So… bring your brains and get ready to have them blown to smithereens.

We’ll be at ThincSpace again, and this month we’re trying an earlier start time.  So, be at 35 Barnard at 6PM on 8/21 and get ready to innovate!

Also, if you’d like to sponsor, let me know (kevin-at-lawver.net).  I think everyone enjoys the beer and it seems to get things off on the right informal track.

We’ll be back at ThincSpace again at 7PM next Tuesday (8/17). I hope to see you all there!

We don’t have a sponsor this month yet. If you’d like to provide beer, sodas and/or snacks, please let me know (kevin@lawver.net). There should be a good crowd there this month and you’ll get a couple minutes at the beginning of Refresh to talk about pretty much whatever you want.

Focus Lab has stepped up and is sponsoring this month’s Refresh! Focus Lab specializes in creating engaging web sites that help businesses grow and achieve more online. You don’t want to work with them if you’re looking for a boring and ineffective web solution. Word on the street is that they’re a fun bunch too.

Thank you, Erik and Bill!

Here are the details:

• What: Agile Development Practices
• Where: Thincspace – 35 Barnard St
• When: Tuesday 7/20 @ 7PM
• Who: Marvin Heery

And while we’re here… I was talking to Erik Shulz last week about getting Refresh bowling shirts made. Being the busy bee that he is, he’s already gone off and talked to shirt people about it, and well, here we are. It turns out we need a few things before we get shirts printed:

• A logo
• maybe a sponsor
• a rough idea of how many people want one

So, if you’re a designer and want to throw together a logo… awesome! Erik has already told me that I’m not allowed to do it, and he’s right. Also, if we want to keep the cost down, a sponsor would be cool. Your logo would be on the back of the shirt along with the Refresh logo and we’d love you forever. And, if you think you’d want one of these limited edition beauties, post a comment or e-mail me and let me know!

Lastly, a few folks have suggested we move the time up to 6 or 6:30 since there isn’t as much traffic in Savannah as there is in DC, and once folks get home inertia will likely keep them there. I’m willing to try it if there are enough people who want to move the time. Otherwise, I’m fine with 7. If you have strong feelings either way, post a comment or shoot me an e-mail stating your case for either one.

There you go, an announcement, a quest and a question. I hope to see everyone on the 20th!

(one last thing, if you’re a frequent Refresh attendee and have a blog, let me know so I can add you to the old school blog roll we have going on over there)

We have to push June’s Refresh back a week to fit his schedule, but I think it’s worth this one time to disrupt the normal schedule. So, June’s Refresh will be June 22nd at 7pm at Thincspace!!

And since the beer went over so well last time, if someone would like to sponsor the evening, you’ll get a chance to make your pitch (about 3 minutes) to the assembled throng and all you have to provide is some refreshments. If you’re interested, send me an e-mail (kevin@lawver.net).

We still need volunteers to present for July and August – so if you’re like to present on one of the topics (someone’s already volunteered to cover Agile Development, so NoSQL is up for grabs, or anything else you want to talk about), ping me at the e-mail address above. Remember, you don’t need to be an expert, and if you’re not used to presenting in front of crowds, friendly groups like Refresh are great places to practice. You won’t find a friendlier audience, or one more willing to pitch in and help out if you get stuck. So, if you’d like to eventually speak at industry conferences, I highly recommend speaking at Refresh!

I hope to see you all in June!

Update: And as a last minute addition, we’ll have a short presentation by Kevin Johnson from the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG for short). They recently launched an economic development program called Economic Gardening here in the Coastal Region that focuses on growing small businesses, specifically high-tech or tech-enabled businesses. Angels really like this program because it focuses on getting companies the best marketing research on the market —something that according to local angel investor, Ray Wenig, is the most lacking part of business plans he receives. And, because the services offered by the program are subsided by government, they are really affordable. So it’s a great tie-in. Oh, and TAG is helping with the food and drinks, too!!

May’s presentation will be by Rad Harrell from TalentSoup. And here’s the description:

How To Make A Dollar (Then A Million) – “Lifestyle Business” are not dirty words

Standing on the shoulders of giants (aka, stealing great ideas) and the carcasses of his past start up failures, Rad will present how to get your business idea off the napkin and into action in order to flesh it out. The main points of this talk are to:

• challenge your assumptions about technology businesses (how to start one and what success really looks like)
• how 90% of what you think you should do to start a business is wrong
• how the business media is paid to lie about start ups
• making a dollar is the watershed, everything else is scale
• how the only barrier to participating is you

So bring your business ideas, come to listen, maybe learn something and certainly push back if want! The savior of our economy is in people that start businesses and Rad believes those people are all around Savannah

And because we’re breaking in a new venue, I’m going to try something new this month. Thincspace has the space and facilities for “refreshments” so I’m looking for a sponsor for May’s meeting! This is extremely informal and the only requirement is that you provide some kind of refreshments (punch and cookies, beer and chips, whatever you want), and you can put out your business cards, literature, whatever, in the communal area. You can also give a short pitch at the beginning if you feel like it (no more than 3-4 minutes, pretty please). If that’s interesting to you, ping me at kevin-at-lawver.net and let me know!

Update: That was quick! The lovely folks at Rails Machine are going to sponsor this month’s meeting. Thanks, Brad, Jimi & crew!!

We’ll be meeting at our office again… and here are the details:

• What: Refresh April: HTML5
• When: April 20th @ 7PM
• Where: Music Intelligence Solutions, Inc – 208 E. Broughton St

Bring your questions and opinions, and I hope to see you there! Oh, and if you’d like a little preview of HTML5, go to the TEDx Creative Coast site and view source. I started it for the demos for this presentation and happily repurposed it for the site!

And better late than never, here are the slides from last month’s presentation:

Brad also suggested the topic for April’s Refresh, which was quickly second and thirded. I’ll be presenting something I’m currently calling HTML5 and the Wonder of Web Standards. We’ll go over the major new features of HTML5 and a brief history of the HTML Working Group (including the WhatWG), what you can use today, how to get IE to play nice with it, and what we can expect in the next year or so.

April’s Refresh will be April 20th at 7PM. Right now, I think we’ll have it at our office again. There’s one more downtown option for a venue I want to look into, but you’ve got plenty of time to coordinate your attendance strategy.

Oh, and Dave Malouf’s set up a Google Moderator to help gather and vote on ideas for how to bring Google fiber to Savannah. Go vote and add an idea or two!

Being a geek is only half the story. Although our passion and intensity drives our work and interests, we can often be uncomfortable in environments that may come more naturally to non-geeks. This talks explores how to push beyond your comfort zone by exploring new skills and hobbies.

I think we’ll have March’s Refresh at the Music Intelligence office, just to spice things up. We’re at 208 E Broughton St right downtown. Be there at 7PM on 3/16 for some good geeky camaraderie!

I know I said I thought I had someone lined up for March, but it turns out… I don’t! So, we need someone to step up to speak at March’s Refresh. You can speak about pretty much anything you want as long as you can somehow connect it to being geeky (and really, if you’re into something enough to volunteer to speak about it, you’re geeky enough). I’m going to reach out to some potential victims in the meantime, but I’d love it if someone volunteered!

If you’re interested, shoot me an e-mail (kevin-at-lawver.net) and let me know the topic, a description and anything else you want to tell me about your proposed topic. Also, be sure you’re available to speak at 7PM on 3/16, because that’s when the next meeting is!

February is coming up, so it’s time to get the word out about February’s Refresh Savannah!! Since last month’s meeting had to be canceled, we’re trying the same topic again… Jim Goodlett’s going to speak about KPI (key performance indicators) and all their power. This should be a really interesting talk and hopefully inspire some folks to consider striking out on their own.

I’ve been thinking about Refresh and where it should go. I’ve heard from several people that driving across the bridge to the SEDA building could be dampening attendance, so here’s a poll. Please fill it out and I’ll figure out where we’re going to hold February’s Refresh. It’ll either be at the SEDA building as usual, or we’ll have it at the Music Intelligence office. It’s a smaller space, but we’re right downtown and there’s ice cream downstairs. It honestly doesn’t matter to me. I want Refresh to work for the people who want to attend, without being a giant time suck for me. So, let me know your preference. Either way, we’ll be meeting at 7:00PM on February 16th! I’ll update this post with the location later.