Cafe Bedouins is drifting into Cospace next week. Join Damon and the rest of the coding nomads here on Tuesday, June 29th, at 7:00 p.m.
Austin WordPress Meetup – an Overview of WordPress 3
The Austin WordPress Meetup is meeting at Cospace on July 6th, at 7:00 p.m. The group will be doing an overview of the newly released version 3.0 of WordPress. Sponsoring this event is the new Austin-based WordPress hosting service WPEngine.
More information on the Meetup can be found at Meetup.com.
Central Austin Business Owners Thirsty Thursday and Lecture Series
This month, our guest speaker is Eve Richter of the City of Austin’s Economic Development office. She will be speaking on how the City is focused on assisting local entrepreneurs and small business owners.
The Central Austin Business Owners Lecture Series is a monthly meeting focused on providing information from SMEs on small business issues as well as networking amongst members located in the Central Austin area.
Formerly known as the Thirsty Thursday monthly get together, we have added a 20-30 minute presentation/lecture to the meeting to provide important information on operations, marketing, sales, finance and other issues for the small business owner in the Central Austin area.
Yet another RISE event at Cospace
The annual RISE event is coming to Austin March 1-5.
RISE stands for Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs. From their site, “RISE is a free conference for entrepreneurs of all types, providing a forum where you can connect and exchange ideas that inspire the entrepreneurial spirit. RISE is not your ordinary conference. Because RISE is designed for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, the format is hands on, high energy and free flowing. RISE sessions are independently organized by hosts, each of whom chooses his/her own topic and session location. These peer-led forums are limited to 25 participants and take place all over Austin. During RISE, you may find yourself headed to conference rooms, coffee shops, classrooms or cultural centers. You’ll connect with entrepreneurs from multiple industries and backgrounds, along with leaders from universities, non-profits, neighborhoods and government. It’s a fun and highly educational ride, much like entrepreneurship itself.”
Cospace is going to be hosting some events that week. This event will be on Thursday, March 4 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.
JC Otero will be hosting the session
Business as Unusual
How entrepreneurial thinking can be applied to solving social challenges
ABOUT THIS SESSION
Will share with audience the experience of teaching social entrepreneurship to an after school apprenticeship program at Kealing Elementary through Citizen Schools. The class was simple, ask the students what social challenges/needs they had and develop entrepreneurial solutions to address those challenges.
I will quickly cover my 10 week experience with the audience as a warm up to a condensed hands on workshop to do the same thing the students did in developing entrepreneurial solutions to social challenges.
As a group we will identify one to three social challenges Austin faces and in one hour’s time come up with entrepreneurial solutions to address those social challenges.
If a class of 15 6th graders can develop 3 entrepreneurial solutions to address 5+ challenges they face every day, surely a group of adults can do the same.
Join me for an hour and half that will inspire you to do something that is going to have an impact locally.
This session is limited to 25 people. If you are interested, make sure to sign up here
WordPress Installfest
April 10, 12-5pm
Learn how to install WordPress on your laptop so you can experiment & hack up a theme.
We’ll also go through building a small starter WordPress site for a small business, including outlining a site structure, setting up widgets, picking a basic theme & customizing the code enough to make it unique and custom to you.
WordPress is, simply put, everywhere. From the New York Times & the Wall Street Journal to my mom’s quilt guild, WordPress is in use by people needing simple-to-use yet powerful content management system software.
Join us at Cospace and learn how to get started with a local install of WordPress.
Click here to register for the event
Another RISE Event at Cospace
The annual RISE event is coming to Austin March 1-5.
RISE stands for Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs. From their site, “RISE is a free conference for entrepreneurs of all types, providing a forum where you can connect and exchange ideas that inspire the entrepreneurial spirit. RISE is not your ordinary conference. Because RISE is designed for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, the format is hands on, high energy and free flowing. RISE sessions are independently organized by hosts, each of whom chooses his/her own topic and session location. These peer-led forums are limited to 25 participants and take place all over Austin. During RISE, you may find yourself headed to conference rooms, coffee shops, classrooms or cultural centers. You’ll connect with entrepreneurs from multiple industries and backgrounds, along with leaders from universities, non-profits, neighborhoods and government. It’s a fun and highly educational ride, much like entrepreneurship itself.”
Cospace is going to be hosting a couple of events that week. Both will be led by Caroline Valentine.
On Thursday, March 4, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm she will be hosting:
Hiring Your First Employee: Dealing with TWC, IRS and all the other stuff
About this Session:
A how-to primer on hiring your first employee
Hiring your first employee can be an exhilarating and frustrating experience. Business is booming and if you are an entrepreneur on your own, its time to double in size. Hiring the right person is much more than posting a job description on craigslist, interviewing candidates, negotiating a pay rate and providing a desk, a computer, a phone and (possibly) benefits.
While those are all important tasks to complete, understanding your regulatory requirements as an employer is crucial to the success of your business. We will be discussing steps for new employers to follow to ensure compliance with key federal and state regulations as well as how to reduce liability concerns and employee turnover.
If this isn’t something that is on your radar now, it is something that any entrepreneur should prepare for. These are the important details that need to be handled properly from the onset of your business to save valuable time and money as you grow. Again, these sessions are limited to 25 people. If you are interested, make sure you signup now
RISE Event at Cospace
The annual RISE event is coming to Austin March 1-5.
RISE stands for Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs. From their site, “RISE is a free conference for entrepreneurs of all types, providing a forum where you can connect and exchange ideas that inspire the entrepreneurial spirit. RISE is not your ordinary conference. Because RISE is designed for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, the format is hands on, high energy and free flowing. RISE sessions are independently organized by hosts, each of whom chooses his/her own topic and session location. These peer-led forums are limited to 25 participants and take place all over Austin. During RISE, you may find yourself headed to conference rooms, coffee shops, classrooms or cultural centers. You’ll connect with entrepreneurs from multiple industries and backgrounds, along with leaders from universities, non-profits, neighborhoods and government. It’s a fun and highly educational ride, much like entrepreneurship itself.”
Cospace is going to be hosting a couple of events that week. Both will be led by Caroline Valentine.
On Tuesday, March 2, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm she will be hosting:
Consultant, Contractor or Employee: Classify Correctly
The wrong answer could cost you.
About this session
Deciding if an individual working for your business is an employee or an independent contractor is an important decision. Why is this important you ask? The potential liabilities and penalties are significant if an individual is treated as an independent contractor and later found to be an employee. The cost of misclassifying can be huge, including owing the federal and state governments unpaid taxes plus significant penalties.
Caroline will be discussing both the significance of classifying correctly and the process to ensure your business is compliant:
• IRS and TWC definitions of employee and contractor
• Common misperceptions and mistakes
• Costs to your business in both dollars and time
• Checklist to get it right the first time
• Dealing with the aftermath
This is a very important topic, and is something employers, employees, and contractors should become educated in. The sessions have a limit of 25 people, so if you are interested, please signup now.