Our Blog | NewBoCo

Four people sit at desks during a workshop. They are smiling.

Who Should I Send to Intrapreneur Academy?

Aaron Horn May 23, 2018

NewBoCo’s Intrapreneur Academy is a year-long program designed to help organizations of all types kick-start their innovation journey with in-depth trainings, immersive tours, and more on NewBoCo’s four innovation competencies: agile, culture, methods, and strategy. In Intrapreneur Academy, an organization sends a team of 3–8 people through as a team to learn more about these innovation competencies to inspire larger

Two men from Woofables give a presentation in a well lit room. The man on the left has his hand raised while speaking.

Intrapreneur Academy: Kickoff Recap

Molly Monk May 11, 2018

“Innovation” rarely brings to mind visions of local government, but the Office of the Linn County Auditor plans to change that. They joined five other teams in NewBoCo’s inaugural Intrapreneur Academy. “We joined Intrapreneur Academy because we want to set an example that innovation can occur in local government so as to encourage others and to provide a model on

Linda Barnes (left) leads a tour through Geonetric's open office plan

Intrapreneur Academy: Intro to Agile & Geonetric Tour Recap

Aaron Horn May 8, 2018

The inaugural Intrapreneur Academy started their quarter on Agile on Wednesday, April 25th with introductory workshops led by NewBoCo’s Agile Coach, Nate Adams, an immersive tour of Geonetric, and a Q&A session with Geonetric CEO, Linda Barnes. Intro to Agile — Nate Adams Agile work practices are taking organizations dealing with and within the modern world by storm. While many Agile principles

Mandy Webber presents to participants of Intrapreneur Academy seated in front of her.

Our First Quarter of 2018

Molly Monk April 17, 2018

Updates on NewBoCo’s work in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Education. On April 13 NewBoCo launched Intrapreneur Academy. Photo by Ben Kaplan. Once again, Iowa was at the bottom of Wallethub’s yearly study on the most innovative states. Last year, we were 44th, and now in 2018, we’ve slipped to 46th. Wallethub looked at two different areas to determine the most and least

NewBoCo Workiversary: Mandy Webber

Aaron Horn April 2, 2018

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”1/1″][text_output]On March 31, our Director of Innovation Mandy Webber celebrated one year with NewBoCo. Before Mandy joined the team, she led innovation efforts at Transamerica. When she started at NewBoCo as Director of Innovation, she kicked our Innovation services into high gear–hosting workshops, facilitating strategic meetings, and will soon launch Intrapreneur Academy on April 13. The

Iowa Companies Need a New Tech Recruitment Strategy

Aaron Horn March 23, 2018

In a weird paradox, Iowa can celebrate a historically low unemployment rate and a growing economy while also being in the midst of a major workforce crisis. All across the state, employers are having trouble filling the increasing number of tech jobs. Almost every fast-growing company in the state is a tech company. Our other main industries, like agriculture, manufacturing,

A group of five people gather around a table discussing agile

Ask the Agile Pros: Help! Is Agile Only for Software Teams?

Molly Monk March 14, 2018

Hey Agile Pros— We’ve been hearing a lot about Agile in the news, and it sounds like it could solve a lot of the problems our organization is facing right now. However, all of the advice about Agile is for software development teams. Can we be Agile if we’re not a software group? Sincerely, Definitely Not a Computer Geek Well,