I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak last week at Tech Life, the quarterly Alberta magazine by NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology). Apparently it’s due out this week.
I was at the latest Edmonton Tweetup and @NAIT happened to sit down beside me and I ended up with a copy of Tech Life.
Now, normally I have never been a fan of magazines that are for PR purposes, but I can honestly say that NAIT’s Tech Life is different. I’d skimmed one once before, but never really read it. (Mea culpa) I decided, this time, to give it another look.
Obviously the goal of the magazine is to promote the positive things happening at NAIT. You’d think that the content might be on the thin side but there’s a wealth of interesting stories here.
The articles range from automated home building machines to electric cars to interesting three question blurbs from NAIT-related people. There was also an interesting little piece on starting your own business.
The home building machine is an intriguing idea that could substantially cut the time, labour and ultimately cost of building a new house. Mark Holtom and Ben Bertrand are in the process of developing such a machine and in September 2008 received a $600,000 grant to build a prototype of their Geometric Construction Unit.
Bertrand had some advice for would-be entrepreneurs about not dwelling on mistakes:
“Founderitis, that’s what I had. Founderitis is when someone creates an idea, a business model, and they get very high on themselves because of it. Creating something that has potential is not something everyone can do, and it is something to be proud of. But if you have founderitis, you take it to the extreme: you’re smarter than everyone else, you deserve to own 90 per cent of the company forever, and it’s your way or the highway. It’s a sickness – not in the literal sense, but it will harm you greatly.”
I’ve certainly run into a few people like that in my business travels and most of them haven’t a clue that they have it. I think it’s similar to people who are glory hounds and can’t give credit to those around them. Neither condition is conducive to long-term happiness.
I enjoyed the article on a local electric kit car builder. I’m a big fan of outside-the-mainstream transportation. One day maybe I’ll even have my own electric car. If I can’t buy it, maybe I’ll build it.
Social media preference?
Being a big social media fan, I found the “Under the Q” short three question interview of NAIT-related people to be quite interesting. The other two questions didn’t matter as much as “what social media do you use?”
I was surprised to see only one person who stated they use Twitter. I guess it’s not for everyone, but I figured there’d be a few more people out of the 10 who use it, especially looking at the businesses they’re in.
That’s just a slice of what’s in the 68-page glossy magazine. I haven’t read everything yet, but I will definitely be going through the rest of the articles. I must say, I was impressed. It’s a good solid magazine with really interesting articles. I didn’t feel like I was being spun at all. Good job NAIT. Looking forward to your next issue.
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