Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

DocuMNtary, The Story of TECH in Minnesota, To Be Released

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documntaryDocuMNtary: The Story of TECH in Minnesota, will be released right after the upcoming Minnesota Cup event on September 22, 2016. Knowing many of the people in the film, hearing them enthusiastically discuss the experience, and my own watching of the trailer a few times, this documentary is undoubtedly going to have a big, positive impact on Minnesota’s tech scene.

nick-ericThe documentary team is comprised of producer Nick Roseth and videographer Eric Jenson, two accomplished techies who have all the requisite skills to make this film one worth watching and for promoting to everyone you know OUTSIDE of Minnesota who is relatively clueless about the tech scene here. Their about page is here which will give you a synopsis of their motivation, focus, objective and how the film itself is structured:

  • We have an incredible community, we are growing, we need tech talent, and we don’t do a very good job of telling our story. 
  • DocuMNtary is a project to build awareness of technology in Minnesota by telling our story through a documentary series.
  • The project objective is to help Minnesota become a top 5 tech community by retaining and attracting top technology talent.
  • DocuMNtary will be distributed primarily as a web experience along with other channel partners such as public television. The web experience allows us to ensure that this story is available to all people and organizations in Minnesota and beyond.
  • The series consists of the 30-minute high-level story, and individual 5-10 minute stories from specific people, companies, industries, or other components of our ecosystem. The documentary format allows us to tell the world not only about our great community, innovation, and company stories, but also gives us opportunity to talk about our great music scene, values, outdoor life, culinary wonders, and a booming craft beer industry to name just a few things that make Minnesota what it is.

The Trailer

When Will It Be Released?

Join community leaders, technologists, and many others to celebrate and advocate our tech community.

  • 7pm, September 22nd, 2016
  • McNamara Alumni Center, University of Minnesota (map)
  • Immediately following MN Cup Awards Presentation

How to Get a Ticket

  1. Get on the mailing list: Some time ago we signed up to get on the list for when DocuMNtary would be released. We’re so close…so it’s time for you to sign up now!
  2. Then watch your email: Ticket release will be August 15th. Keep an eye out for an email with ticket release info.
  3. Share this post and/or email it to one person and tell them to check out the trailer.

sponsorshipSponsorship

Interested in sponsorship? Sponsorship info can be found here (PDF).

Secured2 at Cyber Security Summit

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secured2-logoSerial entrepreneur Daren Klum‘s company Secured2 will be participating in the Cyber Security Summit 2015 here in Minneapolis on October 20-21. This is a great opportunity for you to learn first-hand about Secured2’s solutions and also delve in to this growing cybersecurity category and hear from thought leaders in various areas. Looks to be a strong event.

Below is a press release on their participation in the summit.

Secured2 Brings its Thought Leadership and Unhackable,
Disaster-Proof Data Security Solution to Cyber Security Summit 2015

Minneapolis, MN  (October 13, 2015) – In joining Minnesota’s efforts to establish a multi-stakeholder consortium for improving the state of cyber security on a national and international level, Secured2 Corporation will participate in Cyber Security Summit 2015, which is taking place October 20-21 in Minneapolis.

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Daren Klum

Secured2 CEO Daren Klum will join Minnesota’s C-level executives, technology leaders, public policy makers, and other industry pundits to discuss the pitfalls of traditional backup / recovery methods, and present Secured2’s “shrink > shred > secure” methodology which mitigates hacking.

Secured2 is a data security company whose patented process and technology reduces data by more than 90% while simultaneously converting it into a secure format. It then randomly shreds the data into multiple locations, such as multiple clouds, hybrid or local storage environments. Its security solution has been tested, vetted, and refined in lab and real world environments, and is currently in operational assessment by healthcare, financial services and contract manufacturing companies.

Secured2 recently partnered with LiquidCool Solutions, marrying its data security software with LiquidCool’s Rugged Terrain (RT) liquid-cooled, high performance, ruggedized computing system. The combination of the two technologies provides protection from any form of catastrophe whether environmental or well-entrenched hacker groups.

“Cyber security threats that become more plentiful and sophisticated is an ongoing trend, and encryption simply isn’t enough,” said Klum. “Secured2 offers a technology that has not been seen before. Our Shrink>Shred>Secure process, which shrinks data and defeats hackers is rigorously tested, vetted and 3rd party validated by FBI-trained teams.”

Continued Klum, “As Minnesota collaborates on framework and program-based security approaches for threat intelligence, we’re certain Secured2 will stand out as the disruptive technology of choice.”

About Secured2 Corporation
Secured2 Corporation is a data security software company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Secured2 is the pioneer of new data security technology utilizing a ‘shrink > shred > secure’ methodology combined with new compression technology that reduces the size of data by up to 90%. The core product “Data Shredder” shrinks, shreds, secures and converts data into a random format. It then encrypts each shred using NIST certified encryption and randomly distributes the encrypted shreds across any multi-location storage a customer chooses (multiple clouds, hybrid locations or local storage destinations). Secured2’s simple solution: imagine a thief gets into your business and opens your safe. What they will find with Secured2 is shredded information. Your data is safe. Period. Secured2 continues to redefine the data security landscape and is in the process of rolling out several new products based on our core methodologies of data conversion, data shredding, randomized delivery of shreds into diverse storage and instant data restoration after multi-factor authentication. With over 17 patents Secured2 will continue driving innovation for its customers that require 100% security of their most critical and important data assets.

Minnov8 Gang 329 – #IAmMNTech

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iammntech_mainThis week’s show has two bonus guests: our guest host, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, and our guest Nick Roseth. The former has unique perspectives on the tech stories covered and the latter has an exciting new Minnesota-tech-centric documentary called DocuMNtary, an effort which has this Kickstarter to ensure it gets made. Go there, watch the trailer, and support it!

A new hashtag has also emerged, #IamMNTech, which is the perfect way to identify Minnesota’s accelerating technology ecosystem and promote anything tech-centric here in the #North. Use it going forward.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda-Zapata (Graeme Thickins is off).
Music: Blue Funk by Donconscenti under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:56 — 37.3MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Download or listen link

Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Our Guest

nick-rosethNick Roseth (LinkedIn) of SWAT Solutions. With 16 years in digital, Nick has worked with companies big and small to grow business while leveraging available resources. He and a small group of tech enthusiast have launched this Kickstarter campaign to tell the story of the thriving technology community in the Twin Cities.

See more at DocuMNtary and also see this article, which Julio Ojeda-Zapata published right after this podcast recording: St. Paul man planning DocuMNtary.

Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 303 – The Techno Quartet

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When my Gang cohorts and I talk about this podcast, we often wonder why we carve out time early on a Saturday morning to record this show.  The answer is that we genuinely like and respect each other, we love our listeners and get great feedback from you, we all are focused on today and tomorrow’s technology, and frankly it’s fun.

While seeking music for today’s show, I stumbled across this upbeat and light Dixieland jazz tune. It reminded me of barbershop music and a neighbor of ours where I grew up, a guy who was in a barbershop quartet back in the 70s. I always wondered why he loved and devoted so much time to singing with his buddies, and it was only later in life I learned the quartet had two motivations: They wanted to give back and they had fun doing it together. As I listened to today’s music I realized our shared love for technology and friendship is why we continue to record this show week after week. We hope you enjoy our shows as much as we do recording them for you.

Hosts: Steve Borsch,Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Black Bottom by The Jazz House under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Download or listen link

Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Stories
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 280 – Catch a Silicon North Star

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silicon-northstars_mainOur guest this week is Steve Grove. Steve and his wife Mary, a husband and wife team, started Silicon North Stars, an initiative that brought 16 students from Minneapolis-St.Paul to spend one week in Silicon Valley this summer. They met with Internet and technology leaders from top companies, startups, and venture capital funds. The week began with an intensive series of lectures, tours, discussions, and group activities at companies throughout the area, and ended up culminating with a group project in which the students paired up to pitch their own tech startups.

Steve grew up in Northfield, Minnesota and is the Director of Community Partnerships for Google. Mary grew up in San Diego, California and is the Director of Google for Entrepreneurs. Both are passionate about technology, development, media, and striving to create access to opportunities for young talent. They live in Menlo Park, California.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: One Man Band Fury by Stomping Nick and His Blues Grenade. Brought to us by the podsafe Music Alley.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:05:21 — 38.2MB)

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Discussed During the Show

Minnesota’s Top Stories

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Guest: Steve Grove

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Other Top Stories

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Cool Thing of the Week

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Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 276 – A World’s Fair in the Land of 10,000 Lakes?

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This week’s guest is Marty Wetherall, Director of Innovation at the ad agency Fallon. Through Fallon’s effort called Starter Kit, they have taken a role in driving awareness for Minnesota’s campaign, called Expo 2023, which is an effort to win the decision to host the World’s Fair in Minnesota in 2023. The guy behind the campaign is Mark Ritchie, former MN Secretary of State.

expo2023By the way, you can help crowdfund the effort right now by going to the Indiegogo campaign for Expo 2023, Minnesota World’s Fair.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Kissin’ in Your Sleep by Barry McCabe. Brought to us by the podsafe Music Alley.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:47 — 41.4MB)

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Discussed During the Show

Minnesota’s Top Stories

Last Week’s Other Top Stories

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Minnov8 Guest: Marty Wetherall

marty1Marty and the Gang discuss Fallon’s latest crowdfunding client, Expo 2023, with these links from the discussion:

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Upcoming Events

Technovation[MN]: Helping Young Women Discover Entrepreneurship

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TechnovationMN-logoThere’s an awesome new organization in Minnesota that’s inspiring middle-school and high-school girls to explore technology or entrepreneurship as a career. And thanks to my membership in CoCo, I had the good fortune recently to meet the cofounder of the Minnesota chapter of this global organization, which is called Technovation. Her name is Shawn Stavseth.  The global organization is supported by technology leaders from MIT Media Lab, Google, Twitter, Dropbox, and Andreessen Horowitz.ShawnSavseth

Shawn recently left a career in marketing for Thomson Reuters and is now devoting some of her (extensive!) energy to this local chapter. At Thomson Reuters, she created and executed a mobile strategy, including adoption of native apps, mobile website, SMS, in-app ads, mobile payment, as well as gaming and ebooks, so this volunteer work is a natural for her. Follow Shawn here on Twitter and follow Technovation[MN] here.

Earlier this year, she and cofounder Matt Johnson began forming the Technovation[MN] chapter to bring the “Global Technovation Challenge” to Minnesota. This initiative is the largest and longest-running global technology competition exclusively for girls, to inspire their pursuit of STEM — GirlsWithSmartphonesscience, technology, engineering, and math. For the year 2014, Minnesota will have a total of 18 teams participating in this competition for young women.

Through an intensive three-month, 50-hour curriculum, teams of young women work together to imagine, design, and develop mobile apps, then pitch their startup businesses to investors. Some 1,374 young women from 19 countries have already completed Technovation’s curriculum, thanks to dedicated local volunteers worldwide.

A Focus on Local Community Problems
The 2014 program theme challenges young women to develop an app to solve a real problem in their community. And, because Technovation’s curriculum teaches both technology and entrepreneurship, the program is accessible for beginner computer science students, yet still challenging for advanced students. In 2014, the program will award $20,000 in funding to the winning teams to use for further app development. No prior programming experience is necessary for students, or for teachers. The program is free to all participants.

At the culmination of the Technovation Challenge, Technovation[MN] hosts the “Appapalooza,” where it celebrates and congratulates all Minnesota Technovation Challenge teams AppapaloozaPhoto-wideon completing the 12-week curriculum, and then submits their work to headquarters. This year’s Appapalooza event will be on April 27 at TIES Education Center in Falcon Heights.

This fall, Technovation[MN] will again be hosting “App Days” to enable teen girls to build mobile apps, and to inspire them to participate in the Technovation Challenge. Since the launch of Technovation[MN], it has hosted three such App Days, during which it’s trained more than 100 teen girls and mentors from all over the Twin Cities area.

More Sponsors, Mentors, and Volunteers Needed!
If you’d like to explore how you could participate as an individual or company — whether at the upcoming event or in general — there are still opportunities for sponsorship
 and/or for participating as a mentor or volunteer.

Can’t participate in person? Then please donate here to this very worthwhile community cause!

For the full story on this month’s event, here’s the press release:

Technovation[MN] Appapalooza:
“Tapping into an Aptitude for Apps”
Event For Young Women April 27

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., April 7, 2014 – Minnesotans are invited to celebrate young women in technology by attending the Technovation[MN] Appapalooza event on Sunday, April 27, 2014 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at TIES Training Center, 1667 Snelling Ave. N. in Falcon Heights, MN.  This event features young women pitching their mobile app idea as part of the Technovation Challenge, a global technology entrepreneurship program.

Technovation[MN], which is launching the Technovation Challenge in Minnesota, inspires girls in middle and high school to dream up, design, code and pitch mobile phone apps that help their communities. The Technovation Challenge program is designed to attract and encourage the next generation of women technology entrepreneurs.

Twelve teams of girls, ages 10 to 19, from Twin Cities area middle schools and high schools have spent the last three months building their mobile app to compete in the international app building challenge. Each team builds an app that solves a community problem.  Teams can choose to build an app for a non-profit or address a teen or womens’ issue.

The Challenge culminates with the April 27 Appapalooza event where participants will “pitch” their apps and unveil their work. Ten teams from the United States and other countries will then be selected to fly to Silicon Valley, CA to present their app ideas to real venture capitalists; the winning team will be awarded $10,000 to help commercialize their app.

“We’re working to close the gender gap in computer science by teaching girls how to code and how to be successful entrepreneurs,” explained Shawn Stavseth, Co-Founder of Technovation[MN]. “Designing mobile apps is real and tangible for these girls because their phones are something they use every day. We want girls to understand the powerful role that technology can play in solving world problems.”

The April 27 Appapalooza is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome. Register to attend the event by visiting http://technovationmn.org.

Competition: Innovations 4 Entrepreneurs

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small-businessInc. Magazine & Comcast Business are running a national competition which will include two local Minnesota winners. The competition is called “Innovations 4 Entrepreneurs” and it seeks to recognize small businesses (less than 50 employees) using technology to:

a) Improve the Customer experience or

b) Enhance the employee experience.

This contest will offer solid local exposure for the two winners in regional business & tech news. Deadline is quickly approaching for online submissions which is Wednesday, April 30th.

To learn more about the competition, the rules and the benefits, view the Innovations 4 Entrepreneurs website.

An awards ceremony will be held at the CoCo – Downtown Minneapolis location on June 19th.

EduTech 2014 Showcase & Forum

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ust-mainLearn about the future of education technology and the Twin Cities regional edutech cluster during EduTech 2014 Showcase & Forum: Engagement & Creative Opportunity Abounding! Through showcases, keynotes and case studies, EduTech will identify needs and potential as education and learning are disrupted by technology. The event includes Minnesota edutech sector recognition, a case study with Venture Academy of Minneapolis, networking and a dinner and keynote addressing a global view of technology and learning.

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WHEN IS IT? The event runs from noon-7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2nd, at Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul campus. (MAP)

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:  education technology focused businesses and entrepreneurs, investors, educators, administrators, corporate education technology executives, researchers and those who care about learning, innovation and education.

REGISTRATION: For more information, complete events schedule or to register, visit http://edutech2014.eventbrite.com/

APPLICATIONS TO SHOWCASE a new education technology at EduTech are open through March 19th.  Nominations for the “Celebrated EduTech Entrepreneur/Technology Award” will be accepted through March 19th.  For application and nomination forms please contact: edutechmn2@gmail.com.

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EduTech 2014 Program

12:00:  Registration and EduTech Company Exhibits

12:50:  Opening – Dr. Mark W. Salisbury, Dean, University of St. Thomas – College of Education, Leadership & Counseling, Author and EduTech Company Founder

1:30:    Minnesota EduTech Sector Recognition and Showcase – Michael Langley , CEO Greater MSP and Katharine Grayson, Minneapolis & St. Paul Business Journal

2:30:    Featured Comments and Special Announcements – Victor Ahmed – Innovation Pavilion, Founder & Investor; Steven Wellvang – Educelerate MN

3:15:    Break and Networking

3:30:    Featured Comments –Moderator, John Moravec, Education Futures

4:00:    Case Study of Venture Academy, a Gates Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) Wave IIIa School – Jon Bacal, Co-founder, colleagues and students

5:15:    Reception & EduTech Company Exhibits

5:45:    Dinner and Keynote Address, “Technology & Learning – A Global View” by Dr. Cristobal Cobo, Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University

7:30:    Conclusion

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Share the opportunity! https://edutech2014.eventbrite.com and hashtag #edutechmn

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Sponsors

Risdall Marketing Group 

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.    

Sponsors to support attendance by New Teacher Candidate Students are most welcomed and interest is strong! Please contact edutechmn2@gmail.com

Minnov8 Gang 182 – Balloons Not Included

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We all know design matters. The greatest software is pretty much useless if the human interface is confusing and inefficient. Same thing with hardware. But with the advent of indie capital raising sites like Kickstarter, it’s easier then ever to have a great idea, design it so it’s highly desirable, and then get the project funded. That’s exactly what our guest this week, Tom Gerhardt (his site; his studio) and did with his pal, Dan Provost (Twitter; TheVerge article).  Take a peek at this post on BoingBoing about their adventure together.

Read Graeme Thickins’ post here about Tom and Dan speaking on “Indie Capitalism & Design Entrepreneurship” for the Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD) “Visiting Artist Lecture” series.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Mandolin Boogie by Johnny Nicholas from the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:57 — 32.9MB)

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Discussed during the show…

Upcoming Events…