I R Sam

There is something just great about moving into a new building; whether for living or for business, the fresh office smell is a great catalyst for action. We’ve just completed the move from our old office into our brand new, 2nd floor, posh offices. The paint is fresh, the carpet is new, and the offices have solid doors.

We’ve been waiting for this change for quite awhile and as the company expands its nice to see the company’s facilities grow to meet the level of service and professionalism that our clients expect from us after 4 years of business.

The office isn’t completely set up so there are still a few boxes scattered around the floor and we still need to arrange the new furniture but we’re already settling in to the new pace. Cameron Moll mentioned that one of the most important things you can do when starting a small business is to get into a professional office space in the first 6 months, well… it took us much longer than that time frame but it was well worth the wait.

I’ll be posting pictures of the office as we get settled here in the next couple of weeks. If you live in the area feel free to stop in and say “hi!”.

Having been involved in the web development field for several years now as a Creative Director and as I move towards the roll of Manager I have become more aware of the lack of standards in education for our field.

Plenty of kids are interested in the field but when they try to get practical education the material they are taught is not up to par with the technologies that web development companies are using. I realize that there are practical reasons for this as far as many smaller colleges and high schools are concerned, and I doubt whether these reasons have to do with complacency on the part of the educators. The ones that I interacted with seemed passionate about the teaching.

Our business is based out of Port Angeles, WA where technology is flourishing and yet inter-business bickering, general incompetence, and childish name calling holds the business community back from effectively contribute towards any goals that would actually benefit the community instead of one or two businesses. The result is various organizations all with small membership levels and attendance with less than exemplary results.

The kids in the community are going through high school and working as hard as they can to get out of this area. The tech gifted kids that do grow up here view this place as dead, and a vast majority of them move on to other places to find jobs. There is a complete disconnect between the local tech businesses and our high schools and colleges that I feel will cause definite employment problems down the road for these very businesses.

I believe that it is up to these businesses to take the first steps and try to work with local educators and foundations to help develop material, knowledge and maybe even resources to help develop a trained workforce that will benefit not just one but all that get involved.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on the issue and I have several projects in the works at the moment that I hope will help build a stronger tech community in the greater Olympic Peninsula area. If you are interested in discussing these topics with me, please contact me at any time.