hoarded” leads to the kind of attitude that allows for “ideas to come from everywhere,” said Schumacher.  In the earliest of days, colleagues would share ideas verbally to either a “boo or applause” from their teammates. This has since been made a digital process, but still includes the willingness to share a dumb idea or be wrong.  “We expect everyone to contribute, from our consumers to our finance team; there’s no acceptance of stagnation,” Schumacher said.  And the words “I like and I think” are not allowed. The company asserts that employees should “not politic” or operate by force or assumption, but instead “use data” to understand a problem or postulate a solution.

These four dos of Google corporate culture are met with three don’ts: “creativity loves restraint,” “users

Google founders Larry Page & Sergey Brin

come first, not money,” and “don’t kill projects; just morph them.”  While other search engine companies followed the revenue-driven ad model, said Schumacher, Google makes every effort to keep “relevant data” as the top priority for its users, as well as a clean, simple interface.  “We aim to get the user on and off the page as quickly as possible,” a different approach from those who gauge their success on the time spent on the page, said Schumacher.  This value is punctuated by the reality that Google does not enter into contracts with advertisers, but instead seeks to continually provide value to both consumer and advertiser in a way that will prolong business relationships.

Lowell Pratt, Small Business Development Coordinator for the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, was excited to return to the Chamber with ideas for working with small businesses. “So often, you see too much structure and rigidity in business, which is stifling to actual productivity.  Lasting businesses learn to build creativity into the structure, “ Pratt said.  He indicated plans to work with the Small Business Action Council to bring the Google philosophy to more Rome business leaders.

Schumacher briefly “opened the Google kimono” so to speak and profiled just a few of Google’s current undertakings including the new G-1 phone through T-Mobile, Chrome open source browser, 1-800-GOOG-411 free directory, and AdWords marketing tool.  She advised the audience to check in on Google Labs, the place where new ideas are showcased in their infant stage. Here a user will find search statistics on any term, street view maps of the entire world, searchable public transit schedules, as well as other social and commercial applications.

With such a host of actions never before possible, it is no wonder ‘google’ has officially become a new verb.

###

David Wright, CFO of Freedom Flight Center, as he presents the history of aviation with the Rome Kiwanis Club.

Oct. 21, 2008 | ROME,GA. Freedom Flight Center wants you. Executives announced plans to begin accepting flight students in two to three weeks at this week’s Rome Kiwanis Club meeting. CFO, David Wright presented an entertaining history of aviation, including the real story of Orville and Wilbur Wright – after a coin flip put Wilbur in the driver’s seat first that fateful morning, he wrecked and left Orville with the history making flight.  As he continued with tales of the aerial feats, it was easy to see just how much this man loves flying.

As he worked his way from the NC-5’s of the early twentieth century to the Super Sonic Transports of the 1960’s to the Cessnas of recent years, his military background fused with his obvious interest in economic development. After the “quantum leap” cockpit technology took in 2005 towards multifunction displays, “the same technology running the F-15, F-16, and F-22 is now going in and out of Rome everyday,” Wright said, “and we are going to need people to fly them, but we’ll also need folks to fix them and teach them. The possibilities for education, jobs, industry, and taxable funds are huge.”

Fred Barasoain, CEO,  said that the Rome airfield is in a unique position as the only one in the region with room around it for development, and plenty of it: “If a manufacturer wants to come to the Southeast and have access to air travel, they have to look at us; there’s no space left anywhere else in the region.” They plan to begin with just a few Cessnas and let the business grow to eventually become more than just a school, but also a pilot center for long-distance flyers and the place for aircraft rental, management, and maintenance of private planes.  The inevitability of a hangar is also on the horizon.

The center is mutually exclusive from the CVTC campus, although there’s an obvious symbiotic relationship between a flight center that will eventually need mechanics and a school training them.  The focus for now, though, is on flight school.  The rates will depend on exactly which model is settled on in the next week, although Barasoain said that someone could expect to pay $130-160 per hour for lessons, a price that is comparable to regional competitors.

Past Kiwanis Club President and Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce Chair-Elect, David Newby, heaped praise upon the entrepreneurial pair saying that they are “building on a vision to develop an under-utilized facility” and he hopes that the business community will support the endeavor.

Information can be found at www.freedomflightctr.com.

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The Kiwanis Club of Rome meets Mondays at Noon at the Forum:
www.romekiwanis.com

Wright Ledbetter and Derek Bell stand under center arch as work gets underway.

When Wright Ledbetter and Derek Bell submitted their “Porto Futurus” design to the citywide competition to bring large-scale art to the city, it had already come a long way from the paper towel drawings they had sketched over beer while hanging out one summer night in 2007.  And now, after ten years of friendship and nearly a year since that fateful night, the concept is fast becoming reality with the second of three concrete segments poured last week and stonework underway.

Standing near the structure, it becomes obvious how under-imagined its scale has been from initial reports.  While standing in the center, the structure looms twenty-seven feet overhead and spreads approximately seventy feet by fifty feet around.  At this point in the building process, the nine tons of steel undergirding the structure, eight trucks worth of cement, and 70,000 pounds of ashalar-cut Tennesee Field stone are all taking shape at once.

One goal of the design and a foundational principle of the concept itself is fortitude and staying power.  While discussing material off-hand with Structural Designer and Contrator, Mike Niwicki, he asks “now, will that last 200 years?” to which Mike reples, “yes, definitely. That’s what it’s made for.”  He turns to give the official statement of his intention for the piece to “last for centuries,” but it is already obvious this goal has defined most every decision on the project from the structural design to the materials chosen to method of construction.

However, hardly anyone will stand near the Porto Futurus. They will whiz by while entering and exiting Rome, and the rod widths and material makeup will only be distant technical decisions underlying the project’s aesthetic power and existence as a piece of art. It is, in the end, three intersecting aqueducts spread across the center grass between Highways 411, 101, and US 27.  Wanting to use recognizable architectural forms that were also symbolic, Bell notes that aqueducts “are historically the lifeblood to the community.”  The three intersecting series of arches sit next to three intersecting highways in a town of three intersecting rivers, and as Ledbetter points out, “it is a symbol of the Ledbetter Exchange, the city itself, and past civilizations.”  The three sections cause him to reflect on the “past and present efforts of the community to convey itself towards the future – and aqueducts are a form of conveyance, just like highways and rivers.”

While funds are still being raised by Ledbetter for the lighting package and electricity, there will be yet another dimension for the viewer at night. “The lights will be at very heroic angles, lighting the columns from the base. It will be spectacular to behold.” Look out for a sponsor of this project to step forward soon.

The project was an initiative of the Rome Area Council for the Arts and the City of Rome and its budget of $150,000 is being met with a National Endowment for the Arts grant secured by former RACA director, Alan Bell, state funding through the Department of Community Affairs, secured by Senator Preston Smith, and over $35,000 in local contributions.

After a minor delay in groundbreaking due to DOT concerns, the project got underway in July and is now set to be complete by the end of September or very early October.

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