Thanks to George for allowing me to post this opportunity. We have posted this on the various national freelancing websites but I thought I’d try BFD to reach local talent. We have an immediate, I mean immediate need, for a web designer with experience using the Infragistics AppStylist program to create Style Set Libraries for ASP.NET to work with us on a freelance basis.

The candidate must be able to begin work immediately on this project. This is a great opportunity for someone with experience in tweaking easy-to-use and eye-pleasing User Interfaces that allow users to engage with and benefit from SaaS applications quickly. The SaaS is Realeflow which is the fastest-growing Real Estate Investor Business Management System (think OS) in North America.

Interested freelance web designers with this specific experience should contact dcraveratrealeflow.com. Thanks!

Monday through yesterday I attended a great Conference at the Renaissance Hotel on Public Square with 200 professional real estate investors from all over the country.  I was attending because next week I start working with a fast growing local technology company called realeflow and they were one of the organizers (i.e. their web-based on-demand software is a comprehensive business management system for the attendees allowing them to simultaneously manage 100’s of transactions at a time, and everything in between).

Tuesday it occurred to me that no one from the CVB, etc. had officially welcomed the delegates to Cleveland.  What a great opportunity and a nobrainer to speak well for the city.   Tuesday night I was lucky enough to connect with the Tech Czar, Michael DeAloia, in the evening and mentioned this to him.   Unexpectedly he offered to come over on Wednesday to welcome the delegates.  He did just that to kick off the afternoon session after I introduced him, apologizing for all the construction (but leverage this as evidence of all the exciting development going on downtown) and invited everyone back again.

Everyone was excited and impressed by this welcome from a City Official who cared enough to call them out.  I’d like to publicly thank the Tech Czar for doing this.  He’s truly a class act and one of the best ambassadors I know for Cleveland.  Now you could argue that no one from our group made it known we were in town.  On the other hand, how difficult is it to check with event sales at all the downtown hotels and send an official over from any of our handful of official organizations to welcome those who are spending good money to fly in and come downtown for a conference?

It’s really the little things that count…

Grab the August 2007 issue of Outside Magazine. A Travel Channel ad for Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations features a photo of a surfer in the upper left hand corner of a photo montage with the caption: THE HARDCORE SURFERS OF CLEVELAND. YES. CLEVELAND. The only reference I can find on the show’s website is here where new photos coming soon are promised for Cleveland and other Season 3 episodes. They’ve also setup a No Reservations Wiki which is very cool.

The CVB should setup a Travel Wiki for Cleveland. What better way to spread the word.

While we struggle to make innovation part of our psyche here, others have moved on to the next phase: user innovation. Here’s an interesting and fun example with over 500,000 registered users.

Threadless is a very interesting company because of how it has “community-sourced” its product design. If you had told me that a company could succeed by running weekly tshirt design contests and then selling the winning designs, I would have told you that you’re nuts. I met Jeffrey during my tour of the Threadless offices a few weeks ago and posed these questions to him after my most enjoyable visit.

10 Questions with Threadless Chief | AlwaysOn - 6/5/07

BFD Mobile(?) - Sonopia’s mission is to provide every organization, group or club with the opportunity to create branded mobile service and build a unique mobile and web community of supporters and members.

Great OS (and I don’t mean Operating System) Resource - Welcome to osalt.com open source alternative - your quick guide to the best open source software.