IT in the D, episode 43.
We couldn’t really ask for a more solid episode.
Well…I guess we could…but then we’d just be getting greedy.
From our Motor City Comic Con recap to learning all about what MEDC has to offer businesses and individuals to a way cool program Secure-24 is a part of…just a great night…
The latest incarnation of our intro was a perfect way to kick things off.
Because, of course, the first order of business was our Motor City Comic Con adventure from the weekend.
From our chats with Karate Kid stars William Zabka and Martin Kove to the fun we had with Airplane! star Robert Hays and a chat with Joey Lauren Adams that left us all stupid and speechless…such an awesome weekend. Looking forward to next year already. Read more about Comic Con here: http://www.motorcitycomiccon.com/ and of course listen to us below.
We’d be horribly remiss if we didn’t take a moment to thank Billy (I get it, he’s “William” these days…but still…) Zabka, Robert Hays, Drea de Matteo, Brittany Daniel, Martin Kove, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and of course…even though it didn’t happen this past weekend at Comic Con, but Taimak as well for providing us with station id’s during the course of our chats with them. We’re thoroughly in love with our show intro clip now…even if we did have to clear our some of the older drops to make room.
In our next segment, we dove in with Amy Cell to talk about what MEDC is doing via their MItalent.org initiatives. Turns out, the answer is “a lot”. From the Shifting Gears and Shifting Code programs to virtual career fairs and a large in-person job fair in June at Ford Field, they’re doing a ton on the “find a job” side of things. They also have a lot going on to encourage the hiring of people through helping companies grow or even get started. Obviously, we’re fans of what they have going on since I think we’ve participated in about 15 or 16 different Shifting Gears events over the past few years.
In our third segment, we hopped in with Jack Connelly from Secure-24. Secure-24 is a premier provider of managed IT operations, hosting and cloud services, providing highly available environments and expert management and support for your business critical applications, and they’re also a part of the MAT2 (sounds like “matt” “squared”) initiative with MItalent. The MAT2 program is an old idea with a new skin, and it’s something that companies in this area need to be taking a long, serious look at being a part of. We’ve gone off on this rant before…companies complain about not being able to find talent…while laying people off…and also while not taking advantage of the tons of training / retraining opportunities and resources that are out there and actually taking steps to solve their own problem…
Enter the MAT2 program, which brings the apprenticeship concept into the Michigan Information Technology scene, and based on what Jack had to say about it, the metrics says it’s a good idea to be looking into this. Better retention. Lower time and cost to hire. Improved pool of resources available. So much more. Why aren’t more of you companies diving in with this? Need more information – here you go, click and read: MAT2 Company Fact Sheet
For our 4th and final segment, we looped back on a few lingering issues, chatted more about Comic Con, and brought things to a close.
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Thanks again for listening, and thank you to our guests for joining us. And remember, we’re taking Memorial Day off, and so we won’t be in the studio next week…but we’re trying to put together a full file containing all of the recordings, interviews and conversations that we had over the course of Comic Con to play next Monday night while we’re probably lighting ourselves on fire or something.
You can find us at http://www.ITintheD.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, on Meetup at http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/, and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/itinthed
The Pure Michigan Talent Connect set of resources can be found at http://www.mitalent.org/.
Their calendar of event is at http://www.mitalent.org/calendar/.
The next virtual career fair takes place on Wednesday, May 21st: http://www.michiganvirtualcareerfair.com/.
The Shifting Gears program can be found at http://www.mitalent.org/michigan-shifting-gears-program/
The Shifting Code program can be found at http://www.mitalent.org/michigan-shifting-code/
Their entire set of resources can be found at http://www.mitalent.org/job-seeker-other-resources/
Secure-24 can be found at http://www.secure-24.com/
…and of course, let’s give a shout out and links to the celebrities who were gracious enough to be a part of our intro:
Billy Zabka can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WilliamZabka
Drea de Matteo can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DreaDeMatteo and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dreadematteo
Brittany Daniel can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BrittanyDanielOfficial and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/iambdaniel
Martin Kove can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Martin-Kove/178971838942793 and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RealMartinKove
And rest assured, we’ve got more drops, more photos, and some awesome interviews with local artists in the area as well doing some very cool things. That recap and full set of content is in progress.
