We featured Josh Silverman of StudyEgg at the January 2012 Providence Geek Dinner, where he talked about what they are doing to replace 18th century pedagogy with personalized, interactive learning tools. We caught up with Josh after his talk to learn more. [Video link]

Wednesday, January 18th, 2011, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

Welcome back, everyone. We look forward to seeing you next week at the first Providence Geek Dinner of 2012!

With educational costs soaring and performance…ummm…not, e-learning is heating up to become what many believe will be a trillion (yes, with a T) dollar worldwide industry. Providence-based StudyEgg is gearing up to take a bite of that apple.

StudyEgg aims to replace 18th century pedagogy with personalized, interactive learning tools – think study guides on steroids.

At the January Geek Dinner, Co-Founder & CEO Josh Silverman – backed up by Co-Founders Jason Urton (CTO) and Bill DeRusha (CMO) – will give an overview of StudyEgg including its short, but interesting history to date (pivots!), and the first public look at its new product (already producing revenue!)

See you soon!

Disclosure: Disclosure: I’m a Partner at Betaspring, and we have a small investment in StudyEgg.

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

Photo by Bill Benson on Flickr

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

The last Geek Dinner of 2011 is going to be a doozy.

Providence-based 38 Studios will be giving an early look at their first game—the highly anticipated RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. There will even be the opportunity to get hands-on. Yes, you read that right – get hand-ons with Reckoning two months prior to its February release date.

What else do you need to know? See you there! (You might want to come on the early side…)

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

Photo by Stephen Downes on Flickr.

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

Did you know that Portsmouth, Rhode Island is arguably the barcode capital of the world?

Yup. Thanks to A2B Tracking Solutions – the leading provider of turn-key solutions for bar code tracking.

Since it was founded in 1994, A2B has led the bar code industry movement into mobile computing, developing a state-of-the-art mobile tracking system for United Parcel Service (UPS). Principals of A2B include founders of the bar code industry, who have lead innovations in applications for 50 years. To date, A2B has completed more than 3,000 tracking installations around the world. This Wednesday, A2B CEO Peter Collins will tell the story of how their industry-defining company has gotten to where it is, and where it’s headed next.

P.S. My apologies for the late notice on this month’s Geek Dinner. I have a bunch of excuses, but they are boring. Going forward, we’ll be making a concerted effort to get the announcements out earlier!

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220 Labs, Mercantile Building, 2nd Floor
131 Washington Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

This month, Providence Geeks is doing something a little different, and totally awesome.

We’re hosting the October Geek Dinner at the all-new AS220 Labs in the beautiful Mercantile Building.

Better still, in place of our usual presentation, we’ll be surrounded all evening by a group of select “Makers”, fresh off the Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire. They’ll be giving live, hands-on demonstrations of everything from 3d-printing to robotics building.And finally, food and drink will be available next door at the latest addition to the Downcity food scene – Mexico!

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

Welcome back, everyone! Hope you had a great August off. Time to get the Geek Dinners re-started full force:

Earlier this month Providence’s Betaspring* unveiled another bumper crop of start-ups. One of the standouts – Mosec (as in “mobile secretary”) – was founded by a young team from Texas comprised of a former professional poker player, a child actor and a professional martial artist. (I’m not making this up.)

Mosec’s initial product is a mobile app aimed at CRM users. It enables you after any phone call to create a “voice note”, auto-transcribe it, and post it into to your CRM system. They’ve already integrated with 3 popular CRM systems – Salesforce, Highrise and Batchbook from Providence-based Batchblue.

Best of all, post-Betaspring, the team has decided to continue building Mosec right here in Providence (we love it when that happens).

At the September Geek Dinner, Bernard (the gambler), David (the fighter) and Austin (the actor) will give an overview of their company and demo their fast-evolving service.

See you there!

*Disclosure: I’m a Partner in Betaspring.

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

We featured Nick Napp and Kevin Mowrer of MoveableCode at the July 2011 Providence Geek Dinner, where they talked about what they are doing to define the future of play. We caught up with them after their talk to learn more.

[Video link]

Photo Credit: Bret Ancowitz

Last Geek Dinner of the Summer (since we take August off)! Can you believe it? Me neither. So let’s make it count:

MoveableCode is building a 21st century toy company. The Bristol-based startup creates and sells play and entertainment products built on Social Shareability, Location, and Mobile technology – an approach and technique they call SoLoMo Play. At the July Geek Dinner, CEO Nick Napp and Chief Play Officer Kevin Mowrer will tell the MoveableCode story – where they’ve been and where they’re headed (yes, there’s a “pivot” in there!). Nick and Kevin have an silly amount of industry experience and expertise, having served as a Sony-Ericsson opportunity scout and Hasbro SVP for R&D, respectively.

See you there! You won’t want to miss this!

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

At the June 2011 Geek Dinner, GreenBytes CEO/CTO Bob Petrocelli gave us an overview of GreenBytes, the Ashaway-based provider of high-performance, energy-efficient inline deduplication data storage appliances. I caught up with him after his talk to learn more about GreenBytes.

[Video link]

Photo credit: Jef Nickerson

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

What do you do after you build a highly profitable 160-person software company, responsible for pioneering standards and products for the management of cardiovascular disease?

After selling Westerly-based Heartlab in 2005 to Agfa for $132.5 million, RI native Bob Petrocelli didn’t hit the beaches of South County. No, he quickly took on the next big challenge – fixing the data storage and energy efficiency crises facing today’s IT operations.

At the June Geek Dinner, GreenBytes CEO/CTO Bob Petrocelli will give an overview of GreenBytes, the Ashaway-based provider of high-performance, energy-efficient inline deduplication data storage appliances. He’ll highlight GreenBytes’ GB-X Series storage appliances, featuring the world’s fastest, most efficient next-generation Hybrid Storage Architecture (HSA).

Please RSVP at Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin@gmail.com with your name and affiliation.

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at AS220’s excellent bar and restaurant.


• Doors open at 5:30pm. Socializing, eating and drinking up until the 30 min presentation/q&a around 6:30pm. Afterwards, back to socializing, eating, drinking…


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever! And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good – it’s actually great)


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.