Free and Low-Cost Internet Resources for Small Businesses:
Collaboration and Web Site Development Tools, Templates for Business Plans, and More
Speaker: Julia Loughran, President, ThoughtLink, Inc.

Audience:

• Business owners desiring to leverage an existing business with free and low-cost tools
• Those thinking of starting a business

During this lively and interactive event, Julia Loughran, president and owner of ThoughtLink, Inc., discusses a myriad of information technology resources that are only a click away on the Internet. These resources provide a springboard for anyone interested in expanding or adding a new product or service to an existing business, or starting a new business. The technologies and resources include collaboration tools, Web site development tools, and templates for business plans.

Speaker: Julia Loughran is a co-founder and president of ThoughtLink, Inc., a business specializing in research related to team understanding, and in enhancing individual and organizational effectiveness via technologies, including games and simulations.

Ms. Loughran is a contributor to the Training Transformation (T2) strategic and implementation plans of the Department of Defense and is an active member of a senior advisory group assisting the Department of Homeland Security in the development and implementation of a national training and exercise strategy for domestic preparedness. Julia Loughran holds a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and has extensive experience in distributed simulations, virtual environments, and games.

ThoughtLink, Inc., a woman-owned small business, helps organizations use technology to increase team productivity, particularly teams whose members are separated geographically. To do this, ThoughtLink uses innovative applications of existing Web-based tools, collaboration technologies, wireless solutions, and games, allowing organizations to overcome the physical and organizational separation of distributed/virtual teams. ThoughtLink teams, with a breadth and depth of experience in technical consulting, software integration, and experiment design, execution, and analysis, help organizations streamline the technology selection process.

ThoughtLink’s areas of expertise include leveraging Internet technologies for education and training, using games for research and analysis, increasing collaboration among virtual teams, and maximizing shared situational awareness. ThoughtLink has evaluated training/exercise solutions and conducted research for a variety of government, international, and nongovernmental organizations, including the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, individual military services, Canada’s Lester Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, and the Center for Humanitarian Cooperation.

Location: One-half block south of the Cineplex Odeon Uptown movie theatre on Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

Parking: Very small lot, off Macomb St., to left of library. 

Metrorail--Cleveland Park Station on the Red Line (on Connecticut Avenue, just 1.5 blocks north of meeting site) 

Free and open to all 

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