Weekly Accomplishments (Apr 12-18)

I took most of the previous week off to catch up on reading and to plan out some personal projects for the upcoming summer. Originally, it was supposed to be a 2-3 week break from work but I got some exciting news on Wednesday that made me change the plans (including cancelling the vacation) and put some things off until mid-May. This is inconvenient but some opportunities must not be missed. Nonetheless, I still did some productive things:

• I attended the GWU Summit on Entrepreneurship and its main event The GWU Business Plan Competition that took place on Thursday & Friday. In addition to bouncing off my latest ideas off some established business people, I got to see what kind of business plans made it to the semi-finals and later finals. In short, the competition really needs to improve its rules next year and potential contestants need to take Effective Slides 101.
  The cool thing about the competition was that the audience was allowed to ask questions if the judges ran out of them. I seized the moment and asked some very pesky questions. As a result, a number of random people (mostly judges from previous stages) commended me on them during the receptions. Now, I am contemplating asking to be a judge next year (though I gotta build up some serious credentials, first).
• On Saturday, I dropped by the first public brainstorming session for the upcoming Digital Capital Week, a 10-day festival celebrating the DC tech community & promoting technology solutions to many issues organized by my friends at iStrategyLabs & Shiny Heart Ventures. It was great to see people with many different goals that need tech input coming together. It seems to me that the main themes will be learning DC, solving social & medical issues, bridging the digital divide, and patronizing arts & creativity.
  This note is just one of the many that I’ll be posting in the upcoming weeks promoting the event because I’m very excited about it. I am already involved (I signed up as a pro bono teacher & consultant) and I want you everyone else to find a project that seems interesting to them – there are plenty to choose. If nothing is of interest, create your own!