For this Photo Mojo the words were Orbital, Epidemic and Scholarly.  The time frame was one hour.

Here are the winners for each topic/word.

Orbital

Epidemic

Scholarly

Seems to no longer be available.

You can rate the photos yourself on Pix.ly.

Gangplank Studios Recording Calendar

If you’re available and interested in being a guest, check with the host of the show in advance. We’ll get you set up and added to the calendar!

The Gangplank Academy hosts discussions from local experts, entreprenuers, and creatives every Wednesday at 11:45pm (lunch hour).  Free admission, stay all afternoon into the evening for Hacknight.

325 E Elliot Rd, Suite 34. Chandler, AZ

The retrospective can take many formats, because our brown bags get a sizeable attendance I decided to use the what should we keep doing, what should we stop doing and what are we missing approach.  Within seconds people were giving excellent feed back in each category.  Below are the raw items expressed.

Doing Well
Grass roots marketing
Branding (member owned)
Events (Startup Weekend/Brown Bags/Etc)
Unified community
Fun
Consistency
A Lot in a short time

Doing Poorly
Lack of chairs
Variety of Topics (get wider)
Poor update of events (not facebook)
Introducing/welcoming new people
Communicating vision
Promoting coworking aspect
Starting on time

Whats Missing
Offer more things at hacknight
User generated content
Skill matching
Reaching out to other communities
Community projects (opportunities to give back)
Startup Wednesday
Ambience (paint it damn it)
No way to give back
How to participate at a higher level (path to involvement)
Clock
Sponsorship
Reach outside current items
Random Fun (ie: lipdub, etc)
Teams (dodgeball, softball, etc)
Place to have discussions

So what does this mean?  What are should we do with this information?  Well we need to keep doing events.  Have an event that you need a home for?  Let us know.  We need to keep having fun.  Come join us having a good time!  We have made a commitment to get a few chairs for co-working every month until we are no longer short.  We need folding chairs for events and hacknights.  Do you have some to donate?  Know where to get a good deal let us know!

We brainstormed topics and speakers (and will share later in this post).  James Archer from Forty has stepped up and is putting some things in place to help us welcome new people and introduce them.  The hacknight website needs to be people not project centered and allow for people to contribute more readily.  We are getting some of the necessities of life finished (like hanging the projector) and are about ready to start adding the decorators touch.  Interested in helping, LET US KNOW.  We have decided that we want to make a section of the commons open to be redecorated on a regular basis allowing it to reflect the community directly.  We hope to add a clock.  Joshua Strebel of Obuweb and Steve Swedler are hard at work getting us an energy drink sponsor.

If you haven’t noticed, we want your participation. Do you see opportunities and have the passion to fill them?  Let us know.  We want to empower you to help make the Gangplank commons your own.

The discussion on speakers and topics resulted in the following.  I will be adding this to my current list.  If you have suggestions please let us know.

Speakers
James Armstrong (trademark/copyright)
Brent Spore (design)
Tara Hunt (co-working, social networking)
Patrick Sullivan Jr.
Patrick Sullivan Sr.
Dean Heckler (furniture designer)
Rene Gutel (newspaper)
Kevin Burke (Angel Investor)
Erika Feinberg (Active Living)

Topics
Artists
Architects
Tax CPA
Pyschologist
Sociologist
Branding
Interactive Design
Industrial Design
Business Management
Successful Business Owners
PR
Green Tech
Updates on local stuff
Share projects (demo day)
Sports Team/Performance

We wrapped up the session discussing what might make good Academy sessions.  As part of that it came out that that concept of “camps” make sense for Academy structure as well.  2-8hr concentrated events around a theme.  iPhoneDevCamp, BarCamp, MarketingCamp etc only in a myriad of verticals.  KnittingCamp 2009 baby!

Academy (camps)
Database architecture
Lan Party
Water color painting
Yoga
Typography (@luzbonita has offerred to step up!)
Accessibility
Design Web
Gangplank Junior
Photography
Photohard (@luzbonita has offerred to step up!)
Sales
Knitting
Scrapbooking

In a nutshell, this is a call for participation.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Dear Mr. Parsons,

Can I call you Bob? Great.

So Bob, My name is Daniel Gerous and I represent the technology incubator and co-working space in Chandler Az: Gangplank. Gangplank is a vibrant hub of activity that provides free co-working space for hundreds of web freelancers, and other creatives to utilize, network, and play. In addition Gangplank is also a technology incubator currently assisting 4 projects with investments of seed funds, development and marketing assistance, and the occasional Tropical Smoothy from Coffee Island of 1430 W Warner Rd
Gilbert, AZ (Our lunch hour sponsor)

Heard this all before? Yeah perhaps you saw the feature story in the business section of the Arizona Republic, Page B5 - Nov 5th 2008.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2008/11/04/20081104biz-gangplank1105.html

So to get to the reason for my letter. We took an impromptu survey of some of the folks at Gangplank today and came up with about 1250.. 1250 domains registered at GoDaddy between us. We also estimate we register 5-10 new domains a week for various current and future project ideas.

Let’s cut to the chase; Gangplank would like to invite GoDaddy to sponsor our community efforts here by donating at no or reduced costs; domain registration and other hosting services. The momentum here is building, and we wish to partner with other Arizona based businesses to bring a little more Silicon, to the Valley of the Sun.

Please consider our request, you may contact us at the information provided below.

Furthermore Bob, should GoDaddy choose to pass on this historic opportunity, I will regrettably be forced to challenge you to a dance off in the Gangplank Dome.

Please view this cautionary video as evidence of the righteousness of my dance challenge.
Click here to view the embedded video.

Serious, your ankles will snap with the force of being serv’d. I don’t want that for you Bob.

Thank you Bob,
We look forward to Partnering with GoDaddy on this: the voyage of Awesome.
And Remember: BE DANGEROUS

You may contact us at:
http://gangplankhq.com/
info{@}gangplankhq.com
1-877-GANGPLK

UPDATE:

Well I did not hear from Bob, but I did get this from Warren Adelman, CEO of GoDaddy.

@DanielGerous Saw your post. Happy to hear more. I hadn’t seen that article in the paper. I dont think either Bob or I are dance threats. about 6 hours ago from web in reply to DanielGerous

I Look forward to working something out with GoDaddy. The dance off challenge has once again proven to be the cornerstone of effective corporate communications.

Have you been to gangplank yet?

Unwitting accomplices in order of apperance: Jimmy Jeffers, Matt Gist, Byron Bowerman,Justin Crossman, Beau Fruschetta, Dan Ritz, Chris Chandler, and Jade Meskill

Some images © AcmePhotography