Ileadu Meeting Entrepreneurs 2

ILEADU MEETING – ENTREPRENEURS 2.0 April 14th, 2010, 10:00am Joliet Public Library, Joliet, Illinois

The Entrepreneurs 2.0 team met to discuss LMS options, Drupal themes, Survey Monkey Questionnaire, equipment purchases and a timeline for the development of our online resource hub. Christopher Halvorsen, Mary Golden, Katrina Burns, Heather Shlah and Alexandra Annen were in attendance.

The team discussed at length the various LMS options that were being considered to host the online training component of the portal. After exploring offerings at www.microsoft.com, www.digitalchalk.com, learnhub.com and www.adobe.com the team decided that we would be using a combination of screen toaster, available free resources online, and our own resources and ingenuity to create course content to be delivered through a YouTube format. It was felt that the cost of the proprietary software would be prohibitive, and that harnessing the resources within the group, and free or close to free web-based tools would be more indicative of the character of our team and team mission. For now, at least, this is the direction that we will pursue. The team brainstormed on potential content for our instructional content off of our portal, and came up with the following:

Utube video training How to write a business plan How to get an IEN How to incorporate your business How to design your own business cards, flyers and brochures How to use Excel (various instruction on key applications will encompass 2003, 2007 and 2010 versions.) How to use Open Office – we will also promote this as a free resource in other areas of the portal Quicken, Ouik Books, Peach Tree How to create a blog for your business How to create a flickr, Twitter, and Facebook account for your business Search engine optimization How to apply for grants and small business loans How to create a domain name and website Using Reference USA for your business marketing and research Building codes, SIC codes Video camera instruction

Katrina is going to shoot some practice video before our next meeting. The rest of the group will be looking at aesthetic components and how to standardize our videos.

Mary presented at least five Drupal themes – These were great, and we picked a few that we liked. We added to Alex’s work on our SurveyMonkey questionnaire and Alex will have that up by the end of the week. Heather will be meeting with the Director of the Chamber of Commerce to get feedback on the questionnaire. We will be looking to release it to our target market very soon.

Heather is in discussions with Gale to have them donate some electronic resources (we like legal forms) in exchange for some good will promotion.

Katrina reported on the financial management issues involved with the grant money and equipment purchases. Rockford PL is administering the grant funds. We are still working out the logistics on this.

We discussed the types of equipment that we would like to purchase. We have decided on laptops (which will become a travelling digital media lab), flip video cameras, Photo editing software and tripods.

We talked about our timeline for our project, and it was decided at this point, that we would try to have our survey out next week, our webpage look and content placement discussed and agreed upon over the next two online meetings, and our instructional content finished by the June meetings in Springfield.