“Think of the Forward Technology Festival as a ‘Taste of Madison’ for technology and business networking organizations,” said Matt Younkle, a Festival co-organizer. “Madison already has many networking groups which is a great thing. FTF aims to strengthen the start-up, tech and creative communities by providing an opportunity for members from all of these organizations to interact with one another at a variety of events in fun settings.”

The one-day Forward Technology Conference on August 27 is unique in that it has been designed by entrepreneurs for the benefit of other entrepreneurs. The conference includes sessions like Startups 101, a panel of business founders with businesses at various stages of development and capitalization, All About LLCs, where an experienced attorney and CPA are paired to discuss the a common structure for new startups, and Pitch Your Biz, a rapid-fire feedback forum for early stage entrepreneurs. The keynote speaker is Fred Foster, the founder and CEO of Electronic Theatre Controls.

The main networking event for the Festival is the evening reception that takes place Friday, August 27 at 6 pm at Memorial Union. Neider & Boucher, a Madison-based law firm and long-time supporter of the local entrepreneurial community is the presenting sponsor for the Festival.

The Festival organizers, all local entrepreneurs, hope to see the combination of educational and networking events strengthen Madison’s creative culture.

“We’re trying to build, in a very grass-roots way, the foundation for a major annual event that could become the Midwest equivalent of South by Southwest,” said Nathan Lustig, one of the Festival co-organizers, referring to the popular series of festivals and conferences that take place each year in Austin, Texas.

“The Madison area is the epicenter of the Midwest creative community,” added Bryan Chan, another co-organizer. “It really makes sense to launch something like this here.”

More information about the Forward Technology Festival, including links to register to take part in the various events, can be found at www.ftf2010.com.

                          

[T]he summer’s best opportunity to spend a day networking with some of the area’s top entrepreneurs and hearing from experts on a wide range of topics relevant to your technology business. Whether you’re thinking about launching a startup business or you’re an experienced entrepreneur, you’ll find this conference relevant and insightful.

The conference will have interesting sessions including:

Startup 101 – A panel of experienced entrepreneurs will go through the steps to starting a startup and tell stories from the trenches.

All About LLCs – A panel with an attorney, accountant and entrepreneur designed to answer all of your questions about business formation

Pitch your Biz – Presenters have 5 minutes to pitch their biz and then the audience will have 10 minutes to provide feedback

If you’re interested in attending, check out the Forward Technology Conference website and then sign up!  It’s going to be a great way for you to learn while meeting new people and enjoying the beautiful setting that is the Memorial Union.

                          

On January 13, 2009, Carol Bartz became CEO of Yahoo! One of her first acts was to inform her staff that she would “drop-kick to fucking Mars” anyone who leaked company secrets. Since then she’s been trying to return Yahoo! to dominance, deliberately destroying everyone’s impression of what it actually does. After a deal with Microsoft, Yahoo! is transforming from a search engine to a Web portal — one that, if Bartz is right, will attract new users (and new revenue) by trimming unwieldy Web searches down to personalized streams of information. She has her skeptics. But Bartz is right a lot, and most CEOs of her caliber don’t earn their pay by luck. Neither do cocktail waitresses, and Bartz was once one of those, too. She knows when to give someone a “bunny dip.” And she knows when someone needs a good drop-kicking.

The Esquire piece is a great insight into one of the most impressive UW grads out there in the business world right now.  If you haven’t heard about her story, check it out.

                          

Sector67 is a start up TechShop / Hacker space / Makerspace / Collaborative Environment in Madison, WI dedicated to providing members the opportunity to work on tomorrow’s technology; to build, collaborate, learn, and teach about next generation devices.

Meyer informs me that Sector 67 had its initial meeting last week and it was well attended.  Sector 67 is an awesome idea and will be a great addition to the Madison entrepreneur community!

                          

Becky Hall is a Freshman at the University of Wisconsin and started Going For 10,000, a campaign to raise money for the MS 150 bike ride this summer.  While some may say that raising money for charity is not entrepreneurship, we disagree.  Hall has created a website, organized resources and persevered through challenges, much in the same way that business owners do.  She has done all of this without getting a direct monetary benefit for herself.  If you are interested in helping Becky toward her goal, you can visit her blog or donate here.  Here’s her story from her blog:

                          

Check out the story on Dane 101 or in The Badger Herald for more information.

If you are interested in helping out, contact us or post in the comments!

                          

Google is launching an experiment to bring “ultra-high speed broadband” to a trial city in the United States.  The Google Fiber trial network will allow people in the test city to experience Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second or “more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today” at “a competitive price.”  Google intends to test this ultra-high speed Internet in a city with a population between 50,000 and 500,000.

With a population of just under 225,000, we believe Madison is a perfect fit as Google’s trial city.  Madison has a strong research and technology base, augmented by the 40,000 strong University of Wisconsin student population.  Madison is also home to a growing high tech entrepreneur community and is home to many young professionals, who along with college students, make up a large percentage of the demographic that loves to consume large amounts of bandwidth.  Madison’s city government is also a strong supporter of helping bring Google Fiber to Madison.

Many have grown frustrated with Madison’s main high-speed Internet provider, Charter Communications because of frequent outages and poor customer service.  Madison residents would benefit from the increased competition that Google Fiber would bring to the city.

How You Can Help

We have until March 26th to show Google that Madison is a great fit for their experiment.  You can get involved by filling out the Google Fiber Nomination, becoming a fan of the Facebook page and following us on Twitter. When you fill out the nomination, be sure to mention Capital Entrepreneurs and link this webpage.

You can also get involved in Capital Entrepreneurs.   Send us your logo and a link to your business and we will include it on this page as someone who supports bringing Google Fiber to Madison.  Don’t have a business…No problem.  Post a comment on this entry and include a short reason why you’d like Google Fiber in Madison and we will add you to this page.

                          

Team Rubicon, a truely entrepreneurial relief effort, is currently working in Haiti, providing medical relief to Haitians who need it.  The entire mission is privately funded, so if you have extra cash you can donate here.

                          

The deadline for entries is January 31, 2010 and it is fast approaching.  For the first phase, simply submit at 250 word abstract on their website and you are good to go.  For more information please see the Governor’s Business Plan website:

The mission of the Governor’s Business Plan Contest is to encourage entrepreneurs in the creation, start-up and early-growth stages of high-tech businesses in Wisconsin. Participants have the chance to win seed capital, valuable services that will help them launch their businesses and a Grand Prize worth $50,000. Since its inception in 2004, more than 1,500 entries have been received and $1 million in cash and in-kind prizes has been awarded.

                          

“It certainly hasn’t been by accident,” says Matthew Mikolajewski, manager of the city’s office of business resources. “It has taken lots of concerted effort to grow that entrepreneurial spirit.” That includes a renewed focus on entrepreneurship by the University’s business school, the establishment of a fast-growing University research park, half a dozen business and arts incubators, and plans for a new food science lab and incubator developed with the Environmental Protection Agency. The fact that Madison has the second most educated work force in the country and one of the best quality of life ratings makes it attractive to business owners of all stripes. “If you walk through one of our incubators, you’ll find everything,” Mikolajewski says. “You’ll find a software engineer right next to someone making crackers.”