When
Who
A Practical Approach to Innovation
Our December breakfast program will feature Deborah Cassidy
– CIO at World Access – and several of her staff for a panel
discussion on: “A Practical Approach to Innovation”.
The panel will discuss the importance of internal feedback
and external partnerships in innovation and why there is “no
silver bullet” when it comes to innovation. The presentation
will include a an overview of World Access and their current
IT priorities and challenges.
Deborah has served as the CIO for World Access since 2005
and previously served as Director of IT at Tredegar
Industries. She has over 20 years of Information Systems
experience, focusing on strategic planning and system
implementation. Deborah is a member of the GRTC’s Board of
Directors and is a founding member of the Council’s CIO
Forum.
Signature Series Sponsor
When
Who
Our
November 9th breakfast will provide a great opportunity to meet with
Virginia’s Attorney General – The Honorable Bob McDonnell. Since
being elected two years ago, Bob McDonnell has led a war against the
darker elements of cyberspace that threaten our safety, security, and
our children. Virginia has become a model for programs designed to
pursue and prosecute online predators, fraud, identity theft, illegal
spammers and other computer criminals. The Attorney General’s Internet
Safety Task Force brought together AOL, Microsoft, Google, MySpace,
Yahoo, Capital One, the FBI, educators, parents, and victims to find
innovative ways to improve the online and physical safety of our
nation’s youth.
Please plan to join us on November 9th at “The Place” in Innsbrook for
this special program, and… we’ll ask the Attorney General for his
assessment of the November 6th elections as well! For more information
or to register, please visit our website.
Immediately following the breakfast – for those wishing to stay – our
Legislative Committee will provide an overview of the GRTC’s draft
legislative priorities for 2008. All council members are invited to
participate. Your input can help shape our legislative agenda for the
upcoming session of the General Assembly.
Signature Series Sponsor
Speaker: Greg Samuels, CIO, Interbake Foods. Topic: Rejuvenating your ERP investment by getting back to the basics.
Mr. Samuels started with Interbake Foods in 2000 and now serves as its Chief Information Officer.
Signature Series Sponsor
When
Who
Mr. Kapadia has been Chief Information Officer for Hilb Rogal & Hobbs
since September of 2006.
Mr. Kapadia spent almost a decade of his professional career holding
various Sr. IT Leadership positions at General Electric / Genworth
Financial from 1997 to 2006. Mr. Kapadia was Software Development
Manager for Aetna, Inc. from 1991 until 1997 before starting at GE.
Mr. Kapadia graduated from University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of
Science in Accounting and Computer Science. He received his MBA from
University of New Haven.
Signature Series Sponsor
When
Who
Chief Executive Officer, Shawn Boyer has directed the rapid growth of SnagAJob.com from a start-up to the nation’s largest part-time and hourly job posting site. His vision and ability to assemble and lead a team that executes the Company’s strategy have been keys to SnagAJob’s success.
At our August “Good Morning Technology” Breakfast, Shawn will provide an
overview of the company, its history, and the online recruitment
industry. Additionally, Shawn and Wei Wang – SnagAJob CTO – will discuss
some of the corporate and technology infrastructure initiatives that
have enabled then to rapidly scale the Company.
Shawn
Boyer, President & CEO, SnagAjob.com
Shawn Boyer founded SnagAJob.com in 1999, and since then, he has taken the company from being a start-up to the nation's largest part-time and hourly job-posting site. Prior to starting SnagAJob.com, this big thinker and passionate leader was actually a transactional attorney for Brown & Wood LLP (now Sidley Austin, LLP) and Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, LLP. He holds a Master of Law in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, a Juris Doctor from Washington & Lee University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the College of William and Mary.
Aside from mowing lawns in middle school, Shawn's first hourly job was in a retail store in his sophomore year in high school. "From day one, that job taught me that the customer is absolutely the organization's lifeblood, that they drive the business, and that you need to bend over backwards to wow them." That same philosophy is embraced throughout SnagAJob.com today.
Wei
Wang – Chief Technology Officer
SnagAJob.com
Prior to moving with his family to Virginia and joining SnagAJob.com as CTO, Wei was at Yahoo! leading the engineering team behind one of the most popular sites in the internet portal.
Before Yahoo!, Wei was an engineer and leader at many leading technology firms such as Oracle, Rational Software, and DoubleClick. Wei holds his Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.
Signature Series Sponsor
When
Who
Truckers, those sailors of the concrete and asphalt seas, are at the hub of American commerce, carrying everything - groceries and clothing, plasma TVs and medical supplies – from manufacturers and distributors to consumers across the nation. The margins in the trucking industry are razor-thin, with time between loads and fuel costs often eating into already small profits. The daily challenge for trucking companies is matching freight loads with trucks nearby, cutting down-time and empty-truck runs. In 1999, GetLoaded.com opened its web portal as a truck and load-matching board, using the internet to revolutionize business process management for the transportation and logistics industry.
Bryan
Jones, President of GetLoaded.com, will tell the Greater Richmond
Technology Council (GRTC) how the company has combined the internet with
a cutting edge computer platform and a user–friendly interface to
revolutionize the trucking and freight industry. Mr. Jones will be the
featured speaker at the monthly GRTC Good Morning Technology! Breakfast
at The Place at Innsbrook in Glen Allen, Virginia on Friday, July 20,
2007, 7:30am to 9:00am.
As the leading internet load board, Getloaded.com handles over 140,000 loads a day for 27,000 trucking companies with upwards of 500,000 trucks. Managing and growing that volume of business, and providing value to all their customers, tech-savvy or not, has been GetLoaded.com’s goal since the company was started.
“We designed the site to be simple, fast,
and easy to use, knowing that there is a wide range of comfort with
technology in our industry,” says Jones. “Overall, the trucking industry
is far more technology savvy than most people realize.” Truckers who
have used GetLoaded.com to accelerate their own success include Chris
Doran of LTD Trucking, who credits his relationship with GetLoaded.com
as the reason his company grew from five trucks to thirty in six months.
The GRTC’s July breakfast is sponsored by Peak 10 Data Center Solutions.
Peak 10 Richmond specializes in managed hosting services for businesses
with complex needs and mission critical operations. Its world-class
Richmond data center is staffed by skilled engineers and support
personnel to ensure the security, integrity and availability of its
customers' technology infrastructure 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Prior to working at Getloaded, Mr. Jones served over seven years as an
officer in the United States Navy. During his time in the military he
served in various key logistics roles. Recent tours include serving as a
Course Director at the Army Logistics Management College, finishing his
tour as the top rated course director. He also served as the Stock
Control Officer onboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation where he
finished his tour as the number one ranked Lieutenant.
Mr. Jones graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in
Mechanical Engineering and earned a Masters in Management with a
concentration in Logistics Management from the Florida Institute of
Technology.
His most notable successes to date are his wife Stephanie, their four
year old son, Peyton, and two year old daughter, Ryleigh.
Signature Series Sponsor
When
Who
Catal
Breen, Director of Emerging Technologies for First Health Services
Corporation
Technology drives medicine and medical breakthroughs. Technology is also driving rapid change in health care, and health insurance, spurred in part by the move to electronic medical records, and in part by the highly dynamic and web-driven workplace. Companies that offer health benefits to their employees look for coverage providers that can offer secure, yet easy-to-use, portals for their benefits administrators and their employees.
Catal Breen, Director of Emerging Technologies for First Health Services Corporation in Glen Allen, VA, will talk about how First Health produces and maintains healthcare information systems for its public healthcare clients. Mr. Breen will be the featured speaker at the Greater Richmond Technology Council’s Good Morning Technology breakfast at 7:30am on Friday, June 15, 2007 at The Place at Innsbrook in Glen Allen, VA.
Catal Breen has been a key catalyst in moving First Health’s IT team through tremendous evolution and growth, using web-based technologies to deploy new tools for its clients. This evolution has dramatically reduced operating costs, as well as improving process efficiency. First Health has also helped make it customers more competitive by offering healthcare plans that are easily managed and cost effective.
Catal Breen currently serves as the Director of Emerging Technologies for First Health Services Corporation, which produces and maintains Information Systems for public healthcare clients. Catal has more than 13 years of experience working with and managing healthcare solutions and software. Over the past several years Catal has been a key contributor in leading First Health's IT organization through tremendous evolution and growth where web-based technologies have served as the primary deployment method for introducing new tools. Catal has been successful in dramatically reducing operational expenses, improving process efficiency, and advancing First Health clients to be more competitive. Over 20 State Governments across the United States depend on mission-critical systems in which Catal has played an express role in engineering, modernizing, and managing to completion.
Catal serves as a District Representative for the Henrico County Council of PTAs and is a Board Member for the West Richmond Church of the Brethren. He is also a member and supporter of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) and Adoption Advocates International. More recently Catal has become involved in strategic business consulting with Action Mechanics, a small start up company, whose focus is helping organizations improve their performance through action based business improvement strategies. He is the proud father of four children and lives in the West End of Richmond, Virginia with his wife, Tammara, and their family.
Signature Series Sponsor
The GRTC’s June breakfast is sponsored by Apex Systems, Inc., a technical staffing firm specializing in temporary, contract-to-hire, and direct hire placements. Apex has a core focus on IT, business applications, accounting & finance, legal, telecommunications, and engineering staffing, and has become one of the largest staff augmentation providers to Fortune 1000 and mid-sized clients nationwide.
When
Who
Margaret E. (Lyn) McDermid - Senior Vice President-Information Technology and Chief Information Officer - Dominion
Workforce Planning with a Twist
Dominion is taking a new twist to workforce planning which includes data on the differences between generations. For the first time ever, there are 4 generations of workers in most companies. As we plan for the baby boomer surge to retirement, we are incorporating information about the worker of the future. This has significant implications about the workplace and worker mobility, technology tools and the lines of demarcation between IT and the business.
Sponsored by
When
Who
Pandemic Planning
In April, our "Good Morning Technology" breakfast will focus on a topic that we all hope to avoid but need to be prepared for… pandemic planning. We will welcome Jean Linnenbringer, Senior Operations Leader at Genworth Financial as our speaker. Jean will help us understand the issues and contingencies that need to be considered to protect our customers and employees. Please plan to join us at The Place in Innsbrook.
Sponsored by
When
Who
MARCH BREAKFAST
The Greater Richmond Technology Council (GRTC) watched high school teams go head-to-head in the annual F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition at VCU’s Siegel Center on Friday, March 2, 2007, during the monthly GRTC Good Morning Technology breakfast. The 8th Annual Richmond Regional F.I.R.S.T. Competition, an event that draws student competitors from over 60 schools in seven states, the District of Columbia and Canada, is also an annual event for the GRTC – many of its members are sponsors of F.I.R.S.T teams. GRTC members and their guests had the chance to observe the action from the competition floor, where robots are put through their paces in a series of challenging matches, or from the pits, where students work feverishly to fine-tune their machines before and during the competition.
This year’s game is “Rack and Roll”, played by two alliances, Red and Blue, each consisting of three teams. The Alliance teams will operate their robots from the end of the playing field, where their robots will work to pick up inflated pool float rings and stack them on a rack in the center of the field. The scoring rack has three eight-spoke “spiders” hung by chains horizontally within the rack – the spiders will move if impacted by a robot, adding to the challenge that the robots face when they try to hang a float ring on a spider spoke. Teams will score points for the number of rings they place in rows on the spiders in the heated 3D robot tic-tac-toe battle, and they will lose points if the opposing team hangs a black “spoiler” ring on top of their colored “keeper” and “ringer” rings. The competition will be fierce and frenzied, with the teams working out engineering solutions on the fly to make their robots effective “Rack and Roll” players.
Founded by inventor Dean Kamen, New
Hampshire-based F.I.R.S.T. works to inspire an appreciation of science
and technology in young people, their schools and their communities.
F.I.R.S.T. designs accessible, innovative programs to build
self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people
to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering. The
Richmond Regional competition, hosted in partnership with NASA Langley
and VCU School of Engineering, showcases the scientific abilities and
ambitions of high school students from several states, and gives
engineering schools and technology companies a first look at the rising
crop of innovators interested in the power of science and technology.
Signature Series Sponsor
