Formstack’s Build Indy Features Free Conference, $5,000 Prize

Customers around the world use Indy-based Formstack's online form building tool to build stronger relationships with their customers, colleagues, and community. As an Indy business ourselves, we want to spread the word about how local cloud-based solutions can connect organizations within the city and grow small businesses as a whole. This is why Formstack launched Build Indy. From now until May 16, we will be promoting small business growth within the Indianapolis community, with a focus on the benefits of cloud computing software. We're doing this in a few ways: through a free half-day conference, through customer stories and educational posts on our website and blog, and through a $5,000 grant we're awarding to a local small business or nonprofit. In the way of cloud computing software, $5,000 can go a long way.

As a company that operates solely in the cloud, we are pleased to offer an inexpensive data storage option to our customers, and we know the potential cloud computing can have for other small businesses and startups. Through Build Indy, we hope to educate the Indianapolis small business community on the ways cloud-based services can streamline their work processes and save money. There seems to be a strong gap that can be filled in creating a healthy and non-intimidating discussion around tech resources for local small businesses, and we hope through the ongoing content based on cloud computing, the free half-day conference on Wednesday, March 20, and the $5,000 giveaway, we can help support that cause.

Visitors to the Build Indy website can nominate a local small business or nonprofit to win $5,000, which can be used toward whatever the winner needs to grow his or her business. The winner of the grant will be decided by a panel of Indianapolis professionals and will be announced at the Build Indy concluding party on May 16. Join us at The Speak Easy as we reveal the grant winner, enjoy a few beers, and host a silent auction featuring local goods. However, you'll need to nominate a winner before April 20 – that's the deadline for the initial round of nominations.

The "Collect, Engage, and Grow" Half-Day Conference, featuring three local small business leaders, will be on Wednesday, March 20 from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Launch Fishers, Indy's newest co-working space. With local small business leaders covering the importance of cloud computing for small businesses, you'll have a chance to learn and connect with other professionals in the community. The conference is free, but spots are limited, so be sure to register today.

To register for the event or nominate a local small business or nonprofit for the $5,000 award, visit formstack.com/buildindy. On the Build Indy page, we will also be highlighting Indy customers in a video series spanning the campaign. We'll be posting several Indy use cases on the Formstack blog throughout the campaign, so let us know if you are a Formstack customer and interested in being featured.

Breena Fain is Formstack's marketing manager. For more information about Build Indy, feel free to contact her at breena@formstack.com.

Pop Culture Influencing Our Vocabulary

“I’ve just had an aha moment about crossing something off my bucket list. Instead of having that energy drink over at the gastropub and dropping F-bombs all night, we should head back to my man cave for a game changer to discuss cloud computing and listen to some mash-ups.”

It might seem like I am writing a story about the most boring group of people ever put onto paper, but that is not the case. (Whose bucket list includes discussing cloud computing while listening to mash-ups?)

Would you believe that those two sentences include nine of the words that Merriam-Webster has added to the 2012 update of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary? Can you pick out the nine words? I’ll give you a hint – F-bomb is one of them, clearly. As are cloud computing and mash-up.

Last week the organization released just a few of the words (or the updated definitions) added to its newest edition. Aha moment, bucket list, energy drink, gastropub, man cave and game changer – along with those others I’ve already identified – are just a few of the new ones.

Some of the other new words that have been released so far include other shocking, yet vivid words such as:

  • Sexting (yes, sexting) – “the sending of sexually explicit messages or images by cell phone"
  • Earworm – “a song or melody that keeps repeating in one’s mind” (Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe, anyone?)
  • Brain cramp – “an instance of temporary mental confusion resulting in an error or lapse of judgment”

Other words point to the Great Recession:

  • Underwater – “having, relating to, or being in a mortgage loan for which more is owed than the property securing the loan is worth”
  • Systemic risk – “the risk that the failure of one financial institution could cause other interconnected institutions to fail and harm the economy as a whole”
  • Toxic – “relating to or being an asset that has lost so much value that it cannot be sold on the market”

The word-lover in me is initially excited about these new provocative words added to the dictionary. The parent in me goes, “I don’t think I want my children discovering F-bombs and sexting.” The educated snob part of me exclaims, “This is a sham! We’re just lowering the quality of the English language another notch.”

But, it’s clear that – just as humans and technology evolve – the English language is ever-evolving. What do you think about these new additions?