I’m looking forward to the meeting dubbed “Group of Groups” happening later tonight. A large number of high-profile tech community members have been gathered to sit down and decide how to improve our community and its cohesiveness. It’s enthusiastic to see these individuals taking the time to get involved, but I’m concerned about the lasting impact that this meeting will produce. Primarily because of each person’s interpretation of “improving our community”.

Most of Southeast Florida has felt significant momentum in the entrepreneurial and technology sectors of the community. Increased attention from the press, ad hoc meeting places and events are occurring more frequently, and people are coming out of the woodwork to participate and be involved. In fact, many in the Palm Beach area are interested in cultivating our corner of the state into something more of a community. Last month, I was party to a large group who were passionate to be represented and have their opinions on community improvement heard.

I’ve been working on teaching folks how to play with Arduinos, an open-source hardware prototyping platform. Deborah Acosta from the Miami Herald caught wind and asked if she could ask me a few questions about the swelling maker movement in South Florida. She got back to me last week and told me the video was live! My 15-seconds of fame can be found at the end of this video, “Trendspotting: The Maker Movement”.

Note: I’m cross-posting this from the South Florida Tech Leadership group. We’re a group of leaders in South Florida who are passionate about improving the tech and entrepreneurial ecosystem in our region. If you’re interested in joining in on the conversation, just drop in or introduce yourself on twitter. Over the past few weeks, I’ve read a bunch of inspiring blog posts with different angles on building your local community. I wanted to share summaries and links with you.