gerard ramos’ ramblings

I recently received an email and letter from NCET (Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology) inviting me to join the board of advisors … which I happily accepted :)

I’m really looking forward to being more involved in the Nevada business community, sharing my experiences and learning from others.

Our first board meeting was a few weeks ago and quite interesting. The board consists of members from all across the state, so rather than everyone meeting in one place, everyone closer to Vegas met at UNLV and everyone in the north met in Reno. The three hour meeting took place over a slick video conferencing system in the UNLV technology building.

For the most part .. I just sat back and listened. Most of the conversation revolved around securing funding for all the amazing things planned this year to foster startups in Nevada. There are quite a few initiatives coming up including the NCETexpo, which I may be speaking at and the Governor’s Cup, a powerful event with cash prizes up to $200,000 for college students and faculty.

Towards the end of the meeting I spoke up about plans for BarCampLasVegas. For the most part, the board had no idea what a barcamp was, but was very supportive and interested. I have no idea where or when this will be, but I’m starting to spread the word and explore options. A few months ago, I started a group called vegasFoo to bring the las vegas web community together. Six months later we now have over 70 members. There is definitely a community of web designers, developers, and entrepreneurs that want to experience the power of a BarCamp. If you are interested in helping with planning, attending, or sponsoring, head over to the wiki and sign up!

I just booked my flight to New Orleans for BarCampNOLA :) As most of you know, I’m originally from New Orleans, so I’m really looking forward to this trip. I also used to share an office with the guys at Voodoo Ventures before moving to Las Vegas. BarCampNOLA is coming together with an interesting format .. Saturday is going to be the traditional barcamp style stuff going on, then Sunday we are going to hack up something for a New Orleans organization.

I’ve also started organizing BarCampLasVegas, so its going to be interesting to see how Chris, Brian and Blake organize this one. This will be the third BarCamp I’ve attended and first outside the silicon valley. If you are thinking about attending this event, DO IT! New Orleans would LOVE to have you in town for the weekend! See ya there!

got married, met some great friends and co-workers, read a few good books, rolled out a mobile web app, built a web app in a weekend, joined facebook and built an app, went to some conferences, did some traveling, drank a few cocktails, started vegasfoo, wrote more blog posts than i did in ‘06, joined a band, got a new ride, made the switch, and thats all I can think of :)

Thanks to everyone who made it out for some early morning rock and roll on Sunday! It was such a trip to see everyone out there that early jamming with us….but now we’re back to what we do best; playing rock and roll after the sun goes down.

This Friday, Dec. 7, we will be performing alongside the always awesome _*Screamin’ Fifi and the Smoke Alarms*_ at the Dive Bar.

The show starts at 10:00 with the Fifi screamin’, and we’ will be up at around 11:00. We might even have to do our little *Pink Floyd tribute* one more time for anyone that missed it on Sunday : )

We’re gonna rip like a Chainsaw once again.

Hope to see you all there.

-Brett

i’ve posted some notes from the voices that matter conference at vegasfoo.com