If you’re of an enterpereneurial bent and live in the Louisville region, you should attend the EnterpriseCorp Signature Event on Tuesday, June 18.

If you can’t make it to the SigEvent, or just can’t pull together the $25 scratch necessary to hear Ben Yoskovitz, Jonathan Blue, Dale Boden, Tony Schy and Wright Steenrod discuss lean startups, don’t worry — we have a low cost alternative.

Forge and the LDA have team up to run a nice, open and free afterparty for attendees of the SigEvent as well as the general techno-entrepreneurial public.

We’ll gather in the lobby of the Kentucky Center for the Arts at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, June 18 — immediately after the SigEvent wraps up.

A local DJ, local beer and the extra-local Roobie Red Tea is on the house and, if you need a little more emphatic libation, a cash bar will also be purveying the sterner spirits. Come mix it up and match wits with a who’s who of the region’s technology and business communities, no charge.

See you on Tuesday.

It’s an exciting time to be in Louisville, there are a lot of things going on but one of our big questions here at the LDA is what more is needed in tech and entrepreneurship – the focus of LDA. It is spring, it’s time for change, it’s time to make things happen, it’s time to grow – so come join LDA as we discuss what you think it takes to help grow Louisville’s entrepreneurial and tech communities.

This is for all you social media mavens, you corporate maybe entrepreneurs, you “I’ve got a small  gig on the side” or you I’m growing a business folks.  You see  the people in all these groups are related and how fast and large any one of our areas grows helps drive the others.

So come listen as Jason Falls asks our local helpers and our audience what needs to take place over the next year or so to continue moving Louisville forward. Our guests include Ted Smith, Chief, Economic Growth and Innovation at Louisville Metro Government; Tendai Charasika, Long time Business Supporter and Newly appointed Executive Director at Enterprise Corp and some of the leadership of other service groups around town – like LDA and Forge.

Come get your questions answered and let your voice be heard at this event . This coming Wednesday, May 22nd, at the iHub in Louisville.

Tell us what you want – so we can help give it to you! To sign up – go to: sign up

Noted author, speaker and digital content maven C.C. Chapman will join Louisville Digital Association for an evening of Amazing Things, Tuesday, April 30 from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. at Interactive Media Lab, 124 North First Street, Louisville, KY. Admission is free and the event is open to the public. Hors d’oeuvres will be served. We will move to the bar across the street after the meeting for more fun and learning.

Chapman’s latest book, Amazing Thing Will Happen, is an uplifting work dedicated to his children. He’ll field questions about it, his charitable projects, travels and digital and social media marketing perspectives from LDA board members as well as those in attendance.

“C.C. Chapman is one of the trailblazers in social media,” LDA director Jason Falls said. “From his Managing The Gray podcasts to his innovative brand work with agencies like Crayon and The Advance Guard to his books, blog and incredible side projects for charity, he’s shown many individuals and companies how to use passion and content to drive business. We’re going to learn a lot from C.C. this month!”

In addition to Amazing Things Will Happen, Chapman also co-authored Content Rules with Ann Handley. He’s founded The Cleon Foundation and Passion Hit TV along with a digital marketing agency. He has worked with Coca-Cola, HBO, Warner Bros., American Eagle Outfitters and other companies to transition from traditional marketing to online and digital content marketing.

“We’re going to interview C.C., Oprah style, so we can really dig deep and learn about how he fuels so many projects, develops strategies for clients and uses storytelling and content to pave the way for revenues,” Falls explained. “The audience will participate, too, so everyone’s questions can be answered.”

Chapman can be found online at cc-chapman.com or on Twitter @cc_chapman.

Understanding HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is fundamental to developing anything on the web and your ability to fit these pieces together allows you to immediately start building new products and ideas. With Node.js, you can leverage your skills even further.

In order to build complete, rich, dynamic web products, you also need to manage your database and web server (i.e. our back-end). In the past, this meant you needed to add an entirely new programming language (like PHP or Python) to your front-end toolkit. Now, you have an opportunity to simply use JavaScript to manage your entire technology stack (front-end and back-end). Here are just a few reasons why learning Node is such a great opportunity to add to your existing skills:

1. It’s JavaScript!

You’ll be amazed how powerful your JavaScript skills will become. No need for new “back-end” languages like Ruby to get stuff done. You already know JavaScript, so just focus on learning about web servers, back-end logic, and managing databases!
2. The open source community!

3. It’s cutting-edge technology!

Node’s growth curve is awesome. People are constantly finding new ways to use it and build exciting software. Big companies like Airbnb and LinkedIn are embracing it in production and it shows all the signs of having a bright future. Node’s asynchronous approach makes creating scalable web servers and implementing real time features, a breeze.
The bottom line is, Node is a great opportunity to leverage the skills you have to do more with what you already know. There are plenty of other server-side languages or frameworks that you could learn, but in terms of getting the most “bang for your buck” – Node is a no brainer, especially for front-end developers looking to learn back-end skills!

If that all sounds interesting, then you’re going to love NodeLingo’s Introduction to Node.js workshop on April 6th and 7th at Louisville’s iHub! It’s going to be hands-on and a lot of fun. By the end of the weekend, you will have built your very own real time Node application and will be well on your way to continuing your learning. Oh, NodeLingo has prizes and surprises for students too!

Some further details..

1. NodeLingo is a team of passionate developers, focused on teaching Node.js and JavaScript classes for beginner to advanced students. Their courses are hands-on and in-person. They focus on teaching practical skills to help students quickly and confidently implement their knowledge.
2. They can be found at NodeLingo.com

Please refer to the points above about why Node is awesome.

Recommended Resources for Learning JavaScript basics quickly:

A key chain with your dog’s name on it, a personalized iPhone cover, a strange little piece of jewelry. Now you can use 3D printing to make and customize a long list of fun and useful objects!

At this workshop, computers with kid simple software will be set up, there will be 3D trained folks roaming around and the machines will be printing morning through – well, late afternoon. And you can be amongst the first of your friends to have printed out your own “thing” on a 3D printer!

Join LDA and the wonderful folks at the LFPL to print out your own 3D masterpiece. FOR FREE. For Men and women and children of all ages!!

 Sign up here!

Come even if you haven’t registered — but registering guarantees you a pre-printed 3d toy – we will not tell you what it is, but a hint is that it is Kentucky’s State Bird.

Time: 10-4

Date: March 9th

Location: Louisville Free Public Library

301 York Street, Louisville KY 40203

Grechen Huebner and Jon Mattingly, developers of Kodable -  the iPad game that teaches kids the basics of programing, will be leading the discussion at the next Louisville Digital Association meeting at 5:30pm on Feb. 13 at the iHub. 

Come join us and learn the steps to take in order to bring your idea from concept to MVP. Jon and Grechen will discuss:

• Deciding if an app is for your business
• Deciding on the device you want to utilize
• How to save time and money by preparing before you meet developers
• How to talk to and find a developer
• What to expect when you outsource or use a contractor
• What not to do when you’re trying to get into the App Store

The App world continues to grow and change by leaps and bounds. Over 600 apps a day are added to the Apple store alone. What do you need to know to successfully integrate a map into your business or to start an app business? Let the lessons these two entrepreneurs have learned help guide you.

Jon and Grechen began working on Kodable in the summer of 2012 and quickly learned the do’s and don’ts of app development. Over the year they have continued to develop apps for local corporations, agencies and successful entrepreneurs and are eager to share the lessons they have learned with others in the community.

So sign up here!

As always we thank our friends at Insider Louisville for their support, free pizza and soft drinks!

And we are at the iHub – 204 South Floyd Street, Louisville, KY – 40202

The Louisville Digital Assoc. is putting on a tasty panel discussion next Wednesday.  Join Tim Koons-McGee of The Comfy Cow, Rachel Goldenberg of Estes PR, and Liz and Jesse Huot of Grind Food Truck on stage to answer questions about local social media marketing.

Sign up here for your free ticket.

Death of the Landing Tab, 3rd-party App Penalty, Engagement Drop – these strange terms have become the life of the poor social media marketer after Facebook’s IPO. What is a savvy business person to do? Come listen to four of Louisville’s most savvily delicious folks as they give us guidance and answer your questions.

Operation: Social Santa (formerly known as Tweet Drive) is a nationwide toy drive where we bring social media driven communities together during the holidays to collect toys under-privileged children. Since 2010, we have hosted or partnered with over 60 events in 50+ cities and collected over 6,200 toys.

Bring a toy Wednesday to the Louisville Digital Association meeting to help make a child’s winter a little warmer.

Between Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and the CrowdFunding part of the Jobs Act,  crowdfunding is all the rage. But information is hard to sort through and experts are few and far away. LDA is riding to the rescue with a series of events to get you up to speed about how to succeed in this new world.

Join us on Dec 12th, from 5:30 -8 pm (EST) at the iHub (204 South Floyd Street, Louisville, KY – 40202).  The event is free, pizza and soft drinks are provided. There is a limited number of seats, but plenty of parking!

To register, click here.

We kick off with 15 minutes by national expert and Cincy native, Candace Klein of Bad Girls Ventures and SoMoLend. And then we will hear  from local entrepreneurs - Michelle Jones (Menu and Hours), Maggie Huber (This is Louisville), and Jon Huffman and Barbara Cullen (Armoured Car Theatre) about how they successfully raised start up funds on Kickstarter.

Questions we will answer:

• How much prep did you do?
• Where did your funders come from?
• How did they find you?
• Local?
• Topic investors?
• Best resources you found?
• Raising money again?
• Willing to help?

After this panel LDA and partners will be following-up with:

1) JFCS Navigate Enterprise Center classes in -

• The offer/pitch
• Social Media prep
• Promoting after launch
• What sells a project — putting in the Bells & Whistle

2) A list of crowdfunding resources, and

3)  A Forge co-sponsored event in January 2013- that will focus on the new rules of investing crowdfunding. We will draw in experts and platforms that will help Louisville area entrepreneurs fully (and legally) embrace this new tool!

As always thanks to Insider Louisville for being our media sponsor.

Related articles

• 2012: The Year of Crowdfunding. What Makes a Successful Campaign?
• A New Era of Crowdfunding?
• A GigaOM guide to Kickstarter wannabes
• Crowdfunding firms boost startups
• Crowdfunding is Hard. And also Awesome.