For all the entrepreneurs in Cleveland who are creating new companies but are having some difficulty in finding good, inexpensive, state-of-the-art space I hope you would consider the new Hanna Tech Hotel expansion. I was given a tour of the space by Jeff Cristal of Grubb & Ellis this week and it is magnificent. Check out the front door.

And the cool reception area.

And a great conference room.

And, of course, your next new office.

Rent goes for $550 to $800 per month (prices vary based upon size of the office and number of workstations) and there is no long term lease. But what is so spectacular about this deal is all the great amenities that are included in the office suites:

·         Office furniture (desk, cabinets and chair)

·         Internet connectivity

·         Slick common areas including break room, reception area with flat screen TV and conference room

·         All utilities

·         In suite copier (separate charge on a per use basis)

If interested, give Scott Pollack of Grubb & Ellis a call at 216.453.3026 or at scott.pollack@grubb-ellis.com. This is the perfect space to create the next big tech company in Cleveland.

Hey everyone, I will be the guest speaker at the inaugural Cleveland Entrepreneurs Club. Now more than ever entrepreneurs will be looked at to spark the economy. Is Cleveland ready for a new renaissance of entrepreneurship? I will be sharing my experiences as an entrepreneur, my work at City of Cleveland and will detail my time working for an entrepreneurial company – FIT Technologies (www.fittechnologies.net).

Date: Feb. 19^th @ 11:30am – 1:00pm

Location: Pickwick & Frolic on E. 4^th Street

Cost: $20 a person (Lunch included – insanely inexpensive)

Contact: Gary Schoeniger @ 440.255.8861 or gary@elientrepreneur.com

Or register at: http://tinyurl.com/cbm2fq.

I hope to see everyone there. I promise it will be a great time for entrepreneur’s to mix it up and talk shop.

I am proud to announce the 2009 Cleveland Twestival, which will take place on February 12^th @ 6:00pm. The event will be held at the Harry Buffalo on E. 4^th Street in Downtown Cleveland. Cleveland will be one of 175 other cities around the globe that will be hosting Twestivals which will bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and charity. Join us (it is an inexpensive ticket) at www.cleveland.twestival.com. Sponsors included Harry Buffalo, Akhia, LeanDog, Positively Cleveland, the Social Media Club of Cleveland, thunder::tech and the Tech Czar.

Sign up today, my friends: www.cleveland.twestival.com.

I thought this video would provide a keen example of how the major players in the newspaper industry – who happened to be “first-movers” in using technology to disseminate content – completely missed a major opportunity to build successful business models on the Internet. Instead, as we are all aware newspapers are struggling to decipher new methods of controlling content, crafting new business models (research what the Christian Science Monitor is up to) and simply trying to remain relevant. What is amazing is that seven pillars of the journalistic estate were deploying, at the time, amazing content that individuals were actually paying for (if you can stand a two-hour download process to get a simple text version of your local newspaper). I would appreciate your comments on this historical look of an opportunity lost.