Curriculum Overview Recap:
Students gained exposure to required skills in Technology Industry business through a curriculum of 3 pillar
categories: Technology Solutions, Integrated Business and Process and Tools to Create User Experience. Students
worked in their designated groups throughout the week and prior to the Boot Camp week which were diverse in
communication styles, experience, skills, degrees and ages. During the Exploratory Lab Boot Camp students were
exposed to curriculum developed by Tech Data employees as well as other expert professionals from business
partners within our local community and Tech Data Vendor partners in the following sessions within the pillars:
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Day 1 (Integrated Business) included sessions on Market Opportunities, Business Planning, Integrated
Marketing, Operationalizing a Business, Emotional Intelligence and Taking Risks in Business Trends.
Throughout the day at Tech Data students learned the important aspects of each topic delivered by Tech
Data professionals as well as application through hands-on group activities. Business models are evolving
and innovation is pushing existing Tech Industry talent to further enhance their skills. The topics were
also not typically a part of a degree seeking student’s coursework. These topics were approached in a
manner that is forward thinking and focused on skills needed to be effective within a Tech business. Not
what ‘used to be’ necessary.
 Day 2 (Technology Solutions) included touching on key Tech Solutions relevant in the Tech Industry as well
as from a End-User perspective as these students may be a user/owner of Tech in their company. The
sessions were held in the Tech Data Cisco Solutions Center and included: Networking 101,
Video/Collaboration, Security, Software/Licensing, Web/eCommerce/Applications, Data
Center/Cloud/Storage/Servers and Systems/Peripherals Solutions overviews. The topics were approached
with a historical and trend review and dove into how the technologies are used today. Most of the
sessions included videos and hands-on group activities. The Security session leveraged Homeland security
mocked scenarios for Day Zero attacks by Hacktivists. All of the sessions went deep enough to keep the
Tech students engaged and interested while effectively influencing the non-Tech students!
Day 3 (Process and Tools to Create User Experience) was held at Valpak’s new Agile lab and introduced Agile
and Lean Development by Ryan Dorrell (Agile Thought CTO) through a presentation and workshop approach.
During the session the students took a tour of Valpak’s Agile lab and culture to see Agile in real life. They were
able to get up close to Kanban boards and understand the Executive board vs. the team boards. They were
also able to meet and understand Valpak’s Agile teams of different roles and how the accountability of teams
is influenced by the methodologies and Principles of Agile (Agile Manifesto). The students worked in their
groups through an exercise to apply the Lean Dev learnings. The last half of the day was with Justin Davis
(Maderalab owner) learning methodologies of Design Thinking and the importance of User Interface and User
Experience in building applications. The students worked in their groups through an exercise of building a
travel application applying the methodologies. They created personas through interviewing users and created
many designs in order to get to their final they would present. The students then went through usability
testing with students from other teams to determine misses and additional opportunities to make their
application the best possible.
 Day 4 (Technology Solutions and Integrated Business) was held at Tech Data and included:
o What it takes to be an Entrepreneur – Daniel James Scott showed the students how to win: Just
do it, Cement passion, Trigger desires, Be open to serendipity, Leverage oppt when it comes to
you. It was eye opening to know the difference between good and great and then exceptional
means according to time dedicated! 20K+ hours with greater goals and more drive.
o Virtualization world & VMWare business model – Marc Monday shared an approach on
virtualization that the students loved. Marc also walked students through risk intelligence and
startup to market capture to evolving business model. They also really appreciated Marc’s life
lessons – these were referenced many times and in the closing on Friday including to ‘be
genuine’ and ‘Fake it, Don’t BS people’.
o Vision/innovation/strategy- Mike Perez shared how Cisco’s culture embraces top down
innovation and strategy. The students really liked hearing how a 30 year old company can still be
young (innovative culture). Also, for providing a view of acquisition impacts and expectations. In
Tech we all need to be always developing and enhancing skills – we own it! The excitement
resonated with the students when Mike said ‘Technology isn’t a barrier, it’s an enabler to solve
important issues’ and that ‘EQ is more important than IQ’ when hiring talent.
o Working for a Global non US-based company Sharp Electronics – Mehryn Imperiale did a
fantastic job helping the students understand global product planning and collaboration. They
gained a great perspective about how to focus on learning their company’s culture and tips
learned working for Japanese leaders. Relationships are important, respect, being
detailed/factual, no excuses, be humble, be polite and diplomatic and have fun.
o Business model evolution – David Romine his perspective as CEO of Agile Thought to the
students and walking through Predictable Success in a workshop setting. The students enjoyed
solving for challenges along the way as a company grows and providing options to keep a
company in the white-water/fun stage where innovation is thriving and out of the treadmill/big
rut stage where innovation is lost.
o Positioning Yourself for Success in a Competitive Job Market – Susan Berntheisel did a great job
sharing with the students how to decide what ‘Tech’ job is right for them and how to research a
company like HP. It was great to share the importance of culture and onboarding along with
career dev and ongoing education in their future employer vs. just being about title and money!
 Day 5 (Integrated Business & Process & Tools to Create User Experience) started out in the Tech Datisco
Solution Center walking students through Big Data and Data Analytics introducing the students to
unstructured vs structured data along with the increased need for storage. Then the facilitator walked
the students through a Hadoop exercise leveraging an EMC tool to write the code to determine how many
times Buck Mulligan was listed in Ulysses. The next session exposed students to Solving for Business
Outcomes which is the way the Tech Industry is approaching solution-based selling into user
environments vs. legacy ‘product selling’. This session focused on the benefits for the IT and line of
business owners in CMX, BYOD, Security, Mobility and Video/Telepresence. Students then leveraged their
exposure to the Technology Solutions content from Day 2 and Day 3 User Experience along with Day 5
Solving for Business Outcomes to identify multiple business outcome solutions through user case study
approaches via an interactive game in their groups.
Day 5 wrapped up with a view of finding the right internship and job including tips on resume building,
applications, phone/video and face to face interviewing along with how to research companies in the
Tampa Bay Area to find a job. Tech Data Human Resource recruiter specialists also walked the students
through what to expect in their new job company and career path along with how to establish contacts
through community involvement and networking.
The students presented their business plan ideas around Wearables Technology. They had all week to
finalize their business plans as they were introduced to many topics earlier in the week to help them
define how to build and ‘pitch’ an effective business plan. Each group had multiple Tech Data mentors
working with them all week to validate team ideas and approaches to their business models, products and
approaches. The 5 groups of students each ended up approaching their business plan with a different
model. The students put together a detailed business plan and then highlighted the components of their
market opportunities, target audience, business model, route-to-market, integrated marketing
components and Cost/Benefit analysis to show ROI during their presentations. There were start-up
models along with new routes-to-market and expanded existing models. The products/solutions tackled
healthcare (preventative and monitoring/maintenance), hospitality industry and artistic/STEM immersive
approach.
To wrap up Day 5 the project team was in the audience (as they were throughout the week) including
TBTF, Tech Data, SPC, Valpak, Career Source Tampa Bay and Agile Thought. Facilitators, mentors, Tech
Data and local business executives were invited to hear the student presentations and stay for an open
networking event with the students.