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Infotec 2018 offers array of educational, professional development opportunities

(Infotec 2017.)

OMAHA, NE – Hundreds of the region’s most talented tech professionals will gather March 26, 27, and 28 for Infotec, the Silicon Prairie’s premier annual business tech gathering.

This year’s conference features several cutting-edge educational and training opportunities.

Security will be a big focus of the conference. The keynote speaker is retired Maj. Gen. Brett Williams, former Director of Operations at U.S. Cyber Command, and founder of IronNet CyberSecurity.

“A number of sessions are focused on security-related issues, from our opening keynote, to other breakout sessions around application development security, and other aspects of security that participants can get expert advice in trends and data,” said AIM events director Dave Vankat, one of the conference organizers.

Project management, machine learning, Tableau

For participants looking to solidify their project management credentials, this year’s conference offers two courses:  Certified ScrumMaster Training and Certified Agile Leader training.

In the Certified Agile Leader training, participants will develop awareness of Agile leadership thinking, focus, and behaviors.

The Certified ScrumMaster training offers the opportunity to master the Scrum framework and the underlying Agile principles, practices, techniques.

The Drag and Drop Machine learning workshop offers the chance to see a new, user-interface oriented approach to machine learning.

“Drag and drop machine learning is very new and upcoming technology that people can get their feet wet for what is machine learning, and how can it be used relative to large data sets and understand that technology that’s now available,” said Vankat. “It used to be more programming oriented, but is now having some more user interface available, and users don’t have to have the same level of programming knowledge to manipulate the data.”

Infotec 2018 is also offering a day-long workshop on Tableau, the widely-used data organization and visualization software. The workshop will be led by Tablea zen-master Ryan Sleeper, author of the Tableau Public Visualization of the Year (2015), and author of Practical Tableau.

Blockchain, cryptocurrency, marketing and more

Conference goers can also attend sessions offering guidance in the cyber frontiers of blockchain and cryptoeconomics.

“If you’re not familiar with some of those things, it’s a great way to get familiar with some of those kinds of technologies that are still really just on the bleeding edge of where they are going to go,” said Vankat.

The heart of Infotec is the intersection of business and technology, and Vankat says there are multiple workshops covering that convergence.

“We have a number of things around the convergence of marketing and technology. There’s a lot of overlap on how those two disciplines are converging together, things like search engine optimization, and some of the other data analytics kinds of tools that are out there,” said Vankat.

“There’s a lot of great training at Infotec that people can benefit from,” he added.

Anyone interested in attending the conference is encouraged to register as soon as possible on the Infotec website. Funding may be available to cover conference costs for CONNECT Grant recipients. For more information, contact Heartland Workforce Solutions here, or by calling 402-444-4700.

For more information on sessions and speakers, visit the Infotec website.

TEAM Software gives back to local community with new volunteer program

TEAM Software, Inc. has been a leading provider of software solutions in the contract security and building service industries for nearly 30 years. The Omaha-based company is now leading the tech industry in a completely different way.

TEAM recently launched a new Volunteer Time Off (VTO) program to encourage its employee owners to give back to the community.

The employee-owned technology company developed the VTO program to provide community engagement opportunities for its employees that are meaningful and make an impact in the community in which they live and work.

“TEAM strives to make a difference in the lives of our employee-owners, and we’re taking this a step further with the Volunteer Time Off program,” said Judi Szatko, TEAM’s Vice President of Human Resources. “This avenue will help encourage pride and embed a strong community mindset within our culture and company.”

TEAM believes these types of activities also enrich and inspire the lives of employee-owners. Amanda Sullivan, TEAM’s Director of Marketing & Communications, said the company’s employee-owners are excited to contribute their hours to something that fits their talents.

“There’s been a lot of buzz around it,” said Sullivan. “It gives employee owners an opportunity to do something that is meaningful to them and give back.”

The program expands on TEAM’s already successful partnership with TeamMates, a youth mentoring organization that TEAM has supported since 2013.

All employee-owners can receive up to four days of VTO per year specifically to volunteer on behalf of the company. For a company that employs 124 people, giving them each 32 hours per year to volunteer is a large investment.

“We know it’s an investment and that’s the kind of investment we want to make, not only for our employee-owners and future employee-owners but for improving and contributing to the community,” said Sullivan. “It’s important to us to have a connection here.”

TEAM is a B2B company with approximately 400 customers all over North America. Their customer base is largely from outside the Omaha area, so reinforcing the company’s connection to the local community where employee-owners work and live is important.

Recommended volunteer activities support civic-minded and 501(c)(3) nonprofit community improvement organizations such as Youth Emergency Services, YMCA or TeamMates. Other activities can include those that address health and research initiatives like fundraiser run/walk events or volunteering at a nursing home, food bank or hospital.

In addition to making changes in the community, the VTO program is reinforcing TEAM’s company culture and increasing the stake each person has in the company.

“It’s about cultivating that culture around employee ownership. We all own the company so we hold each other to pretty high expectations, we’re the shareholders,” said Sullivan. “We think it’s really important to focus on not only what you can get out of it, but what having this kind of culture can enable you to give.”

Sullivan said that the more things like the VTO program that TEAM offers, the more chances they have of displaying their company culture to people who may not know who they are or what they do. That exposure has multiple benefits including attracting new employee-owners.

“As a tech company, we know that we’re competing for highly talented people,” said Sullivan. “You can be a developer everywhere but can you be a developer at a company that’s community-minded?”

SPN Tech Recap – February 2018

Catch up on regional tech news with these recent top stories from Silicon Prairie News:

The Startup Collaborative launches first-annual Startup Showcase and Expo

The Startup Collaborative invited Omaha’s innovators, entrepreneurs and supporters to their first-annual Startup Showcase and Expo at the Omaha Design Center on Thursday. The event was The Startup Collaborative’s new take on a demo day, adding in a startup bullpen, a pop-up stage featuring investors and startup ecosystem funders, and a speakeasy after-party.

The expo and showcase was a “high-energy celebration of growth for the 60 plus startups we continuously work with, and a dive into some of the emerging technologies driving future businesses,” said expo organizers.
Read More

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Nelnet completes acquisition of Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.

Nelnet announced this week it has completed the acquisition of Madison-based Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. from Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation.

A press release provided by Nelnet said the company paid $150 million for 100 percent of the stock of Great Lakes, following the satisfaction of all required closing conditions. The acquisition makes Lincoln-based Nelnet the nation’s largest servicer of federal student loans.
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Paul Jarrett: How to Win (Nearly) Every Time

I speak to a lot of student entrepreneurs, and someone always asks some variation of “how did you get/earn/find ________?” No matter what they’re asking about, I usually can distill it down to two main points: 1) Play the Odds. 2) Just Ask.

I know, it sounds super simple. “Duh, Paul. You have to do the work to see the reward.” But I think so many of us forget that it IS simple (I include myself in this pool, 100%.) We want the answer to success to be complicated or plain luck because then we can justify failure upfront and why not “to attempt.” We want the fallback (it’s complicated and expensive), the scapegoat (I just have bad luck) as if there’s some magical recipe for reaching our goals that we don’t know. Maybe that’s a cultural problem or a human brain problem – I’ll leave that part to the experts.
Read More

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Big Omaha and Maha Music Festival merge into a three-day cultural event

The return of the tenth annual Big Omaha conference was announced today, but with one major change. This year, the inspirational tech conference will take place in conjunction with the Maha Music Festival.

The Big Omaha conference, now part of the Maha experience, will be held August 16 and 17 with venue details to be announced. Maha will be expanded to two days and will take place on August 17 and 18 in Aksarben Village.
Read More

AIM brings tech education to students at second annual Careerockit

Careerockit, Nebraska and Iowa’s largest business/student collaborative learning initiative, made its return on February 12. The weeklong event provided more than 18,000 unique student experiences across more than 20 school districts, multiple universities and 140 organizations in six counties.

The no-cost program of the Greater Omaha Chamber pairs elementary through post-secondary students seeking engagement and information with regional businesses and nonprofits. The goal: to create career interest, grow the area’s talent pipeline and connect organizations with future employees.

For the second year in a row, AIM participated in Careerockit by facilitating tech learning modules hosted at Union Pacific Railroad. Approximately 25 AIM employees volunteered nearly 100 hours over the course of the week.

Youth explored technology and workforce readiness skills by working on authentic, real-life projects reflective of career skills needed at Union Pacific. The Engineers Who Code learning modules were “hands on/minds open” in design and allowed students to interact with career professionals.

During the Build a Web Page session, high school students learned about tech career opportunities in Nebraska, built their own HTML web pages, and found out about additional web development learning resources.

The experience allowed students to see and feel the culture of UPRR and allowed AIM to engage with other community partners such as OPS and Boys & Girls Club of the Midlands.

“An effort of this scale is only possible with countless partners and supporters,” said Patricia Mayorga, manager, talent, Greater Omaha Chamber. “We are extremely grateful to all the businesses and nonprofits that are participating and to our school districts at all levels from superintendents, to principals, teachers, and of course students. Everyone’s contributions have added up to this great and massive initiative called Careerockit––thank you.”

Omaha middle school students win National Science Bowl regional competition

Earlier this month, a team of Omaha middle school students from King Science and Technology Magnet School won the regional competition for the 2018 National Science Bowl® (NSB).

They will advance to the NSB National Finals this spring in Washington, D.C., as announced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

“The National Science Bowl® continues to be one of the premier academic competitions across the country and prepares America’s students for future successes in some of the world’s fastest-growing fields in science, technology, and engineering,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.

The National Science Bowl® is a nationwide academic competition that tests students’ knowledge in all areas of science and mathematics. Middle and high school student teams from diverse backgrounds are comprised of four students, one alternate, and a teacher who serves as an advisor and coach.

The King Science team faced off in a fast-paced, question-and-answer competition where they solved technical problems and answered questions on a range of science disciplines including biology, chemistry, Earth and space science, physics and math.

“I am proud to oversee a Department that provides such a unique and empowering opportunity for our nation’s students, and I am honored to congratulate King Science and Technology Magnet School in advancing to the National Finals, where they will continue to showcase their talents as the top minds in math and science,” said Perry.

The top 16 middle school teams in the National Finals will win $1,000 for their schools’ science departments. More than 275,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl® in its 27-year history, making it is one of the nation’s largest science competitions.

The knowledge and study habits that former NSB competitors have acquired have led them to success in a variety of fields. Many have become researchers; others are science and math professors at some of the nation’s top universities.

The NSB said that the math and science knowledge students need to be successful in the competition can also lead to successful careers in other fields. The 2018 NSB competitors will follow in the footsteps of previous National Science Bowl® contestants and will blaze a trail for students in science, math and engineering for the next quarter-century.

The King Science team will be heading to Washington, D.C. to compete in the final round of the National Science Bowl® between April 26 to April 30.