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Stafford Tech Center offering new courses in Web Application Development

Stafford Technical Center Adult Education will be offering new courses in Web Application Development, starting in September 2019.

I will be teaching the following courses:

COMP-19: Introduction to Web Development: Starting with HTML5
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
September 17 – October 24, 2019 (6 weeks)

COMP-21: Web Development: Introduction to Styling with CSS
Tuesdays, 6:00 – 8:30 pm
November 5 – December 17, 2019 (7 weeks)

COMP-20: Web Development: Introduction to Interactivity with JavaScript
Thursdays, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
November 7 – December 19, 2019 (6 weeks, skipping Thanksgiving)

For more information, you can call Stafford Tech at 802-770-1033.  You can also register for courses from the Stafford Tech website.

 

Innovation Week 2018 in Burlington

This week is the annual BTV Ignite Innovation Week in Burlington Vermont.  Here is the line-up of events for the 2018 Innovation Week.

I attended the opening event last night at Generator Makerspace, the Sector Mash, which brought together technology and the arts.

After the demos of VR, drones and other creations, there was a series of 3-minute lightning talks, followed by networking and socializing.  The lightning talks fell into 3 categories: “Exploring New Spaces”, “Leveling Up Your Skills” and “Scaling Up Your Organization”.  It was an impressive array of meetups, organizations, makers and projects, an “ecosystem” and “support system” for improving the creative economy and maker culture.

The slide deck for the lightning talks lists the organizations that presented or were mentioned in the talks.

I will be heading back up to Burlington again this week.  On Wednesday is the VT Road Pitch Finals at Champlain College, and on Friday the annual VT Tech Jam event at the Champlain Valley Expo.

10th annual Vermont Code Camp, My First Visit

On September 15, 2018, the 10th annual Vermont Code Camp was held at Champlain College in Burlington, VT.  For several years, this annual one-day conference has been on my radar screen.  For various reasons, I have not been able to attend.  But finally in 2018, I was able to make the trek up to Burlington.  It was a beautiful Saturday morning drive up Route 7 to the VT Code Camp.

As you can see from the schedule of sessions on the homepage, there were 28 sessions to choose from (7 time slots x 4 classrooms). I attended the following sessions:

  • Internet of Things with Scott Thibault (Bit Banging and Other Fun Programming on the Edge)
  • Single Page Webapps (SPA) with Bradley Holt (Enterprise Apps for the Web Platform)
  • SEO with John Waterman (Everything SEO: Strategy, Process, Technical Implementation, Tools, & the Real World)
  • UX / UI with Kyle Mitofsky (Practical UX and UI for Developers)
  • IT Careers with Kip Steele (How to get a great job and build a network in a rural market)
  • Project Management with Annmarie Curley (5 Key Skills & Tools to Instantly Improve Project Success)
  • WordPress with Josh Lee (Developer’s Guide to WordPress)

For some time slots it was a tough choice as to which session to attend.  Luckily, if you join the Meetup group for Vermont Coders Connection, in the comment section for the VT Code Camp post, you can get the links to some of the slide decks for other presentations.

Continue reading “10th annual Vermont Code Camp, My First Visit”

Road Pitch Riders Return to Rutland on August 1

FreshTracks Capital and their pack of “business bikers” will travel Vermont’s roads again this summer to “Road Pitch” events around the state.  From Monday, July 30th to Thursday, August 2nd, Vermont entrepreneurs and business owners will make their “pitch” to this roving band of folks with investment, entrepreneurial/business, and business advisory experience.

This year, the annual Road Pitch returns to Rutland.  Last year’s event was held at the Rutland Free Library.  This year, the “business bikers” will travel to the Mint Makerspace, which opened in August 2017.  The Rutland Road Pitch will take place on Wednesday, August 1st, from 9:30am – 12:00pm.  The Mint Makerspace is located at 112 Quality Lane.

For more information, visit the Road Pitch website.

Rutland & Southern Vermont Entrepreneurs

Earlier this year, I took a Business Planning course along with about 15 other entrepreneurs from Rutland County and elsewhere in Southern Vermont.

Some of my fellow students have their business websites up and running. Glad to see this entrepreneurial energy in the Rutland area!

Hale Resources – Real Estate Development & Property Management
Zak Hale
www.haleresources.com

Heidi’s Hometown Construction
Heidi Eccleston
https://fb.me/heidishometownconstruction/

The Grateful Vermonter
Brooke Caputo
thegratefulvermonter.com

 

vtTA Tech Networking Event in Downtown Rutland: June 20

Attention Rutland County tech entrepreneurs!  The Vermont Technology Alliance is coming to downtown Rutland on June 20th.  vtTA will present a networking event for leaders and representatives of Vermont technology businesses, and businesses and organizations who work with and support the tech sector.  This networking event will take place on Wednesday, June 20, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.  This event will be held at the Green Mountain Power Energy Innovation Center on Merchants Row in Rutland, VT.

For more information see event on vtTA website.

I look forward to seeing other Rutland tech sector folks on June 20th!

VT Chamber of Commerce: Business Expo 2018 on May 25

On Thursday, May 24, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce presents their annual Business Expo.  I have attended a few times in the past and will be going again this year.

There are a variety of free workshops on a variety of business related topics. I have found past workshops to be helpful, and look forward to this year’s offerings.

https://vtexpo.com/
https://vtexpo.com/seminars/

Hope to see some of you there.

Celebrate WordPress 15th year on May 27th with Rutland, VT WordPress Meetup group

On Sunday, May 27th, the Rutland WordPress group on Meetup.com will participate in a global event celebrating the WordPress 15th Anniversary, along with other WordPress community groups.

You are invited to attend the celebration!  The event will be held at the GMP Energy Innovation Center at 66 Merchants Row in downtown Rutland from 1-3PM.  Enjoy some refreshments (and maybe even a WordPress birthday cake) and celebrate 15 years of WordPress.  WordPress users will be sharing their party photos and love for WordPress with other enthusiasts around the world via the hashtag #wp15.

The Rutland WordPress Meetup group meets every first Tuesday evening at 5:30pm at the GMP Energy Information Center.  Each month, a different WordPress topic is presented by Meetup organizer, Andrew Jones.

Continue reading “Celebrate WordPress 15th year on May 27th with Rutland, VT WordPress Meetup group”

Using Trello for tracking and working Business Plan

A handy online tool that I have used for managing projects and To Do lists is Trello.  I first started using Trello on a software development team about four years ago.  Trello was integrated into the team’s usage of Scrum, which is an Agile approach to project management in the Information Technology field.  Our project team used 2-3 week “sprints” or time-blocks for managing short-term To Do lists and task assignments within a framework of long-term company goals and project priorities.

In that context, I was one of several users on a Trello team.  So Trello can be used for team collaboration, including teams where members may be working in different locations or remotely from main office.  I have also read that some couples have used Trello to plan their wedding.

In addition to team collaboration, I have also used Trello for tracking personal To Do lists, goals and tasks, including home remodeling projects.  When we remodeled our kitchen, Trello was a valuable tool for planning and keeping track of ideas, tasks, contractors, web links, documents and images.

I recently took a Business Planning course over the winter season.  A Business Plan and the writing and planning process itself suggests a variety of goals and To Do lists.  Now that I have written plan, I spent time reviewing my business plan again, this time making notes regarding goals, tasks and priorities.  From there, I was able to put that information into Trello to help track all these items.

Continue reading “Using Trello for tracking and working Business Plan”

Local Entrepreneurs Graduate: Business Planning Course in Rutland

I recently took a 10-week Business Planning course that was sponsored by the Rutland Economic Development Corp. (REDC) and CWE Vermont (Center for Women & Enterprise), based in Burlington.  The course was open to Rutland area residents who wanted help developing their Business Plan for their existing business or new startup idea.  CWE Vermont also welcomed men entrepreneurs like myself to attend course (Thanks!).

The course was held at REDC in downtown Rutland.  The “local instructor” was Hannah Abrams of Business Coach VT, based in Killington.  Hannah was a great instructor and helped us toward our goal of developing our business plans!  For one class session, Gwen Pokalo, Director of CWE Vermont taught our class about the important “financial” topic.  CWE Vermont offers many business related workshops at their Burlington location.  In this case, this course was a “community” course offered in another region of Vermont.

Continue reading “Local Entrepreneurs Graduate: Business Planning Course in Rutland”