LANSING — Connect Michigan Tuesday announced four finalists for the inaugural Connected Project Awards.
The awards are intended to recognize community organizations and partnerships implementing unique and creative projects designed to improve the adoption and use of broadband and associated technologies in communities across Michigan. They are sponsored by the independent phone and internet provider ACD.net.
Four finalists have been selected to present their projects at the 2015 Michigan Broadband Conference, coming up Tuesday, Oct. 20 at the Lansing Center. After presenting their project at the conference, attendees (onsite and remotely via live stream) will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite project.
The 2015 Connected Project Awards and the cash prizes will be announced at the conclusion of the conference.
The finalists are:
• Boost Your Business With Broadband, Roscommon County Economic Development Corp. Boost Your Business With Broadband is an educational marketing service offering seminars to local businesses throughout the year. By partnering with industry experts, the seminar content includes website development, enhanced social media, fraud and cybercrime prevention, tapping into the “Pure Michigan Effect,” and engaging Michigan Works. The seminars provide applications for local businesses to use immediately for promotion and to improve their services.
• HarborActive, Harbor Inc. and Abuzz Creative. HarborActive in Harbor Springs provides lifelong learning in the area of digital literacy to the community. HarborActive training seminars are the preferred option for Northern Michigan professionals, seniors, and parents who desire a more personal and interactive learning experience. Area experts present face-to-face education and hands-on solutions to the most pressing digital issues. The program is designed to help the community embrace the use of technology by providing the tools necessary to cross the digital divide.
• Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula App, Keweenaw Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce. Developed by the Keweenaw Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Keweenaw Peninsula App is a mobile tourism app that features everything there is to do in Keweenaw. From hiking trails to restaurants and lodging, waterfalls, shopping, and events, you can get turn-by-turn directions, one-touch dialing, and an events calendar; you can also share listings on your favorite social network. The Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce collaborated with the Convention & Visitors Bureau to promote the app and showcase the tourism opportunity across Keweenaw.
• Senior Internet Security Program, Clare County Emergency Services & Broadband Network Group. The Senior Internet Security Program offers senior citizens and their respective caregivers essential senior cyber security and fraud education. The campaign currently involves a focus-group approach at Senior Meal and other gathering sites to provide a one-on-one, enhanced education to reach the most vulnerable age group for fraud and cybersecurity crimes. Program facilitation is volunteered by Clare County Emergency Management with assistance from detectives at the Clare County Sheriff’s Office.
The four finalists are participants in Connect Michigan’s Connected community engagement program, an initiative to help communities assess their local broadband and technology landscape, identify gaps, and establish technology-driven goals and objectives to increase technology access, adoption, and use for families, organizations, and businesses throughout the community. More than 50 Michigan communities are currently engaged in the Connected program.
In addition to the 2015 Connected Project Awards, the 2015 Michigan Broadband Conference convenes nationally recognized broadband and technology experts to discuss best practices and insights into leveraging technology for improved community and economic development, education, digital literacy, healthcare, and workforce development. This year, keynote speakers for the conference are Jay Elliot, a former technology executive at Apple and best-selling author of The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation, and Matthew DelNero, Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau.
To register for the 2015 Michigan Broadband Conference, please visit www.connectmi.org/broadband-summit.
In partnership with the Michigan Public Service Commission, Connect Michigan is working to ensure that all Michiganders can experience the benefits of broadband. Technology, especially widespread access, adoption, and use, improves quality of life. More at www.connectmi.org.
Connected Nation developed the Connected Community Engagement Program to help guide a community through an assessment of its overall broadband and technology status. Connected certified communities have measurably demonstrated their proficiency for effective access, adoption, and use of broadband-supported technologies. Connected Nation, through its partners, provides a national platform for recognizing those communities that excel across these important benchmarks. http://connectmycommunity.org.