Questions? Ask @Daniel Gerous on Twitter
Arizona Technology Council recently held a technology recycling event with Westech Recyclers. Gangplank was used as a drop off location. As you can see tons of equipment was brought in for recycling. Thanks for doing your part!
It’s no secret that we have been brewing Gangplank 3.0 and trying to define What Exactly That Is? Previously, we had listed Gangplank as Kryptonite to the Status Quo. Part of the status quo is having a long and detailed action plan that must be followed to a tee in order to consider success. Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”. In many ways, Gangplank is aiming to be a punch in the face to the standard way of doing things. Sometimes a punch in the face is what is needed to alert someone to the danger they are really in. Gangplank 3.0 plans to come out swinging.
We left off with “To innovative companies and creative people, Gangplank is the collaborative workspace that provides infrastructure and community that creates the new economy.” Now we are taking a stab at other ways of saying this, casual talking points that drive the same concept home. We think it’s important to be provocative, to make bold assertions and live up to them. We need to drive the vision to reality and build an expectation of what we do:
“Gangplank attracts creative people and organizations. The collaboration that results is driving a new economy in Chandler and the rest of Arizona.”
“Gangplank provides a creative home for people who want to change the economy and their lives.”
“Gangplank encourages contribution. Contribution is the fueling a new economy where ideas and action rule.”
“Gangplank exemplifies the new economy: contribution, collaboration, insight, intuition and action.”
“Gangplank is a place where the new economy is booming. Come visit the future.”
“Gangplank has turned the industrial era on it’s head, come see how the new economy works.”
Help us by giving feedback. Which one is our best punch?
Gangplank is putting together a First LEGO League robotics team. Lead by LEGO master, Gary Howard! This will be the kick off event. The team will be assembled and training regularly to get ready for the FLL event in the Fall.
Join Us for the Kick Off Event.
NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED.
Official team will be ages 9 to 14, but if you have a child 6 to 8 we are looking at offering something non-official for them. If you know someone that might want to be a mentor please let them know as well.
Gangplank Book Club Starts Feb 1st.
We will be reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
At this event we will be doing a round table to discuss the book. Let’s share our love for learning!
You can purchase the book at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe for 20% off (paperback) or at Bookman’s.
Join the book club on Good Reads:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/27169.Gangplank
Want to learn Objective-C for iPhone development? Now is your chance. We will be putting on a basic iPhone development class.
There is no charge, but you will be expected to participate. There will be a quick overview of Xcode and Objective-C and then we will go right into pair programming a sample application.
It is assumed you will know basics about programming.
This weekend we have a special Gangplank Jr event scheduled. We have teamed up with Phoenix Comicon to host a Comic Create event. Kids 5 to 15 show up and learn from the comic masters! Published comic illustrators/authors will be on site giving an overview on the process and techniques to make a comic book. Every kid will then go through the steps to create their own comic book. As a bonus this event will be at the new Gangplank location in downtown Chandler.
I collected over 20,000 comic books (and still have them) when I was a kid. I wanted to be a Stan Lee more than anything. I’m not sure I have ever given up that dream, but I hope to experience a little of it this weekend with my kids. Hopefully, you have similar fond memories and will be bringing your kid(s).
We have found ourselves in the press and in front of powerful people more than we are comfortable with lately. The first thing that people ask is “What is Gangplank”. Our problem has always been explaining it in a sentence or two without feeling like we are doing it a complete dis-service. We had been playing around with changing some branding, but ended up talking to Greg Head, of New Avenue, who has a bit of experience in positioning companies. It made sense to wrangle him in and ask him to help us regain our focus and tell our story.
We went through a great exercise with him. We started with trying fill out this template.
Target Market
- Metro Phoenix
- Knowledge Worker
- Creative Class
- New Economy
- Startup
Final: Innovative companies and creative people
Category
- Infrastructure Creator
- Creative Economy Catalyst
- Place
- Movement
Final: Collaborative Workspace
Unique Benefits
- New Economy Jobs/Companies Startups
- Infrastructure To Create
- People Who Can Help
- Fulfilling Work
Final: Infrastructure and community that creates the new economy
At this point we had hit the allotted two hours we set a side to start. We were all curious to see what we considered competition and we were on a roll, so we listed some competition, but we never came up with the final.
Competition
- Traditional Companies
- Social Media
- Lone Wolf Entrepreneurs
- Incubators
- Coworking
- Executive Suites
Final: Not yet defined
Additionally, we never got to talk about the Gangplank does… We hope to hit both these in the future. In the meantime, we came up with a pretty good focusing statement.
The most revealing thing to us and something that everyone else had clued in on better than us. Gangplank is indeed a PLACE at it’s very core.
We struggled a lot with the target market. Something that came up over and over in discussion was “people that get it” vs “people that don’t fit”. So we decided to break down what that meant as the discussion went on.
People That Get It
hungry, passion, encouraging, ethic, collaborate, participate, plugin, help, connect, cooperate, creative, social, the new way, inspired, tribe, community, danger, adventure, future-minded, non-traditional, post-industrial, un-machine, excellence, learn, share
People That Don’t Fit
bureaucrat, 9 to 5 mentality, ego too big, loner, not familiar with new ethic, secretive, greedy, old school
It is important to note that this is a work in progress.
What a crazy mix! We recently put on a Desert Code Camp Jr event as part of Gangplank Jr. The morning started off by letting kids create their own programs using the Scratch programming environment from MIT. Then we had a multi-bracket Bakugan tournament with some seriously cool Bakugan prizes for the top three ranked players. During the tournament kids and adults snarfed on Pizza and got a mental break.
After lunch the kids got to make pipe cleaner bugs. Then the group (over 30 kids) split into two groups. One group went to a lecture by @DocProfSky, one of their peers, who taught them about Arduino and basic electronic principles. The other group split off to program Lego NXT Mindstorm robots. After an hour the groups switched places. The event ended up being better than expected and we look forward to more in the near future.
We have been doing some LEGO NXT MindStorm events as part of Gangplank JR. Last month we had the First LEGO League team from Mesa Academy in to present in preparation for their run at Regionals. They ended up winning Regionals and going on to State. This solidified for us that we definitely need to be putting together a formal First LEGO League team. We would like to assemble teams for Ages 6 – 9, Ages 9 – 14, Ages 14 – 18. If you are interested in getting involved please let us know.
Last month we talked about “Gangplank looking to move downtown“. We have been actively pursuing a move since June 2009. We knew that we wanted to be more involved in the creating of a new economy.
To accomplish this we need to be in a city that wants and values the same things we do. We have been really happy with Chandler and over the last three months have really started to get involved with their downtown. It became clear very quickly that they embody the same spirit as Gangplank when it comes to their civic planning and downtown. The business owners, landlords, developers, council and staff all are rowing in the same direction and striving to be the leader in technology of the Phoenix-Tucson mega region over the next 20 years. They have shown they want to be the place “Where the creative class grows up”.
They had four initiatives in place that we felt were necessary to pass before we could consider them as a viable option. These initiatives were important for a number of reasons. First and foremost their adoption meant they were serious about becoming a creative class city and committed to technology. Secondly, it would prove that they had the ability to work together to make an impact in their city.
Last week was the approval of #1 and in good faith was enough to solidify for us that the City of Chandler has the right mix and a commitment to the creative class. We have engaged with land developers Desert Viking and Peter Sciacca on developing a 15,000sqft facility in the historic Thomas Building in downtown. We will have more information as the negotiations progress and as things get underway. We are excited to become immersed in the community and really get involved on a much deeper level. Things are already underway that are making a major impact for both Chandler and Gangplank including new developments with Gangplank Junior.
Exposed Historical Wooden Trusses
Plans to Put on a Second Story (Stop Sprawl/Go Up)
Easy online tracking of search engine rank positioning finally possible. The future of search tracking is here
In five minutes your massive event is already planned, every person and seat is accounted for. Get in on this hot seat.
After one month in development, Gangplank announces the Beta launch of Date Designer. Do you have an invite?
All the PHX pirate party people are flying the Gangplank colors. Find out how to get onboard. soon
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