IT Martini Hour 17: Swing With Agility

IT Martini is back, Columbus!  Once again, IT Martini is joining forces with The Path to Agility Conference - and celebrating its third anniversary with IT Martini Hour 17: Swing with Agility at Park Street Cantina on Thursday, May 26th.

It's hard to believe that just three years ago in June 2008, co-founders John Bishop and Aladin Gohar combined forces to produce an event for a couple hundred Columbus IT Pros at Spice.  Fast forward to 2011, when a crowd of nearly 1,000 IT Pros are expected to take over the newly remodeled and renamed space where it all began!

This event is all about the growing influence of Agile across the industry.  The program highlights include:

• 4:30pm: Special Access for the Path to Agility Attendees, to Participate in a Conference Retrospective

• 5:30pm: Registration Opens for All IT Martini Guests, with Executive Icebreaker hosted by Quick Solutions
  

• 6:15pm: Speed Networking, hosted by Expedient
  

• 8:00pm: Buckeye Ranch Charity Giveaway & Presentation of the IT Community Choice Award
  

• All Evening: Voting on DEMOs, Charity Raffle, Refreshments, Networking & FUN

IT Martini is on a mission: to grow the IT Community in cities everywhere!  Sixteen (16) events have been held across the Midwest to date, in cities like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Indianapolis.

IT Martini was founded in 2008 by John Bishop and Aladin Gohar, who realized that IT Professionals in Columbus weren't socializing as an IT Community.  They spawned a social event network about leadership, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and FUN.

IT Martini is partnering with two organizations supporting leadership in the Columbus IT Community at IT Martini Hour 17, with these two activities: 

• The Executive Icebreaker is an opportunity for those in IT organizational leadership roles to exchange ideas with one another.  If you're registered for IT Martini Hour 17, watch for a special invitation, compliments of Quick Solutions.

• Speed Networking is an opportunity for anyone to demonstrate leadership, by exchanging ideas with IT Pros in Columbus in a timed fashion.  Watch for signs at IT Martini Hour 17 indicating the specific location of this activity, hosted by Expedient at 6:15pm.
  

IT Martini hosts early stage 'start-up' companies, who DEMO their products, built by local IT Professionals.  IT Martini has given out fourteen (14) IT Community Choice Awards to a field of over ninety (90) DEMOs.

The field of seven DEMOs for IT Martini Hour 17 includes:

1. AppNinjas provides credit card processing solutions for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android devices. You swipe at the store, the gas station and the bank -- now swipe on your mobile device.


2. Blue Campaign Solutions is a website platform for Democratic political campaigns. Products include Calltime Pro which helps campaigns improve fundraising efficiency. Campaign Pulse allows campaigns to track websites and blogs to see what is being said about the campaign.


3. Duet Health provides mobile software that helps connect doctors and patients. The purpose is to increase doctor/patient communication and ultimately strengthen their relationships with one another. 


4. Hiring Force is not a staffing company, but a company that manages the vendor and contractor staffing process. Hiring Force software eases the process from requirement to the facilitation of the candidates.


5. HotBarSpot is an app that allows you to search for bars in any area. Out of town and looking for salsa dancing and margaritas? HotBarSpot can help.


6. Ripple Mobile creates apps for businesses and consumers including Phone Tag which lets users track their friends’ locations and talk to them in real time. On Time is a fascinating app which helps users plan a busy day by incorporating their schedules with travel times and even traffic patterns.


7. SpeakerSite is the place to find a speaker for your event - any event. What kind of speaker? Input your topic, budget, location and any other relevant keywords to find the appropriate speaker for the message you want to convey.

The Buckeye Ranch provides services and support to adolescents with mental health issues and their families. The ranch was started by a group of women who banded together, searched for the city's biggest issues and decided to dedicate their efforts to helping children. Since that early bond in 1961, the Buckeye Ranch has grown to offer residential services, community based programs at three different sites. Foster care, deaf services, education programs, prevention and a compelling visitation and exchange program offer families a safe, neutral and reassuring environment to facilitate visitation requirements. Got a prize that you'd like to donate for the Buckeye Ranch raffle benefit at IT Martini Hour 17?  Reach out to Michelle Aro, at michelle@itmartini.com.