Sunday, December 11, 2011

Methane, Hydrates, and Global Warming: The Untold Story!

Our next meeting will be held Monday, December 12th, 2011 6-8 pm at Tahoe
Donner's Pizza on the Hill at 11509 Northwoods Blvd.

In the spirit of something new for the holidays, this month's presentation will be one of pure science. Matthew Reagan from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will present an overview of his research in climate science entitled: Methane, Hydrates, and Global Warming: The Untold Story!

Climate change is a matter of concern to those of us living in a fragile alpine environment.
Thousands of gigatons of methane, a greenhouse gas far more more powerful than carbon dioxide, have been sequestered in permafrost and frozen in the deep ocean. As the arctic warms, this methane may enter the oceans and atmosphere and have profound chemical and atmospheric consequences. Oceanic methane hydrates in particular have been suggested as a driver of climate feedback loops. In this talk, we will take a look at methane and climate and evaluate both the hype and the reality of runaway climate change.

Dr. Matthew Reagan is a research scientist specializing in transport, thermodynamics, and energy resources at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He hold a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a 4000'er badge from the Appalachian Mountain Club and many years of powder runs

Join us at Tahoe Donner's Pizza on the Hill at 11509 Northwoods Blvd. A $5
fee includes pizza, salad, and soft drinks. Silicon Mountain Group – A local
networking group of technology professionals, entrepreneurs and virtuals
that hosts a monthly meeting from 6-8 pm on the 2nd Monday of every month.

RSVP TahoeSiliconMountain@gmail.com. This weeks event is co-sponsored by
New Leaders (http://newleaders.com), a local web and mobile software
development company.

Hope to see you there!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Craig Burgess on how social media has impacted our lives and businesses.

Our next meeting will be held Monday, November 14th, 2011 6-8 pm at Tahoe
Donner's Pizza on the Hill at 11509 Northwoods Blvd for a live demo of the
recently launched Google+ product features.

Craig Burgess, a web analyst from www.telestream.net,will discuss how social
media has impacted our lives and businesses and show you how to turn what
once was perceived as ‘just a trend’ into a powerful personalized tool. He
will give a live demo of what Google is doing with the Google+ project by
showing a plethora of new features including the upcoming business page
launch, ripples and more. Craig will let us play with the Google+ Hangout
feature and demonstrate using one of Telestream products, called Wirecast
that will do the heavy lifting for the out put to Ustream.tv.

At the end of the meeting there will be a drawing for a license for Wirecast
($449 value; www.telestream.net/wirecast). Before and after the discussion,
there will also be time for networking with other technology people who live
and work in the Tahoe-Truckee region.

In the mid-80's Craig correctly predicted the coffeehouse boom back when
you heard, "So, let me get this straight: Starbucks sells coffee for three
bucks a cup?" Craig also writes blog posts, plays in the social media
streams including Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn and helps the marketing
department in ways beyond his normal areas of Usability, Conversion Rate and
Search Engine Optimization. He lives with his wife and kids in Grass Valley
and splits his time between work, family and lots of outdoor activities.

Join us at Tahoe Donner's Pizza on the Hill at 11509 Northwoods Blvd. A $5
fee includes pizza, salad, and soft drinks. Silicon Mountain Group – A local
networking group of technology professionals, entrepreneurs and virtuals
that hosts a monthly meeting from 6-8 pm on the 2nd Monday of every month.

RSVP TahoeSiliconMountain@gmail.com. This weeks event is co-sponsored by
New Leaders (http://newleaders.com), a local web and mobile software
development company and www.telestream.net, a Nevada City based - video
software - hardware company.

Hope to see you there!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

David Griffith and Jeff Ridgel to discuss “Working as a Tech Professional in Truckee”

Silicon Mountain, a networking group of technology professionals in
the Tahoe-Truckee region, will have its next meeting from 6-8 pm on
Monday October 10 at Tahoe Donner's Pizza on the Hill at 11509
Northwoods Blvd.

What should the future of working in Truckee look like? David
Griffith, Redevelopment and Housing Coordinator, Town of Truckee, and
Jeff Ridgel, CEO of Office BOSS will discuss their perspectives with
the Silicon Mountain Group. Ridgel is evaluating options for creating
a shared workspace for professionals in Truckee. “I’m looking forward
to finding out what the key requirements of tech workers are: Is it
high and reliable bandwidth? How important are other factors?”
Attracting highly qualified people to work and live in Truckee
intrigues Griffith as a way to create new employment opportunities.

Before and after the discussion, there will also be time for
networking with other technology people who live and work in the
Tahoe-Truckee region.

The meeting is sponsored by Truckee-based creative and technical
services company New Leaders.
Dinner will be $5, which includes pizza, salad, and soda. For more
information about the group or to RSVP for the event, e-mail
TahoeSiliconMountain@gmail.com. You can also find the “Silicon
Mountain” group on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Next meeting: Justin Winter on the Donner 2.0 Team

Time: Monday, September 12 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Pizza On The Hill

Don't miss our next meeting: Justin Winter, CEO of McCormick&Winter to present about the "Donner 2.0" participation in the Red Bull Creation competition.

Winter is “fired up” about the upcoming meeting: “We are a ragtag group of skiers metal artists, photographers, computer programmers, and enginerds from Lake Tahoe that like to tame fire and electricity and warp them with our hands into thought provoking and awe inspiring works of participatory art!

We are planning to bring our Red Bull Creation qualifier entry to the meeting, which is a grandfather clock that shoots fire on the hour. We can talk a bit about the competition we recently competed in NYC this past July. We can also talk about the state of the "maker" scene, nationally and locally, interactive art, the rise of micro electronics, including the Arduino and prototyping breakout boards."

Before and after the discussion, there will also be time for networking with other technology people who live and work in the Tahoe-Truckee region.

The meeting is sponsored by Truckee-based creative and technical services company New Leaders.
Dinner will be $5, which includes pizza, salad, and soda.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Darin Dinsmore discusses the launch of his NEW real-time, crowd-sourcing tool CrowdBrite.com

Darin Dinsmore - Will discuss the launch of his NEW real-time, crowd-sourcing tool –CrowdBrite.com . This innovative tool will enhance collaboration, lower costs and accelerate community and corporate decisions.

Join the Silicon Mountain Group Monday, June 13 from 6-8 PM for a pre-launch demonstration and discussion on how this innovative tool can improve local prosperity, sustainability community design.

"I think Crowdbrite could really change how the community engages in planning projects.” – Lynn Richards, EPA

“It looks fantastic and the mobile app makes it even more exciting!” – Beth Offenbacker, Public Decisions

“This sounds like a really important tool as I believe that you are right about citizen engagement being the future of governance.” – Thomas Holland, Professor ASU


Local Planning and Sustainability Consultant turned crowd sourcing entrepreneur, Darin will be demonstrating his new internet based platform 'CrowdBrite' which is poised to bring mobile collaboration to a whole new level at home and abroad. "My mission is to build a better planet, one place, one project at a time." Says Dinsmore.

Darin is the owner of Dinsmore Sierra and has helped facilitate facilitate the South Lake Sustainability Plan, Truckee Rail Yard Masterplan, and new Ecodistricts in Portland.....to name a few. His mission is to transform communities, cities, and regions by inspiring innovation in planning and sustainability.

Join us at Tahoe Donner's Pizza on the Hill at 11509 Northwoods Blvd. A $5 fee includes pizza, salad, and soft drinks.
Silicon Mountain Group – A local networking group of technology professionals, entrepreneurs and virtuals that hosts a monthly meeting from 6-8 pm every 2nd Monday of each month. RSVP TahoeSiliconMoubtain@gmail.com. This event is sponsored by New Leaders a local web and mobile software development firm.

Contacts for questions:

Dr. Johannes Ziegler - founder of Silcon Mountain Group

President and CEO
Miaplaza Inc.
Phone: +1 (530) 587 7550

Darin Dinsmore - Speaker
darin@crowdbrite.com

Monday, May 23, 2011

Slides from previous talk by Truckee geophysicist Heidi Anderson Kuzma

For those of you who couldn't make it to the last talk, here are the slides from the previous presentation on the Production of Natural Gas from Shale by Truckee's very own geophysicist Heidi Anderson Kuzma. The topic of the presentation is about SeTES, a web-based Self Teaching Expert System for the discovery and production of natural gas from shales.

Download PDF

Friday, May 6, 2011

May luncheon


Meeting date: Thursday, May 26 · 12:00pm
Location: Fifty-Fifty Brew Pub


Our next monthly luncheon will be held on Thursday, May 26 at the Fifty-Fifty Brew Pub at noon.

Truckee geophysicist Heidi Anderson Kuzma on the Production of Natural Gas from Shales

Meeting date: Monday, May 9 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Pizza on the Hill, Tahoe Donner



Power plants burning clean, efficient natural gas emit half the carbon dioxide of coal-fired plants. However, many of the major sources for gas in the United States are found in hard rock which must be artificially fractured before hydrocarbons can be recovered. Kuzma will present a web-based self teaching expert system for the discovery and production of natural gas from shales. The project, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, is a first step toward integrating as much knowledge as possible about geology, geophysics, fracturing and gas production in order to improve recovery, reduce environmental risk and lower drilling and production costs.


Before and after the discussion, there will also be time for networking with other technology people who
live and work in the Tahoe-Truckee region.


The meeting is sponsored by world-class creative and technical services company New Leaders (www.newleaders.com). Dinner will be $5, which includes pizza, salad, and soda. For more information about the group or to RSVP for the event, e-mail TahoeSiliconMountain@gmail.com. You can also find the “ Silicon Mountain” group on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Monday, March 28, 2011

March lucheon

Meeting date: Thursday, March 31 · 12:00
Location: Fifty-Fifty Brew Pub

Our next monthly luncheon will be held on Thursday, March 31 at the Fifty-Fifty Brew Pub at noon.

April Meeting on Energy Efficiency with Michael Krueger and Kristin York

Meeting date: Monday, April 11 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Pizza on the Hill, Tahoe Donner

Michael Krueger, Managing Director of Kirchner Private capital Group & Kristen York, Partner Sustainametrics based in Truckee, will discuss how businesses, investors and consumers are looking beyond CleanTech to the emerging Energy Efficiency sector. "Energy efficiency a sub-category of CleanTech is focused on improving energy management throughout the energy supply/demand chain. As the second phase of CleanTech begins to emerge, investors and leading industry players are looking at the energy efficiency sector as a viable alternative to the traditional capital-intensive CleanTech companies in the market today. Much like its IT counterparts’ energy efficiency solutions provide higher gross margins, shorter time to market and significantly less capital investment." Together they will enlighten us to this evolving sector, how it can positively impact you and your business strategy. Together Krueger & York bring a fresh dimension to ‘Energy Efficiency’ conversation hoping to inspire us at the local level.


The meeting is sponsored by world-class creative and technical services company New Leaders. Dinner will be $5.


Sunday, March 13, 2011

Steve Teshara to Discuss Lake Tahoe Prosperity Plan


The Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan (LTBPP) is an unprecedented regional collaboration effort to develop a Basin-wide economic prosperity strategy, which currently does not exist. The region includes all land that sheds water into the Lake Tahoe Basin in California and Nevada. The LTBPP will result in an action plan to create a more resilient economy that enhances environmental quality and ensures an improved standard of living for all residents. The Plan will provide a framework for a competitive regional strategy that recognizes local differences, leverages the distinct attributes of all communities throughout the Basin, and enables local governments, institutions, and businesses to work as partners in revitalizing the Basin economy. Read more...

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Online Marketing by Coryon Redd

Join the Silicon Mountain Group on Monday, February 21st from 6 to 8 PM for dinner, great conversation and an informative presentation about online marketing by Coryon Redd.

Coryon is an entrepreneur who has built a successful online business www.batteries4less.com and has taught courses about online marketing for several years. Coryon will show how Google ranks search results, strategies for local search marketing, and practical steps to attract more customers online. If you¹d like a stronger online presence ­ or are just curious about internet marketing ­ please join us.

The February meeting is sponsored by world-class creative and technical services company New Leaders www.newleaders.com

Dinner will be $5, which includes pizza, salad, and soda.