Ok I suck at taking pictures. I got out of the habit because I don’t really have anyone to share them with, which made it kind of pointless. I promise I’ll work on it for this blog.
Friday, 10 April 2015
So I spent my first weekend in Omaha trying to get more familiar with the place. On Friday evening, the Interface Web School hosted a happy hour for it’s students, past and present. It was nice to get a chance to chat with a couple of my fellow students outside of class. The food and beer was nice too. As was the walk.
I didn’t realize until now that Interface is associated with Creighton University, which I also didn’t realize was in Omaha. I’m sorry, but Omaha has just never been on my radar. But it does kind of make sense now because what I’ve seen of the curriculum lead me to believe they were mimicking higher-ed type standards.
Saturday, 11 April 2015
Most of Saturday I spent at a powwow at Creighton that I happened to notice on a poster at the coffee shop I visited on Thursday. Since it was free and I like powwows – why not? It was my first powwow outside of Minnesota/North Dakota and I was intrigued by the (slight) differences. The most notable was the hugely diverse audience that was not only in attendance, but was participating. Dancing. In full regalia. That was new to me. I get that we are the most bland part of the the country up in Fargo. It’s been my experience that native events have been pretty… I don’t know the appropriate word here. Traditional? Stereotypical? I think you get what I mean. Was really cool to see everyone welcome in the circle.
Sunday, 12 April 2015
Sunday was routine?with things like laundry, catching up on the business books, and recording SciFi Tech Talk. But Sunday evening is when the Entrepreneur House has its weekly meeting. The schedule conflicted with both a Seattle Sounders futbol game and the start of season 5 of Game of Thrones. Technology to the rescue!
The meeting was really interesting though. All the program participants (aka, housemates) gave their business pitches. That was perfect for me as I wasn’t quite sure what everyone was working on. It was meant for them to practice their pitches and think through their business. But they also brought in an outside perspective from a fellow named Mike Kolker of resolvingcomplexity.com to provide feedback. It was good business advice and really helpful for me too. Always good to think about that stuff more thoroughly. The Sunday meetings are going to be something to look forward to.
Can you discuss some of the pitches from the house meeting? I’m curious about what sort of ideas a group like that generates. The environment is so unique.
Maybe those are posts for another day…
Let?s see?
One guy is working on a nightlife transit bus to shuttle people safely between bars. Another is working on recycling restaurant grease an making biodiesel from it. There?s also one focused on creating biometrics reporting for gyms and trainers to hold both the gym/trainer as well as the participant accountable. And the house itself is a startup so there was a report on how that is going and growing. There was also another guest who shared his idea of having a convenience store located within an apartment complex that would offer free grocery delivery. The first two (the bus and the biodiesel) could potentially piggyback on each other too.
Interesting. As the only web-based person in the room it seems like you could get a lot of work from that crowd! Very cool. I like that there are some meatspace businesses mixed in with tech. I wonder if they do that on purpose to keep things from getting incestious. Refreshing.