Meet The Geeks is proud to present WNC BIT Summit (Western North Carolina Business & Information Technology Summit). This unique event is designed to cater specifically to the growing technology needs of small to medium sized businesses. Unlike other technology focused events – which often leave participants feeling confused and overwhelmed – the aim of WNC BIT Summit is to provide practical, understandable knowledge that people can use to grow and streamline their business.

The summit starts at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 4 with full breakfast before diving in to a morning of learning and networking ending at 12:30 p.m. At our all-info, no-pitch presentations, you’ll learn about the latest technologies and how they can be used to boost your bottom line.

Our keynote and break-out sessions are designed to educate you on the basics of the latest technologies, teach you how to secure and grow your business, and connect you with some of WNC’s top business and technology professionals who can help you take your business to the next level.

You’ll learn how to use technology to:

• Lower your Costs
• Increase Efficiency & Productivity
• Connect and Communicate with your Customers
• Improve your Customer Experience
• Share, Store, and Protect Information
• Automate Repetitive Tasks & Processes
• Respond Quickly and Effectively to Change
• and More!

Keynote Presentation

“Demystifying the Cloud”

An educational presentation by Yung Chou,  Technology Evangelist in Microsoft’s US Developer and Platform Evangelism team

Register for the event and make sure to visit our facebook page, where we’ll be announcing speaker and session details, and sharing tips to help you use technology to grow your business.

Once again Meet the Geeks will be participating in the Annual Homecoming Job Fair sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce on January 3 at the Biltmore Square Mall. Our goal is to ensure that people are aware of the objectives of Meet The Geeks as an organization, and to help technical professionals connect with companies who may need their services.

If your firm is currently looking for technologists, please send us any job descriptions that are currently not already actively listed on our web site. We will be happy to add them to our job list, and ensure that candidates know of your opportunity. These positions could include web developers, help desk, programmers, analysts, graphic designers, web designers, database administrators, or others. We will only be able to collect resumes, if we can make some arrangements for you to pick them up if you would like us to do that for you (we are all volunteer after all).

We are happy to list any opportunities that are technical in nature, however, we are not equipped to help with other types of opportunities (sales, marketing, financial positions, etc.). Also, if you know of other companies who may be looking for technical assistance, please feel free to forward this on to them.

From the experience at the 2012 job fair we are aware of at least 4 professionals who secured positions with local companies as a result of Meet the Geeks & the job fair. Keep us in mind if we can help either now or any time in 2013.

The job fair is on 1/3/2013 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.  For more details or if you have any questions, contact jobfair@ashevillechamber.org.

Meet the Geeks is proud to sponsor Drupal Camp Asheville 2012: an unconference-style Drupal training, founded in the style of BarCamp. While there are some differences (Drupal Camp does more pre-planning on the sessions), they have the common goal of bringing smart people together in an environment that is accessible to everyone.  The event is catered towards all users of Drupal and those interested in learning more about it. We welcome you as curious beginners, designers, developers, and business owners!

Our sessions are proposed by community volunteers. The official schedule will be based on feedback by members attending the camp, specific topics proposed, and availability.  In other words, this is YOUR camp and will be a full day of sessions chosen by you. Pick only the sessions that you plan to attend when compiling your own ultimate schedule. The sessions with the most picks will make the cut. See something you like? Add it to your schedule! What if a session doesn’t make it? Don’t worry… we’ll have lots of room for BoF’s too!

Camp registration is now open for signups! Signup today for only $20 dollars.

Visit https://2012.drupalcampasheville.com for more details.

Meet the Geek’s own serial entrepreneur Trevor Lohrbeer has helped to organize Asheville Startup Weekend – a weekend-long event where teams compete to bring businesses from concept to launch in 54 hours.  Think of the event as a 48-Hour Film Fest for techies, marketers & entrepreneurs.  Anyone who wants to learn or loves the process of creating a new product or service and turning it into a business should consider attending. Attendees include makers, programmers, marketers, designers, builders, entrepreneurs and writers.

Participating in Startup Weekend is an intense experience that allows you to grow rapidly and build deep relationships. It’s an experience like none other.

For more information about Startup Weekend, check out the FAQ at http://asheville.startupweekend.org.

To register, please sign in at http://ashevillesw.eventbrite.org. Asheville Startup Weekend runs from Friday, August 24th at 6pm until Sunday, August 26th at 9pm.

This just in!  Trevor has put together a special $24 discount for Meet the Geeks members who want to attend Asheville Startup Weekend.

To use this discount, go to http://asheville.startupweekend.org/ and click the Register button. You’ll be brought to our Eventbrite registration page. Click “Enter promotional code”, enter MTG and press Apply. Then purchase your Developer, Designer or Non-Technical ticket.

Purchase your ticket by August 10th and be entered to win a copy of The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.