Spring calls for cleaning up the office and blooming new business opportunities. Whether it’s sponsoring an event or being featured in a member spotlight story, the Nashville Technology Council offers a wide variety of ways to market your business.  This Spring is jam-packed with technology community events, each one with different sponsorship opportunities, whether it’s simply exhibiting or being a Title Sponsor.  If you are interested in a particular sponsorship, and would like more information regarding benefits, contact Leah Magee at lmagee@technologycouncil.com.

April 1: Mobile Devices, Platforms & Applications: click here for sponsorship details
Premier Sponsor: $3000
Lunch Sponsor: sold out: Sprint
Breakfast Sponsor: $1500
Exhibitor: $500

April 17: TechNet: click here for event details
Premier Sponsor: sold out: Teknetex
University Exhibitor: $50
Company Exhibitor: $150

May 5: Cinco de Mayo Margarita Mixer: click here for event details
Premier Sponsor: $2000

May 7: Technology Nashville Conference: click here for sponsorship details
Platinum Sponsor: Zycron
Gold Sponsors: sold out: Ciber, Cook Systems International, Alltech, Nexus Group, eMids Technologies
Silver Sponsors: $2000 – (7 remaining) XO Communications, LBMC Technologies, Microsoft
Exhibitor: $500
Lanyards: sold out: Hiscall
Bags: $1000
Bus: sold out: Career Builder

We also offer a number of ways to promote your business for absolutely FREE.

Member Spotlight Story: Each week, we send out an e-Newsletter to a distribution list of 7,000+ individuals.  If you are interested in being the featured spotlight company, contact Emily Armstrong at earmstrong@technologycouncil.com

Blog Postings: Be a thought leader!  The Tech Council offers the unique feature of allowing member companies to be “guest writers” on our daily blog.  If you have a topic that you think our audience would be interested in, submit a blog posting to earmstrong@technologycouncil.com.  Your name and company will be mentioned as the guest writer.

Member News: Make sure you add us to your press lists.  We love promoting your great news!  Member news stories are posted on our website, on our e-Newsletter, and on all of our social media sites.

Coupons: Take advantage of our member-to-member coupons on the Members Only section of our website.  You can offer your products or services at a discounted rate.

Job Board: If you are hiring this Spring, don’t forget to utilize our job board.  This is consistently one of the most visited pages on our site, and new postings and resumes are added daily.

A new company is being launched at SXSW this week and it promises to help us locate, label, and share everyday objects.  The company is called StickyBits (http://www.stickybits.com) and it works by peeling a sticker, placing it on an object you want to track, scanning the code, and then uploading a video, a photo, a voice message or a text message.

“Every place and object in the world has a secret past: who lived there, who passed by, who touched it. The secret lives of objects are filled with such details. If only you could make them talk.”

This seems to be a pretty interesting location based service (LBS) and probably only the first of several new apps that will be launched this week at SXSW as we move into Web 3.0 – The Semantic Web.  If you aren’t paying attention to the location and heuristics focus of investors, then you are about to miss another whole wave of the Internet that will make Social Media look like child’s play.

How long have you been in business in Nashville?
6 years

What does your company or organization do best?
Leverage technology and equipment to meet the business needs, and solve the issues, that our partners face.

What is one interesting fact about your company?
Dex donates one third of all profits to charities and educational programs within the communities that we serve.

What new technology product or service are you the most excited about?
Index Data files, which is our electronic content management system.  This application allows for electronic storage of documents, and business information.  This leveraged with our custom workflow and electronic forms can really help a business achieve its efficiency goals and remain competitive.

How do you differentiate yourself from your leading competitors?
We focus on providing a total solution for businesses, from copiers and printers, to mailing equipment and print management, and applications and consulting.

Who is the most interesting person you have ever met?
Mark Blaze, our Tennessee region’s General Manager.  Mark came to America from England by playing golf for the University of Memphis.

Efficiency, Virtualization, and Cloud Computing were common themes at last night’s roundtable event, titled “The Impact of the Recession on IT Operations and Management.”  The event was hosted by Bass, Berry, & Sims (www.bassberry.com) and took place in their conference center in the new Pinnacle Building.  Scott Thomas and Bob Brewer, both practicing attorneys at Bass, Berry & Sims, moderated the discussion.  Panel members included three enterprise CIO’s: Andy Flatt, Healthspring; Scott Blanchette, Healthways; and Rick Proctor, Thomas Nelson.

Scott Thomas kicked off the session by taking us through a number of graphs, which illustrated the effect of the economic downturn over several industries, health care and information technology in particular.  In addition, he showed us the average IT Budget by percentage in revenue and a graph which showed the .com meltdown in comparison to last year’s downturn, which was had a much bigger impact.

The first panel question took us through how the recession affected the acquisition and use of software, hardware and telecom.  Proctor mentioned stretching out the lifespan of non-mission critical application deployment, while Flatt and Blanchette implied that the health care industry has not reduced spending, but has not increased it either.

Proctor was then asked, “Do you think the economic downturn is driving or hampering the transition of digital book sales?”  Proctor mentioned that the digital business is growing, but it’s not big.  Instead of driving digital, it is more about improving the efficiency of delivery by more on-demand printing and shorter runs.  In addition, Proctor mentioned Thomas Nelson, while they are providing digital for the Kindle, Sony Reader, and Apple’s iPad, their focus is more about content delivery — the mechanism in which they provide the content is not really what’s important, it’s more about getting the content in front of the readers.

When Flatt was asked if HealthSpring has to be more efficient because of the downturn, he mentioned his company is investing in technology because it is what makes business more efficient, especially in the virtualization space.   Proctor mentioned Thomas Nelson has been investing in the virtualization space for about three years, focusing on outsourcing things that are not their core competency.

Later the group as asked if Senior Management views IT as a cost or an investment, and what participation do they ask from CIOs in their strategic spending?  Proctor alluded that IT budgets have been flat over the past few years, but as expenses have decreased, the level of investments have increased.  Blanchette mentioned their focus is to take new and innovative technologies, and apply them in new ways that in turn reduce costs — the CEO asks how can Healthways wrap technology around problems and find a solution to reduce expenses. Flatt encouraged the group that IT needs to stop segregating itself, and to get out of the business of bridge building and back to building the foundation.

In regards to talent acquisition, the three panelists agreed they have been hoarding their staff over the past couple of years because employees have been staying put.  This year, their worry is that people are going to be looking places they would not have thought of looking during the downturn, and some companies even have a significant budget allocated to staff retention.    In preparation for the recovery, there has not been much change except for the staffing aspect.

When asked about purchasing new technologies, cloud computing resounded across all three panelists. Flatt mentioned three things, which all add to efficiency, virtualization, record retention, and real estate.

In closing, the group discussed vendor relationships.  Advice to vendors from the panelists:

• Understand more about the challenges each company is facing and focus on recommending solutions
• Focus on reducing revenue or marginal improvements for businesses
• Come forward with your changes, and make recommendations on how your changes can improve business

Special thanks to Bass, Berry & Sims for hosting the event.

Joe Kustelski
Co-Founder, Product & Technology, Rockhouse Partners

Co-Founder Joe Kustelski leads all Product and Technology endeavors for Rockhouse Partners. Joe brings more than 10 years of results-focused experience in leading teams that live at the intersection of business opportunities and technology. Joe works with clients, engineers, and business leaders to deliver effective, elegant, easy-to-use, and business-optimized web and software products.

Prior to Rockhouse Partners, Joe led the Product & Development teams at Echo, where he managed product managers, UX designers, programmers, analysts, and database administrators. Applying a data-driven methodology to product development, Echo focused on building simple and intuitive web-based software that met the evolving needs of its entertainment industry clientele. Joe worked closely with Ticketmaster’s data warehouse team to better understand the actionable data and revenue opportunities available to clients. Joe also worked directly with clients such as Kanye West and Keith Urban to define their online and mobile marketing strategies around key collaboration points in the marketplace.

Previously, Joe held positions in a mixture of media, web, and software companies. Highlights include positions as: Vice President of Interactive Media for Northern California at MediaNews Group, the fourth-largest newspaper company in the United States; Site Producer/Manager for several companies within the Idealab incubator; and as project manager for partner relationships at Ticketmaster-CitySearch, where he played a key role in rolling out new web properties for the Washington Post, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.

Joe earned his MBA (Entrepreneurship) and undergraduate degree (Organizational Development & English Literature) from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Joe has played competitive soccer (collegiate and semi-pro) and has lived and worked in Thailand, the Czech Republic, Greece, and several of our United States.

Scott Blanchette
CIO, Healthways

Scott Blanchette is currently serving as the senior product and technology executive at Healthways, the worlds leading provider of health and wellness programs. He manages the design, development, operations, and support for Healthways industry-leading portfolio of technologies. He manages development and computing operations delivered by more than 700 resources around the globe. Under his leadership, Healthways continues to garner numerous technology and innovation awards, most recently being recognized by Information Week as the 35th most innovative technology organization in the US.

David R. White

David R. White serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of IASIS Healthcare, a leading owner and operator of medium-sized community hospitals. White assumed the position of Chairman of the Board in 1999, the same year IASIS began operations with the acquisition of 14 hospital facilities. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in December of 2000.

Today, IASIS Healthcare owns and operates 15 acute-care hospitals and one behavioral health hospital, with operations located in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Texas Utah and Louisiana.  In Fiscal Year 2009, the company had more than 2,800 beds in service and total annual net revenue of approximately $2.4 billion.  IASIS also owns a Medicaid and Medicare managed health plan in Arizona, serving more than 190,000 members.

Prior to joining IASIS, White served as CEO of LifeTrust America, Inc., a company that operated 55 assisted living communities in six southwest states.

White also served as President of the Atlantic Group of Columbia/HCA, where he was responsible for overseeing the operations of 43 hospitals in nine states.  Before joining Columbia/HCA, White was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Community Health Systems.

A native of Tennessee, White is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and holds a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Pat Embry
Editorial Director, Magellan Press
LocalEats

Longtime Nashville-based entertainment journalist Pat Embry is editorial director of Magellan Press, a Brentwood-based communications company that includes LocalEats, a mobile dining application that has ranked among Apple’s Top 10 paid travel apps since its launch in July 2009 and also is now available on the Blackberry and Android platforms. A University of Illinois graduate, Embry began his professional career as a sports writer at the Nashville Banner and served in leadership positions at both the Banner and The Tennessean before joining Magellan Press in 2005. He conceptualized and launched The Rage entertainment guide for The Tennessean in 2000. A father of two teen-ager, Embry author of “Where the Locals Eat: Nashville”, now in its second edition. He has been active in the Nashville community on various civic boards and is a graduate of both Leadership Nashville and Leadership Music.”

This week we welcomed a new staff member to the Nashville Technology Council family, Leah Magee.  Leah will be serving as our Vice-President of Business Development.  Leah is responsible for new sponsorships, renewal of sponsorships, membership, event sponsorship, and product sales.

Leah brings to the Nashville Technology Council over ten years of experience in sales, sales management, marketing, business development, and fundraising.  As a seasoned sales professional with a focus on practical business application of technology, Leah has delivered solutions, business negotiation, team leadership, and commitment to a variety of IT and healthcare technology companies in Nashville.

Leah’s commitment to success and her willingness to build from the ground up has lead her from startups to business support roles and even to her own entrepreneurial efforts — a variety of experience that helps her better serve the Nashville technology community. Prior to joining the Nashville Technology Council Leah served as Sales Manager for web-based benefits education startup Fontis Healthcare.  Additionally, Leah has been a critical part of teams at Sprint PCS, The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Programming Resources, and LBMC Technologies. Recently, she forged her own entrepreneurial venture with Bella Concreti.

Leah is a Nashville native, and attended Aquinas College and Belmont University.  She is a member of the Young Leaders Council and currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Amun Ra Theatre where she helps lead citywide fundraising efforts, as well as a building fund initiative with which she helped organize a National “Make a Difference Day” event.  Leah enjoys spending time with her two daughters and volunteering in the Nashville community.

Follow Leah:  @leahmagee, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Leah Magee joined The Nashville Technology Council March 1, 2010 as Vice President of Business Development.  Leah is responsible for new sponsorships, renewal of sponsorships, membership, event sponsorship, and product sales.

Leah brings to the Nashville Technology Council over ten years of experience in sales, sales management, marketing, business development, and fundraising.  As a seasoned sales professional with a focus on practical business application of technology, Leah has delivered solutions, business negotiation, team leadership, and commitment to a variety of IT and healthcare technology companies in Nashville.

Leah’s commitment to success and her willingness to build from the ground up has lead her from startups to business support roles and even to her own entrepreneurial efforts — a variety of experience that helps her better serve the Nashville technology community. Prior to joining the Nashville Technology Council Leah served as Sales Manager for web-based benefits education startup Fontis Healthcare.  Additionally, Leah has been a critical part of teams at Sprint PCS, The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Programming Resources, and LBMC Technologies. Recently, she forged her own entrepreneurial venture with Bella Concreti.

Leah is a Nashville native, and attended Aquinas College and Belmont University.  She is a member of the Young Leaders Council and currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Amun Ra Theatre where she helps lead citywide fundraising efforts, as well as a building fund initiative with which she helped organize a National “Make a Difference Day” event.  Leah enjoys spending time with her two daughters and volunteering in the Nashville community.