On Monday, August 23, Something Digital participated in the Technology Media Day at The New Meadowlands Stadium Company (NMSC).  Jon Tudhope, James Idoni, our Motorola partner Glenn Mintz, and I attended along with individuals from several other vendors, including Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers and Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg.  We were given a chance to show off our new Stadium Issue Tracking System and get a preview of what Giants and Jets fans can expect on fall Sundays.

The scene and the technology were all like something from a sci-fi flick.  All the vendor partners seemed to really step up and deliver some exciting solutions.  I can wait to take it all in from my seats on September 12th (first Giants game). The event was covered by most major media outlets, and SD even got some ink.

Here’s a clip that explains the solution we designed:

Something Digital is pleased to be attending our first ILTA conference, albeit with an old face – Mike Savino – our new Managing Partner.  As many of you know, Mike has a love of food and wine so here are some of his top Vegas food picks:

1. The hamburger and Caesar salad at the bar at Bradley Ogden at Ceasar’s.  Different from In-N-Out burger, this is a true steakburger.
2. The tuna tartare at Michael Mina at The Bellagio – best in the country.
3. Sushi and the scene at Nobu at Hard Rock or just the sushi at Bar Masa.
4. Italian seafood and a romantic setting at Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare in the Wynn.
5. Café Au Lait and a croissant or anything for breakfast at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in The Venetian.
6. Steaks, steaks, steaks.  You almost can’t go wrong, but Cut at The Palazzo, Delmonico’s at The Venetian for the rib eye, or N9NE at The Palms for the party are three favorites.
7. Go to Aureole to see the Wine Angels get hoisted to grab your bottle of wine.

Follow Mike around Vegas via Twitter: @wineanddineny

Recently, Mike and I headed to United Neighborhood Houses to give a workshop on managing IT threats. UNH is a great organization that advises and advocates for New York City’s numerous settlement houses. We wanted to share our experience with the IT staff at UNH member organizations and anticipated a great dialogue. We brought along some friends—Frank Rosado, Chief Technology Officer at Uncommon Schools and Chris Stealey, Information Security Specialist from Milbank Tweed.

Both Frank and Chris manage IT for large organizations with multiple sites around NYC. Here’s a snapshot of what we covered:

• Virus protection software and patches can be auto-updated, but it’s important to verify that updates are working through manual audits. One of the biggest mistakes that organizations make is often the simplest: forgetting to notify people that virus protection subscriptions are due to be renewed.

• Increased connectivity among your staff can mean more vulnerability for your network. Remote access, PDAs and other mobile applications can leave you open to intrusion. Stricter password policies, varied approaches, and two-factor authentication can help combat threats.

• Social media, personal e-mail accounts, and instant messaging easily attract malware and spyware. Like many nonprofits, settlement houses rely on social media campaigns for marketing and fundraising. Think about limiting access to only those teams who need these tools and using content filtering to weed out malicious sites.

• Today’s disaster recovery tools enable you to retrieve data up to minutes before an incident has occurred. Consider backup, warm server, and data replication methods, depending on the sensitivity of your data and your organization’s IT budget.

I think our workshop highlighted some IT concerns that every organization should be thinking about, but often get left behind. Devoting some time and resources to IT now can mean significant savings in the long-run. Thanks to our friends and participants for an informative and engaging session—we’re looking forward to our next workshop. If you’re interested in a copy of the full presentation, contact us.

Today, Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM) formally announced that Something Digital was named a 2009 Data Capture/POS Division Partner of the Year.  According to Justin Scopaz, Vice President and General Manager of the Ingram Micro Data Capture/POS Division, SD was a partner that demonstrated exceptional business-building capabilities in a challenging economic climate.  See the press release.

We’re certainly proud of the achievement and grateful for the recognition.  Hopefully, it says more about the relationships we strive to have with our clients, who trust us to help them make good technology and purchasing decisions.

The latest edition of the Atlantic featured an article dedicated to the rise of women. Recent studies show that girls are outshining boys in the classroom, women are outperforming men in the workplace, and more women are earning college degrees than ever before.

Despite this shift, apparently the ladies aren’t showing the love to the tech industry. Fast Company posted a great round up of articles that appeared last week highlighting why biological differences don’t account for the lack of women in the field.

Speaking for the ladies of SD, we’d love to see more women in the technology space.