The Kootenai River Development Council has decided to host their first small business and entrepreneur workshop at the Flathead Valley Community College branch in Libby, MT.

As part of their discussion on the usefulness of websites for the small business, I have been asked to attend and say a few words along with at least one other local web designer. I was provided with this schedule of events for the day:

• 10:30-11:00 SBA funding options
• 11:15-11:45 SBDC business plans
• 12:00-12:30 SCORE marketing
• 12:45-1:15 local banks
• 1:30-2:00 web page design
• 2:00-3:00 individual consulting Q & A

Unfortunately, that schedule was passed along with the caveat that this is the first time the event has been held and no one's 100% sure of how it'll all play out. Guess my only recourse is to prepare for any possibility.

The iPod Touch has been called a lot of things, from a poor man's iPhone to the best mobile media player ever. Amidst the sometimes vehement stances on the product, we became interested in the Touch for one reason: it's potential to act as a OSX-based PDA.

See, we travel quite a bit regionally to meet with clients and attend networking events. Obviously, having contacts and calendars on hand is crucial, not to mention the appeal of checking email and browsing websites. We considered the Blackberry and the various Palm entries, but were ultimately unsatisfied with the ham-fisted Mac integration. Even before the January software upgrades, the Touch seemed a godsend.

Having just purchased the Touch, my initial reactions may still be a bit glee-inspired. Once the tech fever has died down a bit, I'm going to post more reviews of the usefulness of the Touch as a PDA and mobile computing device. Stay tuned.