Archives For AS220

providence geeks

Providence Geeks – March 13, 2013

gcpvd —  March 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

Wednesday, March 13th, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

logoThe March Geek Dinner will feature a particularly exciting, inspiring story of a local teacher turned entrepreneur.

In 2004, elementary school computer teacher, Alan Tortolani, frustrated with the lack of good educational games for kids, started making his own.

Over the past decade Alan has grown Providence-based ABCya.com into an award-winning educational juggernaut with over 175 online games and several best-selling mobile apps. He has bootstrapped ABCya.com to significant profitability with over 1 million app downloads to date and nearly 100 million visits totalling over 1 billion pageviews annually.

At the March Geek Dinner on Wednesday, Alan will tell the ABCya.com story, demo some of its games, and give a sneak peek into where he’s taking this online educational empire next.

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providence geeks

Providence Geeks – February 20, 2013

gcpvd —  February 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

cb-logoThe February Geek Dinner will feature Crunchbutton, who may well have the greatest tagline/value proposition ever: Push a Button. Get food.

Started in a Yale dorm room, Crunchbutton was born of the founders’ desire to make ordering their favorite local sandwich – the Wenzel – as simple as possible.

Now headquartered in Providence, Crunchbutton today facilitates ordering from dozens of restaurants in Providence, New Haven, and Washington, DC (yes, there’s a college town theme here), and has big plans for further expansion.

On Wednesday, Co-Founders Judd Rosenblatt, David Klumpp and Devin Smith will tell the Crunchbutton story, demo their service, and talk about where this promising startup is headed next.

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providence geeks

Providence Geeks – January 16, 2013

gcpvd —  January 14, 2013 — Leave a comment

Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

We’re kicking 2013 off with another awesome Geek Dinner!

Care ThreadWe hear near daily about the frustrations (nightmares?) patients face in navigating our convoluted healthcare system. What we don’t hear about are the challenges that healthcare providers – the doctors, nurses, and other clinicians – face in providing better patient care. The pain is especially acute around how providers communicate and collaborate with one another.

That’s where Providence-based startup Care Thread comes in.

Care Thread has built an innovative set of real-time mobile tools to empower providers to better collaborate, resulting in better care for their patients.

At next week’s January Geek Dinner, fresh off their announcement of Slater’s $250K investment into Care Thread, CEO & MD Scott Guelich and CTO (and healthcare IT industry veteran) Andrew Shearer (@ashearer) will share the challenges healthcare providers face every day, and show how Care Thread’s mobile & web apps improve both provider and patient experiences.

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providence geeks

Providence Geeks – December 12, 2012

gcpvd —  December 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

Providence Geeks returns this coming Wednesday, the auspicious date of 12/12/12! And we’ve got a great evening planned starring Providence-based startup VCharge.

VCharge is innovating at the intersection of the information technology and energy industries. They are solving the problem of integrating renewable energy sources like wind and solar into the electric grid using a market-based approach. Their software and hardware controls enable distributed generation, storage, and load like electric cars, thermal storage heaters, and commercial refrigeration to respond dynamically to grid conditions and improve overall system efficiency.

The commercial rollout of its SmartBricks product is underway, and VCharge is controlling residential heating systems using the homes’ existing broadband connection to lower monthly heating costs and balance the grid. The company has installations in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Maine, and they’re just getting started, eyeing projects in Ireland and Germany as well as right here in RI.

At Wednesday’s Geek Dinner VCharge CTO (and MIT PhD) Jessica Millar CEO (and Harvard B-School prof) George Baker will tell the VCharge story, demo the SmartBricks control technology, and give a sneak peek at where this exciting startup is headed next.

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AS220 Youth is a 2012 NAHYP Award winner

gcpvd —  November 20, 2012 — Leave a comment

as220 whitehouse

Anne Kugler, AS220 Youth Director; Justin Espinal, Youth member; First Lady Michelle Obama (Photo credit: Steven E. Purcell, Photographer, LLC) [Via: AS220]

Local arts groups continue to win National awards. This time it is AS220 Youth winning the 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

Congratulations to everyone at AS220!

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Urban Greens Fall Fiesta – October 21, 2012

gcpvd —  October 18, 2012 — Leave a comment

On Sunday, October 21, from 5:30pm to 12am, Urban Greens Food Co-op will be hosting a Fall Fiesta at the AS220, 115 Empire St, to celebrate the local food system, the power of co-operative structures, and Urban Greens Food Co-op’s recent progress and successes.

fall fiestaChefs from local restaurants will be preparing small plates featuring ingredients from local farms and producers, the AS220 bar will offer beverage specials whose proceeds will benefit the co-op, there will be a silent auction featuring a wide variety of items and services from local businesses and artisans, and the evening will culminate in a benefit music concert featuring local bands and musicians.

Attendees can come for the food and stay for the music, or just come to the concert portion of the evening:

  • 5:30pm – 8:30pm: Tasting plates from local chefs, kids activities, silent auction. $25 for the Night, $20 for Co-op Member-owners, Kids under 13 free.

  • 9:00pm – 12:00pm: A benefit show for Urban Greens Food Co-op. Doors at 8:30. $8 (or wristband from the first part of the event.)

Continue Reading…

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AS220′s Kennedy Plaza Portrait Project and Moving Gallery launch September 29

gcpvd —  September 20, 2012 — Leave a comment

k-plaza-portrait-project

AS220 Photo Mem: Kennedy Plaza Portrait Project: September 29 – November 15, 2012

Artists’ Reception: September 29, 2012, 4-9 pm – Gallery at City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street, 2nd Floor

Mobile RIPTA Bus Gallery – on Washington St., September 29, 4-9pm

AS220, RIPTA, and Nail Communications have come together to produce “MOVING” – a fully functioning RIPTA bus that will serve as a mobile art gallery. Wrapped inside and out with black and white photographs, taken by students in the AS220 Youth program, of Rhode Islanders who use Kennedy Plaza in a myriad of different ways, the bus gallery will have a “non-moving” opening in Kennedy Plaza on September 29th from 4-9pm and will then hit the roads for the duration of the Fall, changing routes on a regular basis to bring the art project to the most people possible. The project is part of FirstWorks Festival: On the Plaza in 2012.

For the past three years, the AS220 Youth photography program called “Photo Mem” has spent six weeks each summer producing the Kennedy Plaza Portrait Project. The goal is to capture a cross section of Rhode Island citizens by photographing Black & White portraits and recording interviews of a small cross section of the tens of thousands of people who use Kennedy Plaza every day. The project also gives our Youth the opportunity to enhance their social skills (approaching people, communicating to them about the project, interviewing them), photography skills (taking a good photo, developing it) and design skills (hands-on experience working with Nail Communications on designing the bus), that they otherwise would not be able to take advantage of.

In addition to the bus, photos from years past will also be on display at the City Hall Gallery starting on September 29th.

See also: FirstWorks Festival in Kennedy Plaza, September 29

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GC: Photos

gcpvd —  July 21, 2012 — Leave a comment

A selection of photos readers have recently shared in our Flickr Group:

Food Truck Day

Photo © GoProvidenceRI

Burnside Park, Pow Wow

Photo © provbenson2009

Continue Reading…

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providence geeks

Providence Geeks, July 11, 2012

gcpvd —  July 6, 2012 — Leave a comment
Jerry the Bear

Jerry the Bear. Image from Sproutel.

Wednesday, July 11th, 2012, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

It’s already time for the last Geek Dinner of the Summer (since we take August off). Can you believe it? So let’s do it right:

Providence-based startup Sproutel makes interactive toys for children with chronic illnesses, starting with diabetes, asthma and obesity. Their first product – Jerry the Bear – takes a high-tech, but playful approach to teaching kids how to properly manage their health.

At the July Geek Dinner this Wednesday, Co-Founders and new minted graduates of Northwestern University, CEO Aaron Horowitz and CCO Hannah Chung (recently named one of Inc. Magazine’s “15 Women to Watch in Tech”) will tell the story of Sproutel, introduce you to Jerry the Bear, and share their big plans for helping millions of kids take care of themselves.

This is not to be missed!

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Providence Geeks, June 20

gcpvd —  June 16, 2012 — Leave a comment

geeks-240Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 5:30 – 8pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)
RSVP at Facebook

Sick of trying to keep track of who-owes-what with your roommates, friends, colleagues, etc? How about of the resulting awkward conversations?

Fear no more. It’s Providence-based Splitwise to the rescue.

By perusing its mission to take the pain out of sharing expenses, the Splitwise team has made a national name for themselves as “fairness experts.” Thousand of users currently rely not only on Splitwise’s awesome mobile & web-based tracking tools, but also on their sage advice about to equitably split expenses.

At the June Geek Dinner this coming Wednesday, CEO Jon Bittner will tell the history of Splitwise, give an overview of the startup today, and demo – for the first time ever – their new web platform.

WooHoo!!!

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