Information Technology : Featured Stories

Building a brand is a process. It starts with having a good product and good service. Getting the word out entails advertising, marketing, promotions, special events, public relations and networking. Now, however, there's something new in the marketing toolbox -- social media.

Dan Hurlburt reads minds. The psychology major works at the University of Dayton Research Institute's Signature Science Exploration Lab, where researchers use high-tech cameras to predict human behavior.

What's "smart grid" and what will it mean for me? The question's an increasingly common one as Ohio utilities prepare to test and implement a new generation of technologies designed for more efficient planning, distribution, monitoring and use of electricity. AEP Ohio, which serves 1.5 million customers throughout the state, is implementing smart grid technology among 110,000 customers in central Ohio as part of its gridSMART demonstration project. We asked project director Karen Sloneker, the company's director of customer services and marketing, to help us understand those efforts.

When Joe Pantuso was a boy, he learned all the usual things in school -- spelling, math, history. His lessons, however, did not include the word that would come to define him most: entrepreneur.

Cincinnati knows a good thing when it sees it . . . and homegrown talent is a good thing. So, in 2005, regional businesses and educators formed a collaborative nonprofit to plug the region's "brain drain" by cultivating students, beginning as early as the 10th grade.

It's said that most startups fail within five years. Still, the possibility -- or experience -- of failure doesn't stop thousands of Ohioans from starting new businesses every year. hiVelocity talked to some successful Ohio entrepreneurs whose ingenuity and nimbleness led them to change direction or shelve ideas that weren't working. All three have different stories, but all recognized when it was time to change course and move on to new ideas.

The National Environmental Technology Incubator in Springfield may not be Ohio's biggest incubator, but its affiliation with Central State University makes it a key partner within the Dayton region's academic-business scene. No longer focused just on environmentally oriented companies, the NET incubator has plans to grow. Executive Director Nancy Bridgman brings us up to date in this interview.