nyika.tv

Tech news and trends

Experience IT NM

by Leave a Comment

The New Mexico Technology Council and Comcast invites you to geek out on all things tech with ‘Experience IT’.

The event will gather the best and brightest entrepreneurs, technicians, hackers and technology fans.
This event highlights the vibrant technology community within our city.

Resident Technology Expert for New Mexico Living, Nyika Allen, along with Area Vice President, Comcast, Chris Dunkeson, were on hand to explain this event in greater detail.

“It’s a four-day-long series of events; we have everything from a kind of private, intimate discussion tonight called, ‘launch-IT’, where three CEOs are going to be talking about how they launch their companies in New Mexico.

“Everything to also ‘Yelptropolis’ which is tomorrow night a great, free, fun event celebrating STEM non-profits, and then we have a very cool VIP reception with Comcast on Thursday and then that rolls us into Friday which is a huge conference day. We have twenty different panels and fifty different speakers throughout the day and then the last piece of it, is a ‘block crawl’ downtown visiting six of the hottest technology-related companies in the downtown area,” says Allen.

Dunkeson explains Comcast’s role in this event: “We’ve been a part of the New Mexico Technology Council for a long time; been a wonderful partner. And we’re really excited because this is a great time to be in technology in New Mexico, this industry is expanding, and there are things that people don’t even recognize that are going to change our lives going forward and that’s part of what this group is going to do.”

Event Details:
Sept. 27 – 30
Location: Varies
Tickets: Available Online

Yelptropolis

by Leave a Comment

We are gearing up for the third year of Albuquerque’s premiere event for food, fun and of course, technology!
New Mexico Living’s resident technology expert Nyika Allen joined us to talk about what to expect at this year’s Yelptropolis.

“So, Yelptropolis is actually an event where we bring together both food and technology. And so that’s why Yelp and the New Mexico Technology Council have partnered on this event because we can kind of bring you the best of both worlds,” Allen explains.

This year the focus is on S.T.E.M. non-profits.

Featured at the event will be numerous hand-picked restaurants such as Poki Poki Cevicheria, Hartford Square, Mike’s Jerky, Trifecta Coffee Company and Fork & Fig.

Wineries and breweries will be at the event as well.

September 28
El Rey Theater
RSVP on YELP

Running Start for Careers

by 1 Comment

If you have a teenager nearing graduation, you may be wondering what their next step will be.

Luckily, there’s a program open to all metro-area students that gives them the opportunity to explore a career path, while earning both high school and college credits, called Running Start for Careers. The best news about this opportunity is – there is still time to register.

Nyika Allen, New Mexico Living’s resident technology expert explains more about this program.

The program was created out of a partnership between the City of Albuquerque, CNM and local industry partners and businesses.

“These specific industry partners were chosen because they are in high-demand job areas. So, what students can do in their last two years of high school is actually take one of these special courses and they can get dual credit between college and high school.

“And they also have the opportunity to really learn a skill-set or trade skill that they’re going to need in the future and they get a chance to work with industry experts in their field. And this program has a great success rate already,” says Allen.

According to the organization: 98% of students who participate in the program graduate from high school. 86% of those students continue on to further their education after high school.

Industries Involved:
Medical
Electrical
Film Industry
Veterinary Receptionist
Plumbing
Public Safety
Hospitality & Tourism
IT

Umbrella Week

by Leave a Comment

With the state fair, balloon fiesta and the start of green chile harvest season, some may argue that fall is the best season in New Mexico. That’s not all that’s happening however.

During one week in September, Albuquerque hosts a collection of mini festivals, celebrating some of the city’s best art, technology and culture. This event is called, ‘Umbrella Week’.

New Mexico Living’s resident technology expert Nyika Allen spoke more about this.

“So ‘Umbrella Week is really – kind of as you mentioned – a series of events that came together to celebrate all the unique things that are happening in Albuquerque. All the people that are organizing it come from really diverse and interesting industries.

“As you mentioned we have art, we have culture, we have people from the ‘Harwood Art Center’ organizing events that week, ‘TedX ABQ’, ‘Creative Startups’, ‘Downtown Action Team’, ‘Downtown ABQ Mainstreet Initiative’, so lots and lots of stuff. Really came from a grassroots initiative, because we wanted to kind of, celebrate and showcase all of the amazing things that are happening in Albuquerque,” says Allen.

There will be approximately 20 events happening within this week-long celebration.

Robo Advisors

by Leave a Comment

The future of investing may be with technology, as automated investment services and robo-advisors promise to make investing easy, inexpensive and maybe even fun.

New Mexico Living’s resident technology expert Nyika Allen explains how this works. “It’s probably not as ‘science-fiction’ as you’re thinking. It’s really just an online wealth management service that provides an automated algorithm-based portfolio management advice. So instead of having a human there, being your financial planner, it’s all algorithm based. And so that really cuts down on a lot of the price involved, which makes it a lot lower cost. It also means a lower account minimums as well so it can be flexible.”

Listing a few top recommended robo-advisors:

Bettermint
Founded 2008 – Registered with SEC – Based in NYC
Offers taxable and tax advantage investment accounts (including traditional, ROTH IRA, etc)
185K + Customers – $5.5B USD assets
No Investment Minimums – tiered account fees

Wealth Front
Founded 2008 – Based in Palo Alto, CA
Specialized in tax-loss investing; also retirement & non-retirement accounts as well as joint accts and trusts.
$2.6B USD assets managed

Future Advisor
Founded in 2010 – Based in San Francisco – invested in directly by Fidelity so easy to cross-platform manage all Fidelity accts. via service.
Free management of educational investment accts.
$600M USD assets managed

tech for everyone

Nyika makes tech accessible for everyone with her fun product reviews, hints about using technology in your everyday life and interviews with prominent tech figures.