Saltire Software meeting – August 5th 2008
This NW Education Cluster meeting was hosted by cluster member company Saltire Software. Phil Todd of Saltire Software has for a long time offered to host a meeting but due to the space configuration of his building/office it has been difficult to set up. We have come up with a neat solution of having 3 presenters do round-robin presentations in three rooms in his building. This would be a "speed-dating" kind of presentation where the presenters would end up doing their presentation 3 times to 3 different audiences.
When: August 5th from 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Where: Hosted by Saltire Software
Address is 12700 SW Hall Blvd
Tigard, OR 97223
Agenda
There will be networking (and pizza) from about 6:30 to 7:00.
Introductions and announcements from 7:00 to 7:20
The presentations and questions/answers will last until around 8:30 (20 minutes per presentations)
The three presentation are:
1) A representative of one of the local business schools (Willamette University’s downtown Portland MBA program) talking about the work they do, and more generally, how to work with academics.
2) Joyce Cresswell from Saturday Academy talking about the Academy and its goals
3) Phil Todd talking about Saltire Software with a presentation by their own Saturday Academy intern on the work they are doing.
·
Portland Schools
Foundation and The Chalkboard Project – January 8th 2008
The
next meeting of the NW Education Cluster will be January 8th 2008
hosted by NWEA (www.nwea.org)
and featuring information from The Chalkboard Project (www.chalkboardproject.org) and
Portland Schools Foundation (http://www.thinkschools.org/), 2 great local organizations.
Here
are the details:
When: January 8th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where: Hosted by NWEA
Address is 5885 SW
Meadows Road,
http://www.nwea.org/forms/contact.asp
Why: The NW Education Cluster in the past year
or so has become more outward looking, with the New York Times article this
summer to meetings with The Portland Development Commission, The Chalkboard
Project, The Oregon Leadership Summit and the AESA. This is a great
opportunity to learn more about 2 unique organizations located here in Portland
that can potential work with not only the NW Education Cluster but with each
member organization.
Agenda
There
will be networking (and pizza) from about 6:00 to 6:30.
Introductions
and announcements from 6:30 to 6:50
The
Portland Schools Foundation and The Chalkboard Project will each spend about
20-30 minutes talking about their organization and then there will be questions
and answers.
Please
RSVP to me.
The space is limited to about 35 people. Look forward to seeing you
there!
·
It
was great to see many of you at the Oregon Leadership Summit on
12/3/07. Don Spear (BlueTech), Deme Clainos (StudyDog), Brian Rose
(InsightSchools), Stephen Peters (Opensourcery) and I represented the NW
Education Cluster at the breakout lunchtime roundtable. Also at the
roundtable were Susan Castillo (Oregon State Superintendent), Senator Richard
Devlin (Senate Majority Leader), Kristin Bryant (Chalkboardproject), someone
from the OEA and the Governors’ Office as well as our facilitator Sam Brooks. It
was a tight table and we covered a few topics in the short hour we
had. There were about 60 people in the audience and it was a lively
discussion.
There
is a goal of the cluster to get business and government to work together are
you interested in either of the two ideas shared at the Oregon Leadership
breakout session
An
Oregon X-Prize for education in the area of technology
Education
Week just this month came out with report ranking
A
summer Education Summit where educational companies could share their ideas and
technology with state education leaders.
·
Discovery
collaborative meeting on September 26
In building a strong brand,
how do you craft a single story that is equally appealing to a 17-year old
soccer player as it is to a 53-year old CEO?
Join us next month to learn
about the challenges the
In this session, you will
learn how the
Below
is a quick synopsis of the event:
When: September 26,
Wednesday, from 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Where:
Address is
Terrace Room located in the
There will be socializing
starting at 6:30 and the meeting will be starting at 7:00. We will also share some highlights about the
Cluster and the Oregon Business Plan.
The Software Association of Oregon’s
educational foundation, TechStart, is
underwriting advanced teacher training at Western Oregon University next week (July 30th
through August 3rd) and has approached the Northwest Education
Cluster about a sales and marketing opportunity.
This
training, called “SuperQuest”, is a highly acclaimed training series for K-12
technology educators who are seeking to develop and sharpen skills in teaching
robotics and computer science.
On
Thursday, August 2nd, from 4-6PM, there will be an “Industry Meet
and Greet Resource Fair”. This is an opportunity for members of the
Northwest Education Cluster to meet with the 40 participating teachers in order
to teach them about the latest products available for their classrooms and
school districts.
The
event will occur after class on Thursday and includes a casual reception with
appetizers. This year, ITT and Microsoft are among the resource fair
sponsors.
Below
is a quick synopsis of the event:
When? Thursday, August 2nd, 4pm – 6pm
Where?
Who? About 40 technology (computer science, robotics,
engineering) teachers from Oregon and SW Washington who are attending a
week-long training and conference about using the latest technology in their
K-12 classrooms.
Cost? $200 to the TechStart Education Foundation, a
501 C-3 (if this price represents a challenge for your company’s budget, please
contact John)
Sign
up or Ask Questions?
If
you have any questions, feel free to call John Ossowski, TechStart Program and
Advancement Manager directly at 503-802-5211 or email
him at john.ossowski@sao.org
This meeting
was a panel discussion on grant searching and writing experience. The
panel shared stories and tips on what they look for and how they have both won
and lost grants,
PANEL:
David Roy, Director - Grants and Corporate Giving
Knowledge Learning Corporation www.knowledgelearning.com
Mark
Phil Todd - Founder and VP for Research and Development
Saltire Software www.saltire.com
Deborah "Sunny" Cohen, PhD – President
Cognition Ignition - An
experienced grant writer for educational media.
MODERATOR:
Lisa
Bordeaux, Director of Partner Development
BlueTech,
LLC www.bluetechllc.com
It featured three CEO's from Portland Education
companies/organization, all at different business stages, discussing how they
move forward to meet goals, over come setbacks and what motivates them.
Panelists Included:: Bill Kelly - CEO of Learning.com
Elia Freedman - CEO of Infinity Softworks Matt Chapman - CEO of NWEA
·
October
26th 2006 Panel Discussion
“Impact of new Internet based strategies on the education
community and companies”
This
meeting was sponsored jointly by Knowledge Learning Corporation and their
subsidiary KC Distance Learning.
This
event included a panel discussion to talk about the Internet and its impact on
traditional business models and education.
The panel included members of the education business community using the
web in unique ways to build its education business, members of the open source
technology to discuss its impact, and members from a local school district that
addressed how schools' look at various technologies and their integration. Also
on hand were members from Knowledge Learning to talk about what they have been
up to the last few months.
When: Oct 26th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where:
14th
Floor,
Moderator:
Cheryl Vandemore
Panelists:
Nate
Angell - Director for Web Communications,
Pamela
Kislak- Vice President of Marketing, KCDistanceLearning
Kurt
Gazow - Manager of Network Services,
For
the May 16th 2006 Tech Fair we showcased a new tri-fold brochure
highlighting the cluster and providing
people
with more information. The brochure was
created by Levi Ness of TwentyTwo38.
He
had designed our logo and offered to help again with the brochure. It looks great!
A link
to the pdf version is here.
Thanks
Levi!
Other
News
Slides
from the Renaissance Learning meeting on Feb 21st, 2006 are posted
here powerpoint
Read the article Clustering,
Competing Globally and the Northwest Education Cluster
By Geraldine M. Power that was written for the
SAO. It gives a great background into
how the cluster started
Also check out the new Job offering
Curiosity's
founders, Steve Klinetobe and Wendi Spiess, presented "Content
is
the Conversation: How your content can create a relationship with your
customers."
It
is never too early to start thinking about Fall - which can be a busy time for
everyone.
Where:
Hosted by Curiosity Group
Address
is
Content is the Conversation
How your content can create a relationship with your customers
About the Topic
So your web presence or email program has become one of the most important
marketing vehicles for your brand. Now what? You need content. Powerful, amazing
content to facilitate the conversation and engage your customers in a
long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. This open discussion will examine
the common mistake companies make in developing content and show you how to
delight your customers in order to promote loyalty, evangelism, acquisition
and, ultimately, sales.
About the Speakers
Circa 1998. Wendi Flores-Spiess and Steve Klinetobe combined their superpowers
and created Curiosity, a nimble, strategic, and smartly creative agency in the
business of developing amazing user experiences. Now, many late nights and
several disgruntled office managers later, they employ over 30 strategic
thinkers, designers, writers, and marketing professionals from a variety of
backgrounds. The place buzzes and the people fly.
Curiosity does all the things you’d expect for an marketing agency to do:
websites, e-mail campaigns, interactive experiences, direct mail, and so on.
But there is something different—a slight, but powerful, variation. They are
driven by a belief that everyone deserves to be treated like an individual,
like a human. There is no Mass Market; there are only individuals. Curiosity
delivers an experience rich with emotion, truth, and relevance, and in return,
our clients get conversion and loyalty.
Curiosity’s clients include the likes of Apple, HP, NWEA, Paramount Television,
Disney, Vesta, LightScribe, MacForce and Bonfire Snowboarding.
The
Tech Fair will be in rooms 294/296/298 in the Smith Memorial Student Union
building located
on
the corner of Harrison and Broadway on the PSU campus in
around
the area and metered street parking.
Featured
Speaker at 3:30 (Room 294)
Duncan
Wyse - President of the Oregon Business Council - will talk about education,
clusters, his
work
at the State Board of Education, the OregonBusinssPlan and how companies can
work to create
a
showcase lab school here in
1.
Curiosity (aka Media Systems)
2.
Learning.com
3.
OETC
4.
Amazing! Web Development
5.
PersonalProfessors.com
6.
NWEA and Northwest Education Cluster
7.
Northwest Technical Products (Solidworks)
8.
9.
Saxton Bradley
10.
Seitel Leeds
11.
Casio
12.
NovaNET
13.
GenevaLogic
14.
Epson
15.
SpeakShop
16.
Troxell Communications
17.
Clarity Innovations
18.
Educational Productions
19.
Inkwater Press
20.
Saltaire
21.
FableVision Studios
22.
Xerox
23.
Numonics
24.
HP
25.
CompView
26.
3Com
27. Educator Zapp
28.
Curriculign
Local
college students and staff, Local area K-12 faculty and staff, NW
Education
Cluster members and others have all informed about the Tech Fair.
·
February 2006 Meeting sponsored by Renaissance Learning – invitation
Here is information about the next education cluster meeting that is happening on February 21st from 6-8pm.this meeting is sponsored by Renaissance Learning.
Greg
Smith from Renaissance Learning will be leading the discussion. In the presentation he will be covering among
other things:
1.
History of Renaissance Learning and what the corporate office does
2.
What in more detail the
3.
New products
4.
How could and how does Renaissance Learning interface within the
Education and student community?
5.
How can we as a cluster help Renaissance Learning further their
objectives?
6.
How can Renaissance help other cluster members to further their
objectives?
7.
This could then progress into more about the differences between the
Finally
leading into a discussion as to how entrepreneurs could exploit opportunities
within that framework as well as Q&A.
Detailed
information:
When: Feb 21st from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where: Renaissance Corporate Services, Inc.
Driving directions are here directions
Here
are two websites about Renaissance:
www.rencorporate.com
for info regarding some of
www.renlearn.com
for info about Renaissance Learning
Please
RSVP to me. The space is limited to
about 35 people. Look forwardto seeing
you there!
Regards,
Jim
Snyder
503-702-7420
·
2006
Email
Hope
everyone is getting ready for the holiday season and can take at least a few
days off.
First from the last meeting on Nov 30th hosted by
OETC and StudyDog there was a bunch of information presented that I wanted to
update people on.
-
Here are the two web addresses for the two conferences that Kurt Gazow
recommended at the Nov 30th meeting.
These
might be of interest for companies to attend in the future.
-
Elizabeth Redman spoke about the Oregon Leadership Summit happening on Jan
9th. Registration and more information
can be found at http://www.oregonbusinessplan.org/. The Education Cluster will be represented
through the Software breakout session and Mona Westhaver from Inspiration
Software will be participating in the panel discussion. I will be in attendance and hope that you
will be there, since the focus on education is relevant to all of us.
-
We are still in the planning stages for the next meeting with more information
to follow after the 1st of the year. If
your company or organization would be willing to host the next event as well as
talk about your product or service please let me know. Hosting is easy and a good way to get your
message out about what you are doing and how you are growing.
Jim
Snyder
503-702-7420
Here is the invitation to the next education cluster
meeting that is happening on
November 30th from 6-8pm. This meeting is sponsored jointly by OETC and
StudyDog.
RSVP information is at the bottom.
This event will be a repeat of the panel format from
our August meeting and will feature (more) guests panelists from the education
community. There
are a list of the questions at our sister website (http://portlandedcluster.amz.com/wiki/wiki.cgi?PanelQuestionsDraft)
that we will be asking the panel to address. These questions build on the
last two meetings.
You may want to think about these questions and any others you
would want to ask the panel as you start a business
or are looking for ways
to gain more access into the K-12 education
community.
OETC in the spirit of K-12 education community has
secured space at a local middle school.
StudyDog has offered to provide the food and refreshments.
When: Nov
30th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where:
Just off I-5 -- north of PCC Sylvania
Moderator: Aaron Munter – Executive Director, OETC
Panelists: Invited and scheduled to attend
Kelvin Webster - Multnomah ESD
Claire Hertz -
Jay Keuter - Portland Public Schools
Linda Turner -
Lin Reeves -
Kurt Gazow -
Plus some possible others. This is an exciting group of people and
should
make for a lively discussion.
Please RSVP to me before Thanksgiving. The space is limited to about 35
people. Look
forward to seeing you there! We are also
looking into having
the event available via a teleconference line. Please let me know if you
cannot attend but would like that option.
Regards,
Jim Snyder
jlouiset@msn.com
503-702-7420
·
Invitation to the August 23rd – Panel Meeting hosted by NWEA
(www.nwea.org)
Greetings
Portland Education Cluster members and friends
Here
is the final invitation to the next education cluster meeting that is happening
on August 23th from 6-8pm. If you have
already RSVP'ed no need to do it again.
We have over 25 people confirmed in attendance.
Here
are some sample Panel Questions:
*
What are the top 3 purchasing priorities for your school or organization in the
2005/2006 school year?
*
What types of added benefits does your organization prefer? (site license, free
shipping, free samples, professional development, trial periods, etc.)
*
How do you or your organization prefer to be approached by vendors? (email,
conferences, face to face meetings, telephone calls)
* What
is one piece of advice you can give to these business leaders about developing
or marketing products for the education field?
NWEA
has graciously offered their space for the event. Here are the details:
When: Aug 23rd from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where: NWEA.
Address is 5885 SW Meadows
Road,
http://www.nwea.org/forms/contact.asp
Moderator:
Daylene Long - Director of Marketing, Vernier Software & Technology
Panelists:
(2 are confirmed)
Aaron
Munter - Director, OETC, an organization dedicated to maximizing the value of
educational technology to its members by working with software and hardware
vendors to procure the most effective and appropriate technological resources
at the lowest possible price.
Carla
Wade - Title I Lead and Technology Education Specialist from the Oregon
Department of Education
A
third mystery panelist - check the website for more details!
Please
RSVP to me or Kelvin (kelvin.n.ng@msdw.com.)
The space is limited to about 35 people.
Look
forward to seeing you there! You will
also have the chance to vote on our new cluster logo - thanks to the work of
Stephen Peters and his team at Amazing!
We have the selection down to 2 and need your help - must be present to
vote!
Regards,
Jim
Snyder
jlouiset@msn.com
503-702-7420
For
more information about the Education Cluster and details about the meeting
check it our website. http://www.portlandedcluster.com
First
off, thanks to Tina and Inspiration for hosting a very rewarding meeting of the
education cluster. It
was
a lively discussion and the [nicely cleaned up] notes that we generated are
attached. For those that did
and
did not attend these
notes should help serve as a road map as to where we hope the Cluster will
go in the near future.
People
can download a 30-day fully functioning trial of Inspiration at http://www.inspiration.com/freetrial/
Thanks
Tina!
It
was also very helpful to have Elizabeth Redman from the Oregon Business Council
present to let us know
that
the education cluster is not alone. The cluster idea is growing in
appreciated
all of her comments and suggestions -- keep them coming.
We
are now in the unique situation of having more ideas and plans for the next
meeting than we
know
what to do with. A committee consisting
of Bill Kelly, Kelvin Ng, Sara DeHoff, Dean Arrasmith, Daylene
Long, me,
and
Steve Peters will be meeting to plan it.
All ideas are welcome. Bill
closed this last meeting with the challenge
that
"if we are to continue to grow, each of us must not only continue to
attend these meetings but also invite a friend to come."
Thanks
for the energy and continued interest in the Portland Education Cluster.
Hello
With the rains returning it reminded me that the
next quarterly meeting of the Portland Education Cluster must be right around
the corner. Here are the details of the
upcoming meeting. We are going to have a
bit different format this time. We have
been meeting for the past two years now so it is a good time to take stock in
our future and see where we want to go.
When: May 10th, Tuesday, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Where: Hosted by Inspiration Software
Address
is
http://www.inspirationsoftware.com/
There
will be refreshments starting at 6:00 and then starting at 6:45 we will have a roundtable
discussion about the Portland Education market and
where
we would like to have this Cluster head in the future. Everyone is welcome and expected to
participate.
Some
ideas to be thinking about before the meeting
1) what does an Education Cluster mean to
you?
2) what do you hope to leverage from these
events and what else would you like to see?
3) how can we all better interface within
the education and student community?
4) how can we as a cluster do more?
5) what is missing?
As
a preview, the following companies have offered to host future quarterly
Education Cluster meetings
- StudyDog [August]
- OETC [November]