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Caregivers cost employers $30 Billion Annually

Employees are being called upon to become caregivers
1379_ 4/23/13 - One of the biggest challenges for companies today is that employees are increasingly being called upon to become caregivers for elderly and/or ill relatives. Almost 66 million Americans, or one in every four, is a caregiver and it is estimated that over 16 million people in the U.S. who serve as primary caregivers are also employed full time. The cost to their employers in terms of absenteeism, lost productivity and turnover is estimated at over $30 billion annually. We are speaking with Debby Henkens, director of business development for IngeniumCare, a health IT company that develops advanced technology solutions to help individuals with health concerns living at home or in facilities to be as safe and independent as possible. Many Americans with health issues, whether they are elderly, have a chronic illness, disability, or other condition, need help staying connected to their family and caregivers. The impact on businesses is likely to increase as several population and health trends converge. Every day, approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 65, with a total cohort of 75 million people. The incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease increases with age and as many as 50% of individuals over age 85 may develop the disease. People are living longer with more chronic illnesses and due to the healthcare funding crisis, there is more pressure to provide healthcare services in the home. All of this adds up to more employees being actively involved with care giving, which can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Long-distance care giving, a situation many adult children find themselves in, can be extremely stressful and take a great deal of time away from work. One of the biggest opportunities for companies today is to support their employees who are care givers so that they maintain their productivity, energy, and creativity. Companies that do this will build employee loyalty, reduce healthcare costs if they are self-insured, and attract talented new employees who appreciate these benefits...there is more great advice...
RELATED LINKS: Ingeniumcare Info || TiE Rockies || Innovation Pavilion || Software Channel || KEYWORDS: Debby Henkens, IngeniumCare, Health IT Company, CareGivers, CareGo Connected Care, TiE Rockies, Innovation Pavilion, Software bytes=7022866
LISTEN TO: Debby Henkens, IngeniumCare

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From Scholarship Funds to 2nd Stage Growth...

Penny Lewandowski Second Stage Development and Growth
1373_ 4/10/13 - We're here with keynote speaker, at the ACG Denver's April Luncheon, Penny Lewandowski director of entrepreneurship development for the Edward Lowe Foundation. Lewandowski works with entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) as they develop creative ways to grow their communities by serving second-stage businesses. She is a frequent speaker on the topics of building an entrepreneurial culture, as well as the importance of working with growth companies. She also directs the foundation’s Entrepreneurship Team and manages the technology services for the organization. It's been six months since Lewandowski was in Denver, Larry asked for an update on what's happening with Colorado Companies to Watch. Penny said, "Tomorrow evening we will be at the Governor's Residence with all of the finalists - and I think we have 184 finalists. We had a record number of nominations this year. Colorado is always out front when it comes to nominations. Then on Thursday we're going to be judging those companies, and they go through a pretty intensive process with that. We'll probably make an announcement in the next several weeks after we do the judging."

ACG Denver’s David Sloan Scholarship Program. Set your goal to become an ACG Scholar! Each year the Denver Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) awards one scholarship to a promising 1st or 2ndyear student at each of five area graduate business programs, in the amount of $2,500 annually. The scholarship is renewable for a second year based on both the academic performance and the career ambition of the student. To be eligible for the award, the recipient must be currently enrolled in one of five programs with a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better...Listen for much more...
RELATED LINKS: ACG Denver || M&A Channel || ACG Denver's David Sloan Scholarship Program || Colorado Companies to Watch || ACG Photo || KEYWORDS: Penny Lewandowski, Entrepreneurship, Second Stage Companies, Edward Lowe Foundation, Colorado Companies to Watch, ACG Denver, David Sloan Scholarship, University of Denver, bytes=2751741
LISTEN TO: Penny Lewandowski, Director of Entrepreneurship, Edward Lowe Foundation

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Keys to being successful entrepreneur

Life of the Entrepreneur: Controlling Your Destiny
421_ 9/06/11 [12/10/2007] Nancy Phillips, NCWIT Hero, offers a few keys for being a successful entrepreneur: Maintain a good sense of humor; Overcome the nay-sayers; and Practice real-world economics. Nancy is the Co-Founder, Director, COO of ViaWest (Today, Nancy is President and CEO as this was recorded in December, 2007) and shared her story and poignant points about building and growing a business even in the toughest of times to Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy along with Larry Nelson. Nancy loves technology and people and has a long history with the Telecom industry. She enjoys the challenges of being an entrepreneur for many reasons including her passion to control her destiny. Nancy says her husband claims, "Because I'm a control freak." Phillips has also been a principal, executive and consultant for numerous successful telecommunications companies including France Telecom, MCI and Qwest. Over 15 years ago, she began her career with Teleconferencing Systems Canada as Vice President of Sales and it was in this role that she met Roy Dimoff - the two have been loyal business partners ever since. Nancy shares some excellent advice for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs. Related Links: ViaWest || NCWIT Home || Software || NCWIT Entrepreneurs || NCWIT Blog || Keywords: Nancy Phillips, ViaWest, Lucy Sanders, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes, Teleconferencing Systems Canada, France Telecom, MCI, Qwest > 12/10/07 Bytes: 48124972 Listen to: Nancy Phillips, ViaWest > Bytes: 48124972
LISTEN to Nancy Phillips, ViaWest

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Customer Experience

Michele Gebhart, Have Them Look at Business Process
1361_ 3/8/13 - We're speaking with Michele Gebhart the immediate past executive director of the ACG Denver [Association for Corporate Growth]. Now, Michele has been the executive director since 2003 when the membership was 68 people. Today membership tops 500+ and growing. Michele has a very interesting background in high tech. She tells us, "Technically I've been in operations my entire career. Most recently leading the Association for Corporate Growth and before that with Fortune 500 technology companies and a global IT consulting firm." Her strengths in systems implementation, process management and program development have helped organizations through periods of significant growth and made a significant impact on increasing their customer satisfaction. She's often been referred to as the glue in the organization because of her ability to organize and move projects from objectives to accomplishments while coordinating large teams and demonstrating specialism's in all of her interactions. She's worked with the techies, the end user/customer, sales teams, executive teams and her expertise is bringing all those together. They don't always speak the same language, Michele is the person that brings all the stakeholders together through communication. Larry asked, "With all of your experience, what do you feel is the biggest challenge businesses face today?" She replied, "The biggest challenge I keep coming across is the customer experience. And I hear that not only from external customers but internal customers. I think businesses have gotten very specialized in their hiring. They're looking for specific skill sets, but then they're missing that person that brings them all together. Ultimately the customer experience is what is going to drive the success of your business. If your internal customers aren't happy and your external customers aren't happy - you're not going to last very long. Businesses need to focus more on improving that customer experience. You know, finding the people who can help them find the holes in the business and fix those gaps." Listen for more great advice...
RELATED LINKS: Michele Gebhart LinkedIn || ACG Denver || Dell Computer || ACG Denver Channel || KEYWORDS: Michele Gebhart, Customer Experience, Business Process, Communications, IT, Customers, Sales Teams, Executives, Dell Computer, ACG Denver, Association for Corporate Growth, bytes=5403692
LISTEN TO: Michele Gebhart

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Nurture & Encourage Talent

Speaking of Kendall Colman & Molly Hughes
1347_ 2/15/13 - We are here with Molly Hughes and Kendall Colman, discussing one of Larry's favorite subjects, entrepreneurism and the current challenges and opportunities. Colman & Company was founded and started 13 years ago by Kendall. She said, "It was really a result of a passion of hers at a very early age, based on the idea that people really do have potential that lies in them like a seed. With the right skills and talent and encouragement really can be developed." That was her personal experience as a competitive athlete; she found the coaches in her life made the biggest difference of all. Of course we all recognize Molly Hughes from Channel 4 News. After leaving CBS about a year ago, Molly joined forces with Kendall and is handling the speech and media preparedness aspect of Kendall's executive coaching firm. Molly says the Kendall found she was working with a lot of executives who then were doing great on the leadership front but there was still some work that needed to be done on public speaking. That is how their work fits together, Molly works with their clients on speech development and really anything related to communication, whether it is through the lens of a camera, one-on-one or to a large group of people. Larry asked what are the biggest challenges for companies today. Kendall believes most of us have some terrific ideas. "It doesn't take much to notice in our society, areas that can be improved. Gaining support and getting those first few people... It's always those first few people, for an entrepreneur, that make the biggest difference, who jump on board with the idea and say, I see it too. The challenge is putting an organizational structure in place so that the idea can be successful, before the home equity loan runs out." Then Larry sought out the great opportunities. Molly said, "What we're finding in the work we do is the Internet is huge, no matter what your business is. One of the best ways businesses can engage with their clients or consumers is through the use of video. It is one of the ways that all of our sensors are all at play. More and more people are turning to video as a way to really get their product or service out there. There is just explosive growth in this field right now."
RELATED LINKS: Colman & Company || Colman & Company Events || Economy Builders || Podcast Directory || KEYWORDS: Kendall Colman, Molly Hughes, Colman & Company, Speaking, Coaching, Organizational Psychology, Behavioral Sciences, Culture, Channel 4 News, CBS > bytes=7774357
LISTEN TO: Kendall Colman & Molly Hughes, Colman & Company

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If starting a company is for you...

Ingrid Alongi takes a Quick Left and builds a Company
WorldBlu's Most Democratic Place to Work!
1343_ 2/6/13 - Lucy Sanders, CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network interviewed Ingrid Alongi, CEO and CoFounder, Quick Left. Quick Left is a software engineering company that specializes in designing and building custom web and mobile applications, and is a member of NCWIT’s Entrepreneurial Alliance. With the increasing need for superior web and mobile applications from all sectors, Quick Left is meeting this demand through their innovative processes and unique organizational structure. Due to this unique structure, Quick Left was named one of WorldBlu’s most democratic workplaces of 2012. Lucy asked Ingrid to tell us about this. "It's something we haven't done enough bragging about. WorldBlu is a really cool organization that is about setting up strategy for being a democratic organization and some really great companies are part of their list - in all kinds of industries. Some of the things we do, we have a really transparent organization, and open books policy, we share the financial situation with the team quarterly. Ingrid, a Boulder native, began her career in web development in southern California during the late 1990s. Throughout her career, she also gained experience building and running engineering teams as well as working with and managing clients. As soon as she had the chance, she moved back to Boulder in 2007 to work in the budding startup scene, which soon lead to the recreation of Quick Left. Ingrid doesn't think of herself as an entrepreneur. She says, "I just like to get things done. I like to keep my commitments. I think it's a good thing, if people are considering, if starting a company, is for them. You don't have to be a certain type of person to be successful." Ingrid's advice to young people: Don't force it. Don't start a company just to start one. It's really important to wait until the right thing comes along - the right passion or the right co-founder. Don't be pressured ...Listen for more great ideas...
RELATED LINKS: Quick Left || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Blog || TechStars || Heroes Channel || KEYWORDS: Ingrid Alongi, Quick Left, Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT, Entrepreneur, Boulder, TechStars, Heroes, > bytes=16175754
LISTEN TO: Ingrid Alongi, CEO & CoFounder, Quick Left

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Developing future opportunities

Venture capitalists looking into the newest
1340_ 1/23/13 - The line between the digital and physical worlds has blurred. We are talking with two of the young men who watch that line, understand and encourage development and bet their futures on what it all means. We're here at the Defrag / blur 2012 Conferences talking with Seth Levine and Ryan McIntyre from Foundry Group. The two conferences are really loaded with some high powered stuff everything from devices that enable [non-invasive] brain-computer interaction to 3D printers and gaming with helicopters that are controlled wirelessly and nearly intuitively, by wrist action. We're looking for an overview and we think Ryan and Seth can help us with that in terms of what the Foundry Group is looking at today. Ryan tells us they have a handful of investment themes they like to explore in the investing process. Here at Defrag and blur Foundry Group has had a number of their portfolio companies represented within those themes. Defrag came out of conversations around how technology was evolving in the enterprise and the inter-connection of computers, glue applications, protocol applications - these are some of the themes we talked about. And blur really came out of our interest in the evolution of human-computer interaction. So the notion that the ways we interact with computers and computer systems is undergoing a massive, seismic shift right now. So your keyboard and mouse, windows gooey - is behind us. You know, we have new touch screen interaction with our pads and our tablets, just the way we interact with and even what we recognize with computers is undergoing this seismic shift and changes. The exhibits and companies that are here really represent that. That's why we're here and deeply interested in what's going on in the world of human-computer interaction. Seth explained that last year's blur [2011] was exactly that. Ryan said, "That's the evolution of the core idea, that it's expanded the footprint. It’s the notion of how we interact with the computer in the real world. It really allows us to take the digital world and push it out into the physical world. That's a fascinating development that really expands the kind of things we can talk about in computer interaction and digital life and blur..." ...listen for more ...
RELATED LINKS: Foundry Group || Defrag 1 Site, 2 Shows 3 Days || Defrag/blur Info || Blur Conference Photos || Defrag Conference Photos || KEYWORDS: Ryan McIntyre, Seth Levine, Foundry Group, Venture Capitalist, DefragCon 2012, blur, Software, Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces, Glue Applications, Protocol Applications > bytes=3783265
LISTEN TO: Seth Levine & Ryan McIntyre, Foundry Group

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Get Ready... Set... Go...

Women's roles and behaviors in technology commercialization
1339_ 1/22/13 - Today Lucy Sanders, CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network are interviewing Jean Hammond an entrepreneur and angel investor. Jean is a co-founder of the Boston forum of Golden Seeds (which invests in women-managed businesses) and a member of Launchpad Venture Group and Hub Angels. An investor with an active portfolio over 50 companies, she has served on the Board or as a Board-level advisor with over 20 of these firms. Jean's been working on a new non-profit that she recently launched called Learn Launch. Helping drive the support ecosystem by matching entrepreneurs with investors and other resources, Jean meets with hundreds of entrepreneurs a year. As a part-time entrepreneur-in-residence at the E Center and an active mentor at TCN, TechStars, and MassChallenge, she has directly or indirectly helped dozens of startups, moving them from “idea stage” to “funding-ready” to eventual launch to become vital members of the Massachusetts innovation economy. Most recently, Jean co-founded LearnLaunch, a non-profit fostering the creation and growth of learning and education technology companies and the ed tech business cluster across New England. LearnLaunch brings together innovators, K-12 and higher ed educators, investors, students, school leaders, buyers and distribution channels, and provides structured services such as classes, forums, conferences and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs. On the board of Thompson Island Outward Bound and Boston Rising Jean supports the growth of science education and entrepreneurial jobs in the inner city...there's much more to listen to...
RELATED LINKS: NCWIT Blog || LearnLaunch || NCWIT Home || Golden Seeds Boston || Launchpad Venture Group || TechStars Boston || Heroes Channel || KEYWORDS:Jean Hammond, Learn Launch, Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women and Information Technology, NCWIT, LaunchPad Venture Group, Hub Angels, TechStars, Boston, > BYTES=15642856
LISTEN TO: Jean Hammond, Founder, Learn Launch

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Muse as effective as Ritalin

Learning how to build healthier brain habits
1334_ 1/12/13 - We've enlisted Kirsten Nelson to help us cover the blur conference with so much cutting edge technology and business to check out here. We're talking with Ariel Garten, CEO and cofounder of InteraXon, specializing in non-invasive brain-computer interfaces - thought controlled computing products and applications... It's just what it sounds like, it is the ability to interact with content directly with your mind. The 'Muse' is a sensor that sits on your forehead and uses your brain waves and then lets you play games with your brain, interact with lighting systems, control music, or allow you to see inside your own mind, and see your own brain activity. You can use that information to improve your cognitive fitness, improve your emotional regulation and see what your brain is doing at different times of the day. Kirsten asked Ariel if there were specific groups that could benefit from this kind of technology. Ariel said, "...everyone can benefit from learning how to build healthier brain habits, how to improve their own mental functioning and, the way they interact in the world. In particular kids with ADD can benefit from it. Kids with ADD have lowered levels of beta waves and actually playing games with their brain - specifically with their beta waves can decrease their ADD symptoms as effectively as Ritalin." Where is this technology going in the future? Ariel explains, "In the far future it will be as ubiquitous as voice or gesture technology is now. Using your mind to interact with technology is going to be a really basic way to interact with the world." InteraXon was formed in 2007 when Ariel Garten decided to commercialize the thought controlled computing technology initially developed by world-renowned cyberneticist Dr. Steve Mann and his colleague, Dr. James Fung...There's more...
RELATED LINKS: InteraXon || C3 Writing || Defrag 1 Site, 2 Shows 3 Days || Defrag/blur Info || Blur Conference Photos || Defrag Conference Photos || KEYWORDS: Ariel Garten, CEO, InteraXon, Kirsten Nelson DefragCon 2012, blur, Software, Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces, Muse, ADD, Brain Waves, bytes=3091542
LISTEN TO: Ariel Garten, CEO/Founder Interaxon

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Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier
1332_ 1/10/13 - Lucy Sanders, CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network interviewed Hilary Mason, for NCWIT's Hero Series with inspirational women leaders in technology and IT sector. Hilary has a great job, she is the chief scientist at bitly. Through its URL shortening and bookmarking services bitly provides a fun and easy way to save, share, and discover links from the web by using links called "bitmarks". Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier - pretty important to services like Twitter, for example. As Chief Scientist, Hilary's work crosses pure research, math, and development of product-focused systems. Hilary loves New York and she loves NY entrepreneurs - she is the Co-Organizer for DataGotham, Co-Founder of HackNY, as well as a member of the NYC Resistor. She is also involved with the NY TechStars effort, something near and dear to our hearts. How did Hilary become interested in technology? Hilary said, it started when she was a little girl. She was fascinated by computers and she taught herself to write code from the back of magazines when she was still in elementary school. Her fascination continued and she went on and majored in computer sciences. Her love for technology continues and she thinks it is amazing that the computer she carries in her pocket is more powerful than the one she used in elementary school. Hilary has mixed feeling about the word entrepreneur because it's so overloaded in our culture, and it's become trendy in a way that she's not sure is healthy. The way Hilary describes her work is she tends to find problems and then try to make things that solve the problems. It's engineering the right thing to solve the problem - no so much about starting a business just for the sake of being an entrepreneur...Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: bitly || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Blog || TechStars NYC || Heroes Channel || KEYWORDS: Hilary Mason, bitly, Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women and Information Technology, NCWIT, Entrepreneur, New York, TechStars, Hero's, BYTES=13407611
LISTEN TO: Hilary Mason, Chief Scientist, bitly

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