Events

Tag Blog

Posted by Amanda Shook

Hey! Guess What?

The Intersection Series is now OneEighty! This name change reflects the essence of the program: to provide a new way of looking at the major trends in the technology industry. We think that in today’s quickly evolving environment, it is essential for technology professionals to take a different look at the industry’s issues.

For this program, Georgia Tech’s professors will make sure that technology professionals will leave each session with timely information and new insights.The sessions for this course are
- Sustainability, Green IT, and Environmental Scorecards (April 29) Find out More
- Risk and Total Quality Management in Technology Development Projects (June 25) Find out More
- Branding and Information Technology (Aug 18) Find out More

And also, this course is hundreds less than a typical class from Tech. Per session, the member fee is just $110. All 3 half-day sessions can be purchased for just $280 for members.

Check it out!

Comments (0)

Posted by Ariel Killen

http://paulstamatiou.com/2009/03/04/recap-2009-georgia-technology-summit
Paul Stamatiou: Tech News, Reviews, and Guides

In January I mentioned that I was invited to come aboard the selection committee for the Technology Association of Georgia’s Top 40 innovative companies competition. As part of the 15-person committee, gave my perspective and thoughts on the applicants as well as provided my evaluation of how each company’s technology was innovative. The month and a half of judging, meeting with applicants, hearing their pitches and providing them presentation feedback wrapped up with today’s Georgia Technology Summit.

This was my first GTS and damn, I had no idea how huge this event was.

Dennis Zakas addressing 700 people at the 2009 GTS.
It attracted tons of venerable attendees, companies and speakers. The morning started off with famed author and journalist Thomas Friedman’s keynote speech about how American can lead the green revolution. While it started off a little slow, Thomas brought in solid numbers and statements that really help put things into perspective.

Then Ron Clark spoke. He was awarded Teacher of the Year, had a movie made about his story, has been on Oprah twice, wrote a best selling book and has a remarkable school in Atlanta with an interesting, technology-heavy teaching style.

You try taking a picture of Ron Clark. The guy is never still! He’s standing on a table in this picture.
One heck of a presenter; jumping on tables, flailing his arms about.. very inspiring. Here’s a clip of him in action:

Starts off with him singing an order of operations song to the Rihanna - Umbrella beat.
The Top 10 innovative companies got the chance to present to the audience for 3 minutes. These companies are listed below, and details can be found on David Cohen’s live blogged post.

Acculynk - use a pin with your debit card online
Asankya - web acceleration
CCP North America - EVE Online game
NanoLumens - flexible video displays
PlayON! Sports - affordable video streaming
Pramana - invisible captcha
Purewire - security software (SaaS) sits between company network and the Internet
SecureWorks - leading security as a service provider
Suniva - high-efficiency silicon PV cells
Unicoi Systems - embedded devices & software
NanoLumens stole the show with their flexible OLED displays. I had the chance to checkout their display during their TAG Top 10 audition and this thing is the real deal.

To my understanding the box to the left is pretty much just a laptop providing video signal and some power to the display - a real implementation would not need such a large device attached directly to it.
However, it is important to note that NanoLumens is building these displays primarily for large-scale advertising/etc purposes. That being said, if you go up close to one of these displays, the resolution is not comparable to your typical laptop screen. It’s only until you start getting up past a 100-inch display that it can be considered HD. Regardless, when was the last time you saw a light-emitting color display you could fold?

NanoLumens: Top 10 and Winner of People’s Choice - Coolest Technology and Breakthrough Technology

CCP North America:Top 10 and Winner of People’s Choice - Best Presentation and Best Display
There were other parts of the Summit that I left off, like Tino Mantella’s State of the Industry Report, and are better read in detail here.

Comments (0) TAG in the News

Posted by Ariel Killen

http://davidscohen.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/live-blogging-at-ga-technology-summit-pt2-top-10-innovators/
David S. Cohen: Left Brain, Right Brain

More live-blogging at the Ga Technology Summit (hashtag #gts09).  For more info on live-blogging see previous post.

Dennis Zakas (DZ) chair of Innovation committee for TAG recognizing the Top 10 innovative companies.

DZ - Thanking the committee members for their role in making this a vital summit.  Showcasing the innovation in the state - diversity of industries, large number of applicants. Process pick a top 40 then choose top 10 finalists.  Competition, that is not based on financials, but on innovation, disruption, technology.  Quick 3 minute presentations coming up from the Top 10 on why they are innovative.

DZ - see the TOp 40 displayed in the lobby - vote for winners

1. Suniva - CTO speaking - spin-off from GaTech - photovoltaic - solarcells - sunlight to electricity with zero emissions. Valu chain and Value prop - buys silicon solar cells - make cells to sell to consumers, builders.  Make superior quality solar cells at low-cost and high efficiency - seeking parity with fossil fuels in cost and efficiency.  2008 went into full production, 32 megawatt capacity, customer orders over $1billion, pipeline twice as much.  Best in class efficiency 17-18% - reaching 20% with next generation screen printing technology.  US innovation, quality and jobs.

2. Acculynk - fighting online fraud -$ 3.7 Billion in US.  3/4 cost eaten by vendors.  Only company to enable online PIN based transactions - Take POS concept to the internet.  Good for banks, consumers, and vendors.  Online pinpad that plugs into the merchant - scrambled and encrypted technology - take the debit card from your wallet and the PIN in your head to the online transaction. PIN never in the clear.  Get X/Y cordinate of mouse, not the number - so hard to fake/intercept.  300million debit cards is the potential user base.

20 minute intermission.  Be back soon

And we’re back..

3. Unicoi - embedded solutions of IP Media Devices, mobile, automotive devices.  Fusion-embedded networking and cellphone suite - develop interface to be customized for each client - new VoIP webphones coming out using the technology

4. PlayON Sports - helping content owners stream video to broadcast live events - connect with fans further down the chain - youth baseball, college lacrosse, community soccer league, etc.  Event manager software fo full user contorl of scheduling and config.  Tools for use in the field Production Manager with built in production graphics - score boards, etc.

5.  Pramana - thwarting malicious bots - automated traffic - human beings are becoming the minority on the Internet - this is a problem.  Captcha is the better know way toapproach this problem.  Correlation engine is a shield for web property to detect bot traffic - Forbes called them “invisible captcha” - trying to protect Human Reputation online.  Technology licensed from GaTech.

6. SecureWorks - separating the good guys from the bad guys - 300 employees - targeting financial institutions, government, retail. Compliance Central - get client’s vendors into compliance.  LogVault - fault-tolerant log retention. Web App Security Service - web layer smart firewall fo protection from cyberattacks

Pause from Top 10 presentations to hear Tino Mantella’s (TM) state of the industry report:

TM - focusing on Georgia’s positioning, not an economic forecast. High-level overview of 176 page, 6 month study.  Data and feedback gathered from 500 respondents.  Comparing with CA TX, MA, FL, NC.  Downloadable from tagonline.org.

TM- Ga - significant drop in female technology graduates, but Ga still leading and highest percentage of women-owned technology businesses.  Need to do better, but proud of our lead.

TM- we are a leader among benchmark states.  Ga Tech outspent MIT on innovation and research.  Only beat by Johns Hopkins

TM - VC funding has more than double - 5% increaase over 2007.  Software largest funding slice, Energy tech growing and now number two

TM - Ga ranks low by comparison to average VC deal size against benchmar states, but neck-and-neck with NC and MA.  Still not getting our fair share against overall US tech investment.

TM - Ga entrepreneur’s get most of their funding from personal cash and friend’s and family, some angel money - more dependence than MA and CA - majority have to bootstrap.  We’re way behind CA and MA in funding startups

TM - Entrepreneurs coming up shor in other resources behind funding, and the entrepreneurs feel that state support is low.  Where is the grant money?  Very dismal, but improving employment growth.  We’re 10th largest tech employer in nation, but we need more growth to hold or improve the position. Software and IT services are largest employers, telecom is next but shrinking, bio-sciences is growing, but employment loss is happening.  IPOs zero in Georgia in 2008.  M&A is best exit strategy for tech companies in GA. 82% of buyers from out of state.  Our best are leaving the state.

TM - Momentum and Challenges - creating opportunity.  Education - STEM - science, tech, engineering, math

TM - HOPE scholarship still putting a lot of students in play, Universities investing heavily in R&D.  VCs say they are willing to invest in good deals here.  Need to make them aware of the deals.  Capital and funding is number 1 need of Ga entrepreneurs.

TM - we need investment in money and TLC for growth in US and Ga.

Now back to Top 10 Innovators

7. CCP North America Games - began as White Wolf - book and game company - Crowded Control Productions.  EVE online massively muliplayer game.  World’s largest single online game server - military grade world’s fastest storage, 10 times the capcity of the industry.  100o players in one space battle concurrently.  Amazing graphics engine.  Game experience video is shown - it is impressive.

8. Purewire - protecting people from malicious people places and things online.  SaaS web security service.  Analyze traffic - checking corporate policy, attacks, etc

9. Asankya - worked with gov’t military, selling network service to companies providing cloud apps - improves application throughput up to 20x performance. New apps - new acceleration.  Cloud application acceleration - projected market for cloud apps $72 B.  Technology developed at Ga Tech.  Pushes packets through network faster, in the right order. Works for one way, two way, encrypted, etc.  Video demo at table. Best in class acceleration.

10. NanoLumens - world’s largest flexible video displays - thinner and lighter than LCD or Plasma - going after outdoor advertising market - $25B and growing market - Flat or curved wall - former CTO of Philips on the team.  Flexible displays made of small rigid parts, “Nixels” on flexible circuits.  Reduces volume, weight and power usage.  Can be rolled to ship!  62% less weight - 80% more energy efficient. Holding up a working product - incredible thin and flexible display.

Comments (0) TAG in the News

Posted by Ariel Killen

http://davidscohen.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/live-blogging-at-ga-technology-summit-pt3-ron-clark/
David S. Cohen: Left Brain, Right Brain

Still doing the live blog thing at the GTS.  Next up Ron Clark (RC) - if it is like the last time I saw him I might be laughing too much to blog well, so bear with me.

Showing a classroom video.  The energy is impressive.  The podium doesn’t look big enough for RC to stand on, I wonder if he’ll try?

RC - getting kids to love learning - Origin: from North Carolina, taught to use things that were different, was teacher of the year, saw a program on schools in Harlem, and picked up and moved there to find the schools from the TV show.  Telling story of meeting an upset 13 yr old kid, convinced him to try.  1999 got job at that school.  Had kids that were all below grade level - every one of those kids have now graduated high school and most are in college.  Got them technology .  They tested ahead of their class by the end of a year.  Caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey.  Feels that “No Child Left Behind” as turned our approach upside down, we’re teaching to the bottom, and pulling the brightest down, instead of teaching to the top and getting them to raise up the rest.  Doesn’t want to leave anybody behind, but wants to keep the bar high, and keep raising it.  Wrote a song to pop star Rheanna’s music to teach order of operations to his class to learn algebra.  All his students have Zunes with lesson loaded on them - they all have laptops from Dell.  Got huge growth in testing scores.

RC - 55 rules for setting clear expectations from students - manners, respect, structure — blending respect structure and innovative approaches.  Oprah told him to write a book so he listened, he wrote it - she made it a book pick - and it sold!  Went to number 2 in nation on that announcement went #1 around the world.  Used funding to start the school here in Atlanta.  Teaching kids here and teaching teachers his approach.  Found a warehouse in run-down part of town, surrounded by crack houses, and prostitution.  Fought for that building because he felt it in his heart.  19 break-ins during construction - lots of theft of copper pipe.  Need to get the community involved - went to every house over 4 months and told everyone what he was doing - he was often scared. Often asked if he was Mormon.  Told people he was building the most innovative school in the world - got the community behind him - no more break-ins.  Ran out of money - got sponsors from the community, Veizon, Delta, Intercontinental Hotels.  Students can text message him live during class for nstant feedback.  Using Active Expressions, Dell sponsors laptops, got Definition 6 helping them to figure out what to do with all that technology.

RC - building world leaders -school of tomorrow. 3000 superintendants, teachers, principals from around the country visiting to observe and learn tools and techniques.  Congressmen and world leaders visiting to learn too.  Students are webcasting with kids around the world - traveling with the kids to make in-person connections - Delta is sponsoring travel.  Going around the world on spring field trips. Live video conferencing - virtual reality version of school.

RC - students take a test by running a gauntlet.  Made an online gauntlet so other schools can use the concept .

RC - non-profit - need donations - offering tours and visits. Warning every visitor has to go down the 2-story slide in the middle of the school and get “Slide - certified” - the slide is a symbol for how innovative they want to be. The model for innovation in education.

Comments (0) TAG in the News

Posted by Ariel Killen

http://paulstamatiou.com/2009/03/02/full-time-startup-skribit-week-8-redesign
Paul Stamatiou:Tech News, Reviews, & Guides

Aside from the redesign, Skribit is now an entrant in the Georgia Research Alliance/Technology Association of Georgia Business Launch competition. The application needed an executive business summary and outline of the backgrounds of everyone involved with the company. The next big deliverable will be a complete business plan, which is a great thing to have on paper regardless of the outcome of the competition. In the next few weeks I will need to meet with some people with advertising and publishing backgrounds to help flesh out the details of our business model. The competition is limited to companies with less than $500k in funding, which makes Skribit look tiny in comparison, so I’m not getting my hopes up about the $100,000 cash prize.

Calvin and I have started getting hold of our “books” and will be receiving some QuickBooks 2009 training from a small business consultant. We also received our bank account checks and I wrote off a few to pay our outstanding bills for legal and business work. In addition we now have Skribit business debit and American Express charge cards that I’ll soon tie to our Amazon S3/CloudFront and 37signals Basecamp accounts to pay off monthly charges.

Comments (0) TAG in the News

Posted by Ariel Killen

http://www.btobmagazine.com/Articles/2009/March/TAG_tech_summit.html

Business to Business

Despite an economy sliding deeper almost daily into a worsening recession, the Technology Association of Georgia is expecting nearly twice as many entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to attend its 2009 summit as showed up last year.

Tino Mantella, president of the technology-promoting trade group, says he’s expecting 1,200 at the Cobb Galleria on Tuesday, compared to 700 people who attended TAG’s summit in 2008.

“I’m not sure why,” he says. “I think it’s that people are still interested in exceptional growth, particularly in light of the economic challenges.”

Many may want to hear keynote speaker Thomas Friedman, author and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist from the New York Times. Others likely want to be on hand when TAG inducts former Georgia Tech president G. Wayne Clough into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia.

Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, served as Georgia Tech president from 1994 to 2008. During his tenure, research expenditures more than doubled to $473 million. He also raise more than $1.6 billion in private gifts to Tech.

“We still need to improve our educational system to attract more companies and more money,” Mantella says. “We have a lot of opportunities for technology in Georgia, and this is a celebration of that.”

He said venture capitalists have let him know that the state doesn’t “good a good job of marketing ourselves” outside of Georgia. He said VCs also are concerned about Georgia’s infrastructure, which doesn’t compare with other high-tech states like California.

“Education is looked at from a standpoint of companies looking to move here and looking at our workforce,” he said. “We are 49th in SAT scores. The school system has put in a number of new initiatives that, if and when they take hold, should help us progress.”

According to Mantella, TAG has grown from 1,400 to 6,000 members in the past two years, and that the number of “tech-enabled” companies has doubled to 1,500.

“We also have a legislative agenda,” he said “Right now, one of our big initiatives is to encourage the state leaders to form a study committee around entreprenurism and innovation.

“We are encouraging the state [legislature] to back alternative investment,” Mantella said, referencing the group’s political stance. “ We are the only state that does not allow state pension funds to be invested in alternative investments like technology companies. We are saying that if the state was allowed to invest in some of these alternative investments, it would mean a better return” on investment.

Currently, he said, entrepreneurs in Georgia “need to go to other states” for investment capital.

The Technology Hall of Game of Georgia was established in 1993 to recognize the achievements of outstanding members of the state’s technology community.

Clough was selected by executives of Georgia’s leading technology firms. This year’s event, sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, is themed “the Energy of Innovation.”

TAG was formed in January 1999 with the merger of three of the state’s largest technology organizations – the Southeastern Software Association, the Business and Technology Alliance, and Women in Technology.

Its mission is to help tech companies in Georgia speak with a strong voice, Mantella said.

Comments (0) TAG in the News

Posted by Ariel Killen

http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=178707&Itemid=96
PR-USA.net

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) has selected Unicoi Systems (Unicoi) as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia for 2009. Competition winners were selected from among the Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia with criteria based on this year’s summit theme, The Energy of Innovation. The Top 10 winners will deliver presentations as part of TAG’s fifth annual Georgia Technology Summit on March 3, 2009.

“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized as one of Georgia’s Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies,” said Greg Coonley, Unicoi’s Chief Executive Officer. “We appreciate the opportunity to join our colleagues in celebrating success through technological innovation in our region.”

The “Top 40”, from which “Top 10” contestants were selected, was awarded based on specific criteria including: degree of innovation, scope and financial impact of innovation, likelihood of success, and promotion of Georgia’s innovative efforts nationally and internationally. Half of the TAG Top 40 companies were selected to compete in a presentation tryout for the right to be recognized in the TAG Top 10. Eligible companies must be Georgia-based and directly involved in technology development.

Unicoi Systems was chosen for the global success of its Fusion Embedded Software product lines and its innovations in IP-based communications devices. Unicoi’s Fusion TCP/IP software is the most widely deployed embedded networking stack in the world, providing network connectivity to the majority of the set-top-boxes and networked printing devices in deployment. Unicoi Systems is the only company in Georgia providing embedded software solutions on a global scale, with multiple offices in the U.S. and sales distribution centers worldwide.

About TAG

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support its members by generating opportunities for personal, professional and business growth. By forging strategic alliances, TAG serves as a primary catalyst to foster a rich environment for economic development in Georgia’s technology community. For more information, please visit http://www.tagonline.org, email e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (404) 817-3333.

About Unicoi

Unicoi Systems is a leading provider of VoIP and multimedia software and reference designs to embedded device developers and OEMs worldwide. More than 300 companies rely on Unicoi to power their solutions, including major technology companies Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Panasonic, Raytheon, Cisco Systems, and Sony. For more information, visit http://www.unicoi.com, email e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call +1 (678) 208-2250 extension 302.

Comments (0) TAG in the News

Page 3 of 3 pages « First  <  1 2 3