Yes.  We have three custom pieces of art work decorating our lobby.  Courtesy of Creative Canvas and artist Danielle Mase.  If you want to check our art, come on Thursdays at 4:00pm for an open house.

In  1988 the Department of computer Science  instituted a yearly lecture series now know as the Paul G Sorensen Distinguished Graduate Lecture.    Since its inception an impressive list of speakers have graced the presentation stage and imparted their wisdom and experience to the undergraduates and faculty of the University of Saskatchewan and other interested parties.

This year, VendAsta’s very own CTO, Jason Collins has the honor of joining this elite group of presenters.   Those of you that have been fortunate enough to have seen Jason speak before will know not to miss this presentation titled:

 Code Free or Die Hard

Free content. Free application hosting. Unprecedented access to customers eager to use your application - and promote it to their social networks, for free. Multiple frameworks, APIs, and development tools jostling for your attention. Users are on the move, their phones know where they are and where they’ve been, they’re connected all the time - but their interactions with technology are faster, more fleeting, lighter on content but heavy with context. What does this all mean for developers? It means being able to operate in multiple environments simultaneously. It means writing smaller amounts of highly functional code. It means keeping pace with a consumer-facing software sector that is frantic, kinetic, and creatively destructive - now more than ever.

The event is open to all and is posted on the University of Saskatchewan’s website .

2008 P.G. Sorenson Distinguished Graduate Lecture

Code Free or Die Hard

Speaker: Jason Collins

Date: Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Time: 7:30 pm

Room: Arts 146

Everyone is welcome.

Congratulations to our very own Jason Collins – He’s kind of a big deal!

Posted by: Brendan King 

We’ve been busy moving to our sweet new “Caves and Commons” office and haven’t really had time to blog.  We have taken pictures and Picassa does an okay job of throwing together a video automatically.

At VendAsta we just announced our Friday afternoon Jam Sessions. Basically we have decided that we are going to allocate time to allow people to work on anything of, interest to them - as long as it is software.   Personally, I love what we are doing here. I wanted to write a blog about it so I have been doing a lot of research and introspection. I really want us all to think about what we are trying to achieve.  This isn’t an idea or gimmick to gain more productivity from our staff.  This idea is truly more about our attitude, philosophies, environment and culture than some “thing we do”.  

What does that mean, you might be asking yourself. Let me explain.

When we first discussed the idea of working on side projects I had a lot of fears.  Fears that we would lose focus, fears that it would be expensive, fears that the time would be “wasted”.  To alleviate those fears I wanted to impose restrictions.  Things like:  Projects need to be well thought out and documented, projects need to have some benefit to the company, or projects need to be in area of development we are already in. 

Then, I thought about what it is that we  originally envisioned VendAsta to be.  To paraphrase, we wanted to work with super smart people we like on interesting stuff.  To achieve this, our attitudes, philosophies, environment and culture must reflect this.  Imposing rules overtop of JAM to alleviate fears is wrong, it is simply not what we are about.

On the face of it JAM is about allowing everyone to have an opportunity to work on ideas that are their own or ideas they personally and individually buy into.   But it is more than that. It is about providing people with the luxury of dreaming.  It is about giving our people a chance to turn some of their dreams into reality.

People at VendAsta work very hard.   When you hire the best and brightest you tend to get people that are ambitious and driven.  VendAstians are thinkers, innovators, and leaders full of their own ideas and driven by a strong competitive work ethic, healthy peer pressure, and pride.

JAM is about providing time, money and opportunity for anyone to sell their idea to the VendAsta team.  JAM is the mechanism to take something from a dream to an idea, from an idea to a plan, from a plan to a prototype, from a prototype to a product and from a product to a money maker.

JAM products will gain momentum through peer review, open discussion and debate and personal choice. JAM Product decisions will not be made by management and executives.  Products that gain JAM momentum will benefit from all the skill sets available; marketing, promotion, critical analysis, development and production environments, business development, testing, monetization, HCI and development.

JAM is also an opportunity to share in the profits and hedge your chances for success. The profits of products built and released via JAM will be shared in a very democratic way with all.

Most of all JAM is about making VendAsta a great place to work with super smart cool people building interesting stuff.

Post by:

Brendan King

…Lightsaber and IPhone. Since Friday they are standard issue for all dev’s here at VendAsta.  In this video you can see Ryan demonstrating how to use the force.

At some point in a new company’s life, you have to pay some attention to corporate identity.  Things like brand, logos, mottos…

We have been doing a lot of  hiring, mostly through word of mouth and the recommendations of our current team.  In fact we have 5 new people starting within a month but we still have a long way to go.  Hiring is one of the toughest and most crucial aspects of building a great company, culture, and team.

I suspect that in most work environments people have gone through the experience of having new team members simply show up.  A new team member suddenly thrust upon them as the result of some decision made from on high.  Personally it is something that I have always hated. I guess it is okay if your definition of a team is “Two or more draft animals used to pull a vehicle or farm implement”.   But when your definition is as ours; ” a group of individuals who interact dynamically, interdependently and adaptively to achieve specified, shared, and valued objectives in an environment of respect and trust”,    then it is ludicrous that the team shouldn’t have a say in it’s own composition.

At VendAsta we are changing our hiring process to truly value the team.  Applicants will start with an initial screening and generally there will be a second Interview with an HR team unless the employee is an obvious hire and is known to the team.  So once the HR team approves the applicant they will then face the real test.  Lunch with the team of people they will ultimately work with.

The team will arrange a lunch or dinner with their potential new team mate.  The reviews, opinions and general sentiment of the team will ultimately decide whether or not a formal offer is extended.  This is good for the team and good for the applicant.  Nobody wants to work with people they are not compatible with.

For the record, it’s not all just a free lunch.  The team has to complete a confidential review. What they like about the applicant, what they don’t, how they see them fitting, potential conflicts or anything else they want to point out.  When 90 days are up the team will revisit the hire and make recommendations.

Posted by: Brendan King

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix has printed a story on VendAsta’s funding announcement for its social software initiative MyFrontSteps. The article and some of our smiling faces can be found here

John Fothergill

First of all I personally learned that our CTO - Jason Collins - is a swimmer. A swimmer that comes on strong in the end! It is highly recommended to sneak some flippers into the pool to give yourself an edge. PS: I lost. Twice.

Second, we all learned that Allan Wolinski is not just a talent at usability and making solutions intuitive and easy to use; but he can grill a mean steak. Chris Pucci is a top-notch sous chef as well and can tackle your toughest web development challenges (using Drupal, PHP - any and all to be honest) … all while he’s salt and peppering whatever touches that grill.

Thirdly, we witnessed the hero (ok, parenting) efforts of Jon Levesque in saving his own son from the mysterious deep end that can sneak up on any little tyke that’s having way too much fun in the 90 degree water. Jon will also help any potential client learn the benefits of working with the most innovative agile development company for all your complex .net, web application and mobile development needs.

Fourth, you’re bound to learn more about music and the likes of Jeff Buckley when sitting around and chatting with Ryan Baldwin and Kevin Peirce (these two know music!). Might pick up some tips on WPF programming, xslt, xml databases (to name but a few) as well as how to author a runbook and cookbook for fast and efficient deployment methods.

Janak Kapadia will always be the most pleasant guy at the party, Dale Zak is always smiling and having fun (plus the guy is an a m a z i n g developer), Erik Fredrickson might leave but he’s sure to return (with swimmers for all members of his entourage), Sean Lynch is as cool as the cucumber salad on the table… Brendan King, Jeff Tomlin, and John Fothergill are all rock stars and can be seen discussing the MyFrontSteps strategic deployment over the desert table… and in my opinion, Johnny Motherfothergill always has his cool factor at a 10 (including poolside).

Only our Guy Kelsey and Carey Bursaw missed the action… good thing there’s video evidence of Jason Collin’s swim victory!

——-

I like what Brendan King wrote on his blog IRT Saskatoon’s Fledgling Tech Community and when you see a group like VendAsta (in the office or by the pool), one realizes it is a pretty special blend.

AND we’re growing… so if you’re bored at your current company / no longer challenged by the work you’re doing / wish you too could party by the pool / or just want a change - be sure to talk to us… because we’re hiring more Saskatoon software developers right now. If you want to learn more about any of us… just ask, or visit Driving Force or here. Interested applicants can also visit VendAsta Careers, but if you know any of us - just contact us directly.

Cannonball! COH