Beaufort, SC Coworking Offices & Tech Incubator

National Tech, Cyber Security Leaders and Startups to Gather in Beaufort, SC

Beaufort is becoming a rising center for cyber business and education in the Southeast and two upcoming events are at the center. In March, Beaufort will again host South Coast Cyber Center's 2nd Annual South Coast Cyber Summit and the Beaufort Digital Corridor's Techstars Startup Weekend.

"We are excited to host the South Coast Cyber Summit and Techstars Startup Weekend as they will showcase Beaufort's potential as a hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and education. These events will help us build a community of like-minded individuals, foster partnerships, and drive economic growth in the region," said Jess O'Brien, executive director of the Beaufort Digital Corridor.

Details on each event include:

• 2nd Annual South Coast Cyber Summit–-hosted by the South Coast Cyber Center and taking place March 20-21, this year's summit features speakers from government, industry and academia, including United States Representative Nancy Mace. Tailored for current and rising leaders in cybersecurity, the Summit is designed for attendees to immerse themselves in discussions regarding the latest cybersecurity trends and gain insights into security strategies and emerging cyber threats faced by businesses.
• Techstars Startup Weekend–- hosted by the Beaufort Digital Corridor, this three-day event is built to foster and advocate for tech entrepreneurship. Taking place from March 24-26 and open to all levels, the weekend provides attendees with networking, tech mentorship and a startup pitch competition with a chance to win $10,000 in prizes.

Over the past three years, the Beaufort region has seen a 200 percent increase in tech- and cyber-related meetings and events hosted by area hospitality partners. On average, these events along with cyber related grants from state and federal sources have over a $2 million economic impact on the region. In addition to the returning events taking place in March, other key activities include the opening of the University of South Carolina Beaufort Cyber Lab and a new Technical College Cyber Lab.

"Cybersecurity is arguably one of, if not the, most important issue of our time. Hosting events like the Summit and Startup Weekend in Beaufort year after year is positioning the region as an up-and-coming destination for some of the nation's brightest minds," added Warren Parker, chairman of the South Coast Cyber Center.

To learn more about the Cyber Security Summit, visit https://www.southcoastcybersummit.com and the Techstars Startup Weekend, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/517996350027.

Charleston Digital Corridor Seeks New Managing Director to Expand Leadership Team

Since 2001, the Charleston Digital Corridor (CDC) has been the leading force in transforming Charleston into a center for high-wage technology businesses and supporting the business community as it's needs have evolved. Now at the start of 2023, the tremendous success of the previous 20 years and the clear growth opportunities ahead, the CDC is expanding its leadership with the addition of the newly created role of Managing Director.

From the humble beginning of the CDC twenty years ago, Ernest Andrade has been the leader responsible for vision and development, as well as operations of the organization. With the tremendous growth of the Charleston Tech community, and the opportunities ahead for Charleston to become an even greater presence as a national and global technology center, the CDC is expanding its Leadership team to better serve the continually growing local market's needs. The new Managing Director will be responsible handling the day-to-day operations of the CDC, managing the Flagship tech incubator at the Charleston Tech Center, coordinating community and education events, directing staff, supporting the needs of member companies and being the resource for tech companies considering relocation and/or expansion to Charleston.

Ernest Andrade will remain as Executive Director but, with the MD overseeing day-to-day operations, Andrade will be able to focus on the CDCs ambitious future goals featuring strategic direction, key public/private relationships and larger-scale fundraising.

"It can be difficult to let go of some responsibilities when you've lived and breathed them for over 20 years," said CDC Director, Ernest Andrade. "But it is clear at this point that the CDC and the tech community can only benefit through the expansion of our leadership team. I look forward to identifying and working with the new MD to elevate our success and increase the CDC's influence for the continuing growth of tech business in our state."

Potential candidates can find the job posting for this new role here and on LinkedIn and can apply via email to jobs@charlestondigital.com.

The Dawn of the Silicon Garden

The Dawn of the Silicon Garden sounds like the future, and that was what was offered at a recent event at Hilton Head Island High School.

More than 40 businesses and organizations offered insight for young people seeking careers and opportunities in public safety, digital and cyber technology, utilities, construction, higher education, scholarship and funding organizations, and technical training.

For some the afternoon was for exploring.

"I'm here to just check out different opportunities, different scholarships. Look at where I want to go and look at my options," said Hilton Head senior Alandria Kennedy. "I don't know what I want to study yet. I'm really into music and writing, but I'm looking into welding."

Kennedy's mother Shadasha was impressed with the event.

"It's an awesome opportunity, especially for kids who may not want to go to college, who don't know what they want to do," she said. "You have the different career paths you can show them as well as colleges, so I think it's a positive."

The afternoon event was a partnership with Beaufort County School District, the Hilton Head Island MLK, Jr. Celebration Committee, Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation, Technical College of the Lowcountry, and other information resources.

There were 10 colleges and technical schools in the gymnasium, and while they weren't taking applications, they were taking advantage of the time to meet students and parents.

"Anytime we get a chance to go out and talk to students about getting into college or what it may look like to go, we want to be able to inform them and make sure they're making the best decisions for themselves," said the representative from the University of South Carolina.

Carlton Dallas, founder of the BusinessATTRACT, was one of the sponsors of the career opportunity event.

"We're private, basically a collection of 550 different citizens, residents who want to help the economy grow and diversify," Dallas said. "The Economic Development Corporation and the four municipalities and county are recruiting so many good businesses to come here, and a lot of them are high tech.

"To give you an example, over the last four years the EDC has recruited almost $300 million in capital investment in user accounts," he said. "There are 1,100 new jobs that have come in, and 200 jobs that were going to leave, but they've been able to negotiate their retention here. And those companies need talent."

Many of the businesses were employers seeking to hire, train or support local residents in pursuit of job opportunities.

"It's important to pressurize a pipeline of young people like those here that are preparing and getting trained, certified, so they can fill some of these high tech jobs," Dallas added.

Several of those young people were looking around while fulfilling school community service hours.

"I'm just helping out, but also looking at information here," said Jesse Salinas of Hilton Head. "I'm trying to go to USC in the business program. My family owns a business. I'm trying to get more in depth with business, so I can try to manage it more and try to do better with it."

Anthony Bynum of Hilton Head, who was wearing an MIT sweatshirt, has definite goals. While helping out around the event, he was looking for scholarship information.

"I want to go into aerospace engineering. I just always loved flight, and I'm actually trying to get my pilot's license right now," Bynum said. "Being in the air has always just been a dream of mine, but aerospace correlates with that."

Combining business and travel appealed to Elizabeth Monzonsantos, also of Hilton Head.

"I applied to USC and I'm still waiting on them. I heard that they were the No. 1 for the international business," said Monzonsantos. "I'm interested in that because I've always loved traveling, and I might as well mix work with travel."

Hilton Head Assistant Principal Fred Hunter said one of the things the school wants to do in education is make sure students know the different opportunities that they have.

"We want to lay the foundation so that the students have choices. And so being able to expose them to the different opportunities they have after high school is very important," said Hunter. "It's events like this that gives them exposure, bringing in different people from different industries, to let them know about the possibilities. I'm obviously a big proponent, and I believe in students going to college, but it's not for everyone. That's not everyone's passion. And now with the price of colleges increasing, it's very important that students look at other options as well."

Galen Miller, chairman of the MLK committee, said the partnership was formed because they saw a need for youth to have a career path opportunity.

"Not everybody's going to go to college, so there's opportunities out here for everybody, whether you want to go to college or not, but it's a need," said Miller. "Coming off of COVID, a lot of things are different. A lot of things that kids don't know. A lot of things parents don't know that there are opportunities for them, too."

Bluffton Township Fire Department Firefighter Luis Aponte and BTFD HR Director Tracy Walling greeted visitors to the public safety organization's table. BTFD was there to talk about career opportunities.

"We are able to tell those who stop by that not only is training free, but trainees are paid while they learned," said Walling. "It's good for a lot of kids that may not be able to go to college or go to a trade school."

Not only could attendees meet with different trades, schools and businesses inside, but outside of the high school, people could do some hands-on training in the Be Pro Be Proud truck. The huge trailer was filled with high tech displays and critical-need simulators.

Caleb Allen, who drives the tractor-trailer, said he enjoys bringing the rolling workforce workshop to schools.

"There aren't many places you can go to work and teach kids video games that will help them out for a career," he said.

Javier Rodriguez, from Bluffton, was exploring different careers and tried driving a tractor trailer while Allen provided guidance. Hilton Head computer science teacher Josh Wiedemann worked on moving a pallet with a forklift.

One of the youngest drivers on the simulators was Beaufort resident Genevieve Murray, 9, who tried her hand at driving a piece of heavy equipment.

"I liked it," she said, "but I'm still going to be either a biologist or someone who tracks animals."

Dallas said this inaugural event drew more than 100 attendees.

"The overall feedback I have gotten is that it was very positive, people were pleased, and they liked the diversity of companies, from high tech to education to service industries. Drone technology was there, also," he said. "Plus the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) was there, and a lot of people went up to them even after the event for help."

Beaufort School District Superintendent Frank Rodriguez thought the event had a great turnout, had a lot of interest, and that it would be repeated elsewhere in the county.

"What a great opportunity. It's just a chance for students and anybody in the community to come in, and learn about careers and career readiness that are right here in our backyard, right in our county, and in the region around Beaufort," Rodriguez said. "We talk a lot about being college and career ready. I think most people have a good understanding about college and college readiness. And this is an opportunity for people to learn about careers and career readiness, and what they're looking for in the workforce locally."

Watch a video about the community careers event here.

Emma Montgomery Presents Upcoming Mobile Game "Clycktid"

Emma Montgomery is brimming with ideas. This year's winner of the Beaufort Digital Corridor's DEMOday video game pitch competition, one would never know she's actually brand new to the world of game development. The recent college graduate's plans for the immediate future revolve around "Clycktid", a mobile app that she conceptualized and is in the process of designing. Having given a rundown of every prospective detail of the game, Emma's DEMOday presentation was persuasive enough to earn an initial round of funding from Dolfin Ventures. DEMOday participants were members of a selective internship program, spearheaded by USC – Beaufort media arts Professor Jim Sidletsky, in collaboration with Dolfin Ventures and the Beaufort Digital Corridor. Now that the game accelerator has run its course, and project capstones have been delivered to the public and debated upon by DEMOday panel judges, Emma is ready to take the next steps to bring Clycktid to fruition – and onto a cell phone near you.

Emma Montgomery's background is in the realm of visual arts, and though she grew up playing video games, she channeled her passion for narrative into a B.A. in Studio Arts. A comic book fan adept at digital drawing and animation, her creativity shines through not only in the aesthetics of Clycktid, but in the realization of a truly unique digital experience. The object of the game, loosely, is to catch and collect 'cryptids', or creatures of myth and folklore, as they appear intermittently and elusively within the app. As the player maneuvers within the sprawling virtual landscape, they can catch a glimpse of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, clicking at just the right moment to snap a photo. Non-playable characters guide them through the worldbuilding, providing tips and conversation, though the game will also have a socially-connected element (such as a friends list) to make it more competitive and interactive. Time-restricted live events round out the game's offerings. Positioned as a cross between Farmville and Pokémon Go, Clycktid should appeal to those interested in fantasy or the paranormal who are looking for a low-stakes but engaging way to unwind. Patience is required to play, but the element of luck and chance involved makes it rewarding.

Though Clycktid is only her first foray into the tech field, Emma diligently powered through the requisite steps of game development, from brainstorming the initial concept, and narrowing down core mechanics, to perfecting the storyline. She describes her minimal coding experience as "a struggle", but it was one she worked to overcome, both in the classroom with Professor Sidletsky and solo in her bedroom, her workspace of choice. She has Google to thank, naming it as an indispensable resource, though she also adhered to the Agile project management technique to keep her on track.

When asked what traits make a successful game designer, Emma cites "hard work and dedication", both of which are palpable in her recent success. Her advice to those who wish to follow in her footsteps? She knows what not to do: "Don't be afraid to ask for help or feedback throughout the process (especially from peers); don't just have one idea and run with it, but have several ideas and narrow it down; and don't be afraid to throw things away or walk away from them to make something better." You don't need to develop mobile games to appreciate and apply Emma's life lessons to your own endeavors.

Clycktid is currently in the pre-production phase, and 2023 should herald a fully functional "minimum viable product". The Beaufort Digital Corridor eagerly awaits the initial offering and is thrilled to support Emma during this exciting new phase of her career.

The Importance of Goal Setting for Entrepreneurs

Setting goals is one of the most important skills an entrepreneur can cultivate. But not all goals are created equal. It's not just which goals you set, but how you set them that will factor into your eventual success. As there is no set path or playbook for entrepreneurs and their respective business ventures, effective goal setting is essential to provide structure and direction, bolster commitment, and increase accountability. The start of a new year is an enticing time to plan for major acts of reinvention and set lofty aspirations, whether for professional or personal benefit, but all too often, these goals remain mere fantasies. Whether your aim is to construct your initial business plan, hire employees, or feel less stressed on the job, there are methods and mindsets you can adopt to increase your chances of meeting your objectives.

In and of itself, goal setting is the ability to precisely identify your unique needs and execute a process to attain them. This first requires some internal reflection. All growth begins by recognizing an area for improvement, so take stock of what is missing or not working in your career or business. What issues can you remedy, and what's going well that you can implement more of? Is there a gap between where you find yourself presently, and the position you'd rather be in? If so, pinpoint what's within your sphere of influence that can bridge that divide.

It's also worthwhile to distinguish a 'want' from a goal: wanting is passive desire for a certain outcome, regardless of practicality, but a goal provides a route forward and makes up part of a broader strategy. "A new pair of shoes" is a want, but "saving x amount of money per month to afford new shoes" is a goal. Wants cannot be tracked with data and metrics; goals can and often should be. After all, the only thing separating a goal from a wish is a concrete plan!

Entrepreneurs, in particular, rely upon decisive and clear goal-setting in day-to-day life. From as early as writing the mission statement, it's important to know where you want to go – and how you intend to get there. Goals make up the very identity of your business and brand: they encapsulate your essential, basic functions as an entity. A business enterprise is ever-evolving, and goals provide a sense of structure and a projection for an uncertain future. Set them wisely, and they'll propel you forward.

One surefire way to formulate an actionable goal is to use the acronym SMART, making certain it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. These criteria were established by corporate consultant George T. Doran in his 1981 publication, There's a SMART Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives. The conditions speak for themselves, but to extrapolate, they help ensure that:

Your goal is whittled down to its most basic essence and lacks any vagueness or overreach (Specific);

Your progress towards – or away from – your goal is trackable with graphs or numbers (Measurable);

Your goal is theoretically reachable given your particular skills and constraints (Achievable);

You've selected a goal that is likely to reap professional benefits and complement the mission of your organization (Relevant);

And deadlines are in place to keep up momentum and avoid pitfalls such as procrastination (Time-Bound).

So, you have an aspiration in mind – now what? The work is only just beginning. Follow-through is not guaranteed, and maintaining a goal to fulfillment is a skill in itself. Keep reading to learn the best methods to use when chasing your next major milestone.

• Physically write out or type your goals on a piece of paper instead of merely holding them in your mind. The more frequently you see it, the better.
• Map out any foreseeable obstacles you are likely to encounter, and strategize how to face them before they occur.
• Progress towards your goal in the smallest increments possible. Subdivide it into easy-to-accomplish, satisfying steps. Start by biting off as little as you can chew, and expand from there.
• Establish a tantalizing rewards system to keep yourself encouraged along the way. Recognize and celebrate your wins as they occur.
• Visualize your future accomplishments as tangibly as possible. What will it feel like when you reach that goal? Look like? Manifest it in your mind's eye as if success is an inevitable outcome.
• Don't be afraid to allow room for adjustments or plan B's. Being adaptable does not signify a failure. If a goal does not come to fruition, maybe it's time to pivot.
• Employ proven project management techniques (i.e. Agile, Scrum) and softwares (i.e. Asana, Monday.com) to stay organized and streamline your workflow.
• Take your goal public to keep yourself accountable to the expectations of those around you. Tell your trusted allies what you intend to achieve to provide extrinsic motivation.
• Focus on progress, not immediate results. Record every move you make in a positive direction to remind yourself what you've invested and how far you've already come.
• Mix up short- and long-term goals so tasks at hand don't seem insurmountable, and the stakes aren't always high. Alternatively, set "good, better, and best" levels to any given goal, gradually increasing in difficulty.

GRIT Announces First Keynotes & Call for Startup Stage Contestants

GRIT, The Creative Coast's innovation conference, brings together the best and brightest entrepreneurs, technologists, makers, creatives, leaders, and change agents in the region. Formerly called Geekend, the 2023 event is returning after a two-year hiatus as GRIT, and will include exciting keynote presentations, panels, and access to new ideas and people to spark attendees' momentum. The event is set to take place from January 26th to 28th at the Savannah Cultural Arts Center.

Mariah Hay, former CXO at Help Scout and VP of Product at Pluralsight, will take the stage as a keynote speaker. Hay will share her experience designing products for tech education, the choices her teams have made to avoid weaponization (i.e. - using data about an individual's learning patterns to judge them and block opportunities for jobs and advancement), and how human centered design can inform the ethical underpinnings of our missions, our companies, and our bottom lines.

In Hay's former role as Chief Experience Officer at Help Scout, a customer support platform for small and medium businesses, she led all of R&D (including engineering, product management, and product design) across eleven domestic and international teams, delivering a product that boasts a 20%+ trial conversion rate within a B Corp business model. Under her previous leadership roles as the Vice President of Product and Head of Practices at Pluralsight, they successfully launched its technology learning platform in June 2016, and by mid 2017, it was serving more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies.

Matthew Mottola, CEO of The Human Cloud, will speak on the digital, remote, and decentralized model of work, what it means for the future of work, and how leading companies are taking advantage of this inevitable workforce transformation as experts predict over 50% of the workforce will be self-employed freelancers in the next five years. Mottola is a global leader on the digital, remote, and decentralized model of work and led over 50 Fortune 500 companies to spend up to $100 million on freelancers from leading theMicrosoft freelance toolkit. He founded the venture-backedVenture L, a Shopify for independent professionals to grow their businesses, and published The Human Cloud, 2021's leading book on how technology is transforming work, with HarperCollins.

The GRIT Conference will continue to announce speakers and panelists on its social channels (@gritconference) and website, www.thegritconference.com.

The event is also an opportunity for eight startups to pitch their endeavors to a panel of judges for the chance to win over $10k in cash and prizes during Startup Stage. Companies interested in competing should submit an application by December 19, 2022 at 5pm. Applications can be found at https://www.f6s.com/grit-startup-stage-2023/apply.

Those interested in attending the GRIT Conference can purchase EARLY, Early Bird Tickets for only $49 through December 15th. On December 16th, the ticket price will increase to $99. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.thegritconference.com.