Orlando just had the right mix of founders, investors, and partners that we could plug our support, mentors and application pipeline into.”
The Orlando program will be led by Allen Kupetz, executive-in-residence, Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College ; Richard Licursi, chairman, Spectrum Bridge Inc.; Pete McAlindon, chief executive officer, Blue Orb Inc.; and Pat McNair, interim chief financial officer, RowShamBow.
Gazelle Lab is a member of the TechStars Network, a group of independently owned and operated regional organizations focused on nurturing early-stage firms.
One year ago, I was approached by Julia Young, the President of a local nonprofit organization called the Urban Think! Foundation. She was charged with transforming a soon-to-be out of business local bookstore into a Coworking space, event space, and a program to support local creatives. There were hazy thoughts about having a cafe, putting in a loft, and creating a versatile space. She found me because of my numerous blogs posts about Coworking, and my involvement in the local community.
I'm a regular reader of the Orlando Business Journal's blogs. As far as I know, they don't post all of their articles online. I get a lot of great info from the blogs though, and they help me keep in touch with my city in ways that I don't get from other publications.
In my past few years trying to create community, I have had to make a lot of decisions, whether conscious or not, about my environment. By environment I mean not only the room I'm sitting in, or the street I'm on, or the neighborhood, or even just the state of the US. I'm also talking about the people around me, individual beings, their companies, organizations, movements and activities. Then there are the memes, which seem to travel on air currents, over IP tubes, or via word of mouth at varying speeds.
I promised some folks from BarCamp I would link to my blog post where I talked about saving local bookstores. I will post some slides soon, but I want to include the bullet points (i.e. actually finish the slides) before they get posted to SlideShare.
Also, if anyone out there is looking for the mailing list for New Media Orlando, jump on there and join the discussion.
Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow night, Friday, Sept 16th, at 7PM, we will be opening the doors of the historic Cameo Theatre to an event to have everyone get together, share ideas, talk about community building, and hear from a few people who have experienced success in their own communities.
by Jono Bacon.