IT in the D, Episode 22
This was a GREAT episode.
One of the ones where we could have sat there for anther two or three hours easily, and never run out of things to talk about.
With our guests Elaina Farnsworth of Mobile Comply, Nate Hughes of Detroit Labs and Amber Coffman of Spark Digital Strategy, there was no shortage of things to talk about or topics to dive in…and a bit of ranting, naturally…
In our first segment, we went through our usual round-up of news items that had caught our eye over the past week. Things like our Support the Troops event next Thursday, “How is Black Friday an international thing…complete with riots and chaos in Ireland?”, that stores being open on Thursday proved to be a very good thing for them, and so all of those protests and debates about letting people stay with their families and pledging not to shop that day were…worthless…because the landscape has changed permanently, you can bet on it.
We even got a little bit into how small of a world it can be sometimes, and why you don’t judge people based on how they treat the CEO, but rather how they treat the secretary…or perhaps the DJ. Who happens to run a networking group you’re a part of…but you don’t know that. And who’s cohost and longtime friend is friends with your boss…and eight other people you work with.
In our second segment, we chatted with Elaina Farnsworth about Mobile Comply, and what they’ve got going on…which, as it turns out, is quite a bit. They’ve created a whole new training program to support the new CompTIA Certification, Mobility+, which teaches everything you need to know…and prove you know…about the basics of all things mobile. From architecture to infrastructure, and from platform agnostic best practices to security…it’s a great foundation. They’re running a special right now on the prep class for the test…and, well, since they quite literally wrote the book on it, you can be sure the teaching is sound.
In our third segment, we switch over and engage with Nate Hughes, one of the founders of Detroit Labs. Just a great chat overall. From the beginnings at a few empty desks in the Compuware building to their space at the Madison building that they eventually filled to breaking point out to their move into their new building, where they span two entire floors of the old Lane Bryant building downtown. We’d heard some of the stories from Erika Carlson during her last visit, but it was really great to sit down and hear it all from Nate’s perspective, which can seem to be paradoxical at times. They’re a mobile application development company looking to hire developers…but not really necessarily mobile app devs. They tell potential clients their prices are almost assuredly going to be the highest…and yet they’re swamped with work and growing.
For our fourth and final segment, we dragged Amber Coffman from Spark Digital Strategy out of lurker mode and talked a bit about what digital strategy is, what services she brings to the table for her clients, and what digital strategy is…and, more importantly, why you need one. Brands versus identities. Personal versus corporate. Damage control and reputation management. We chatted a bit about this story involving some shady practices by a company concerned about their online reputation…and it may wind up costing them more than the backlash they’re already receiving.
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Links from tonight’s show:
Mobile Comply: http://mobilecomply.com/
Detroit Labs: http://www.detroitlabs.com/
Spark Digital Strategy: http://sparkdigitalstrategy.com/
The lawsuit over a negative review: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/couple-fined-3500-writing-negative-review/story?id=21018224
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