Doug Parsons

IdeaStar staff members have a variety of outside interest – everything from hockey to running to whatever you can imagine.  This week let’s take a look at Web developer Doug Parsons’ service as a judge for the Business Professionals of America (BPA) Ohio State Leadership Conference. Doug is the latest addition to the IdeaStar team.

Hundreds of students from all over Ohio recently competed in a myriad of events such as Web site Design, Web Application Design, Multimedia Presentation, and Extemporaneous Speech.  Doug was one of two judges for the Web Application Design category.

So how did he become a judge? Doug became a member of BPA while a high school student attending classes at Kent State University.  His instructor, Rhonda Orr, is the regional coordinator for the event.  She asked if Doug and his colleague Matthew Bernard  could judge the regional competition in January, and recommended them for judging the state competition.

Bonus fact: During high school, Doug placed fifth for Extemporaneous Speech I and eighth in Web Site design in the state competition.

This year, the participants in the Web Application Design category were asked to build an online sports retailer that incorporated aspects of e-commerce, including encryption of sensitive fields and encryption of sensitive data transmission via SSL. Participants gave presentations, then answered questions from the judges.

First place went to Medina County Career Center (.Net Web Application) and second place went to D. Russell Lee CTC (PHP Web Application), with only a two point difference between first and second place. “These two teams represented the creme de la creme of the competition and their applications were stunning and, I must say, I was even a bit impressed that they were able to accomplish what they did being High School students.,”  Doug said.

Judging is simple, right?  Not so fast. Doug said “It was one of the most exhausting things that I have done!  I have worked 18-hour days and not been as tired as I was when I left Columbus that evening.  Aside from that, I learned these events are some of the most stressful things some of these kids have done and that it is the judges’ responsibility to pick up on this and calm the students down.”

Doug said he enjoyed donating his time to both the regional and state competitions because, while a little cliché, it is really all about the kids. “With regard to the Web Applications competition especially, there is at least one student on the team that is looking to make programming a career. If I can help foster that drive through judging and positive yet critical feedback, then my time was well worth it.”

Copyright 2009 IdeaStar Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Tags: BPA, Business Professionals of America, Doug Parsons, IdeaStar, Ohio State Leadership Conference

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

St. Patrick’s Day at IdeaStar is a good excuse to eat corned beef.  We had our usual lunch, complete with a Spring coloring contest.

Mary colored some bunnies. They will be yellow, green, pink, and blue.

Doug and Phil Hall displayed their shamrocks.

Christy and Ryan too.

And Mike carved the corned beef.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day. For those of you who want to know a little more about the holiday, click here.

Copyright 2009 IdeaStar Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Smile Mike! IdeaStar’s Mike Wise (right) was presented the President’s Distinguished Service Award by outgoing President Paul Latchford (left) during the recent Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) 2009 Annual Meeting. “It’s encouraging that my involvement during the past four years within PIMA has been positively received,” Mike said.  “And, I find it humbling at the same time, especially since my daughter, Kelle, was in attendance.  I’m really just an average Joe trying to do a good job.”

Mike was also appointed to a three-year term on the PIMA Board of Directors. “I’m excited to serve the association in this way.  I will of course keep an eye on things from the Web technology perspective,” Mike said.  He was appointed to lead the Communications and Technology Committee – a group focused on the use of technology to enhance the external and internal communications of PIMA.

Mike is a three-time tri-chair of PIMA MarkeTTech and frequently volunteers his skills as a photographer at PIMA events. As a matter of fact, at the last meeting, one PIMA member spouse quipped, “So Mike, I see you’re taking pictures?  Must be like being on a safari.”  How so?  “You’re taking pictures of insurance people in their native habitat.” Hmmmmmm.

View Mike’s PIMA people shots here. Or learn more about Mike and the use of online insurance technology to enhance insurance marketing at his blog, InsuraTech, or on Linkedin.

Tags: Annual Meeting, Board of Directors, Mike Wise, PIMA, President's Award, Professional Insurance Marketing Association

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.