takeitupalevel.com

By Brian Raney

Startup Weekend is coming to Lexington for the 2nd year in a row on Nov 20-22, 2009. Startup Weekend is a 54 hour startup event that provides networking, resources, and incentives for individuals and teams to go from idea to launch. It is all about building community, starting companies and ultimately following rule #22 – “go big or don’t be my friend”. Everyone who attends Startup Weekend goes big in the sense that they commit to making strides towards turning their idea into a company in less than three days. The event is intentionally limited in structure to allow for participants to spend most of their time “doing work”. The primary purpose of Startup Weekend is to DO SOMETHING. Spend very little time talking about your idea and most of the time doing something toward launching your idea.

There are two major benefits to attending Startup Weekend. First, is the networking opportunity - You will meet local developers, innovators, business leaders, and entrepreneurs. Over the course of the three day event, meaningful relationships are built and valuable connections are made. The second benefit is to harness the power of community. We expect about 75 participants to attend Startup Weekend this year. So instead of working on your latest ground-breaking idea in the basement of your house, join a bunch of other like-minded individuals at Startup Weekend. For the same reason that people are more motivated while working out at a gym, participants at Startup Weekend reap the benefits of working among a group of other motivated individuals.

Startup Weekend was started in 2007 by Andrew Hyde. The program has traveled to over 52 cities and 12 countries. The program is now run by Marc Nager and Clint Nelson out of Seattle, WA. This year’s event in Lexington is part of Global Entrepreneurship week. Lexington is one of seven cities hosting a Startup Weekend during the weekend of Nov 20th.

Last year’s event had about 65 attendees and 8 companies were formed. One of those companies is called Uvestor. Led by John Williamson, Uvestor is a real estate communication platform where investors, real estate agents, brokers, and landlords can be connected instantly. Uvestor turned out to be such a success that John now runs the company full time.

Get more info at http://lexington.startupweekend.org

Event Details
Date/Time: Friday, Nov 20 6pm – Sunday, Nov 22 7pm
Location: Awesome Inc – 348 East Main Street, Lexington, KY 40507
Cost: $40, includes 7 meals and a t-shirt. Send me an email and I’ll get you a 50% off discount – brian at awesomeinc.org
Register: http://lexington.startupweekend.org/tickets

What I learned from hosting the Awesome Inc Mobile miniConference:

1. Plan further ahead and on the proper date – Everyone says this all the time, I know.  But we decided to throw this conference just 2 months before the event went off. Certain things such as sponsorship, panels of speakers, and press releases need more time than this to make happen.  For example, we wanted one of our sessions to be a panel of carriers (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, etc).  Every carrier would send us through a maze of contacts to get to someone who could actually help us.  Trying to throw this panel together in the 11^th hour failed miserably.

We also learned that a Saturday in the middle of the summer isn’t the best date for a full day conference.  School is out of session and people are on vacation.  Weekdays are preferred.

2. Necessity of marketing outlets - We relied heavily on viral marketing for our mobile conference.  We used several outlets including regional high tech organizations/communities such as social media club, young entrepreneurs of Lexington, university list serves, etc.  However, having access to a full list of marketing/media outlets would have made our lives tremendously easier considering the ridiculous number of personal invites that are my ‘sent mail’ folder.

3. Make money – This is a novel idea that we aren’t quite sold on yet at Awesome Inc.  Just kidding…but seriously though.  Our keynote speaker, Noah Kagan, made 40K on his first conference.  We barely broke even.  His advice, get to break even by selling tickets at a reduced price far in advance, then jack the price up.  Of course this is only possible if you follow lesson learned number 1 – plan further ahead.

4. Volunteers are nice, paid staff is better – Perhaps our biggest accomplishment and biggest source of sleep deprivation was that we threw the entire conference with a volunteer staff (thanks to everyone who helped by the way, you were amazing).  The volunteers did great, however when a ball gets dropped by a volunteer, you can’t really blame them for dropping the ball or even always ask them to pick it up.  Instead you have to pick up that ball and run with it.  If you have a paid staff, you can expect a lot more of meeting deadlines and consistent communication. 

I’m extremely lucky to have such amazing friends that were willing to help me with this initiative and others. The thank you list is below.

5. People register late – We had over 50% of our registrations come in the last 5 days. This obviously had us worrying about a low turnout, but I guess is to be expected since people don’t want to commit and/or just don’t get around to registering until close to the date of the event.

Thank you list:
Matt Smith – text messaging system / space setup
Ryan Copple – technical stuff
Ryan Bright – web site/technical stuff
Rebecca Fields – food / working the door
Alyssa Thornton – space setup / working the door
Rachel Cunningham – coordinating logistics of event
Chad Engle – pitch contest judge, blog article
Adam Martin – pitch contest judge
Keith Kurzendoerfer – space setup
Nathan Fort –
Scott Johnson – equipment, space setup
Larry Grover – pitch contest judge
Anthony Jones – brochure design
Cliff Ravenscraft – Northern Kentucky recruitment
John Williamson – Louisville recruitment
Jason Falls – Louisville recruitment
Todd Earwood – Louisville recruitment
Andy Cox – space setup, transportation
Josh Fenner – Commerce Lex, space setup, marketing
Gina Greathouse – Commerce Lex, marketing
Kimberly Solsbury – Commerce Lex, marketing
Justin Raney – space setup, iPhone workshop
Tim Savage - recruitment
Jerry Houck – recruitment
Chuck Bryant – Nashville recruitment
Mr. Cunningham – lodging for speakers
Kyle Lake – video
Jaron Jones – photography

Speakers:
Noah Kagan
Brendan Lim
Markus Spiering
Ziv Tarsi
John Soward
Sam Soffes
Nick Holland
Brian Slick
Jake Behrens
Justin Raney

The first Awesome Inc Mobile miniConference is complete.  The conference was a huge success.  We had over 100 people attend and 10 speakers from CA, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky (plus one video conference from Israel).  The conference included 2 keynote speakers, an iPhone development workshop, a pitch contest, and four tracks for attendees to take:
General – For attendees with a general interest in mobile technology, business, and applications.
Technical – For attendees with a more general interest in the technical details of mobile platforms, applications, and technology.
iPhone Beginner – For eager developers wanting to get their hands dirty with iPhone development. Macbooks will be provided for development.
iPhone Experienced – For those developers already familiar with the iPhone development platform, there will be more advanced discussions on how to get more out of your applications.

Here is what some of the attendees had to say on twitter:

• heathercw: @awesome_inc, great job with #mobilelex! Thanks!
• luckydog5656: I just had an awesome time at #mobilelex and am pumped to start developing some mobile apps and sites! @APOonline watch out for an upgrade..
• ChadEngle: So far my entire @awesome_inc experience has been amazing. So awesome to be surrounded by so many like minds. #mobileLEX
  

Here are some articles/content published about the conference:

http://www.aceweekly.com/pdfs/uploads/coverstory_090723.pdf
http://fuelyourapps.com/9-reasons-to-attend-an-app-conference-straight-from-the-attendees-mouths/
http://www.youtube.com/AmazingAaronTV#play/uploads/1/X4AuMHN2qUw
http://www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2009-07-14-88307.113117_Mobile_media_conference_to_help_Web_developers

Awesome Inc is planning its first conference – Awesome Inc Mobile miniConference. It is this Saturday, July 18^th from 11:00 am – 8:00 pm. The conference will feature presentations from a former Facebook Mobile product manager, a top 25 iPhone app developer, and Yahoo! Blueprint. There will also be a workshop teaching participants how to develop their first iPhone app.
 
The conference is shaping up to be solid.  It’s taken a lot of work and help from tons of volunteers.  I’ll be sure to post more about how it plays out and what I learned from this experience after the conference.
For more info: http://mobile.awesomeinc.org
To register: http://mobileconference.eventbrite.com

I’m sitting inside the offices of Awesome Inc at 3:00 am writing this blog post.  My business partner Luke has just fallen asleep on the couches in the break room.  We have to be up at 7:30 to give a presentation.  I’m thinking that I shouldn’t even be spending the 30 minutes to write this blog entry because it is a distraction to work I could be doing.   That’s the mentality that I have now about being continuously productivity - I don’t drive any where without making a phone call, when I fix and eat a meal, I’m reading an email, if I show up five minutes early to something I get mad because I just wasted five minutes.  I’m not saying it’s good or bad, healthy or unhealthy; it’s just how it is.  I’ve been called out by it several times by friends and family.  They might say, “Don’t you ever just sit and relax?”  I look back at them and wonder what they actually mean.  Do they mean watch a movie, read a book, or literally just sit there?  I respond with, “No, I’d always rather be doing something productive (or at least fun and active)?”
My typical day looks like this:

• wake up late morning.
• work for 7-8 hours.
• go play/coach soccer for 2-3 hours.
• go back to work for 6-7 hours (following the rule of 4)

The rule of 4 states that one out of every 4 nights instead of going back to work I do something fun with my friends/girlfriend/family. The past few weeks this has included activities such as rappelling into a pool, midnight golf, and running through the fountains downtown.

The reason I decided to write this blog post was that I think there is more to the success formula than what I am doing.  No one works harder than me.  However, there are people that are more successful than me…and some are even younger than me.  I think it has to do with how smart they work.  I consider myself a relatively smart person.  I guess I just need to figure out a way to work smarter too.  I’m open to suggestions.

- for the record, I love my work so working 13-15 hours each day, often through the late hours of the night isn’t something I mind at all.  Most days I look forward to 10 pm, which means I get to crank out 6 hours of uninterrupted work.