On March 23, the Technology Association of Georgia threw its annual celebration of the intersection of technology, business and innovation in the state. The Georgia Technology Summit, which highlights industry trailblazers, spotlights emerging technology and recognizes the Top 40 Innovative Companies in Georgia, typically draws about 1,500 attendees in the form of executives, entrepreneurs, academics and tech professionals.
Read moreOn March 8, I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the Women Who Code Atlanta's International Women's Day Celebration. It was an incredible opportunity to celebrate an important day with some badass women in Atlanta. But I'll be honest: When WWC ATL founder Erica Stanley asked me to speak, I didn't leap at the chance.
Read moreIf we're friends on Facebook, you know I like to share the, uh, "pearls of wisdom" that strangers utter in public. There is nowhere this is more entertaining than on my annual girls' trip to Savannah for St. Patrick's Day, and I've been chronicling the random sh!t drunk people say there for six years now.
Read moreSorry for the back-to-back Consumer Show coverage, but things have been a little crazy around here. I usually try to space them out since they are, you know, a month apart, but sometimes life happens.
Plus, there's no such thing as "too much Consumer Show," amirite?
Read moreWe made it to a full year with the Consumer Show at Switchyards, and what a year it's been! I've seen presenters dance their way onstage with more enthusiasm than anything else; I've been shown some pretty slick demo videos; I've debated the pros and cons of letting racoons gnaw on your trash; and I've watched founders take their shirts off onstage for "a live demo." (Yep, there's pics of that last one. Thank Jason Seagle for that.) I've watched the show sell out, time after time.
Read moreWhy was I doing all of this research, other than my well-documented obsession with data, startups and pitches? Well ... I've been tapped to take over hosting duties for ATLSV! Yes, you heard that right, I'll be onsite at the Consumer Show and Atlanta Startup Village each month!
Read moreEveryone wants to tell you they're "the Uber of something" these days. (Seriously. I put it into Google and got back results ranging from "the Uber of funerals" to "the Uber of local trucking." If I believed in emojis in blog posts, there'd be an eye-roll one here.) It's a quick and easy one-liner to describe your new business idea in a trendy way.
Preston Attebery, however, is fascinated more about what this says about the emerging on-demand economy, and less about using it for a cheap tagline for his company.
Read moreWith 11 rounds of its original monthly event under its belt, Switchyards Downtown Club is still going strong, and opened the new year with yet another sold-out edition of the Consumer Show. Not even the fact that co-founder Michael Tavani has been known to (loudly) hassle stragglers into front-row seats kept the crowd from staking out standing-room-only spots around the Western & Atlantic coffee bar. (I applaud you, standing-room-only people, who repeatedly refused the four chairs next to Tavani and Blake Byrnes and stalwartly remained standing near the beer. A strict strategy.)
Read moreI am a wordy sort of person. I take a lot of notes. I make a lot of Facebook posts. I send a lot of emails, texts, Slack messages, tweets and whatever else using any medium at-hand to communicate in writing.
(I also talk a lot, but that's another post.)
Read moreMy people, my people! I missed you last month, but Shannon did a fantastic job stepping in — thank you, Shannon, you are all that is great about the Switchyards community! — and last Thursday I was back for the tenth occasion of a packed-out house for #theConsumerShow. (It's #THEConsumerShow, not #ConsumerShow. That's a different, somewhat more niche sort of thing, in case you were wondering.)
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