Category: News

After 8 years of volunteer service to the community, we (Stuart and Keith) are “retiring” from Tech Toledo. We have enjoyed putting on events, supporting other grassroots efforts, partnering with various institutions, and overall cat herding to help connect technologists, designers, and entrepreneurs in the Toledo region. We are moving on to other things, but…

One of the two Blade articles I was interviewed for last week has been published. This one is in the Arts section: the other was being written for the Business section. Look into the future: How technology is changing our art, our world — and even ourselves by Kirk Baird, who covers media and culture. Good article!…

The ErieHack Toledo hackathon and competition took place this past weekend and was a resounding success! Six teams developed their ideas for solving Lake Erie water problems: FreshWater created an app to boost engagement with water-related resources and provide coupon incentives that required users to answer a water-related question that would help educate the public. The app also…

Tech Toledo is helping organize ErieHack Toledo, an innovation competition to address Lake Erie water challenges, as part of a larger ErieHack competition, with $100,000 in prizes. The ErieHack Water Data and Engineering Hackathon is a tech-driven water innovation competition and accelerator program that will bring together software developers, engineers, data experts, water professionals and…

I (Keith) helped organize and got to attend the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing (OCWiC) 2017 conference, a biannual event that gives young women the opportunity to explore careers in IT, to network with other young women and to meet possible mentors. OCWiC inspires women to complete their studies in computing by expanding their awareness…

Tech Toledo was a sponsor of the CodeMash 2017 conference (January 12 & 13), and it was a great experience. Instead of just attending, we had an “exhibitor table” where we engaged with the 2000 software developers and others who were spending the week at the Kalahari Convention Center/Resort/Waterpark in Sandusky. We got a lot out of…

A list of some of the things Tech Toledo has done and helped with over the last five years. Events and Other Efforts: Highlight of efforts for 2017 (Some in the works, some are wish list)

Tech Toledo is happy to be supporting Refresh Detroit‘s Global Accessibility Awareness Day. On May 19th, we encourage Toledoans in a variety of digital professions to head up to Grand Circus in downtown Detroit to “see” what is is like to use the web with a screen reader. Register at meetup.com: cost is only $5. The…

On April 12th, Tech Toledo partnered with the BGSU student ACM chapter (computer science students, mainly) to host Darren Kall’s talk “User Insights for the Whole Team” at BGSU. The general feedback was positive: great topic, good examples, very knowledgeable speaker, and nice to meet people from various groups. It was crowded and got warm…

Back in January, we helped collect data for the Ohio Tech Industry Advocacy Survey. A report based on the first set of results was published a while ago. Download 2015 Ohio Tech Issues Report (PDF, 8 pages) One key purpose of the report is to “help increase lawmakers’ understanding of the industry and how they can…

The release of two reports that show an increase in high-tech jobs in Michigan triggered an article by Tyrel Linkhorn of The Blade (published yesterday, March 5th). He was looking for a Toledo angle, so he contacted me (Keith) and we talked for 30 minutes or so. He used two quotes from me. Here are…

The Lima 2016 Tech Conference will be April 14th. This is the premier event for IT vendors in the region. It is organized by LRITA, the Lima Regional Information Technology Alliance. Check out the conference web site for more information. Learn about how to be a sponsor, exhibitor, presenter and attendee. Some hi-lites: Keynote presenter Damian…

Calling all IT leaders in the Toledo region! We need a few minutes of your time to fill out a survey about the issues that are important to you (such as IT talent attraction and tech start-up funding). The results of our survey will be added to data from other Ohio regions to help advocate…

1. Connect Google document with tabs for different categories of resources 2. Create After some time connecting, you will need to start the deep dive of learning about Lean, The Business Model Canvas, and startups in general. Take advantage of every opportunity to learn and ask others — and just start. After doing some creating,…

We wanted to give you an overview of what we (Keith Instone & Stuart Bertsch) do as “Tech Toledo” to help connect the tech and entrepreneur communities in the region. When we spot tech, design and entrepreneur events on meetup.com, Facebook, in a local paper, and anywhere else, we see if they are already listed on ToledoTechEvents.org.…

Saturday, June 6, 2015, will be the initial CoderDojo Toledo meeting! RSVP for your child! What is CoderDojo? From coderdojo.com/about: CoderDojo is a global movement of free, volunteer-led, community-based programming clubs for young people. At a Dojo, young people, between 7 and 17, learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and explore technology in…

Jon Chavez has a great lead article in today’s Business & Real Estate section of The Blade: Region’s tech culture starts reboot: Incubators, collaboration foster rebirth of entrepreneurship, start-ups We are proud to have part of the TechToledo collaboration story included in the article! One slight clarification: we did not “create” ToledoTechEvents.org. We “adopted” it: Jason Slagle…

A review of the status of tech groups in the Toledo region. This will help us figure out who to invite to the GeekDinner HolidayMixer in December. New in 2014 Girl Develop It Toledo (website, meetup, calendar): Announced at the 2013 holiday mixer, GDI has already hosted 4 code-and-coffees and 10 days of workshops. Northwest Ohio…