Kickoff

Keeping with tradition, Chris and Rick gave a progress overview of the accomplishments since the April meetup:

• Received our first new-media coverage in Oakville.com, here.  Thanks Richard!
• Received our first print media coverage in the May edition of SnapOakville, here and here.  Thanks Travis!
• Ken recently volunteered to take on metric tracking and presented our May numbers.  While we continue to grow, the actual amount of new LinkedIn members last month declined from the previous month.  It’s important to view all perspectives of the numbers.
• Resulting from the metrics report, discussion ensued about the “friendly fence” we’ve established around Halton.  Both sides were represented.  A good suggestion was given to defer the discussion until the Business Plan is drafted and we “know what we want to be when we grow up.”
• Speaking of the Business Plan, progress is being made but nothing to report.  Expect to have something meaningful to report at our next meetup. 
• Chris annouced we’re going to rotate the evening’s programs between three formats:
  • Month 1 – Workshop
  • Month 2 – two x 15min presentations from SME’s in our midst
  • Month 3 – Industry expert presentation
• We have a new custom Twitter background, thanks to @JellyBeanWeb
• We ran out of time to vote on the Silicon Halton member logo.  Next time.

The Program

The event focused on two 15min presentations from experts in our midst.

Presentation 1: SEO Basics by Sekey Vincent from Jelly Bean Solutions.

Presentation 2: Cloud Computing was given by Jonathan Hemming of VMware.  (Slide deck unavailable)

View more presentations from Silicon Halton.

Recap Video

OpenData Project for Halton Region?

Chris sat down with member Nik Garkusha, Open Source Strategy Lead from Microsoft to learn more about Toronto’s Open Data project. One key project that Silicon Halton will be seeking funding for is the Silicon Halton High Tech Census. This is where we develop a database of High Tech companies and professionals in Halton Region. This project will be further scoped out and put forward to the membership as a key initiative in our business plan. Stay tuned but let’s start the conversation about how we can conduct this census. Can this be an Open Data project?

Thanks

It’s great to have so many people to thank. While this is at the bottom of this blog post the people that help make us successful are at the top of our list. Thanks!

• Thumbs-up to Ned Devine’s in Milton (map) for the use of their venue.  Great location, great atmosphere, great service, great food.  Check them out.  We couldn’t do this without the generous support of  restaurateurs’ like Ned’s. 
• Thanks again to Nancy Forsyth’s The UPS Store 342 for printing the June flyers (please circulate).
• Thanks to Ken for managing the task of metrics.  It’s an exceptionally important task to track were we are, compared to where we’ve been.  It’s also a great learning experiance for us all. Thanks bud!
• Thanks to Ruth Morton, IT Pro Advisor from Microsoft for your insights, encouragement and support.