Category Archives: professional development

Why the Startup Weekend at Notre Dame’s Innovation Park Excites Me

54 hours. Friday April 13th at 6pm until Sunday April 15th at 3pm. Go home to sleep when/if they kick us out or you just can’t think another thought.

What we hope to accomplish: Lay the groundwork to start one or more new businesses in South Bend. Period.

What participants get paid: Nada. In fact, tickets to the event are $99.

Who will be the participants?

People like me. Really. People who care about our community and want to give back of our talents and creativity. People who can envision their satisfaction when driving by that new area business and being able to say, “I helped do that. I had a hand in designing their business model.” (Or coding their product, or designing their user experience or marketing their business).

People not like me. Some younger. Those testing their wings as entrepreneurs during their college careers at IU South Bend, Notre Dame, IU Purdue, and Bethel, all local area colleges. (Students only $50). Some older. Community Leaders. Businessmen who’ve done it already. Captains of Industry, if you will.

If you catch what I mean, click and register. See you there!

Professional Development: “TED Talks and my Elliptical.” or “Thinking AND Exercising.”

Ah-Ha! I believe I have finally found the winning formula!

You recall the research that demonstrates  that aerobic exercise causes  an immediate short term boost in cognition and creativity? If you don’t believe me, start with Rhode Island College, 2002. Then, if you’re more than 30, you might want to see the 2008 “Exercise and its mediating effects on Cognition.”

But if you’re like me, you figure the proof is in the pudding and you could just experiment on yourself. Who cares whether the theory has statistical correlation or not if it works on you?

So, my New Year’s resolution centers around killing two birds with one stone and discovering whether synergies exist or … I’m just managing my time better. Either way, I win.

You’ll find new blog posts this year with TED Talks in the title as I finally begin to cycle through the backlog of great stuff I’ve missed while my iPad is propped up on my elliptical each morning.

My personal experience so far is that 2o minutes of interval training during a 20 minute TED Talk causes my immediately following morning shower to sparkle with cascading neural connections. By the time I get to the office, my finger tips are practically moving themselves as they attempt to capture the thoughts raging through my synapses.