Archive for April 2011

A Verge Roundup

Posted by sara
Apr
29
2011

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Filed Under: Everything Else

Verge has become a “can’t miss” tech event for the SmallBox team. If you’ve never been, here’s the rundown. Scores of developers, designers and entrepreneurs gather at Earth House, a church that also serves as a hub for local concerts, tech events and more. Amidst the stained-glass, dark woods and velvet drapes, three presenters pitch their ideas and start-up companies in just five minutes each. Free-flowing beer sponsored by a local tech company adds to the vibe.

People tend to arrive early and linger long after the presentations. If you’re interested in being part of the tech community in Indianapolis, this is the place to be to rub elbows with established leaders and up-and-coming talent alike.

Verge Indy

For the April event, Jeb, Jack and Daniel all attended, and this is what they have to say about it.

Daniel Fahrner, Director of Marketing Services:
There are two things that I absolutely love about Verge that make me look forward to this event every month:

The Format
The presentations use a rapid-fire approach that is designed perfectly for folks like me who have gotten burnt out on the lazy, late starting rock-show format. Presenters only get 5 minutes for their pitches, which is followed by a lightning round of questions from the audience. The presentations are interactive and the questions are typically insightful and oftentimes hilarious. Oh, almost forgot about the kegs of beer…

Community
It never fails that I meet someone new and interesting as soon as I walk in the door. This time around I met 2 lawyers with different specialties and a web app developer producing an exciting local tech event. Conversation comes easy and oftentimes lead to professional and personal relationships. There is a feeling to Verge that creates a contextual open and fresh mindedness that is intoxicating. I believe this feeling is rooted in the collective pride for our city and various scenes.

Jack Shepler, Designer & Developer:
This month’s presenters included The Tyros, Big Blue Wagon, and grabach.at.

The Tyros, dubbed the “only complete web application for athletic officials and assigners”, presented first. The product, already in beta, allows sports officials to organize, communicate and grow within their field. This very niche product fills a void that they consider to be very much needed in the community, and have very little competition at this time. “We’re creating the industry,” said Tony Monteleone, one of the presenters.

Big Blue Wagon, presented by Josh Miles and team, is a product created for their own needs: to be able to presented videos in a less cluttered space than YouTube, and to make uploading video very easy. One of the key features of BigBlueWagon is that you can upload a video to YouTube and Vimeo simply by placing the video in your Dropbox folder. They have plans to expand the service to upload to more services at a later date.

GrabACh.at was the winner of the most recent Startup Weekend in Indianapolis. This collection of college students came up with the idea that there needs to be a video chat system like ChatRoullette, but more focused. Presenter Zach Zuber said you can type in any topic you’d like to chat about and get connected to someone else looking for that same topic or the next closest topic (ie, if nobody else wants to talk about football, you will get connected to someone else interested in sports).

Jeb Banner, CEO:
The After Party

There was a somewhat official after party at The Ball & Biscuit- a very hip, newish bar on Mass Ave. My buddy Brandon Judkins DJ’d, mixing vinyl with digital. James Brown with Lykke Li. I hung out with Kristian Andersen, Julie Perry, Matt “Magic” Hunckler, Celeste Baker and many others. Stinky cheese was eaten, fancy drinks drunk and a good time had by all.
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If you haven’t been, we suggest checking it out, and if you do go, be on the lookout for SmallBoxers. We usually have one or more team members attending. Now, we want to know: What is your favorite tech event in Indy? We asked the question via facebook, so you can answer it there too.

Our Word Clouds Unveiled

Posted by sara
Apr
28
2011

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Filed Under: Culture Marketing SmallBox

Last week we asked what five words come to mind when you think of SmallBox. We put the question out there via our blog, twitter and facebook, hoping to cast a wide net and get responses from our clients, friends and competitors. Most of the results were overwhelmingly positive, some were surprising or unexpected, but all were insightful.

We compiled answers internally as well and created two word clouds – one of our own responses and one for external results. We then spent a lunch hour with submarine sandwiches and word clouds in hand, dissecting the differences between the two.

The Internal Cloud:
Internal 5 Words Responses


The External Cloud:
External 5 Words Responses


Badges We’ll Proudly Wear:
Many of the words you used to describe us we love, love, love. Thank you for saying we’re energetic, knowledgeable and diverse.

The major difference:
Pretty much every SmallBoxer used the word “creative” to describe us. By comparison, “creative” appears almost as fine print from the external responses. In diving into it, we wondered why such a disparity between our chosen label and how we’re perceived? One cause might be that our process involves a lot of behind-the-scenes creative thinking. While we pride ourselves on this part of our work, it doesn’t always get the same promotion as a big, shiny end product, like a website launch.

The inevitable question about price:
“Expensive” was a thread among a few of the external responses. We know that SmallBox is not the lowest price option out there. We see ourselves as the the destination for businesses and organizations serious about web marketing. Rather than viewing it as expensive, we view our fees as an investment that will pay for itself through increased business. We don’t take on clients and projects if we aren’t confident in getting them that return on their investment.

A surprise:
“Confusing” and “unfocused” surfaced among our descriptors. We do have a diverse team that can handle all types of work, and sometimes we might venture outside of our normal scope or process for the right project. This could also be a by-product of trying to keep the work we do new and exciting and challenging.

The good thing is knowing these perceptions exist allows us to be more purposeful in how we present our team. What do you think? Did you notice any surprises? We’d love to hear what you think. Until then, we venture onward with this new-found awareness!

Monday Flowers

Posted by sara
Apr
25
2011

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Filed Under: Culture SmallBox

Every Monday at SmallBox, our SEO Consultant, Emily Watkins brings fresh flowers into the office. The bouquets bring a splash of color to our main conference table throughout the week.

It’s amazing what this small bit of life does for the office, especially as the weather oscillates between dreariness and spring.

Sometimes it really is the small things…
What do you do to brighten your Mondays?

See a few more photos of our space over at facebook.

5 Words

Posted by sara
Apr
20
2011

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Filed Under: Culture

The entire team has rallied around our conference table for some deep discussions. We are refining how we talk about our work and finding new ways to infuse our culture into the SmallBox experience for ourselves and our clients.

We decided to open this discussion up to you, our tech partners, clients and friendly blog readers. What we want to know is this:

When you think of SmallBox, what five words come to mind?

We’d love to hear what you think. To share anonymously, go here. Or, leave your comments below for the wide world to see.

After collecting responses, we’re going to generate a word cloud to see what common perceptions emerge. A word cloud can be a great tool to visualize thoughts and trends. Make your own at a site like Wordle.

Word Cloud

(The above word cloud was created from this post).