Can a self-described, "playczar," bring sanity to the current environment of #metoo and high profile news cycles of dirty dealings towards women and a misogynistic memo by a (since fired) Google engineer? Part of our world knows better and another part is holding on dearly to beliefs that some of us thought were dead (or should be dead). Yet we are one community and the over-riding question of the day is, 'How do we bring ourselves back together again?'
Matthew brings his many years as an entrepreneur and father to the issue of parity for women in tech and business. "As a father of a 20 year old daughter, I feel deep frustration at the lack of equality and the ongoing bias against women in the business world." For our upcoming, BizBrew talk on November 17th, we are asking him to bring his superpower of building humane corporate cultures to this critical issue. Whether we are creators, users or distributors -- isn't it important that each and every product and service provide for the full spectrum of its users? Another way to put this is, shouldn't products used by women have a woman's sensibility and knowledge at the base of its design? Matthew will be speaking on, Women & Tech: Steps Towards Creating an Inclusive Business Culture. Please join us for this important and timely discussion. Here is where we go into describing Matthew and his accomplishments, but TechBivvy really can't surpass Matthew's own words: A square peg I'm not. In 20+ years I've founded companies, consulted for startups and Fortune 500s, been a C-level executive at LeapFrog and Scholastic, and started it all off as a lawyer. I've worked in education, tech, toys, publishing, gaming, CPG, media, and more on the horizon. I believe business should be a force for good. I laugh often and am fiercely committed to doing the right thing. I'm a strategist who doesn't skip the details. A systems thinker, creative problem solver and addicted to practical results. Comfortable in chaos and seek order with just the right amount of process. Happy being a leader or a wingman, but always put team, organization and communities we serve first. I know the difference between leading and managing, collaboration and consensus, and brand and marketing. Will have the tough conversations respectfully and make the tough decisions thoughtfully. I love working with bright, caring, imaginative, open-minded people of all walks of life as we tackle important issues, deliver big time and build more humane cultures in and outside of work. One of my superpowers is applying the science of play to make our lives and world happier, healthier, and more harmonious...hence the moniker, playczar#. Play is essential to developing and expressing our curiosity, imagination and creativity. It builds empathy, promotes spontaneity and embraces change. When we play, we get into the flow, generate astonishing insights and experience deep satisfaction and human connection. We all deserve more play in our work. And, in our lives. Currently, I spend my professional time as Director of Economic Development for Santa Fe, NM. When not working, I'm lecturing at universities, writing a book on creative leadership, making darn good English toffee, and taking my daughter to a state capital in our quest to get all 50. Yes, I say it's well past time that we face the problems that bias in the workplace brings to organizations and our world. It's time to do what we are good at -- solve the problem! Here's to looking forward to Matthew's talk and learning some positive steps we can all take.
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The entrepreneurial life cycle is used by start-ups to global enterprises to implement new business activities. The cycle starts with an entrepreneur who sees an opportunity and starts making plans to take a solution to market. Some entrepreneurs do this once and create a lifetime business and some do this multiple times to create multiple businesses.
Nicholas Seet has been a serial-entrepreneur since his first start-up concept was funded and he left his software-development position at Deloitte Consulting. His resume includes being the founder, CEO or CFO of: Auditude (now a part of Adobe), Ezmeme, YourPersonalConcierge.com, IntoNow, SFion, SIVI Corporation, SIVI Academy, SIVI AngelList, and most recently, CarboACE! Building on his business and entrepreneurship expertise, he has also been teaching entrepreneurship for the University of New Mexico at Los Alamos and with other New Mexico economic and business development organizations. Andrea Multari joined the LANL Foundation staff as Communications Officer in 2014. Since then her role as the Foundation has expanded to include media relations, press releases, web development, social media, and event coordination.
LANL Foundation just launched their new website! A large organization with diverse programs, their website was very content rich but needed to be easily understood and navigated. The new website is beautifully designed. It is graphically clean, engaging, and understandable. yet tells the complex story of the Foundation, its grants, its scholarships, and its successes. Andrea says the she is inspired by the Italian graphic designer Massimo Vignelli who founded a multi-disciplinary design studio with his architect wife, Lella. He is famous for simplifying the graphics, maps and signage for the New York City subway system and unifying it into a simple to understand and simple to use graphic system. This design was so iconic that most transportation system maps seen around the world today are based on Vignelli's work. Massimo and Lella wrote, "We like design to be visually powerful, intellectually elegant, and above all, timeless." And you can see their influence in Andrea's work along with her great love of the outdoors. Andrea believes the best designs are so simple and pure that they look effortless. An yet, you instinctively get how complex and difficult the task is and how the designer has found the core logic and flow to communicate the narrative to the reader easily and smoothly. With LANL Foundation's new website, we don't have to struggle to find information or figure out how the site is structured, it is all there for us to grasp easily. The site also easily conveys their values and priorities in simple and visually emgaging ways. To take a look at the LANL Foundation site, please click on www.lanlfoundation.org. Andrea began her career with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Cincinnati and found her interest in painting and drawing. She went on to study design and art history at Parsons Paris, a French annex of the Parsons School of Design. While in France she became particularly interested in prehistoric cave art for its powerful imagery. She still keeps up with her design studio, Whole Brain Design, in Santa Fe, NM and continues to create graphics, advertising, brand development, and marketing materials for non-profit, small business and corporate clients. Past clients include Los Alamos National Laboratory, St. John's College, the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens and firms in Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area. When not simplifying the complex so that we can understand it better, she is often found hiking, skiing and exploring our local mountains. Join us for an informal and inspiring conversation with Andrea Multari on as part of the FREE TechBivvy monthly BizBrew Friday morning coffee series on August 18th from 8:30 am to 9:30 am @ First National Bank Santa Fe Main Office on the northwest corner of the Plaza at 62 Lincoln Avenue in the Board Room on the Second Floor. Register BizBrew - Friday Morning Coffee Series - August 18, 2017 @ First National Santa Fe, Main Office 62 Lincoln Avenue Board Room Second Floor Santa Fe, NM 87501 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Igniting Passion & Grounding in Values On Friday, the first BizBrew launched with a gathering at City of Mud, which is a small art gallery on Hickox Street across from the Tune Up Café, where Proprietor Nancy Nichols provided the perfect space for really connecting. Creative, intimate, and comfortable, the gallery was abuzz Friday morning with inspiring and informative dialogue and community engagement that lingered into the morning, as attendees stayed to chat and share.
We were honored to have Merridith Ingram as our kick-off speaker. A mother of three, as well as a master communicator and communications strategist who has Fortune 500 companies as clients, Merridith shared some of her story of making a quality-of-life decision to leave New York City and move to Santa Fe just over a year ago. The change of lifestyle and change of pace also proved an opportunity to re-invent her company, 66&Co, and revive her work with a sense of values and passion that she been longing for. By aligning with her deepest held values and taking a stand for them, Merridith shared that she will now turn down clients who's projects do not align with these values. Interestingly, she also discovered in the process that committing to values-based business moves us towards something much bigger than ourselves and much better than just focusing on the next sale. Merridith found that once she and her partners rooted the company in a foundation of clear and committed values, it was much easier to connect with community members and potential clients and moved the conversation beyond just selling products or services. Now, she is happy and surprised to find herself in the midst of the vibrant innovation ecosystem that is Santa Fe and is providing her PR and communications expertise not only to large multi-national corporations but also to small start-up companies and not-for-profit organizations. She and her husband also launched Silicon 66, a local resource to highlight important tech business events and to showcase innovative businesses and business leaders along Route 66. Merridith advises that the best way to begin to realign your work to your values is to ask the following questions: · What change do we want to make in the world? · What do we deeply value? · Who do we want to serve? · Who are we? Who do we want to be? What is our promise? Merridith also differentiated between brand identity and brand promise. The brand promise is the company’s bigger value proposition, and it is important. As Merridith put it, ‘It is not just what’s in it for me but also what’s in it for my community.” As she noted, “I now focus on what I am giving rather than what I am selling and the messaging becomes much easier. I am looking at where we are all going together with a longer view and this has a positive ripple effect on my business and the business of my clients.’ Merridith Ingram, co-founder of 66 + Co, will be the speaker for our June launch of BizBrew, a Friday-morning coffee series dedicated to tech, women and values-rooted entrepreneurship. As a consummate storyteller and strategist, Merridith has built several successful companies and a career that has ranged from Dow Jones journalist to creator of major communications campaigns for Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Intuit and Philips. But her magic touch is not limited to large corporations and she has a special place in her heart and business helping startup companies and providing pro bono services to some of the most influential technology organizations in the world, including the Internet Society and the Internet Engineering Task Force giving her insight into what makes technology tick and the newest ideas about how to better the world through technology. After moving to Santa Fe from New York City in 2015, Merridith founded the website, Silicon66, and restructured and re-branded her integrated communications and marketing agency. The new company, 66 + Co, is based on globally-conscious values and she was amazed at how deeply the new messages resonated with her audience. In this re-branding, she and her business partners were able to grow their business exponentially in spite of relocating to a smaller market. Merridith says that her per-eminent communications objective is, "Action with purpose," and that two essential keys to reaching your target audience is to know, "Who you are trying to reach and what change your are trying to effect." At 66 + Co she helps clients connect with audiences through providing engaging content, developing inspiring narratives, strategizing the navigation and leverage through the digital environment, using creativity to effect change and intelligently planning blueprints for success that combine hard data with tactical ingenuity -- all things we would be wise to include in our own business planning. At BizBrew, Merridith will be speaking on how Values-based entrepreneurship gives your brand identity a deeper and more resonant brand promise/vision. When this vision aligns with that of your target audiences, this can fuel your business' visibility, viability and growth. Whether you want to grow an existing business or you are starting a new business -- join us and learn more about how to create a brand that truly reflects the essential aspects of your business and how this will help create an environment of success. This promises to be both and engaging and informative discussion -- so please join TechBivvy for BizBrew on June 16, 2017 from 8:30 - 10:00 AM for Merridith's presentation, coffee and networking. The location is City of Mud gallery at 1114-A Hickox in Santa Fe. Event is FREE and open to the public. Please RSVP at [email protected] to help us with logistical planning. BizBrew is sponsored by: City of Mud, the City of Santa Fe Economic Development Department, New Mexico TechWorks and TechBivvy. Thank you Sponsors for underwriting this event! |
AuthorTechBivvy is a business basecamp especially-made for female entrepreneurs and women interested in tech. Archives
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