Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of the Proscenium project is the significant portion of Venture Philanthropy that it represents. Adding an arts-and-culture zone to Sandy’s down town business center provides not only a incredible opportunity to develop the culture and perspective of Sandy residents, but the center should prove to be an economic powerhouse for the city.

As I sat down with the founder and visionary (Scott McQuarrie) for this project last week–I was beaming with excitement. Scott described the various components of green technology, social improvement and non-profit integration that are going into this complex.

Although a project as colossal as the Proscenium may seem to cast shadow’s on some of Utah’s smaller social venture projects–I believe it’s affects will be quite the opposite. This development will stand as an ensign to other businesses seeking to incorporate socially responsible components as a glimpse of what is possible.

The panelists, Alan Hall, Brad Walters and Brad Angus were all successful entrepreneurs and investors in the Weber Davis Morgan region of Utah. I have had the paradigm that Northern Utah Entreprenuership was fertile grounds, but I was grateful and impressed by what I saw today. Although my current business exploit is a social venture and not directly applicable to much of the material covered in the conference, I did gain a lot of useful knowledge and also made some good contacts.

To anyone in Utah County, Salt Lake or Northern Utah who might be considering attending a Grow Utah Ventures event, I would highly recommend it. Thanks guys!

While thinking about his contributions to society and the members of the LDS religion, I reflected upon the magnitude of his legacy. I am truly humbled by his dedication and faith. Not only faith in his religion, but also his faith in humanity. Gordon B. Hinckley never recieved financial compensation for his more than 70 years of service. Gordon B. Hinckly acted out of duty, compassion and love for his Creator and fellow human beings. Gordon B. Hinckley will be greatly remembered for his poverty relief, educational reform for people seeking skills-training in developing countries.

For a full account of his funeral and links about his life and biography, feel free to run a search on youtube or checkout The LDS Church’s official statements regarding his passing.

A fun little service to check out while researching his impact is found at Blog Pulse. This service tracks a persons popularity or coverage by the number of blogs that refer to the individual. On January 28, Gordon B. Hinckley reached third in the world. Pretty impressive for a person who never sought personal attention or publicity.

The reflections of this past week have encouraged me to stand a little taller and work a little harder as I work to contribute to society and my personal development. Regardless of religious affiliation, President Gordon B. Hinkley’s wit and dedication deserve great respect. I hope to carry even a fraction of his awesome legacy as I work to develop my personal talents and use them to benefit mankind.

When a person first wants to start their own website. There are few costs they need to take into consideration, (these are not all in the order they might appear in your individual quest).

Domain Registration
Hosting
Graphic’s Editor
Page Editor (unless you program from code, which can get a little long after a while)
Pictures (Unless you plan on taking all of your own)
Merchant Account

Today I just want to briefly mention Graphics editor. I once purchased a full photoshop suite from an O.E.M. reseller. About 8 months later, my hard-drive crashed and I when I contacted them to get another key to unlock the software, they were no where to be found. I came to find out later that the company I purchased from got caught in a big scam and is now editing his graphics in prison.

Honestly, if you have the money and want to invest it in some good software, I would suggest you get Photoshop (at least) the other programs that come in the suite are nice as well.

If you have don’t have the money or otherwise don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on software you may not use, I would suggest you get The GIMP. This program takes a little bit to download and install but is really a helpful little tool.

It’s a little less than super-user-friendly, but i’d imagine that you could install it less than 15 minutes… Visit Gimp.org and check it out… For people who have windows and want to skip right to installing it… Here’s the quick links.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html once you get here, Install the appropriate add on, (I prefer to run XP but select the add on appropriate for you), then download and install the “GIMP FOR WINDOWS” button.

Install it, then enjoy! You’re that much closer to making the website of your dreams!

I was in Thailand two years ago for the release of Harry Potter Six. Two months before the real Harry Potter Six came out a Thai verson of Hally Potta 6 hit the stores. It was an instant success and then of course an instant scandal… The Thais certainly didn’t seem to mind; Fakes were as interesting as the real ones.

I recently read a fun little article about the international suspense for Harry Potter Seven, The Deathly Hallows. Of course Harry Potter Seven is already out in China. Here’s an article that reminds us that Harry Potter is always ahead of his game in China.

I once spoke with a very wealthy individual who was in the process of setting up a rather substantial non-profit. His organization is going to do amazing things to help the people of this world. During our conversation he said something that I’ll never forget. He said, “Look John, at the end of the day, a non profit is about money. If you can’t fund it, you don’t have one.”

Umbilical cords, like blood and plasma, are things you can’t just sell. (Contrary to popular belief, you donate plasma and they compensate you for your time). Yet, when a hospital or pharmaceutical industry buys blood or plasma, that is extremely expensive. There’s a reason why the Red Cross can afford to pay its executives so much.

My first impression is that a non-profit that stores umbilical cords would easily be able to acquire them. (My wife and I would donate our child’s.) This increase of supply would almost certainly lower the per unit cost of preservation. In addition what is the value of finding a cord that matches an individual’s needs? That blood would also be very valuable and would certainly be able to help fund some of this venture. In addition to that, wouldn’t it be awesome to help so many people?

This is an undertaking I would love to be involved in, although right now I’m pretty busy battling global illiteracy. If anyone has heard of a social venture like this taking place, please let me know.

I also like this little Saturday Night Live skit on eliminating debt that Steve Martin so accurately portrays.

Obiviously there are some things that do require debt. A modest home, a good education, transportation in some cases, and emergency circumstances. I’ll also admit that as an entrepreneur I sometimes find myself stretching the envelope for a start-up business… (I generally chalk it up to the “good education” category.)

There’s an interesting company based in Utah that guarantees to help people payoff their mortgage fast. This company, United First Financial offers a Money Merge account. From what I can gather, it is an investment group where people invest their mortgage money and pay off their principal faster with the returns.

This concept is great, but does offer some concerns. What about the security of that money? What happens if investments don’t pay off, or we suffer another strong recession? Participants in these programs need to make sure that their mortgage money will go towards paying off their principle every month. Some programs may entail a “float”, a period of delay in payments.

There is no question however that proper mortgage finance, such as making an extra yearly payment or carefully participating in mortgage investment opportunities can quickly reduce your debt and accelerate your ability to invest in your own assets. At least you can get some answers to questions you might have at the United First website.

The technology has powerful organizational systems that could potentiall offer normal blog sites to reach unprecedented organization and follow-thr0ugh on their ideas.

The technology also offers a gated community wherein the development and sharing of ideas could only be accessed by those who are invited into the discussion. This way important conversations wouldn’t be crashed by unwelcome visitors and sensitive information could be identified and developed freely.

I would very much enjoy having this technology for Paul Allen’s page or Mark Cuban. I believe if the UI were made simple enough, it could have a very fast adoption rate and possibly spark an entire paradigm shift in the means of blogging and page organization.

We’ll see.

By the way, in my first day I got nearly a hundred views my first Youtube posting… About 1/100th of where I want to be someday… But really fun anywho…