IT in the D

IT in the D, Episode 50. We were going to call it "Girls, Girls, Girls", but then we realized that we'd probably get "Slapped, Slapped, Slapped", and so...yeah, no. As we knew it would be, this episode was a blast. We were joined in-studio by Kate Catlin of Assemble: Giving Small Businesses a Bigger Chance, Elyse Turner from Brightwing, and Erika Carlson of Girl Develop IT - Detroit and Detroit Labs. It was a wild ride from the get go... As always, our first segment ran through the introductions around the room, and then dove into some news and events that have caught our eye over the past week. The links to find those stories...and some we didn't get to due to time constraints but are still worth taking a look at...can be found down below. Kate Catlin For our second segment, we hopped in with Kate Catlin to talk about her project geared towards helping small business downtown improve the way they do things. She's got a Rockethub (kinda like KickStarter) campaign going to help fund site development of an online marketplace and exchange for local businesses to partner and work together. There's a whole host of cool incentives for donors, including coffee mugs from Great Lakes Coffee, a great lunch, a spin class, a tour of historic downtown bars, flower delivery, something for foodies, and tons more.  Even though she hit her original goal, she's now aiming higher to get even more done, so check it out and donate at http://www.rockethub.com/projects/44667-assemble-giving-small-businesses-a-bigger-chance Elyse Turner Our third segment focused in with repeat guest Elyse Turner from Brightwing. We talked about the job market and the kinds of positions that Brightwing is currently on the hunt to fill, as well as what they're seeing in the local industry scene with regards to contract, contract to hire and permanent placement positions. We also dove into some common ground that we've all walked over from time to time - helping out college students (and others) who are woefully unprepared for the real world upon graduation. Students with 3.8 and higher GPAs that should be a lock for the jobs that they're not getting, and the feedback coming in says it's because of the lack of softer skills - they can't communicate properly, they don't know how to talk with people, they can't express what it is that they actually do or want to do...or even worse, they're showing up unshowered, completely unprepared... ...or they have their mom keeping tabs on the recruiter and the interview process... ...yeah, that's a great idea.  Check out Brightwing and everything that they have going on out at http://www.gobrightwing.com/ Erika Carlson We saved the best for last (no offense to Kate and Elyse, of course) and our fourth and final segment roped our other repeat guest for the night, Erika Carlson, on to center stage. Erika has her hands in just as many (if not more) things as we do, and so it's always good when we get can our schedules to sync up so we can play catch up with her.  And get a new drop or two for future usage... Her two main areas of focus these days are her work as one of the founders of Girl Develop IT - Detroit and her "real world" job at Detroit Labs.  For those not in the know, she not only talks the talk, but has walked the walk herself.  She was studying clinical psychology just a few years ago (which probably explains why she knows how to manipulate the three of us so easily and well) when she made the gutsy decision to switch gears and head into coding.  Her frustration with finding good resources led her to partnering with a few others to start the Detroit chapter of Girl Develop IT,

IT in the D, Episode 49. Or "Season 2, Episode 5" because no, we haven't let that go yet. We talked a lot about Detroit this episode. A lot.  We also had some issues with the board running things, so the sound's a little twitchy at times, but we've cleaned it up as solidly as we can. Businesses in Detroit. Launching things in Detroit. Space planning in Detroit. Good things in Detroit. Bad things in Detroit. People inside Detroit. People outside of Detroit. All kinds of topics throughout the show with our guests from Hatch Detroit, Bamboo Detroit and Daily Detroit... As always, our opening segment talked some news, some local events, some random stuff that caught our eye, and waded through the introductions for the evening. This was one of those episodes where we kind of went all over the map, so if you're looking for a specific segment to listen to in order to catch something...sorry, you're just going to have to listen to it all to get the full impact of this one. Our second segment started diving in with Vittoria from Hatch Detroit.  She's a return guest, and we did things a little smarter this year.  Instead of waiting for them to be down to their four finalists, we thought it'd be a good idea to help get the word out before the doors closed on your opportunity to get $50,000 in funding, legal advice and marketing help on that business you want to open downtown.  They also work with neighborhoods and existing businesses, so there's a ton of great information in here. And then...somewhere in there...we started talking about Detroit in general. The neighborhoods.  Zoning issues.  What should and shouldn't be done with the area by the river.  Were the casinos a great idea or a horrible idea?  Can businesses inside Detroit successfully migrate to the suburbs...and vice versa?  What's a pop-up?  Why do they happen?  Why are there always so many damned bicycles downtown these days? So no, we didn't really stick too well to "segment" format or even what one would call "focused"...but it was a great show full of awesome topics of conversation with some really sharp, passionate people. Expect that to happen on a regular basis. - You can find us at http://www.ITintheD.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, on Meetup at http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/, and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/itinthed - All of the information you need to find out and sign up for Hatch Detroit can be found at http://hatchdetroit.com/ - Bamboo Detroit is a great co-working space downtown that you should absolutely keep an eye on to see what they've got going on: http://bamboodetroit.com/ - Daily Detroit, as always, can be found at http://www.dailydetroit.com/.  Their "burgers you have to try" list we were discussing is at http://www.dailydetroit.com/2014/06/29/5-tasty-burgers-to-love-around-detroit/      

IT in the D, Episode 48. Or "Season 2, Episode 4" for those paying attention. If you've never listened to an episode of our show before, and if you never listen to another episode of our show again...the second segment of this one is all we can possibly ever ask that you check out.  It's an eye opening conversation that'll make you rethink your priorities. It certainly had an impact on us... This was probably one of the more disjointed, scattered episodes that we've had...but we'll own it.  We knew it would be walking in the door, but it's for a damned good cause - getting people aware of, and engaged with, Operation Kid Equip. Our first segment was the usual round of introductions around the room, a few news topics that caught our eye like the Supreme Court decisions that killed off Aereo and requires police to get a warrant to search your phone...and how you should react to that if they try.  We talked about some new facial recognition software that Ford is planning for future vehicles, as well as how the FAA is now classifying some toys you or your kids have sitting around as "drones". Our second segment is where things got serious and really knocked us back in our chairs a bit. Menachem from Operation Kid Equip joined us in-studio to talk about the various programs and services that they offer, and just exactly how many people are struggling to barely keep above the poverty line...or failing that struggle...and the impact that it has on the kids that their organization is dedicated to helping. I can't put a heavy enough emphasis on this - listen to this segment.  Like I said earlier, if you've never listened before, and if you never listen again...this segment is the one that we're literally begging you to give a chance.  It doesn't take much to help.  It's not hard at all to get engaged.  It's so easy to have a major, fundamental impact on a child's life right here in the area. And that's the point we really want to stress - these aren't kids in a commercial from some faraway land.  They're right here.  In your neighborhoods.  And you don't have to pony up thousands or hundreds of dollars.  Their newest program, Sponsor a Student, is looking for a few bucks.  Literally probably less than you blow on two drinks in a single night.  Buy a six-pack and use the difference from drinking in a bar and help these kids out. This is a volunteer driven organization.  They're not like a lot of places that are paying their CEO six figures and has a giant nest egg in the bank. AND THEY'RE HELPING KIDS. Look, we don't get "preachy" all that often.  We don't ask for damned near anything from anyone.  At all.  Ever.  ...but last night's conversation really kicked us in the ass and woke us up a bit as to some of the problems in the area and you can damned well expect that you'll be hearing more about Operation Kid Equip from us in the future and us being more involved with them in the future.  Honestly, how many times have you ever heard / seen me speechless? There you go. One simple, easy way you can get involved and have a great time while doing it is to join us on Saturday night at the XICW Detroit "BEST IN DETROIT: Border Wars" event that is a benefit event for Operation Kid Equip.  A portion of the ticket sales, as well as a 50/50 raffle and some other special events taking place that night will go to Operation Kid Equip. And it's live professional wrestling.  Big guys taking on big guys.  Not so big guys taking on other not so big guys.  Tag teams.  A cage match.  A ladies match. Look, it's no secret that Bob and I have gotten fairly heavily involved with this whole "wrestling" thing over the course of the past two years...and we've done so because we have a blast while we're ther...

IT in the D, Episode 47. Or "Season 2, Episode 3" for those keeping score at home. Extremely solid episode.  We could have easily spent an hour or more with each one of our guests for this one, as the conversations kept evolving and getting more interesting. Our guests for the night were Andre Arbelaez, President of the Hispanic IT Executive Council (among other things, the guy wears many hats), Justin Montalbano and Brian Ritter from Spincard, and Rifino Valentine of Valentine Distilling. A growing demographic, an app, and booze.  We're in. But, of course, our first segment is all about commentary, news, updates, info, etc., and there's the little matter that kicked off right as our show was ending last week and followed us all through the week... If you haven't read this one yet, you should. So as the fun new intro came to a close, it was time to dive into a few topics. We kicked things off with introductions of our guests, and just general around the room touch points. The fireworks were downtown last night, but we didn't have a single problem with traffic at all.  The parking lot was overloaded with bicycles for some reason, but we survived and made it into the studio for the show. But of course it didn't take too long until we just said to hell with it and dove in with the David vs Goliath post and all of the fun and excitement that went along with that - http://www.itinthed.com/15136/were-not-going-anywhere-or-david-vs-goliath/.  And that led into blasting the state of "traditional" media today where unfortunately all of the real journalists have been let go in money saving endeavors and all that's left are basically trained monkeys who copy and paste press releases and treat it as "news" and... ...sigh. Anyway, it's all in here.  You want to know about it?  Read that post and listen to this episode.  We gave ourselves one piece of one segment to get it out of our systems, and hopefully now it can be behind us. That off of our chest, we hopped into a few news articles that caught our eye.. Then it was time for a break, and we came back for our second segment, where we focused in with Andre Arbelaez. The Hispanic market is growing a lot faster than we were aware of, and this was a seriously interesting conversation.  From television to demographics, from the executive level presence to the various entry points into the workforce in general, from the market here in Detroit to the markets in LA, New York and Miami among others, this was a very educational and informative chat. We easily could have spent the entire two hours talking with Andre alone, so you should definitely expect to hear him back on a future episode. For our third segment, we hopped in with the Spincard guys. I've got to give these guys all the credit in the world.  I'm sure they were expecting a nice, fluffy chat about their app and what they're doing, but it sort of turned into an episode of Shark Tank. They did a great job explaining their app, their model and their plans for the future in the face of some pretty strong questions. Hopefully we helped prep them for the venture capital panel they'll be facing in the not too distant future by asking the tough questions and digging in under the fluff a bit. Our fourth and final segment was all about Rifino Valentine, owner of Valentine Distilling. And that's a key point to get out there right away - they're more than just vodka, folks.  But don't feel too badly if you didn't know that, because apparently all the majority of people out there (ourselves included until we were doing some pre-show research) only think of "Valentine Vodka".

IT in the D, episode 46. Or "Season 2, Episode 2".  Whatever.  I'm still trying to figure out if I really want to go back, edit and rename all of the old episodes... We'll see how that goes. We had Julie from Simply Social Media in-studio as well as Jeremiah, Patrick and Nick from Daily Detroit. And when Daily Detroit's in the house...things are going to get a little weird... ...and get weird, they did...but we'll get to that in a moment. From watching World Cup soccer in a ball full of hipsters before the show to the PF Chang's hack and more, the opening segment was a good mix of topics as usual. In our second segment, we hopped in with Julie from Simply Social Media to chat about Facebook engagement, why we still don't understand Twitter and more. Segment three was all about the Daily Detroit guys...actually, it was mostly about Greedy Greg's barbecue and the social / political dynamics around businesses in downtown Detroit, where the funds are, who knows where the help is, and where the system is broken. ...which totally bled over into the fourth segment... ...and even triggered the start of an unprecedented fifth segment. So...yeah.  Things got weird.  And real.  Really weird. But a great show as always, and you absolutely need to pay attention to this one to learn a little more about what's going on around the area. - You can find us at http://www.ITintheD.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, on Meetup at http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/, and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/itinthed - Our next event is Thursday, June 19th over at The Daily Post (formerly the Post Bar) in Novi at 5pm http://www.itinthed.com/meet/ - Simply Social Media is at http://www.simplysocialmediallc.com/ - Daily Detroit is at http://dailydetroit.com/ - Their story on Greedy Greg's is at http://www.dailydetroit.com/2014/06/10/greedy-gregs-is-the-best-bbq-youve-probably-never-had/ ...and then the stories we discussed...or meant to discuss but didn't get to...those are all to be found... - Tesla opens up patents - http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you, Nissan and BMW want to chat with them about universal standards http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459554,00.asp - Expedia announces they'll accept Bitcoin http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27810008 - which is awesome, given that one anonymous person controls 51% of it http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/06/bitcoin-security-guarantee-shattered-by-anonymous-miner-with-51-network-power/ - ...and the US Marshall's office is about to auction off nearly 30,000 bitcoins (roughly $17.5 million worth) seized from Silk Road http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/us-to-auction-off-29656-bitcoins-seized-from-silk-road-worth-over-17-5m/ - Feds to cops: "shut up about cell phone surveillance" https://news.yahoo.com/us-pushing-local-cops-stay-174613067.html;_ylt=AwrBJR4e65lTwmEAb7zQtDMD - The IRS uses the equivalent of "the dog ate my homework" http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2014/06/13/irs-lost-emails-by-official-in-tea-party-probe  (data retention and we've all been through losing stuff before....) - PF Changs got hacked, has no idea what to do about it, and so they've got back to using old-school imprint machines for cards.  http://www.securityweek.com/pf-changs-confirms-payment-card-breach-reverts-imprinting-devices - Lawsuit against Linkedin for spamming user's contacts rolls forward: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2363660/judge-lawsuit-over-linkedins-repeated-invitation-emails-can-proceed.html

IT in the D, episode 45. Or "Season 2, Episode 1". However you want to look at it, it was a pretty fun episode. From Facebook getting all NSA about stuff to the gift shop at Ground Zero, from sweet cases made out of hockey sticks for your phone and into the local job market, tonight flowed pretty well, and actually got us back to some basics...

If you've listened to the show recently, then you already know we had a blast hanging out, meeting people, chatting with local artists and some of our favorite celebrities from tv and film. Whether it was Martin Kove and Billy William Zabka from The Karate Kid or some great local artists like Kelly O'Hara from BeBop Art or even the cool folks at TechShop Detroit that we for some reason didn't even know existed but definitely plan to get to know better...just a really cool series of chats. You can check out some photos and hear our chats with people...

IT in the D, the anniversary show. Anniversary..birthday...however you look at it, it wound up pretty much like most of our birthday parties over the years. Little too much alcohol, far too many pop culture references, and us laughing so hard we're crying. It was just that kind of show. Special thanks to our guests Jeff Haase and Mark from Falling Down Beer Company for coming in and hopping on board... ...as hey, our first official sponsor of our live broadcasts! It was about eight million degrees in the studio tonight for some reason...and lucky for you, our group shot for the night was blurrier than all hell and so you're spared the pain of looking at our hot sweaty mess selves. You're welcome. From tales of midnight showings of Star Wars movies to various types of beer, this show was exactly what we told both you and ourselves that it would be - nothing serious, just hanging out and having a great series of chats. The highlights and key takeaways from tonight's show: - Falling Down Beer Company brews some fairly strong beer. - They're having an awesome event on Father's Day.  Six beers.  Five dishes.  A commemorative goblet.  And it's only $35. - No seriously, it's only $35.  They're even doing it twice - once at noon, once at 4pm. - Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fathers-day-beer-food-paring-tickets-11828614705 - In the meantime, hey, walk in and tell Mark you heard him on the IT in the D show.  Odds are better than good he'll do something nice for you. - Oh, and Bob has never seen the Godfather.  Either 1 or 2.  That might have been a recurring theme throughout the night. - He's also not very fond of human interaction, as his rant during...ah, you know what?  It's in here.  Listen. Thanks again for listening, and thank you to our guests for joining us. You can find us at http://www.ITintheD.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, on Meetup at http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/, and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/itinthed Falling Down Beer Company is at http://fallingdownbeer.com/, https://www.facebook.com/fallingdownbeer and those tickets for the Father's Day event are at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fathers-day-beer-food-paring-tickets-11828614705  

IT in the D, episode 43. We couldn't really ask for a more solid episode. Well...I guess we could...but then we'd just be getting greedy. From our Motor City Comic Con recap to learning all about what MEDC has to offer businesses and individuals to a way cool program Secure-24 is a part of...just a great night...

Wow. Just..."wow". What a great episode. Phenomenal conversations with guests from Uber, Digerati Girls, Hell Yeah Detroit and the producer of Wrestling's Battles, Bouts and Brawls, covering an entire host of topics that left little untouched...

IT in the D, Episode 41. Another great episode, that wandered a bit, and yet hit on some great information for things in the area. With Templar Games in studio, a chat about the National Day of Civic Hacking, and various topics like how the Department of Justice is doing some odd things with banks...

Tonight was one of those nights in-studio where we got to basically next to none of the topics we had queued up for the night. Which isn't a bad thing. It means that the flow with the guests was outstanding, and that we had an incredible series of conversations going on. Which is exactly what happened tonight as we were joined by Hajj Flemings and Delane Parnell to talk about Starterfest, other events in the area, and we even dove into the debacle with the Clippers' owner...

IT in the D, Episode 39...another rant to kick things off, this one based on a stunning revelation that came our way last week about a group member. Then we dove into the 2014 Motor City Comic Con, roller derby, the Assemble Detroit event tomorrow night and a whole bunch more. Lots of fun this time around, as well as some great information, so let's go ahead and dive in...

IT in the D, Episode 39 We decided to go ahead and isolate the segment with Michael Goldman of Motor City Comic Con since we knew it might be of specific interest to people...

IT in the D, Episode 38...from an opening rant to training classes that can help you with your career to the whole heartbleed debacle that's ripping through the internet...a really fun show. Well, most of us had fun. Bob was feeling a little under the weather (read: "Bob had a hangover"), but he carried on like a trooper. He should be back to normal by the time our event on Thursday night over at Blackfinn happens. You're coming to that, right? Our in-studio guests were Christy Rowe from New Horizons and return guest Mark Stanislav of Duo Security. Lots of great information in this episode, both for your career and your own piece of mind and well-being on the internet, so let's go ahead and dive in...