Week in Review: August 26, 2013

The Silicon Bayou has been buzzing with tech and entrepreneurial news. Here are the most popular stories published on Silicon Bayou News in the past seven days:

 

Propeller Announces 2013-2014 Social Venture Accelerator Fellows

Propeller: A Force for Social Innovation is thrilled to announce the 15 new 2013-2014 Social Venture Accelerator Fellows. The early-stage ventures were chosen because they have the potential to solve New Orleans’ most pressing social, environmental and economic issues. Fellows will begin working out of the newly renovated 10,000 square-foot collaborative workspace on September 3rd, 2013. Over the ten-month accelerator program, the fellows will have access to the resources and support they need to grow their businesses and make change in the community faster.

NOLATech Week Opens Preregistration

NOLATech Week, a community weeklong event created by the people for the people, has officially opened preregistration. The inaugural event, scheduled for October 7th through 12th, 2013 is planning to feature a range of events including: panels, meetups, speakers, competitions, demonstrations, job fairs and social events. Attendees can preregister now through this link. Organizations are encouraged to create and submit their own events by September 27th in order to participate in NOLATech Week. To submit an event, click here.

Apptitude Launches Music Streaming Platform Education Everytime

Local app development studio, Apptitude, has announced the launch of its latest project, music streaming platform Education Everytime. Education Everytime is the brainchild of Lorenzo Castillo. The former Teach for America alum and current fifth grade teacher at KIPP in New Orleans created the classroom management tool through music out of a desire to reduce chaos and increase educational success.

Greater New Orleans Foundation Seeks Applications for Pitch It! The Innovation Challenge

In partnership with the Kresge Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation has announced a call for applications for the Pitch It! The Innovation Challenge, which supports innovative ideas in the human services field. The Challenge will fund a novel approach, an innovative product, a new process, or an inventive service that supports a new way of doing business in the human services field.

“Five-Foot Founder” Launches First Online Boutique Dedicated to Petite Clothing

Elizabeth Bates graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans but moved away post graduation to start her career in Southern California. Years later, she’s back. As of July 1st, by way of Michigan, Bates is back to grow her startup in the big easy. Bates is the “Five-Foot Founder” of The Petite Shop, the first online boutique dedicated to petite clothing for women 5’4” and under, which recently launched its first collection after its October 2012 founding.

General Dynamics Creates up to 600 Jobs in Bogalusa Through New Call Center

“Today is a great day for Bogalusa,” said Mayor Charles Mizell. Mayor Mizell made the statement earlier in August referring to the news that General Dynamics would be opening a call center, creating 600 new jobs in Bogalusa, LA. The center will be located in the town’s industrial park. General Dynamics provides information technology, systems engineering, professional services and simulation and training to customers in the defense, federal civilian government, health, homeland security, intelligence, state and local government and commercial sectors.

LSU LBTC, Pennington Partner for New BioTech Initiative

The BioTech Initiative, a new Baton Rouge business incubator, has launched out of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC). In partnership with the LSU Louisiana Business and Technology Center (LBTC), the Pennington incubator will concentrate on businesses that are focused on medical devices, software and technologies.

Federated Sample Surpasses 5 Million Survey Interviews

A few minutes past midnight on August 20th, Federated Sample reached another milestone. The company hit five million survey interviews for 2013. Fulcrum is Federated Sample’s open and customizable online sampling platform that hit one million survey interviews for the year back in February, two million in April, three million in May and four million in July. “To put this moment into context, we did 5 million interviews during all of 2012,” said Federated Sample CEO Patrick Comer. “We’re having a phenomenal 2013 and are excited to take on the second half of the year!”

Poll: What Should Google Director Speak About at Upcoming LSU Event?

The LSU Flores MBA Alumni Association, in partnership with the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business, is hosting its 10th Louisiana Looking Up event on Thursday, September 12th, 2013. The business-networking event will feature prominent business speakers from around the country, including Halimah DeLaine Prado, Director of Legal at Google as the keynote. The Tech Advocate Group has left the vote in SBN readers’ hands. What should Prado speak about at this year’s Louisiana Looking Up event? Add your vote and share through this link.

Ed Tech Entrepreneur Seeks Developer for New Venture

Independent business analyst and ed tech entrepreneur George Constance is seeking a programmer/web developer for his under construction venture, The Timeline Project at Kronicity. The project is an online encyclopedia of reliable authoritative and timely data that is free, easily searched, and utilizes a common era timeline to associate data and to add perspective. For more information, email george.j.constance@gmail.com.

ProsperityNOLA Cluster Series: Joule Energy

This summer the New Orleans Business Alliance released its ProsperityNOLA plan, a comprehensive strategic plan for the economic development of New Orleans over the next five years. The plan focuses its strategy on the development of five distinct clusters that will lay the groundwork for the economic growth of the city. For the third installment of the ProsperityNOLA cluster series, EMH Associate Robert Bray sat down with Joule Energy co-founder Julian Thomas.

New Orleans Women in Technology Kickoff Recap

Elizabeth Bates, Founder of The Petite Shop, an online clothing boutique for women 5’4″ and under, attended the first ever Women in Technology event in New Orleans last week. The “Five Foot Founder” wrote about her experience and the future of the meetup. To read the full post, click here.