Report: Meetup #3 - What Will Silicon Halton Become?

Our 3rd meetup was held at Boston Pizza .  It's important to note that we do not pay for the use of any establishments.  We speak with the venue managers before hand to reserve the location.  Part of our reasoning with the Silicon Halton events is to a) be out of an office environment - we've been there all day, time for a refreshing break, and b) we want to give back to the community.  We selected Tuesday nights for a reason - Tuesdays are typically a slow evening for the local restaurants and bars.  We hope to provide them with business they wouldn't otherwise receive.   Additionally, all the establishments have so far been very accommodating in allowing us to also place some modest signage at their welcome desk ahead of the event.  Every little bit helps promote our events.

The Program

Our turn out at Boston Pizza was the largest to-date again, over 45 in attendance at this Halton networking event, including Oakville's Mayor Burton, who posted this picture, and Oakville M.P. Terance Young (both were invited).  Mr. Young and Mr. Burton spoke with many of the attendees and participated in our workshop. Pictures of the event are here, courtesy of friend-of-Silicon-Halton, amateur photographer, Vicky Pehar.

During the January meetup we had a break-out workgroup session to brainstorm what the members want  Silicon Halton to become, and conversly, what we don't want Silicon Halton to become.  Top results were then shared with the whole group and was postedon the "Silicon Halton" LinkedIn group. Not too surprisingly, key trends were found in the feedback.  Notably:

• Professional & business development / support - the two are often inseparable - i.e. educational seminars, round tables, mentoring.
• Speaker series - Speakers should be primarily from local organizations showcasing case studies (success stories, challenges, etc.)
• Engaging with Community Interaction with, and access to Government
  
  

Our members passionately described it much better than the cold words above:

Mike Druiven is a teacher at EC Drury High School in Milton.

Mike Oreskovic a Senior Hi-Tech Executive Leader, from Milton.

Edward L. Onate, is a Senior Account Manager from Blink Communications in Oakville. 

Robert Duvall, is President of Robert Duvall Consulting from Milton.

Chris Herbert interviewed fellow Silicon Halton co-founder Rick Stomphorst immediately following the January event. We chat a bit about how Silicon Halton has evolved since it started it in October.

Event Date: January 16th, 2010 Location: Boston Pizza, Oakville, @BPDoval here Special thanks to: The Printing House and The UPS Store 342 (1500 Upper Middle Rd. W. Oakville Nancy Forsyth) for printing a poster and flyers (respectively).