Inside VT KnowledgeWorks: High Tech Visitors

From Handshake Media, Incorporated, a VT KnowledgeWorks member company:

A cornucopia of VT KnowledgeWorks member companies, service providers and sponsors - members of the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Community and Network - paired with local supportive companies - contributed to a bountiful software development training event on March 16, 2011 in the Lakeview Conference Room at VT KnowledgeWorks. Here's the story, appearing first on Handshake 2.0:

A network of generosity created the first training session for the Network of Women Mobile Application Developers.

Thanks to the support and sponsorship of Margaret Galecki and Coldwell Banker, Townside REALTORS, Kelly Kendrick and First Bank & Trust Company, Ken Maready and Hutchison Law Group, and Handshake Media, the Network of Women Mobile Application Developers were treated to a complimentary reception at their inaugural meeting on March 7, 2011, in Blacksburg, Virginia.

At their first training on March 16, 2011, members were treated to a complimentary meal thanks to the support and sponsorship of Jim Flowers and VT KnowledgeWorks.

Thanks to Ryan Hagan, Shierod Russell and Wesley Ferrell - who completely volunteered their time to help - we had pre-event consultation and on-site technical support during the training. (Note: When they're not contributing to the software development community on their own time, Ryan, Shierod and Wes work for VT KnowledgeWorks sponsor Rackspace.)

Steve Williams, Ryan Hagan, Shierod Russell and Wes Ferrell get things started.

Thanks to the IT teamwork of Christine Pushaw and Lindsey Eversole of VT KnowledgeWorks, Shierod Russell, Steve Williams of Reconix Information Services, and Doug Mauer of Biz Net Technologies, we were connected.

Sallie Dodson (foreground) shows the photographer (me) how it's done.

I give personal thanks to the dozens of individuals who made this event happen.

And I give personal thanks to the women who attended the training - and stayed. That was difficult and challenging. It took courage, forbearance, and tenacity. I was moved beyond words by your generosity towards me and each other as we learned together.

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More photographs from the March 16, 2011 training session for the Network of Women Mobile Application Developers are on Facebook. Here's the story leading up the training session.

Women in the Blacksburg, Virginia area interested in joining other women to learn about mobile application development are invited to email Anne Giles Clelland, anne@handshake20.com, for more information.

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VT KnowledgeWorks encourages and enables creative entrepreneurship world-wide, through innovative curriculum, local business resource centers, and a global network of cooperating regions, all focused on three essential contributors to success: clear understanding of fundamental business principles; access to timely, relevant information; and meaningful personal and corporate relationships. It is a self-sustaining not-for-profit subsidiary of the Virginia Tech Foundation, funded through the continuing confidence and enthusiasm of its clients, sponsors and friends, both corporate and individual. Its world headquarters is in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.

VT KnowledgeWorks sponsors include Attaain, Inc., BB&T, The Branch Group, Handshake 2.0, Harris Office Furniture, Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., Hutchison Law Group, LeClairRyan, New River Valley Intellectual Property Law, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and The Becher Agency (TBA).

In the late 90s, a young colleague of mine got a hot stock tip on two biotech companies from his uncle, a doctor. Tech stock insanity hit both me and my mother. Without research or due diligence, I bought one and she bought the other. According to The Wall Street Journal, 12/06/07, "As measured by the Dow Jones technology index, tech stocks topped out in late March 2000. Then they began a long slide that lasted until October 2002 and left them 84% below their peak."

My stock slid into death. My mother's slid but lived. She held on to it.

At the 12/06/07 NewVa Corridor Technology Council (NCTC) Biotech After Hours hosted by the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Wendy Penry and Marge Musumeci, representatives from Human Genome Sciences, Inc., spoke about their company's evolution from research, to development, to commercialization.

The drug Human Genome Sciences hopes to market first addresses Hepatitis C. The second addresses lupus.

After their talk, I asked Ms. Penry, Virginia Tech Class of '91, if the company's stock symbol was HGSI. She said yes.

The name of the stock my mother bought? Human Genome Sciences, symbol HGSI. She has been diagnosed with lupus.

Hold on, mother.