Carolina Connect 2010 – Bryan Bringing the Blitz, Ideation Blitz

Posted on 10. May, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Marketing Consulting

See Carolina Connect 2010 for more info.

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday! Bryan Freeborn brings the blitz. One day only! Get the blitz “bestowed” upon ye. Special appearance by Go-Go the Gorilla.

He, Bryan, not Go-Go, is a firehouse of ideas, all good, and this is your chance for some free goodness. He offered to buy an Ideation Blitz shirt for me and I turned him down, to my everlasting regret. And I don’t even wear t-shirts. That thing turned out sweet!

May 13 at The Renaissance in downtown Asheville. Come an’ get it!

Carolina Connect 2010, May 13 at The Renaissance Downtown Asheville

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Random

Oh yes, you want to be at this event. Carolina Connect 2010 is sure to be a great opportunity to network with all sorts of businesspeople in Western North Carolina, and way beyond. Many of the speakers and panelists are coming from all over the country.

I’m moderating a panel in the Entrepreneurial track with some great panelists from local startups, a major media company, and an international corporation that the founder recently sold. The overall theme is still being worked out but we will certainly discuss the “growing pains” with any successful startup, big mistakes to avoid, managing remote teams and outsourcers, leveraging technology, and anything else we can jam into the hour.

At the end of the day there will be a bunch “Critical Conversations” and Bryan and I are hosting one of those. It will certainly be related to modern marketing but we are up for discussing anything. Please let us know your thoughts.

And remember, tickets are only $95 if you register by May 7. After that tickets are $125.

See Carolina Connect 2010 for more info.

Brian Boggs, Chairmaker – Small Business Brief #14

Posted on 23. Feb, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Small Business Briefs

Shaky cam strikes again! Too much coffee this morning, or not enough? I’m not sure. But I think you can still clearly see how fantastic this handmade furniture is, by Brian Boggs and company. The barstools Brian shows us in this video are exquisite. They are an interesting juxtaposition of hard edged precision geometry and deliberately visible hand work. And freakishly comfortable.

We really enjoyed our time in the shop today and for a furniture nerd like me it’s hard to not start dreaming up things to make after being around all that creativity and craftsmanship, and tools (covet covet).

Visit BrianBoggsChairs.com for more info.

Lab Escape – Small Business Brief #13

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Small Business Briefs

“I— Am— Sil-ho-uette Man, In-ter-view-ing peo-ple as fast as I can…”

First time I’ve used the Flip camera in the conference room at the new office. Now I know. Don’t sit in front of the windows, too much backlight. I had a great meeting with Eric and Trevor at Lab Escape. They are from a software company, based in Asheville, that makes “heat map” products.

“Lab Escape provides information visualization solutions for businesses seeking to better understand their data. Our products include our Tree Map, which shows trends and highlights anomalies, and our Data Map SDK, which provides support for building your own data maps.”

It’s an interesting business with several big name clients. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say beyond that but when I say big I mean el grande. So if you’re wrestling with great gobs of data, trying to make sense of it all, check out their heat map software.

Heat maps can help you visualize:

“Sales Performance
Risk Management
Market Share Analysis
Asset Management
Market Basket Analysis
Network Monitoring
Investment Performance
Budget Analysis
Portfolio Management
Performance Tracking
Trend Detection
Opportunity Analysis”

That’s all for now.

Rainbow Mountain Children’s School – Small Business Brief #12

Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by Tracy Sigler in Small Business Briefs

Yesterday I met with Renee Owen, Executive Director at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School. This is a great, small private school in west Asheville. They serve kids from preschool through eighth grade. I have firsthand experience with school because both of my kids have been students there, and it’s been a good experience. The school has developed a fantastic community of students, parents and faculty.

If you’re looking for a private school in Asheville find more about Rainbow at RMCS.org.

Older Entries »