Apps drive Central Florida businesses, schools - Orlando Sentinel

Mark Hawks has sold Apple products for the past 20 years, but the popularity of mobile applications has his career heading in a different direction.

"My clients kept telling me they needed iPhone apps to make their businesses better, so I started taking classes in app development at Seminole State College," said Hawks, 53, of Port Orange, who already has sold his first app to a Kentucky chiropractor.

His second one, he said, "will be a guide to better living, showing good food choices, exercises and also a direct line to my [Lake Mary] chiropractor."

A boom in apps — tiny programs for smartphones and other mobile devices that do everything from creating games to crunching financial spreadsheets — is creating new opportunities for Central Florida businesses and schools.

Already established builders are welcoming novice developers into Central Florida's flourishing tech industry, advising them that there's more to building an app than just the colorful icon that appears on a device's screen.

At the same time, the University of Central Florida, Valencia College, Full Sail University and other schools are offering more app-development courses.

"Businesses are eager to move their customers from the Web to their mobile devices, and apps facilitate the transition," said Dick Grant, professor of information technology at Seminole State College.

A report from Elance, a California-based online work platform, shows U.S. demand for workers equipped to create apps for Apple devices soared by 457 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 in comparison with same time last year. The demand for developers with Android skills jumped 224 percent, the report shows.

"There is a lot of hand-holding and educating the client in the process of creating an app," said Rainer Flor, creative director at Orlando-based Echo Interaction Group. "The client usually has no idea what they are getting into. It's our job to guide them through the process and tell them what their app will eventually accomplish."

Flor said app building really begins with conversations with a client about what they want the app to accomplish.

"Do they want to engage an audience, enhance their business, solve a problem or be the first to offer something innovative?" he said. "We also have to consider how to build the app for future updates."

Before any programming begins, developers create an outline that details the goals of an app and a storyboard on paper — not unlike those drawn in the movie industry — that gives glimpses of the proposed app.

Tweaks and other modifications are scribbled on paper before a more detailed storyboard containing dozens of images that show each function of the app is presented to the graphic designers and programmers.

When the app is coded and all graphics installed, the developer submits the app to Apple. Technicians at Apple check each line of code to make sure the app meets Apple's strict guidelines. Graphic content is also evaluated before Apple agrees to place the app in its App Store.

The whole process can take six to eight weeks or longer if Apple returns the app for reprogramming. Some developers said publishing apps to Google's Android Market is akin to the "Wild West" because there is no approval process or standards to meet.

It's difficult to gauge the cost of building an app because of their wide range of complexity. Games, for example, require greater graphic-design hours, and that will considerably increase the cost. A report from Internet Retailer, a technology trade publication, shows quality apps can cost $30,000 to $100,000 to design, program and publish.

Jason Madsen, program manager at Full Sail University in Winter Park, said the future of app development in Central Florida is strong because there is "so much movement and excitement."

"We have a strong [app]-development community here that gets together and collaborates," Madsen said. "It's a great opportunity for our talent to get involved with this now to really take advantage of it."

wpacheco@tribune.com or 407-420-6262. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/techblog

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Business Schools Welcome Students' Partners, Spouses

Dargan Rain learned her husband Rob had been accepted to Harvard Business School before he did. Rob, who was serving in Afghanistan at the time, didn't have computer access, so he couldn't check the Harvard admissions site. He had completed his application in record time before deploying and interviewed with Harvard via satellite phone from a military base. 

"Having been separated for 14 out of the last 24 months, the idea of business school was dreamy for me," Dargan says. "My husband would be stateside; he would have a 'normal' schedule; and we would start our first-ever year lease on an apartment. These comforts were something we didn't have before."

While most M.B.A. applicants don't interview remotely from military bases in the Middle East, one aspect of Dargan's experience is the norm at business schools across the country. At Harvard—where Rob is currently finishing his first year—Dargan was pleasantly surprised by the effort the school made to include M.B.A. students' partners and spouses in clubs, off-campus activities, and speaking engagements. "I have felt just as much a part of the HBS community as my husband," she says.

Harvard isn't the only school to have a Partners' Club. At Columbia Business School, the partner group is called Columbia Better Halves, and the website of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management states that nearly 40 percent of its students are accompanied by a spouse or a partner.

[Learn about child-friendly college programs for parents.]

Groups for spouses also exist at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School, and Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.

The M.B.A. Spouse Association at Brigham Young University—Provo's Marriott School of Management makes the claim on its website that BYU offers "the 'most family-friendly' M.B.A. program in the nation." Rebecca Walsman, president of the association, defends that claim by saying that the MBASA provides "almost daily opportunities" for M.B.A. students' spouses to make friends and attend free evening classes and activities.

"I believe this program and spouse association is one of a kind in the country at this time," says Walsman, whose husband is an M.B.A. student. "I personally believe there is no better place for a student who has a family to obtain their M.B.A."

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Published 10:54am Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Email Comments

By JENNIFER WHISENANT / Guest Columnist

Business networking (schmoozing!) includes events by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities.

The Greater Shelby Chamber is proud of our variety of business networking opportunities that allow you to build new relationships and generate business opportunities. We offer City Focus events, Business After Hours, Social 280, Network 280 and SpeedNetworking. All of these are no cost events designed specifically to promote the host business and offer opportunities for business networking and schmoozing!

With more than 800 square miles to cover, the Greater Shelby Chamber provides members a chance to discover what’s going on around the county. We schedule two City Focus events on the first and third Tuesday morning of each month. While networking is the key to City Focus events, you also get a chance to meet city officials and hear a brief update of developments in that particular area.

Network 280 events are morning meetings hosted by a Greater Shelby Chamber member along the U.S. 280 corridor. The host member is given an opportunity to address attendees about current products and services. This is an excellent opportunity to meet the business leaders along the U.S. 280 corridor.

Business After Hours and Social 280 events are premier networking opportunities offered in a relaxed, late afternoon setting in which to meet and mingle with Chamber members, enjoy refreshments and fellowship while networking.

SpeedNetworking has been voted a member favorite for several years. These quarterly events are fun and fast-paced, and you’re guaranteed to walk away with many new business contacts every time!

Participation is the key in making your membership work for you! If you’re interested in hosting a business networking event, check out the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce online at Shelbychamber.org or call us at 663-4542.

We look forward to schmoozing with you at our next business networking event!

Jennifer Whisenant is president and CEO of the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce. You can reach her at jennifer@shelbychamber.org.

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