Board Member Spotlight: Ben Harris
There’s kind of an infamous group of five at theCO, a couple of which share the name Ben, but mostly they’re people who had a hand in the opening of theCO. We call them CO:founders.
Ben Harris, COO of theCO, is also a CO:founder, and has been an integral part of theCO’s function and operation since the beginning.
CO:hack at theCO
Jackson will see it’s first ever Hackathon starting in August, and theCO is excited to host it. But you may be thinking, what is a Hackathon? A Hackathon is pulled together from the words “hack” and “marathon” and typically last several days while people, in this case developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and engineers, meet to collaborate on computer programming. This Hackathon will be an entire weekend event, lasting from Friday, January 18th at 6pm to Sunday, January 19th to 7:30pm with the theme being “It’s Always Been Done This Way” in an effort to encourage hackers to use their ingenuity and creativity to come up with new and improved tech solutions to old problems.
Made at theCO: Christmas Gifts
It’s the middle of the holiday season, and Christmas is just around the corner. If you are still looking for gifts for family and friends, start looking at theCO. You might be surprised to hear that many CO:members make items that could serve as a perfect gift. Here are a couple ideas for presents:
CO:bots At Brentwood Tournament
Anyone who stays late at theCO on Thursday nights knows all about the stream of kids carrying robotics equipment to the event space. These students are a part of the CO:bots Meetup hosted by theCO, in partnership with Vex Robotics, and come to practice their skills.
CO:working Spaces and How To Explain Them
If you ask anyone at theCO what the hardest part of their job is, most would likely answer, “explaining theCO to people who have no idea what it is.” Even though that seems trivial, coworking spaces are relatively new, especially to the United States. It wasn’t until 2005 that Brad Neuberg named and created the San Francisco Coworking Space, and even then, the idea wasn’t popular. It took a few months for people to catch on and utilize the space. Now there are just shy of 4,600 coworking spaces in the United States, and still it can be a hard concept to explain.
Dev Catalyst Students at theCOtoberfest
theCO held its fourth annual theCOtoberfest at the end of October. The event featured a Fortune 500 Teller Booth, Maker Demos, CO:bots students, and the CO.STARTERS Showcase. But the booth that seemed to have the most traffic was the Raspberry Pi(e) Booth set up by Dev Catalyst. Throughout the day, kids of all ages entertained themselves by practicing their coding skills and interacting with Raspberry Pis.
Board Member Spotlight: Lisa Piercey
“theCO is my favorite board to be on because not only is it really cool work, but the people who populate the board are various professionals with great experience,” says Dr. Lisa Piercey, “I learn as much as I give.”
CO.STARTERS Spotlight: Will Lovelady
Will Lovelady was at a conference last fall in Philadelphia when he rubbed shoulders with a professor from his undergrad years. Since this was Lovelady’s first time at a conference like this one, he was feeling a little out of his comfort zone and asked the professor what he normally does when he travels for conferences. And that is how Lovelady ended up at a cigar bar in downtown Philadelphia, talking with a man he had known from years previous.