On your mark, get set, Go!!! If it was only that easy to get a business off the ground. I’ve done 2 and sold them. Now working on a third one that is a bit unique (more about that in another blog). Right now, it's all about helping each other succeed.

This is the season most Graduate Business Schools/ State organization and business organizations have a business plan competition. Even if you’re not in school or thinking about going into business for yourself these are excellent events to attend. Most are open to the public but the may charge a modest fee.

It is an excellent opportunity to network and get sage advice on the nuts and bolts on various aspects of a business from investors and serial entrepreneurs. Those participating in the competition get to make some money, the seed funding may be needed for that prototype or much need deeper market research.

The following is a list of the bigger ones around USA but be sure to check the colleges in your local region around the world. Have fun and learn.

Most entry deadlines are coming in this month February.
Rice Business Plan 2018
Houston, TX, USA  April 5-7th, 2018
 
New York State Business Plan Competition
Albany, NY, USA April 27, 2018
 
The 19th Annual Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition
Baltimore, MD, USA April 27, 2018
 
Knapp Venture Competition
Los Angeles, CA , USA  May 10, 2018

New Venture Competition
Boston, MA, USA   April 18, 2018
 
Utah Entrepreneur Challenge
Salt Lake City, UT, USA , April 7, 2018

Conferences, Forums, Meeting, Seminars take a deep breath and pause. I have not listed  any this month. Just wanted to wish you all the best in 2018, the big ones seem to be occurring between May and September. Do your research and find the subjects that interest you and figure out they can be most useful to you. Some ask for "white papers" or articles about a month or two before the actual conference or they also may be still looking for presenters. Double check the deadlines. 

Hoping 2018 will be known for serious Tech breakthroughs and maybe even some fun. Be prepared for those opportunities coming your way and smash it!

2017 is coming to a close you will have some time to relax and ponder about the future. If it is to be its up to you. Now is a good time to start visualizing the goals you want to accomplish. You may want to take small bites in stages to get to the finish line for a daunting goal you have set. Make a plan with the end in mind. Write it down. Put it somewhere  so you can review it on a regular basis next to your bed, over your desk on your phone , etc..
    

2018 Goals make them bold!

2018 Goals tie it to something you care about deeply!

2018 Goals make it something you are passionate about!

2018 Goals work on a clear vision and add the plan to get there!

I expect great things in 2018 .

Highlites for the bold in November

Dare Mighty Things, November 3, 2017, Chicago, IL, USA
Join 1000+ tech executives, entrepreneurs, developers, creatives & media to hear inspiring stories from influential innovators.

Web Summit, November 6-9, 2017 , Lisbon , Portugal
A super conference with 25 different conferences with internet focus on content delivery and latest and greats tools for development.

2017 Texas Life Science Forum, November 7, 2017, Houston , TX, USA
This is the "must attend" event for anyone in the life science industry in Texas or affiliated with innovation at the life science academic institutions. This event represents an opportunity to meet investors, learn about promising life science companies, to network and learn about opportunities for entrepreneurs, investment professionals, big pharma, academics and business executives serving the life science industry.

2017 PDMA Product Development and Management Competitive Edge Conference,  November 11-15, 2017, Chicago , IL, USA
Product Leaders! Product Teams! You can’t miss PDMA’s Competitive Edge Conference. This is the #1 global conference on end-to-end product development and innovation management. The conference delivers a mix of keynotes, workshops, TED-style talks, presentations from Outstanding Corporate Innovators (OCI) Award winners and career-enhancing networking.


Do you have a conference coming up next year 2018? 2019? Get the word out early and let us know.

its all about
World Design Summit & Expo 2017 , October 16 -25, 2017, at the Palais des Congres de Montreal , Montreal, Canada. This event showcases products like Food and Design , Green Technology , Environmental Design , Green Building, Sustainability etc. in the Architecture & Designing industry.

Silicon Coast 2017 Conference and Expo, Oct. 26-28th, 2017, Irvine, CA, USA
This conference and expo will feature 100 exhibitors, presentations from business leaders who have founded billion-dollar companies, classes and certifications, networking mixers …

Oregon Bioscience Showcase 2017, October 30, 2017, Portland, OR, USA
This one-day event features the Company Pitch Showcase, Research Fast Pitch and our 7th annual Bio on the Rocks networking event and offers local researchers and entrepreneurs a forum to share their exciting bioscience developments.



We love to share. Let us know about your tech/science conference or forum (date, location, a brief 25wrd summary and link to your site)

Say "Makerspace , Maker Space, Hakerspace" now you should see one pop up in your area:-) .

What is the makerspace near you doing this holiday season? Theses spaces are great for learning the basics  in a variety of fields, making a prototype of your product , networking and getting excellent professional real life advise. Maker spaces are growing all over the world as they help the inventors, start-ups companies, the artists and anyone who just wants create something. Share your experience with a link to your maker space (many cities have more than one place and some cater to children). We listed  only a few places around the world to get you started:

Rochester NY     /      rochestermakerspace.org

Houston, TX       /       themakerbarn.org

New York, NY    /      fatcatfablab.org

Boston, MA       /      framinghammakerspace.org

Los Angeles, CA   /    lamakerspace.org

Detroit,  MI            /      i3detroit.org

Atlanta   GA         /      wiki.freesideatlanta.org

Chicago,  IL        /     makersinchicago.org

London,  UK    /         makerspace.org.uk

Sydney,   AU          /        makerspace.org.au

Manila ,            /           spark.adobe.com

Mumbai         /                makersasylum.com

Urban / Rural Traveling
The "Buzz" about driverless cars has lead to a major debate when it comes to public transportation and how people get around in USA cities. All the talk about rebuilding infrastructure in the US must be about a lot more than tear out and replace with the same. Local governments should look around the country and around the world and see which transportation systems their citizens would like and use on a regular basis. Rebuild a system that takes advantage of local resources and talent.
Also develop a plan to repurpose, reuse or recycled what is to be torn out to offset cost and be useful. One person's trash is another's treasure.

Relieve stress for your populace with safe, pollution free, reliable and accommodating transportation and they will pay it back 10- fold.

In my mind it would be great to see buses and/trains running on a combination of fuel cells (whose waste  by products of water and heat could also be use) and renewables (like solar and wind [ exhaust turning a turbine counts for man-made wind too] ).

Research for options should already be on the drawing board as improvements for your town or city. Call your councilman and mayor and find out what they actually plan on doing. This should not be some dark tightly held secret. Remember we are talking about options and the best ones might be a combination of 2 or 3 and not an either or decision.

Tell us about your city's innovations.

Total Eclipse 2017 ! August 21st, USA

Conference For e Commerce & Omnichannel Innovators
August 14, 2017  Boston, MA , USA
Born in 1999, eTail is where the top minds at America's most successful retailers meet and learn. With the most disruptive content and focus on technology, eTail designed to help you optimize the profits from your business.

Technology Policy Institute Aspen Forum, August 20-22, 2017, Aspen, CO, USA
Since 2010, more than 850 policymakers and thought leaders have convened at the St. Regis resort for provocative discussions and riveting keynotes on topics including U.S. competitiveness and innovation, broadband penetration, and entertainment distribution models, to name a few.  Each year’s agenda touches on timely themes and pertinent issues driving public policy and regulatory decisions and how they may affect tech, communications and content industries.
SANS Information Security training August 21-26, 2017, Chicago IL, USA
SANS is the most trusted source for information security training in the world. Find out why at SANS Chicago 2017 (August 21-26). All SANS instructors are real-world practitioners, and their experience adds unparalleled value to your training.

You got some severe symptoms that are creating problems for your business which may be your operations or product's performance and/or production. Finding a complete solution can be a difficult, but taking it step by step the following can help get to the real root cause.

Problem Solving Process

1.    Identify the Problem
    a. Most times people are only looking at symptoms
    b. Most times there are multiple contributors to a complex problems.
    c. Is this a problem that needs a solution?

2.    Gather the Data
    a. Look at histograms, pareto charts, ect.
    b. Failure severity
    c. Failure rate
    d. Productivity

3.    Analyze the Data
    a. Zero in on the root cause ( i.e. 5 whys, Cause and effects flow etc.)
    b. Look at secondary problems
    c. Know the financials ROIs and pay back time frame

4.    Generate Solutions
    a. Get inputs from everyone (brainstorming)
    b. Make sure solutions do not create a bigger problem than original problem.

5.    Select solution
    a. Compare the trade offs.
    b. Cost and time frames
    c. Schedule impact
    d. Production impact
    e. Service impact
    f. Sales impact
    g. Performance impact

6.    Plan Implementation
    a. Short term solution
    b. Long term solution
    c. Coordinated transition
   d. What is the criteria for solving the problem (i.e. reduce failure rate, reduced cost, reduced time, meets requirements, increase sales, increase market share, feature works as intended for specific environments, etc)

7.    Implement and test
    a.  Test critical part of solution on a small yet representative part of problem situation, before implementing fully
    b. Does it meet  your pre-determined success criteria

8.    Continue Improvement
    a. Strive to meet ultimate objective
    b. Part improvements
    c. Process improvements
    d. Design improvements