Category: News

Clint Eastwood hasn’t been in the headlines much since his much-maligned appearance at the RNC last year, but his wife and daughters are still plugging away at their reality show, “Mrs. Eastwood And Company”. However, it may all be too much for Dina, as she’s just entered a rehab facility in Arizona for depression and anxiety.

There’s been some speculation that the Eastwoods are headed for divorce, as they are rarely seen in public together and reportedly acted awkwardly at the recent wedding of Clint’s daughter Alison.

Reps for the stars say the rehab stint is not for substance abuse of any kind, but details now are scarce. The family has had no comment.

Clint Eastwood’s wife has checked into rehab. She must have finally seen her show on E!

— Susan Alexander (@susankalexander) April 25, 2013

Clint Eastwood’s wife has entered rehab. But Clint isn’t lonely… he’s still talking to the chair she was sitting in right before she left.

— Dean Ward (@DeanWardVenice) April 25, 2013

anyone who saw the reality show knew this was coming: Clint Eastwood wife Dina in rehab for ‘anxiety and depression’ bit.ly/15IzaRH

— Paula Froelich (@Pfro) April 25, 2013

Well, I didn’t receive an invite, but based on the many reports from people who did, Nokia will host a new Lumia-outing event May 14 in London. Oh my, that’s the day before Google I/O, where rumored new Nexus smartphone(s) arrive (don’t believe everything you read on the Internet).

Nokia unveiled flagship phone Lumia 920 in September, and May would be pretty good time to announce a followup. Assuming the typical manufacturing and various country certification (think Federal Communications Commission) delays, a new splashy Lumia would get some breathing room post-launches for HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, while getting ahead of the next iPhone. During this week’s earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said not to expect any new products until autumn.

What the geeks all wait for is true PureView, Nokia’s exciting camera tech currently available in the now obsolete (because Symbian is) 808. But that’s anyone’s guess. (Note on the photo, don’t expect a car. I grabbed the image for the Nokia name/logo).

While we all wait for “the next chapter of the Lumia story”, as the invite states, Nokia is Mr. Busybody with more modest handsets.

Yesterday, the Finnish handset maker unveiled feature phone Asha 210. Today, Nokia announced the Lumia 521 for T-Mobile, which debuts on HSN.com and HSN mobile this weekend for $149.95 (price includes car charger and screen protector). Microsoft and select T-Mobile retailers start selling the smartphone on May 11.

Features include: 1GHz Qualcomm 82270 dual-core processor; 4-inch screen (800 by 400 resolution); 512MB RAM; 8GB storage, expandable to 64GB with microSD card; 5-megapixel rear-facing camera; 720p video recording (30 frames per second); HSPA+; WiFi N/E; GPS; and Windows Phone 8.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Francoise Brougher, the former chief small business salesperson for Google has joined Square, taking over the quickly growing mobile payment company’s Business Lead role.

What’s a business lead? We’re a bit confused by the term as well, but according to Square, Brougher will oversee Square’s “growth operations including revenue products, international expansion, customer support, and partnerships.” That’s a big plate.

Brougher was most recently Google’s VP of SMB Global Sales and Operations, where she managed the team in charge of acquiring, growing, and retaining small business advertisers. That experience should serve Brougher well as Square, since a good chunk of its mobile payments revenues comes from 3 million small business owners.

As for international expansion, Brougher has a lot of ground to cover. Outside of the U.S., Square so far has only launched in Canada.

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A year ago today, the TED-Ed website launched. Since then, the site has published 175 original animated lessons, ranging from “How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries“ to “Insults by Shakespeare,” with visits from more than 2,750,000 people. Teachers have used the site to create roughly 2,000 lessons per month around YouTube videos. (Here’s how.)

For an adorable look at more stats from TED-Ed’s first year, head to the TED-Ed blog. Below, we celebrate TED-Ed’s first birthday with our 10 favorite characters from TED-Ed lessons so far.

	How is chemistry like dating? Educator Aaron Sams explains in the lesson “How to speed up chemical reactions (and get a date).” Meet Harriet, the red-headed scientist who, in high school, had a run-in with a crush in the hallway that led to a prom date. The process was strangely similar to the way particles move.
	In the incredible lesson “Inside a cartoonist’s world,” from The New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly, this character shows the process of how cartoonists work. They are the playwright, director, stage designer, choreographer, and costume designer of these miniature, drawn plays.
	Mmmm, pizza.  It’s delicious — but also messy to eat. In the lesson “Pizza physics (New York-style)” this animated slice talks you through how to eat pizza neatly, while teaching you the mathematical and physics principals involved in the act.
	This green guy represents big unknown numbers — like the number of piano tuners in the city of Chicago and the number of M&Ms in a gigantic bin. In this lesson from educator Michael Mitchell, “A clever way to estimate enormous numbers,” learn a very cool way to estimate using the power of ten.
	Affectionately dubbed “yarn lady,” this character appears in the lesson “How do cancer cells behave differently from healthy ones?” Why the name? Because her organs and body are literally made of yarn – some crocheted, some knitted, some simply balled. Find out why the animators chose yarn (and seeds and candy) to bring this lesson to life in this how-to blog post.
	John Lloyd gave a classic TED Talk back in 2009 about the many things in the universe that are invisible. The talk got a magical, animated TED-Ed redux this year, in the lesson “What’s invisible? More than you think.” In it, Lloyd becomes a very knowledgeable park ranger walking you through the wonder of the world.
	These adorable line drawings are an animated renderings of educator Aaron Reedy and his wife, who was pregnant at the time. In the lesson “Sex determination. More complicated than you thought,” Reedy outlines the surprising factors that helped determine whether he’d have a daughter or a son.
	All heroes — from Harry Potter to Katniss Everdeen — are related to this generic hero and his journey. He appears in the lesson “What makes a hero?” in which educator Matthew Winkler walks you through the characteristics and life paths that all heroes have in common.
	How did the Earth, not to mention all of space, begin? In this lesson from CERN physicist Tom Whyntie, “The beginning of the universe, for beginners,” we find out. The lesson stars a talking sun, but the highlight for us is the appearance of Edwin Hubble, the scientist who first noticed that our universe is expanding — evidence of the big bang.
	We love this fireman and dog from the lesson “Capturing authentic narratives,” from Michele Weldon. The lesson lays out the basics of good journalism — asking interesting questions while interviewing sources from official channels, sources who were affected by the story and sources who have interesting background information.

What if your ideas didn’t matter?

For senior marketers, it is a very humbling thought. What if your ideas, your thoughts and even your experience as a trained marketing professional didn’t amount to a hill of beans in terms of the brand’s actual advertising performance? What if everything you have been bringing to the table could be debunked with a simple multivariate testing regimen? What if, in short, what your company really needs is not a marketer, but a data scientist?

Let’s take a step back. Don Draper, the lead character on the show Mad Men, has an acutely profound skill in being able to turn a brand insight into an emotion that can bring you to tears. Watch him spin and weave a tale about the profound power that Kodak’s slide carousel could have on the world.

It’s not just the emotional resonance of his pitch and delivery that touches us, but the core insight that he is able to uncover and express. Don Draper is, obviously, a fictitious character but he’s the perfect composite of hundreds (if not thousands) of advertising legends who have roamed our earth. Great advertising is magic. It does more than sell; it tells a story that captivates our imaginations and connects us to a brand — and to others who share in the brand sentiment. It is art for money’s sake. It’s hard to argue that any computer or technology can create that kind of emotional connection or weave that kind of story.

Traditional advertisers will tell you that not much has changed. The job — day in and day out — remains the same: create a compelling enough message that your customers can’t ignore you, generate advertising that creates attention and interest and closes the sale. Rinse and repeat. What we can’t deny is that technology is now penetrating the marketing industry like never before. You could practically hear the Chief Marketing Officer’s bodies hitting the floor in March of last year when the research firm Gartner reported that by 2017, a Chief Marketing Office will be spending more on IT than the Chief Information Officer. It seems almost unfathomable that the marketers will need more technology that the actual technology department, but when you scratch beneath the surface, it all starts to crystallize.

Emerging trends show some fascinating moves in advertising that together paint a powerful and picture as to just how much advertising has changed and how much more change is about to occur.

First, younger digital natives, are becoming increasingly comfortable sharing their personal data online so long as they are deriving a value from the exchange. In a world where many consumers are screaming about their privacy being breached by every website that tracks their clicks, young people seem more-than-fine when it comes to giving up personal information — so long as they get something out it.

Next up, we’re seeing exponential growth in programmatic buying, where automation allows ads and the platforms that display them to come together efficiently, in response to customer behavior, without human intervention. The numbers don’t lie, according to this eMarketer news item: 70% of media buyers and publishers are doing some kind of programmatic buying and 77% of those doing it plan on increasing their spend in the next year. Moreover, the same survey also states that a good chunk of these media entities are thinking about moving entirely to programmatic trading and stopping their direct relationships with publishers.

Third, the challenges of retargeting (the ability to serve advertising that is related to a user’s past online experience — like showing them an ad for a specific shoe that they were looking at on Zappos but never bought) are coming to light. As exciting as that nascent advertising technology is, many agencies and publishers are not able to fully harness the potential of it to make it work effectively… yet. Still, millions of dollars are being poured into this quickly-maturing advertising opportunity, and nobody doubts the future potential that is upon us in terms of delivering measurable advertising without much human (or creative) intervention.

It’s somewhat disheartening to see the lack of enthusiasm that senior marketers have for all of this evolution (or revolution — depending on who you ask). Too many in this industry think their job is to get their ads on the hot new sitcom, put their logo on the baseball stadium, and take clients out to three-martini lunches.

At the Monetate Agility Summit 2013 in Philadelphia at the beginning of April, I shared the stage with famed marketing optimization expert (and friend), Bryan Eisenberg (co-author of bestselling books like Waiting For Your Cat To Bark? and Always Be Testing). He concludes that too many marketers let their ego get in the way. It’s a sobering indictment. In a world where testing creative, landing pages and more can be done in a simple and measurable way, Eisenberg argues that the number one reason senior marketers don’t buy into the data and technology is because they’re worried that the results will prove their intuition wrong. And, that more often than not, those intuitions are wrong.

This weaves a complex story: We have consumers increasingly willing to share personal data, the technology to create hundreds of fast and easy to execute tests, and additional technology to manage the complexity of the media buy behind it and yet we still want to be Don Draper.

Our thinking as marketers needs to shift from “Mad Men” to “math men.” This doesn’t mean that creativity, insight, and storytelling die. It does mean that we can use technology to make us better at how that our human-crafted messages convert to sales.

We marketers have allowed our egos get in the way for too long because we had little else to go by. Now, the excuses are getting thinner and weaker. It turns out that data, programmatic buying, retargeting and more could well usher in a world where advertising delivers on its original promise: to drive more sales and get less expensive as it learns. Now, if only we can let our egos get out of the way.

Continue reading…

We’re entering the home stretch for GigaOM’s annual Structure event which kicks off in San Francisco June 19. To whet your appetite, we’d like to introduce you to the six really cool startups chosen as this year’s Structure Launchpad finalists, culled from more than 50 candidates.

Structure 2012: Launchpad: Jason Hoffman – Founder and CTO, Joyent, Matt Howard – General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners, Aaref Hilaly – Partner, Sequoia Capital

And the finalists are:

28msec: With offices in Palo Alto and Zurich, this startup aims to streamline the task of writing complex queries against your MongoDB database of choice.

Appscale Systems: This open-source implementation of Google App Engine (GAE) can run on a developer’s laptop, on Amazon Web Services or the Google Compute Engine.

Factor.io; This service lets developers knit together their tools of choice — for source control system, for PaaS, for testing — into a coherent, flexible workflow using an “if-this-then-that” interface.

Metrica: Metrica’s service lets folks use SQL queries against their MongoDB data, cutting the time it takes to create histograms, time series, and scatterplots and other data visualizations.

Saltstack:  This startup tool aims to speed up devops tasks including cloud orchestration or in-house server automation and infrastructure management.

Synapsify:  The company’s text search and analytics capability can help companies find the most important and relevant content for their needs.

Structure is GigaOM’s flagship conference that focuses on the future of cloud computing and internet infrastructure. For the past seven years, it’s convened the most influential speakers, buyers and vendors for two days of discussion, reporting, and debate.

Startups less than 12 months old with innovative technologies in cloud computing, internet infrastructure, or big data applications were eligible to apply for LaunchPad. The finalists will present their business plans on stage at the Structure conference in San Francisco, June 19-20. Follow @GigaOM on Twitter (#structureconf) to keep apprised of new speakers and sessions.

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The New York Times Company remains focused on the long game even as digital subscription growth flattens and advertising shows ongoing weakness. On a Thursday earnings call, executives described new products that it hopes will bring in multiple revenue streams, but cautioned that they would not yield a profit in the near future.

The new offerings will include digital subscriptions that cover niche topics like food and travel for a lower price than the standard subscription. The company is also planning to expand its conference business, develop games and bolster its crossword franchise.

On the call, analysts pressed for details about the new low-priced subscriptions and asked if they would cannibalize the company’s existing digital offerings — which are regarded as essential to the Times‘ future but whose growth has stalled. Times VP Denise Warren said the company had “identified many people interested in a lower price point” but that cannibalization was not an issue because these people “come in at a differeent part on the demand curve.”

CEO Mark Thompson did not provide any price details, but suggested the company could be in a position to charge more to devoted digital subscribers who enjoy getting full-access entirety of the Times’ content. He added that the new niche products could bring in revenue this year but that it “will take till late 2014″ for the new initiatives to result in an operating profit.

For the near future, the Times continues to face serious financial headwinds. The company has recently relied on major increases in its print subscriptions to increase revenue, but may be unable to do so much more. Meanwhile, advertising remains bleak (digital dropped 4 percent last quarter) with executives on the call offering only tepid explanations — like a weak Oscar race — when analysts questioned the Times’ ad sales strategy. The strategy may get an overhaul as when the company fills a new position to head up its ad sales.

An analyst, citing the Times’ large cash reserves, asked if the company had an intention to go private. Thompson, who has just completed his first full quarter as CEO, said no. Executives also said the company would continue to suspend its dividend which provides income to the families that own the Times.

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President Barack Obama stands with former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter, at the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas, Tex., April 25, 2013. Former First Ladies Laura Bush, left, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, are also pictured.

(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

President and Mrs. Obama were in Dallas today for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. It was an historic occasion that brought all the living former Presidents —  Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — together for the first time since right before President Obama took office in 2009. They were joined by former First Ladies Roslyn Carter, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton (also a former Secretary of State, as President Obama noted) and Laura Bush.

In his remarks, President Obama highlighted the special bond that connects our past presidents, and said that despite disagreement on matters of foreign policy, all of the men on the stage with him shared "a profound respect and reverence for the men and women of our military and their families. And we are united in our determination to comfort the families of the fallen and to care for those who wear the uniform of the United States."

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Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) of Frankfurt, Germany, and its managed private equity fund, the DBAG Expansion Capital Fund, is investing an undisclosed amount of capital in inexio Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation KGaA (inexio), a Saarlouis-based broadband provider that services southern Germany.

PRESS RELEASE:

Frankfurt am Main, 25 April 2013. Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) and its managed private equity fund, the DBAG Expansion Capital Fund, will invest in inexio Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation KGaA (inexio), a strongly growing provider of broadband connections. The fresh capital will be geared to support the company’s further growth to become one of the largest providers of broadband connections in rural areas of southern Germany in the coming years. Currently, inexio, which is headquartered in Saarlouis, serves some 1,800 business clients and approximately 20,000 private customers primarily in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. inexio has continually enlarged its customer base by investing in fibre-optic networks – that is, in a sustainably accessible and rapidly expanding infrastructure that will secure an attractive source of income in the future.

The company focuses on rural areas large parts of which are still without speedy Internet access. At the same time, Internet use is growing continually; particularly industrial businesses are ever more dependent on Internet connections that enable high-speed data transfer. Mayors and district authorities in rural areas therefore often endeavour to bring advanced communication services to their communities or regions, and inexio is one of the strong providers in this market environment in Germany.

The equity investment by DBAG and its co-investment fund will accelerate inexio’s growth. The investment will increase the company’s equity ratio to more than 30 percent and thereby create access to further financing to fund expansion into additional communities in southern Germany. DBAG and the Fund will subscribe to a capital increase for ten percent of the shares and will, moreover, provide profit participation capital. A total of 10.6 million euros will be invested, of which 4.4 million euros will be provided by DBAG. The remaining shares are, for the most part, held by the company founders, who also serve as members of inexio’s management board.

inexio (www.inexio.net) is growing strongly. Founded in 2007, the company recorded total output of about 20 million euros in its 2011/2012 financial year (30 September). It is expected to rise to some 30 million euros this current financial year, and further strong growth is forecast. The company’s expansion is based on the attractiveness of its offering, which differs from that of other competitors in rural regions. Unlike other mobile network providers as well as providers whose services are based on traditional (copper cable) networks of Deutsche Telekom, inexio supplies high-speed Internet access and landline telephony over a fibre-optic network. This premium offering gives inexio a unique positioning regionally.

“Fibre-optic networks as a medium for high-speed data transmission will continue to gain in significance,” said Torsten Grede, Spokesman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, on signing the investment agreement. “With inexio, we have invested in a strong provider operating in a growth market that can be tapped even faster with improved capital resources. We are delighted to be able to support a highly competent and motivated management team in an important stage of the company’s growth.”

Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (www.deutsche-beteiligung.de) is a leading publicly listed private equity company. With a track record of nearly 50 years, it is the oldest private equity firm in Germany. Deutsche Beteiligungs AG focuses on market-leading mid-sized enterprises in Germany and neighbouring European countries. It invests from its own balance sheet and from the assets of co-investment funds. Currently, the company has approximately 1.3 billion euros under management.

The post DBAG Backs Broadband Provider Inexio appeared first on peHUB.

Ubiquitous, gesture-controlled interfaces are one step closer to reality, thanks to a new system developed at Carnegie Mellon University. WorldKit lets you create interactive apps on any surface just by waving your hand. The project was announced by the university on Thursday.

Instead of being tethered to your hardware, WorldKit is designed to make access to computing instant and mobile by making the world your touchscreen. Right now, the system involves a ceiling-mounted camera and projector that record hand movements and then project onto the surface of your choice. Some potential uses include TV remote controls, which can be accessed by rubbing the arm of a sofa, or calendars that can be swiped onto doors.

With projectors and depth-sensing cameras (the current system uses a Kinect) getting smaller, the researchers envision a system like WorldKit could eventually fit into a light bulb. Any room thus equipped could become a smart environment, where objects and walls become display surfaces. One member of the research team, Chris Harrison, previously worked on the Skinput device that allows users to turn their own arms into touch interfaces.

In the future, users should be able to design their own interfaces with WorldKit. The system currently allows for things like buttons, multitouch drawing (akin to a whiteboard), and counting the number of object within an interaction “bubble.” The existing prototype still has limited resolution and input dimensions, but hardware advances and future research could allow voice commands or even interaction in free space rather than on surfaces. The CMU team will be presenting their work at CHI2013 on April 30.

Image via Chris Harrison/Carnegie Mellon University

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You’ve gotta’ love NAPA Auto Parts for having a sense of humor. Plus anything that Patrick Warburton voices instantly gets my vote!

Source: Youtube.com

If you didn’t have your finger hovering over the “purchase” button for WWDC tickets right at 10 a.m. PT this morning, you probably don’t have a ticket. The tickets to Apple’s annual developers conference in San Francisco sold out in less than five minutes. It’s the fastest the tickets have sold out yet.

The conference runs from June 10 through June 14 this year and the tickets for attendees were not cheap: $1,599. But if you couldn’t afford the tickets or weren’t quick enough, Apple is making the conference a bit more accessible this year.

Instead of waiting weeks after the conference is over, Apple says it will be posting the training session videos online as the conference is going on.

However, as usual, they will be only accessible by registered iOS and Mac developers.

This year Apple says it will let developers start playing around with the next version of iOS and OS X.

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Stardock Software has released ModernMix 1.05, the first major update to its paid-for Windows 8 tool for running full-screen apps in their own window within the confines of the Windows 8 desktop.

Version 1.05 adds background sound support for apps such as Netflix that don’t explicitly support it, meaning users don’t need to focus on the window in order to hear that app’s audio output. The new feature is joined by a preference that allows this support to be switched off if it’s not wanted.

Other changes include making it easier to configure individual app behavior via ModernMix’s own configuration screen. Users can now double-click or right-click an app’s entry under App settings to configure its default behaviour, from whether it opens full-screen (a new setting in version 1.05), minimised or windowed to creating a convenient shortcut to the app on the desktop itself.

Version 1.05 now initiates a “force create” action to ensure the desktop shortcut is created, even if the app has never previously been run. Sadly, on our test machine the desktop shortcuts failed to work, launching the ModernMix configuration screen rather than the app itself — however, apps worked flawlessly using the App shortcuts found on our favoured Start button replacement tool, Classic Shell.

In addition, the App settings page now lists all installed Modern apps, while ModernMix now alerts users when first running the program to the top-right corner overlay, which allows users to switch between full-screen and windowed mode.

Bug fixes for version 1.05 include one that ignored ModernMix’s “Return to the Windows 8 menu” setting when apps were dragged to close them. Another resolution ensures all apps, not those that have been run at least once, are named up correctly in the App settings screen too.

A fix has also been implemented for Netflix playback when the windows is inactive on a secondary display, while the main code has been tweaked to detect if the app launch has been made from the Windows 8 menu or elsewhere to ensure ModernMix correctly implements whatever user-defined options have been set.

ModernMix 1.05 is available now as a free 30-day trial download for PCs running Windows 8 (an email address is required for activating the trial). The full version can be purchased for $4.99.

VentureCamp, an 8-week-long high-tech startup boot camp that will house aspiring entrepreneurs in the city’s renowned Kessler Mansion, launches this June and is currently accepting online submissions online. Among those who’ve agreed to mentor VentureCamp attendees are Priceline cofounder Jeff Hoffman and Karl Mehta, the founder and former CEO of Playspan.

PRESS RELEASE:

VentureCamp is an 8 week high-tech start-up boot camp with a unique interactive Docu-Series twist, launching in the US on June 2nd. The first set of ‘Campers’ will live and work at the renowned Kessler Mansion (http://www.kesslermansion.com/) in Indianapolis with future camps planned at private estates across the US and Europe. Unlike traditional programs, which ask aspiring entrepreneurs to pay for advice, mentoring and workshops, VentureCamp is free to the future business leaders chosen to participate.

VentureCamp’s Fully Immersive New Startup Ecosystem will be showcased through an interactive Docu-Series, and a virtual gaming platform, where viewers can engage and partake in the entrepreneur’s journey.
VentureCamp is currently accepting online submissions at http://venturecamp.com.

VentureCampers will be coached and mentored by a host of high profile successful entrepreneurs such as Jeff Hoffman (Priceline.com), Mike DeLazzer (RedBox), Karl Mehta, (PlaySpan/Visa), Albert Angel (CertiCall), and Sergio Fernandez De Cordova (Infrastructure Media Group).

VentureCamp Co-founder and Chairman Chad Folkening says, ”Our Campers will have an opportunity to learn how to be successful entrepreneurs from the best and brightest in business in an amazing setting.” Speaking to VentureCamps being run out of luxury estates around the world, Jeff Hoffman, Co-Founder of Priceline and a VentureCamp mentor adds “No better way to inspire success than to be surrounded by it.” Folkening further explains, “Each business launched at the camp will also get instant access to targeted web traffic to jumpstart their companies by being awarded with premium domains.”

VentureCamp CEO and Co-Founder Giadha Aguirre De Carcer also notes, “Part of our mission is to empower entrepreneurs everywhere. Our curriculum and program structure is designed to foster innovation, social entrepreneurship, and job creation in a digestible and entertaining way.” DeCarcer adds, “The Camp and Campers will be filmed for our Docu-Series giving the entrepreneurs an opportunity to raise their startup’s profile as well as to connect to future partners, investors and customers.”

VentureCamp is based on the idea that launching a successful high-tech business in our new economy does not require you to be in Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley. It can be done anywhere with the right people. Jeff Hoffman captures it best as he notes, “I don’t spend time launching companies anymore. I launch entrepreneurs.”

Mentor Bios included below. For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Jennifer Chikes at 917-657-5476 or [email protected]

VentureCamp is a fully immersive new Startup Ecosystem taking place in luxury estates around the world. Leveraging world-renowned serial entrepreneurs and a proven curriculum, VentureCamp guides and coaches participants to launch successful businesses in 8 weeks.

The Kessler Mansion will host the initial VentureCamp this June in Indianapolis. Featured on HGTV’s Extreme Home, the estate is 26,000 square feet and includes such unique features as quartz walls and floating staircases.

Sponsors & Partners

VentureCamp is pleased to partner with the following organizations to promote entrepreneurship everywhere.

Entrepreneurs Organization (EO)

http://www.eonetwork.org

EO is a global community that enriches members’ lives through dynamic peer-to-peer learning and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. We are the catalyst that enables entrepreneurs to learn from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life.

ShiftGroup

http://www.Shiftgroup.com

ShiftGroup’s mission is to create a sustainable world, transformed by entrepreneurs. Moving businesses to more sustainable, environmentally aware and socially responsible models through empowered entrepreneurs’ innovations. ShiftGroup program participants learn to leverage profits from implementation of social and environmental practices, lead their industry with state-of-the-art sustainable business practices, increase success rate by joining an experienced entrepreneur community, and compete effectively through constant entrepreneur training.

The International Women Leadership Association (The IWLA)

http://www.theiwla.com

It is the dream, the passion, the commitment – and the challenge – of The International Women’s Leadership Association to provide useful, meaningful resources to every mother, daughter, sister, and friend that enhance every woman’s opportunity to reach her greatest level of personal and professional development; and in so doing make it possible for every women to realize her own goals, her own potential, her own dreams.

Compass Fellowship

http://compassfellows.org

The Compass Fellowship, supported by the Kenneth Cole Foundation, is a global family of young social innovators supported by peer and professional Mentors. The Compass Fellowship is a one-year program that identifies the most passionate first-year undergraduates at schools around the country, inspires them to start a social venture, and empowers them to solve the world’s greatest problems with socially-conscious business.

Syracuse Sandbox

http://www.syracusestudentsandbox.com/

The Syracuse Student Sandbox is a unique business incubator that gives aspiring student entrepreneurs the resources to make their visions a reality. The objective of the Sandbox is to accelerate the process of ideation, development and deployment through mentoring and coaching. The twelve week experiential based program has an end-goal of producing revenue generating entities or investment ready firms.

Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO)

http://www.c-e-o.org

Entrepreneurship as a field of study at colleges and universities across the U.S. and around the world has become a leading subject at the undergraduate and graduate level. With this increased attention, it is more important than ever to give students the opportunities to network not only with their student peers, but with fellow entrepreneurs in the business world to promote entrepreneurship at all levels and in all environments. And, this is where CEO comes in.

VeTransfer

http://www.vetransfer.org

VeTransfer provides a hands-on learning experience for Veterans who want to become entrepreneurs. Unlike traditional business plan writing programs that focus on ideas, VeTransfer’s programs focus on ACTION. Veterans directly engage with customers to test the validity of their business model, while interacting with mentors that can help interpret what the Veteran is hearing from potential customers. VeTransfer is a national program sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs to support Veteran entrepreneurship.

TiE

TiE Global

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals with roots in the Indus region. There are currently 13,000 members, including over 2,500 charter members in 61 chapters across 17 countries. TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, and education. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing our next generation of entrepreneurs.

###
Mentors
Jeff Hoffman
Co-Founder, Priceline.com
Co-Founder, Ubid.com
Co-Founder, ColorJar.com
Jeff Hoffman is a serial entrepreneur and internationally recognized innovator who has been a founder and CEO in a number of startups and high growth companies, including Priceline.com, uBid.com, and ColorJar. Jeff writes a regular column on innovation and entrepreneurship for Inc. Magazine, and works with the White House, the Executive Office of the President, and the US State Department, to support business and economic growth initiatives all over the world.

Mike DeLazzer
Co-Founder, RedBox
Co-Founder, Gaton Ltd
Founder, GetAMovie
Founder, Kodel Corp.
Mike DeLazzer is a serial entrepreneur who in 2006 he was inducted into the Chicago Entrepreneur Hall of Fame for his work as founder of GetAMovie Inc., which developed the Redbox kiosk. In 2009 he was given a lifetime achievement award from the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization for his word in supporting entrepreneurship globally. In 2010 Mike founded and funded Gaton Ltd., a non-profit organization that fosters entrepreneurship in Ghana,West Africa.

Karl Mehta
Founder, Playspan
Founder, Grassroots Innovations Network (GrIN)
Partner, Menlo Ventures
Karl Mehta is a seasoned serial entrepreneur and Founder &former CEO of Playspan, Inc. (acquired by Visa Inc. in March 2011), an Inc. Magazine 500 Fastest growing companies and a leader in monetization platforms for online games, social networks and new media. In 2010, he was the award winner of the Ernst &Young “Entrepreneur of Year” for Northern California/ SF Bay Area. Karl was selected by the Obama Administration to serve as the White House Presidential Innovation Fellow in 2012, and he was appointed by California Governor Jerry Brown to sit on the California Workforce Investment Board. He recently joined Menlo Ventures as a partner.

Sergio Fernandez de Cordova
Co-founder, P3GM
Co-Founder, Infrastructure Media Group Holdings
Co-Founder, PVBLIC Foundation
Co-Founder, Fuel Outdoor
Sergio Fernandez de Cordova is an internationally recognized entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist working at the intersection of media and leveraging public-private partnerships for social impact. In 2011, he co-founded Infrastructure Media Group Holdings, a holding company focused on global infrastructure, energy, commodities and public-private partnerships. Sergio has received numerous awards including Dell Inc’s #Inspired 100 leading global influencers in entrepreneurship and multiple awards from New York Enterprise Report in the fields of Marketing, Green Business, Social Responsibility, and Mergers & Acquisitions.

Albert Angel
Founder, CertiCall
Chairman, Redfish Media
Chairman, AWE Management Company, Ltd.
Albert Angel is an entrepreneur and a former U.S. Department of Justice lawyer who has had a string of successes with interactive service companies. He has an extensive background in the telecommunications and online payment fields. Throughout the years has remained active in helping to shape interactive services policy on a pro-bono basis, typically in trade association leadership positions.

Chad Folkening
Founder, eCorp
Founder, Global Ventures
Co-Founder, Referrals.com
Co-Founder, Domain Holdings
Chad Folkening is a life-long entrepreneur and a leader in domain investments and website development for almost two decades. He has been instrumental in providing real value to end-users through domains and websites, monetizing components for investors, and coordinating with government officials to define and protect the burgeoning domain industry, often called the virtual real estate of the future. Chad has successfully built, sold and acquired websites that have led to development deals and partnerships with leading hi tech and Fortune 500 companies. In 1996, he founded Global Ventures, a technology-based venture development, advisory and investment group established with over 20,000 premium internet domains.

Giadha DeCarcer
CEO, GNI International, LLC
Executive Director, Grassroots Innovations Network (GrIN)
Executive Director, Women Entrepreneurship Reinforcement (WeR)
Giadha DeCarcer is a serial entrepreneur focused on technology and high growth emerging markets. Giadha utilizes her decade of experience in finance, business management, international trade, and government relations to launch and support new ventures with a specific focus on promoting females and veterans within the entrepreneurial arena. Currently the founder and CEO of GNI International, LLC, she serves as Executive Director of two non-profit organizations, Grassroots Innovations Network (GrIN) and the Women Entrepreneurship Reinforcement (WeR).

The post VentureCamp, Based in Indianpolis, to Open in June appeared first on peHUB.

Belly started out empowering local businesses to create loyalty programs of their own, allowing them to compete with the sophisticated customer retention campaigns of the big nationwide chains. But it turns out that those big chains are interested in Belly’s loyalty platform as well.

The Lightbank and Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup on Thursday revealed it is expanding its scope from small and medium-sized business to large enterprises. The company said it’s currently working with 40 national chains, which have installed its loyalty card scanning system in 500 locations. Belly said those chains collectively represent 40,000 restaurants and stores nationwide, though it didn’t reveal the names of the names of specific companies.

But a quick glance on Belly’s merchant map in Chicago reveals plenty of big names: McDonalds, Chick-fil-A, 7-Eleven and Domino’s Pizza among them. For instance, McDonalds is offering up rewards like a free regular fries or free cookie after accruing a specified number of Belly loyalty points.

Belly’s system is pretty simple. Belly members either order a universal loyalty card with a QR code or download the Belly app to their smartphone, which displays the QR code on screen. All merchants have an iPad set up at the register or other convenient location, and customers scan their card or app into the tablet to accrue points for every visit. Get enough points and you can pick prizes. Those can come in the form of free goods, discounts or sometimes more off-the-wall rewards, such as a personal serenade from the store’s owner.

Belly has attracted interest from businesses nationwide, but its hometown of Chicago remains its biggest market with more than a thousand locations using the Belly system. As a Chicagoan, I’ve seen Belly pop up everywhere. My wife and I use it to get free booze at our local liquor store, and we’re saving up our points so we can get a free cooking lesson from the chef of our favorite local restaurant Bistro Dre.

While I love the idea of unique tailored rewards programs for local businesses, it’s easy to see the appeal for Belly to go after the national chains. Chicago has many e-commerce companies that were founded on the principle of targeting small, local merchants, but they’ve been shifting their focus to the national retailers and brands.

For instance, fellow Lightbank startup Boomerang has abandoned its original local-business focus and to turn its peer-to-peer gifting service into a viral marketing platform for big brands like Ghirardelli and Starbucks. Even suffering e-commerce giant Groupon(grpn) (see disclosure) has strayed from its local business focus to offer an increasing number of daily deals for national chains.

Disclosure: The author’s spouse is employed by Groupon.

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It has been a while since I was a parent of teenagers, but I remember when the question, “Have you had the conversation yet?” made me break out in cold sweats. The Conversation is also a 1974 film by Francis Ford Coppola whose themes include the role of technology in society and being so focused on what you are doing that you forget why you are doing it and become oblivious to what is happening around you. Both examples fit the conversation that should be going on in the C-suite, but isn’t, because it makes people nervous, and because people lose visibility and perspective of what is changing around them as they focus on their goals. It is a conversation about the increasing importance of information technology and the role it must assume in every enterprise, regardless of size, industry or geography.

Over the last two years, we have been engaged in primary research with The Harvard Business Review, The Economist, CEB (formerly known as the Corporate Executive Board), Intel, and TNS Global in an attempt to paint a picture of how the role of the CIO and the IT department is changing. We also engaged with CIOs across the globe in discussions about what they were experiencing and what changes were surprising or bewildering them.

A simple summary of the work suggests that CEOs believe that CIOs are not in sync with the new issues CEOs are facing, CIOs do not understand where the business needs to go, and CIOs do not have a strategy, in terms of opportunities to be pursued or challenges to be addressed in support of the business.

Key findings from our research:

• Almost half of CEOs feel IT should be a commodity service purchased as needed
• Almost half of CEOs rate their CIOs negatively in terms of understanding the business and understanding how to apply IT in new ways to the business
• 57% of the executives expect their IT function to change significantly over the next three years, and 12% predict a “complete overhaul” of IT
• Only a quarter of executives felt their CIO was performing above his or her peers

Our observations:

• CEOs are demanding more visible value from their CIOs, in terms of generating revenue, gaining new customers, and increasing customer satisfaction.
• Increasingly, the CIO and IT must be seen less as developing and deploying technology, and more as a source of innovation and transformation that delivers business value, leveraging technology instead of directly delivering it.

• The CIO must be responsible and accountable if technology enables, facilitates or accelerates competition that the C-suite didn’t see coming, or allows the enterprise to miss opportunities because the C-suite did not understand the possibilities technology offered.
• CIOs today must adapt or risk being marginalized.

Why this is happening:
As we worked with the data, while we saw what was happening it became clear we were missing the “why” it was happening. Why is this dissonance between the CIO and the C-suite happening? It could be the rapid pace of technological change, but historically that only facilitates or accelerates change already desired or underway? The more we looked for an answer, the more we realized we were at an impasse. Then we realized that what we were seeing were not changes in IT, but secondary effects from changes going on in business.

In order to understand the future of enterprise IT, the evolving future of business itself must be considered.

Trends that are affecting fundamental concepts of business, and in turn IT:

• The basic ideas of capitalism–return on investment (ROI) and return on assets (ROA)–are being challenged by the historical stalwarts of capitalism (Harvard, Drucker Society, Forbes, the London School of Economics and many more). Many of these ideas shun ownership for rent on those elements of the enterprise not tied directly to value creation, suggesting a rethink in how IT is delivered.
• As we transform from industrial work more easily and efficiently done by robots to creative and knowledge work leveraging humans, we are balancing the values of scale and efficiency (industrial work) with the need for agility and efficacy (creative and knowledge work). This means that transactional systems that ensured security, encouraged conformance and drove operational goals of predictability and productivity lose value to new systems of collaboration, transparency and agility.
• The nature of economics is transforming as complexity science and behavioral science provide valuable insights about how value is created, markets work and buyers think. The nature of value which is momentarily created and quickly perished in turn drives the new economics as it diverges from classical ideas of value chains. As a consequence, the boundaries between customers, suppliers, partners, staff, contractors, channels and even competitors begin to diminish and even disappear, creating a whole new user community for enterprise IT systems.
• All of these ideas are drastically changing how we organize to accomplish the necessary work, and in turn how we manage those organizational structures and resources. This suggests more unique, highly focused niched application systems with integration of information and systems across organizational and agent boundaries – no IT system is an island.

How this affects the CIO and enterprise IT:
All of this is changing the role of the CIO before our very eyes. Not only are there new systems, business and delivery models, types of information, technologies, etc., but whole new roles for IT in the enterprise’s ecosystem. These new business insights, tied to the emergence of new technologies, are creating an opportunity for IT to lead business transformational efforts, creating new business models, initiating new business processes and making the enterprise agile in this challenging economic environment.

Leveraging that change requires starting with a conversation that CIOs, CEOs and the rest other members of the C-suite should be having, but aren’t. Here’s a start to that conversation.

In future pieces, I will explore the dramatic business changes and challenges that are affecting the C-suite and the role of the CIO; look at how innovation, as the only way to create long-term profit, provides a solution to these challenges; and outline the new conversation that CIOs should be having in the C-suite.

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Many organizations are approaching the tipping point being described in this series of blogs. Stepping into the role of strategic visionary and business driver requires CIOs to have a completely new conversation with their C-suite colleagues. To begin the conversation, Dell, HBR, and CIO magazine are sponsoring a Harvard Business Review panel discussion, “Change the Conversation, Change the Game,” through a webinar, broadcasting live from The CIO Leadership event in Boca Raton, Florida May 5-7, 2013.