Today is Veteran’s Day.
So, whatever else you’ve got going on, stop and take a moment or two to just reflect on that.
We’ve got our IT in the D broadcast tonight, and we’ll touch on that point for sure based on one of our guests.
We’ve got a few blog entries out here, our event next week, and all of the other usual fun and excitement…
I know we usually cover our events first, but we’re going to deviate from that this time around.
A lot of us take everything we have in our lives for granted, and don’t really think about the fact that there are people out there quite literally putting their lives on the line to make sure that we have the capabilities and opportunites to whine about our petty first world problems.
Today is Veteran’s Day, and you really should take a moment to ponder what that means and the significance of what and who it represents.
With our end of year December events over the last few years, we’ve been really fortunate enough to have worked with, talked to, and gotten to know some great people in the military while we’re doing our Support The Troops thing, and this year will be no different.
We really don’t do “serious”, and I know it throws people for a bit of a loop whenever we do, but you should take a moment and cruise through some of the past “Meet The Troops” entries we’ve had out here – http://www.ITinTheD.com/category/meet-the-troops/ – and take a few moments to reflect.
For us, we’re humbled that the phenomenal men and women we’ve chatted with over the past few years have even taken the time to correspond with us, whether it’s just to help us make sure that we do things right and don’t completely suck at this because it matters, or to send us updates from the various areas they’ve been deployed to, or even just to say “hey” as they take time out of their lives even after they’re back to stop by one of our events and let us buy them a beer and say “thank you” in person.
So to all that have served…with every fiber of our collective being…thank you.
A special shout out to those whom we’ve interacted with over the past few years, and to those we’ll be working with in the future.
We’ll also be touch on this point tonight during our IT in the D broadcast.
Tonight should be a fun show, even if we are going to talk about something serious a bit.
We’ve got Russ Dotson, who has helped us coordinate our past few year-end events calling in.
Why is he calling in and not joining us in-studio as he has before?
Simple – he’s not in town.
He’s really “not in town”.
Russ went back on Active Duty not too long ago, and is currently stationed over in Ethiopia.
Technically speaking, his role is being the “military liaison officer to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
We’re not really sure what that means, either.
I’m sure we’ll ask him about it tonight.
We’re also going to have Matt Oehrlein, the President of i3detroit in-studio with us to talk about all of the cool stuff going on in their workspace environment that you can dive into if you’re so inclined.
We’ve had fighting robots show up from there before.
Want to learn how to paint like Bob “Happy Little Trees” Ross? They do classes.
Ever itch to get your hands on a laser cutter and see what it does? They’ve got a class for that.
Should be all sorts of good geekery and fun discussed with him.
And then, just to make absolutely sure that we keep the mood a little light, we’ve got Hersh coming in studio with us.
Who’s Hersh?
Well, you may or may not remember that I’ve written a blog or two about hanging out with stand up comics, and the similarities that I’ve found between the IT and comedy worlds.
Hersh is one of those comics. She’s hilarious, she’s just released a DVD, and she’s got some really great opinions on social media, the metro Detroit area and what she’s seen in her travels, and all sorts of other topics.
So make sure you tune in live tonight…something tells me this one might have to get edited heavily for redistribution and syndication.
All of the details for listening live can be found at http://www.ITinTheD.com/listen/
NOW let’s talk events.
Our next casual networking event for professionals in and around the metro Detroit information technology community takes place next Thursday, November 21st at Falling Down Beer Company.
Warren.
5:01pm.
Great place, looking forward to seeing everyone there.
We’ve had Mark from Falling Down on the IT in the D show with us twice now, so if you’re looking for a little information and background on the place, you can listen to those here or here.
Details can be found on our events page – http://www.ITinTheD.com/meet/, on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ITintheD, or on Meetup – http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
While you’re out there clicking around, make sure you give us a “like” on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ITintheD/.
If nothing else, we amuse ourselves there.
Make sure you’ve got December 12th marked off on your calendars, as well.
That’s our year-end event this year.
Details for that can be found at all of those same locations, as well as here: http://www.ITinTheD.com/event/december-2013/
On the topic of other events…
Had a fun time hanging out with folks at the Great Lakes Technology Showcase event last week. We’d chatted about that here – http://www.ITinTheD.com/6609/great-lakes-tech-show-networking-event/ – and a few of you made it out. Good seeing everyone, and it was nice to make some new connections in that world.
There are two concerts coming up at St Andrews Hall this weekend (Friday and Saturday nights) if you’re interested. Monster Magnet and Blues Traveler.
Want to score a pair of free tickets to either show?
Check out that graphic over there on the right and do what it says. It’s that simple.
We’ll be announcing winners on the air tonight: http://www.ITinTheD.com/listen/
Blog entries?
Sure, we’ve got a few of those.
The latest addition is Don’t Be That Guy: Salmon Style over at http://www.ITinTheD.com/6594/dont-be-that-guy-salmon-style/
Salmon are horribly inefficient at the whole networking thing, and this is definitely one of the top ways to fail at our events, or at others.
So read it.
The always relevant LinkedIn Is Not A Video Game can be found at http://www.ITinTheD.com/20/linkedin-is-not-a-video-game/
Don’t Be That Guy: The Serial Networker is at http://www.ITinTheD.com/5450/dont-be-that-guy-the-serial-networker/
Pruning your network is always a good idea, for the same reasons that trees, shrubs and plants need trimming / pruning from time to time. Check out what we mean at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2498/international-prune-your-network-day/
Don’t Be That Guy: Voicemail Guy can be found at http://www.ITinTheD.com/676/dont-be-that-guy-voicemail-guy/ if you’d like to stop sucking at voicemail.
Last week’s episode of IT in the D with the Agile and Beyond conference, Blue Argyle Media and Tosacano Media can be found at http://www.ITinTheD.com/6627/it-in-the-d-episode-18/, and it’s a pretty cool chain of conversations. From getting fired and starting up your own company to dealing with the logistics of hundreds of people at an event and even “what’s agile?”, it was a solid show.
Our LinkedIn group with jobs, conversations and chatter can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ITintheDorg-Detroit-Networking-Events-IT-91763
That’s all for this week.
Hope you can join us live tonight for the fun on the IT in the D show – http://www.ITinTheD.com/listen/ – and we’ll see you next week at Falling Down Beer Company – http://www.ITinTheD.com/meet/
Regards,
Bob, Dave and Jeff
ITintheD.com
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.org
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On Meetup: http://meetup.ITinTheD.org