Find your passion. Collaborate. Take a risk. Support entrepreneurs with similar goals.
That's the mantra of Big Omaha, an event that starting Thursday evening will draw innovators and entrepreneurs to Omaha from across the United States for a weekend mash-up of keynote speakers, networking and social parties.
Hosted and organized by Silicon Prairie News, a blog that highlights entrepreneurs across the Midlands, Big Omaha caters to a wide range of entrepreneurs. Of the 500 or so people who will pack Kaneko for this year's event, you'll find social media enthusiasts, designers, Web developers, nonprofit organizers and, as a common denominator, individuals who are motivated to start something from the ground up.
“It's not really an entrepreneurship conference. It's not a design conference. It's not a social media conference,” said Dusty Davidson, who co-founded Silicon Prairie News with Jeff Slobotski in the summer of 2008.
“(Big Omaha) bridges all of these topics and mediums because it's more about exciting people to build something, or do something, or start something, and that falls in different topic areas,” he said.
To meet the interests of the conference's attendees, Davidson, Slobotski and other organizers cast a wide net, hoping to improve on the lineup of speakers featured at the first Big Omaha held last year.
The roster includes names like Tony Hsieh, chief executive of online retailer Zappos.com; Dennis Crowley, co-founder of the location-based mobile phone application foursquare; and Scott Harrison, founder of the not-for-profit organization charity:water.
In all, Big Omaha will pack the weekend with 14 speakers. Returning from 2009 will be: Jason Fried, co-founder and president of 37signals, a Chicago-based developer of Web applications; and wine and social media connoisseur Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of Wine Library TV and New York Times best-selling author of “Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion.”
Even with the dynamic list of entrepreneurs who have made it big, the thing that sets Big Omaha apart from other similarly themed conferences, like South-by-Southwest in Austin, Texas, is its interactivity and focus on the Midlands, said Davidson.
“This year we'll be a little bit bigger, but we're really capped by the size of the venue at Kaneko, and we like it that way,” Davidson said. “One of the great things about Big Omaha and the things people commented on a lot was that it is a very intimate conference and you can connect very easily with all of the attendees and the speakers. That happens because it's not 12,000 people. It stays small.”
Throughout the event, participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, stories and even potentially hash out business plans, said Davidson and Slobotski.
“If you're a coder in Omaha and there's a great Web designer from Sioux Falls or Chicago, this is a good time to connect with those people,” Slobotski said.
Big Omaha kicks off Thursday night with a party open to the public at Slowdown, 729 N. 14th St.
The meat and potatoes of the conference gets rolling Friday morning at Kaneko, 1111 Jones St., where speakers are scheduled until 6 p.m. Later that night, at 9 o'clock, another public networking party will commence, this time at Nomad Lounge, 1013 Jones St.
Big Omaha wraps up Saturday with another full slate of speakers from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.
While smaller than some similar events, Big Omaha's focus on the community has drawn the attention of big public names, including Roger Fransecky, CEO of the Apogee Group, a consulting company on entrepreneurship and leadership that has advised many Fortune 500 business executives.
He, Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., are expected to make appearances at the conference.
The approximately 500 tickets sold out more than a week ago, Davidson said. So if you don't already have passes, you're probably out of luck except for the public get-togethers Thursday and Friday nights.
For those who are attending for the second time, Davidson said to expect some changes: The most important are plenty of coffee for the morning sessions and improved wireless Internet connections for the smart phone and laptop-toting attendees.
While the majority of those heading to Big Omaha hail from the Midlands, Slobotski said more people are coming from cities like Boulder, Colo.; Chicago; Denver; Portland, Ore.; Washington, D.C.; and New York.
“How do you build community amongst these people and get them to connect?” Davidson said. “It's as much about the people in the audience as it is the people on the stage. And it's important for those people to interact, to connect with each other and to learn from one another as it is for them to learn from the people on the stage.”
Contact the writer:
444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com
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