Article Archive

The Art of Inspiration

The Summit, a recently opened, top of the line Wyndham property in Madisonville, is ready to meet every need for your upcoming meetings, conferences, trade shows and business events. At the Summit you will find 19 meeting rooms and 32,600 square feet of versatile indoor and outdoor meeting space outfitted with state-of-the-art technology and ergonomic furniture. Meeting rooms are filled with natural light from floor to ceiling windows. The best of business is conducted in the most conducive environment. The Summit offers intimate, well decorated venues for 10 or fewer people up to dynamic, engaging space for groups of 380, configured grand ballroom style for galas and award dinners or spread out through pre-event space for trade shows and multi-function conferences.

Residents, Families Plan Roaring Good Time

The Roaring Twenties, remembered for its air of excitement and fun, will serve as the backdrop for the Episcopal Retirement Services’ (ERS) Great Gatsby Gala, slated for September. Proceeds from the gala will benefit ERS’s Good Samaritan Mission (GSM), which supports ministry programs and services for older adults, including Deupree Meals On Wheels, the Partners In Care Fund, affordable living activities and services for limited-income seniors, staff hardship assistance and aid for qualifying ERS community residents.

Making a Difference for Others

Since taking the helm as executive director of the Southwest Ohio Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in 2011, Melissa Newman has seen over $26 million in donations. To get the much-needed backing, one of JDRF’s many fundraisers is the Cincinnatian of the Year Gala that honors one remarkable and compassionate individual each year.

Executives Leading The Way

Thomas E. Simpson, Chief Operating Officer & Jason E. Praeter, President and General Manager of Cincinnati Bell Inc.

Education, Independent Advice, User-Friendly Technology

Lang Financial Group recognizes the integral role technology plays in helping individuals and companies find the right mix of health insurance benefits to meet their needs and budgets.

Leave The Bits And Bytes To Us

As a technology provider of managed services, project engagements and consultative hardware and software sales, we have to have a team of subject matter experts. RDI Intuitive Technical is led by a team focused on winning each and every day.

Philanthropy Lies at the Heart of Human Greatness V2

Skystone Partners believes that philanthropy lies at the heart of human greatness. Committed to philanthropy and to expanding its influence here and around the world, we look at fundraising as a noble profession. As such, our role as consultants is to help nonprofit organizations increase their value to society through philanthropy. In addition to arts and cultural organizations, we establish partnerships with civic and community organizations, colleges and universities, hospitals and other health agencies, and social service organizations, and many other nonprofits.

Working For the Weekend?

As a veteran of the recruiting industry, Ed Anderson knew exactly how he wanted to create his dream firm when he launched EDIS Group in 2015. He wanted it to reflect his fun, upbeat nature – a unique task in an industry not exactly known for rollicking good times.

A Technology Partnership That Manages Growth & Keeps the Competitive Edge

In a fast-growing business, a technology infrastructure that enhances swift, efficient worker training and on-boarding is critical to be able to continue competing at a high level within a challenging field.

Announcing Featured Kick-Off Speaker Chris Hjelm, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Kroger Company

Paths to Success

Area Nursing Leaders Share Their Journeys

Light Bulb Moments

When you walk into a dark room, you simply flip a switch to illuminate the room. Problem solved. But the road to safe and reliable lighting was anything but simple. Thomas Edison and his cohorts advanced the technology, and the world, even though wrong turns and dead ends were abundant. Their success was largely due to embracing failures as opportunities to go in a different direction, to strike out into new territory. To learn and to evolve.

Don't Delay, Register Today

Kurtis Lindemann, CIO/CTO and a Founding Partner of RoundTower Technologies to serve as C-suite Panelist

Juanene Wong

Belcan

A Better, Faster Hybrid Cloud

Silicon Valley veterans from leaders like VMware, Data Domain, and VCE have created breakthrough technology to improve hybrid cloud in your enterprise. Companies like Zeon Chemicals, Ohio National, and Next Generation Films are running business-critical applications faster while increasing revenue and reducing risk and costs with Datrium.

Pink Is Crazy Beautiful

It’s one of Greater Cincinnati’s largest afternoon fundraisers. And with multi-platinum pop artist Andy Grammer headlining the 17th Annual Pink Ribbon Luncheon on Wednesday, Oct. 3, in the Duke Energy Convention Center Grand Ballroom, it’s sure to be another magnificent event. Hosted by the Cris Collinsworth ProScan Fund (CCPF), the luncheon and its proceeds support the many Pink Ribbon Programs so integral to providing compassionate care, pro-active breast health education and support for area women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Targeted Learning Solutions for Corporate Clients

MAX Technical Training is the trusted leader in IT and business technology education. MAX works with companies to create best-in-class custom training programs for their mission-critical operations.

How to Find the Perfect Candidates – Start with your WHY

Before you can successfully stand out in the competitive IT recruiting market, you must have a strong foundation of values, vision, and proven business ethics that your culture is built upon. This begins with your Why. Find your WHY and you will find your talent.

Feature Speaker Jeff Schmidt, Vice President, Chief Cyber Security Innovator, Columbus Collaboratory

A Global Team Delivers On Next Generation Solutions

To paraphrase Emerson for the digital age: Build a better chatbot and the world will beat a path to your door. At least that’s what Ascendum Solutions is hoping as it develops a “smarter” generation of chatbots – one of several exciting innovations being developed by global teams at the Blue Ash, Ohio-based tech firm.

She Helps Others Discover Their Inner Springboards for Success

When it comes to career success and advancement, Staci Jenkins’ advice to other women is to jump in with everything they’ve got. Jenkins, like Thompson Hine, is a pacesetter. An ever-energized initiator. She leapt into her professional journey head first because, well, that’s just how she does things, she says. And she has never looked back.

Strategic Partnerships

As an international provider of IT solutions for its diverse family of clients across numerous industries, ITCube remains steadfast in its promise to serve their customers as a strategic partner, not a product peddler. The company’s consistency in working with its clients as a trusted collaborator has resulted in significant expansion and growth for all.

Kevin Rinn

The Children's Home of Cincinnati

I Can See Clearly Now

“The cloud and other technology advances have democratized the cost of technology. Today, middle market companies can reap the benefits of major applications, once deployed in only large enterprises, and at a fraction of the old price.” That’s the message from Bryan Hogan, CEO and co-founder of Afidence, the business advocate and IT provider company based in Mason, Ohio.

Congratulations RSM!

Countdown to comSpark - Only 6 more days!

Personalized Floral Décor Promises the Fondest Wedding Memories

Robin Buop, owner and head designer at Botanica, will take a thought, feeling or particular palette, and she and her talented team will create an inspiring, customized, fresh design.

All IT Services Anywhere You Are

Providing support and solving tech problems so companies can focus on their business is what Flexential is known for. With 41 data centers spread out over 21 U.S. markets and a 100 gigabit-per-second private network backbone, Flexential securely connects its customers – in Cincinnati and across the US – to the information they need wherever they are.

Transparency, Trustworthiness, Honesty:

While the types of court cases Thompson Hine Civil Litigator Tony Hornbach tries vary – everything from general commercial cases and construction cases to landlord/tenant disputes and non-competition cases -- his approach to his clients and his goals with respect to these cases remains constant.

Celebrating A Quarter Century of CAD/CAM Innovation, Automation

Now in its 25th year, SigmaTEK Systems LLC successfully continues to provide CAD/CAM nesting software and services to enhance the efficiency and profitability of flat material and tube cutting under the SigmaNESTTM brand.

Per Scholas is Recognized as the 2018 Preferred Nonprofit Partner for comSpark

Announcing Keynote Speaker Casey Moran, VP Operations Service Management and Life Cycle Operations At GE Digital

The Power of Investing in Our Children

In only seven years, there has been a 70 percent increase in the number of children in the child protection system in Hamilton County. This alarming pace led to 3,554 children in Hamilton County Job and Family Service custody in 2017 alone, many in foster care. With an overwhelmed government system and no end in sight for this growth, Greater Cincinnati’s abused and neglected children need help. ProKids, an organization that advocates for children in foster care, has stepped up to help address this crisis.

Network Intelligence

If your organization is constantly upgrading bandwidth, spending money on hardware and software upgrades that are not in the budget and no matter how hard you try or how much you spend, users still complain about their wireless connection, application performance or how slow their browser is, it is possible your network is out of control. To make matters worse, securing the network to ensure the bad guys do not cause problems is a daily task which very few companies have enough time, money or staff to manage effectively.

The Circuit Breakfast Bytes: The Ups and Downs of IT Projects for the CxO's

This Is Where You Want Your IT Operation For the Zombie Apocalypse

Compass is CenterGrid’s premier cloud service offering. It is secure, elastic and highly configurable. Beyond that, Compass resides locally in Hamilton, Ohio, at a state-of-the-art Tier III data center, independent of the national power grid.

Go Beyond Fat Loss with Body Sculpting

CFO

2018 comSpark will feature a CFO panel discussion moderated by Bryan Kaiser, Partner and President of Vernovis, a consulting firm serving small and mid-sized businesses in the tri-state area. Vernovis helps companies complete critical business initiatives that are championed by their technology and financial leaders.

Cubeworks

Amber Hamilton, Senior Vice-President, Senior Director of Agile at Fifth Third Bank named Agile Session Panelist at comSpark 2018

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STEM Girls

Young women often have a difficult time envisioning themselves in STEM careers because women are drastically under-represented in those fields, particularly in engineering and computer science, Martin says. According to the Economics and Statistics Administration (2011), although 47 percent of the overall workforce and 60 percent of college graduates are women, they hold fewer than 25 percent of STEM jobs. And, if women are under-represented in STEM fields, women of color are even more underrepresented, Martin notes. She hopes The STEM Girls program, with its diverse following (50 percent of participants are young women of color), will inspire more young women of color to pursue STEM careers.

Pinpointing the Win-Win in Building, Improving Cybersecurity Programs

If you’re a C-suite executive with questions about your company’s cybersecurity program, or lack thereof, Vernovis Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Mike Rock has some answers for you.

Announcing CFO Panelist Lee Wall, CFO Frisch's Restaurants

All Occasions

Quiet Care Technology

It’s not the fictional artificial superintelligence system by the same name featured in those Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, but it does help safeguard some of humanity’s most vulnerable members.

Time & Treasure

David Goodwin is the co-founder and managing partner of Advanced Technology Consulting (ATC), established in 1999, located in West Chester Township, providing high-end IT and telecommunications consulting to area-based enterprises. ATC is proud to be known throughout the tri-state for best-in-class solutions that are provider agnostic and take advantage of the ever-increasing convergence of telecommunications and information technology.

Scott Roth, Vice President of Product Development at Assurex Health, will be a Keynote Speaker at comSpark

comSpark and ATC Present one of the Corporate Tech and Innovation Awards Honorees: Paycor

A Peek into Cincinnati’s Only Christ-Centered Six-Year College Prep Experience

Two years ago, to address an ever-changing world reshaped regularly by technological advances, market dynamics, and globalization, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (CHCA) deliberately shifted from the traditional elementary, middle and high school educational landscape and created a Lower School and Upper School.

Cloud Networking Prepares for Take Off

In today’s cloud-driven environment, CIOs and CTOs ultimately are tasked with performing at the application layer – layer 7. If the applications that run the business don’t perform, everything breaks down. No Office 365, no email. No Salesforce, no customer relations. No ConnectWise, it didn’t happen. No ERP, no dice.

Twice the Power When Financial Planning & Wealth Management Combine Forces

When David Foster, CPA, CFP®, and W. Mark Motley, MBA, CFA®, founded Foster & Motley, Inc., in Cincinnati in 1997, they offered their clients cutting-edge, fee-only financial planning and wealth management all under one roof. No one realized at the time, however, just how powerful the “&” unifying not only their names, but also their financial services, would become.

A Passion for Creativity and a Penchant for Change

As CIO at Convergys Corporation, a global leader in today’s highly technology-enabled customer experience management industry, Chandra Venkataramani focuses on innovation, insights and operational excellence, infusing his team with the strategic communication and creative thinking skills necessary to drive value-packed results for the company’s clients.

Steve Crone

Intelligrated

The COO Sunrise Technologies, VP of Technology Transformation - The Kroger Co: Wesley Rhodes named as a C-Suite Panelist at comSpark 2018

Making the World a Better Place

Tom Sturm, lead agent and owner of Tom Sturm Group, a division of Coldwell Banker West Shell (CBWS), does his best to never to let a day go by without helping others. His ministry-driven approach to real estate can’t help but shine through as he and his team go about their daily business.

Estonia’s 100-Year Anniversary

It’s not every day that one hears mention of the country of Estonia, bordered by Latvia and Russia in Northeast Europe with a population of 1.3 million.

Do Not Miss the comSpark 2018 Pep Rally!

The Vice President, Enterprise Infrastructure at Ohio National Financial Services; Steve Casson will be a comSpark C-Suite Summit Panelist

Meet a ComSpark Executive Level Speaker: the Vice President of IT Architecture & Infrastructure of First Financial Bank - Donnie Slavens

The Local Family Jeweler Helping Families Find New Heirlooms One Watch at a Time

Cincinnatians – and thanks to the store’s internet presence, people from all over the country – have been relying on the Stafford family for over 40 years to help them select fine Swiss timepieces.

Expedient

Excellence in Learning

In 1996 a concerned group of parents from the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati (ICGC) sought the best way to educate children in an atmosphere of academic excellence. A religious-based philosophy of caring discipline and parental involvement guided the efforts and decisions of the group.

Sigmatek

Samsung

Wandera

Chief Technology Officer for Belcan Corporation, Terry Williams, will be a Presenter at the comSpark 2018 Cybersecurity Summit

Simple Pleasures

This summer, St. Joseph Home residents and respite guests have more opportunities than ever before to enjoy and benefit from the simple pleasures of the wonder-filled outdoors.

Verizon

Healthy Conversations

Women today are immersed in so many responsibilities at once – from constant caregiver, industrious provider and devoted partner to tireless volunteer and helpful housekeeper – that they rarely find time to take care of themselves.

comSpark Podcast - Barrett Buse,IT Administrator, LOTH Incorporated

Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for the University of Cincinnati, Nelson Vincent, Announced as a Panelist for comSpark 2018 C-Suite Summit

comSpark Podcast - Mike Rock, Executive Security Management Consultant at Vernovis

Building Innovation and Community

At Lakota Local Schools, things are changing, including initiatives like the further involvement of S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) labs and providing Chromebooks as an additional tool for junior school students.

Corporate Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer for The Kroger Company, Brian Lawhorn, will be the Featured Speaker at the comSpark 2018 Cybersecurity Summit

Ron Ford

Belcan

Chocolate: The Exhibition is Here!

I don’t know about you, but just knowing I have a secret stash of chocolate lifts my spirits.

Jill Campbell

Campbell IT Consulting

Jeff Boeh

The Brandery

Donnie Slavens

First Financial Bank

They Create WOW in Every Room

Julia Wesselkamper, head of Coldwell Banker West Shell’s award-winning The Julia Wesselkamper Group, and three of her Stage It by Julia teammates are hard at work inside a seller’s newly listed home.

Now’s the Time to Polish, Tone and Tighten

Summertime, and the livin’ is busy. But it’s the perfect time to pay extra attention to caring for your face. Cincinnati Facial Plastic Surgery (CFPS) offers a plethora of minimally- to non-invasive procedures that not only polish your skin but optimize its tone and texture.

Yuxi

Cincinnati Bell

comSpark Announces the 2018 Rising Tech Stars

Tony Little

LCS

Appreciating our Differences, Discovering Our Similarities

Even though they’re out of school, students from St. Ursula Academy spend part of their summers engaged in education. Through the Community Services Learning Program’s mission and immersion trips, rising juniors and seniors learn firsthand about the needs of others living around the world, the country and in Cincinnati.