7 Reasons Your Boss Should Send You to TribeCon

  • October 9th, 2009 /
  •  Tiffany Starnes /
  • 1 Comment

So maybe you are having a hard time convincing your boss why to send you to TribeCon. We understand. It’s a work day and your time is valuable. And everyone is tightening their belts these days. But this is an experience we can’t see you miss out on. Let us help you make your case.

It’s Friday, everyone’s in a good mood. Make a cup of coffee just like your boss likes it. Take a deep breath, smile, and head into her office armed with the following arguments:

  1. Education: Our line-up of panels will address best practices and useful tools to enhance your professional development. All industries and professions will benefit from learning about how to better communicate with your customer online, build a community around your brand or cause and create advocates that are inspired to take action on your behalf. There will be an opportunity for everyone to learn how to improve their business- whether it is how to generate sales by creating online enthusiasm, how to incorporate new technologies to enhance your product, how to raise start-up capital with crowd sourcing applications, or how to galvanize fund raising support for a philanthropic cause.
  2. Convenience and Cost: Our panelists are nationally recognized industry leaders who regularly speak at conferences across the world. This is an opportunity to learn about cutting edge technology and online practices in your own backyard for a fraction of the cost of other events in national cities like NY, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.
  3. Networking: This is an intimate event that will offer a unique opportunity to meet other like minded professionals and share ideas. We will have break-out sessions and community building exercises to facilitate discussion and collaboration. In addition to making professional connections, you will bring back an experience that you can share with your fellow colleagues to enhance your business performance.
  4. Regional Economic Development: New Orleans has been on the national radar for our success in the entrepreneurial and creative sectors. This conference reinforces the city, state and region’s status as an innovative hub that attracts national attendance for a revolutionary interactive conference. By taking part, you will be building upon the momentum that is propelling our community’s economic success.
  5. Social Media: Your boss watches CNN and heard about this thing called Twitter. She asked you to get on it. You’ve set up a Twitter account and a Facebook page. Did your website traffic skyrocket? Nope! Why not? Because getting up on Twitter & Facebook is not engaging yourself in the conversation. At TribeCon you’ll learn how to authentically connect with your community and actually use these tools to get your message out. If your boss thinks a Facebook page and Twitter account are enough, she better send you to TribeCon.
  6. Passionate People: Are you fired up about your job? Do you need to recharge your creative energy? At TribeCon you can’t help but be inspired, and guess what, this will improve your performance at work. Come get fired up about building a community around your cause. Recharge your passion.
  7. You Will Be Working: This is not a day off. Don’t ask for a vacation day, tell your boss this will enhance your ability to do your job. You plan to take notes and do a presentation on Monday about what you learned. Your company or organization will benefit from you being there. We promise.

Not convinced? Tell us your story and we’ll help you out. Seriously, we will call your boss and get you a day off. And I’m convincing on the phone. :)

Great, it worked! You’re in. So, go buy a ticket to TribeCon now.

TribeCon – connect with your community

tribcon-tempI’m excited to share more details about TribeCon, a conference about communities – both online and offline.  Tiffany Starnes and I have been working for the last six months to put it together along with a lot of help from our Tribal Council and a lot of friends from Net2NO.

We’re producing the conference in partnership with the Voodoo Experience.  TribeCon will be the official interactive component of the Voodoo Experience.  This is a tremendous opportunity for TribeCon. The Voodoo Experience has grown into a huge annual music festival, and together we can build TribeCon into a integral part of the experience and a major interactive conference.

So let’s get to the details:

  • What: TribeCon is a conference about building communities, online and offline.
  • When: October 29-30, 2009
  • Where: Voodoo Experience – City Park, New Orleans, LA
  • How much: $169 for TribeCon includes single day Voodoo Experience ticket. $269 for TribeCon includes three day Voodoo Experience Ticket.
  • Who: The speakers are all people passionate about building communities.
  • Why: Building a community around your brand, cause, or mission is the most powerful way to grow.  Today’s social networking tools make it possible to reach your audience in powerful new ways to build a movement.  At TribeCon you’ll learn how to build community online to effect action offline.

Why does TribeCon need New Orleans?

One of the things I’m most excited about is bringing the conversation about authentic online communities to New Orleans.  Having the Voodoo Experience has a partner enables us to make this truly a world-class conference.  TribeCon connects with New Orleans because we have such a deep sense of community here.  From the Mardi Gras indian tribes to front porch neighbors, New Orleans culture is rooted in community.  Andrew Larimer, Tim Soslow and Matt Tritico will be curating a special panel presentation that will be a celebration and exploration of community in New Orleans.

Inspired by SXSW, and now TribeCon is just six weeks away.

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It’s time for a mentorship-based seed fund in Louisiana

There’s been a lot of good news lately about entrepreneurship in Louisiana. With the renewal of the digital media tax credit and the energy around startups lately, things are just going to start taking off, right?

Well, maybe.

I still see some gaps in current eco-system that can be filled with a true mentorship-based seed fund. (In case you’re wondering, I mean a Y-Combinator / TechStars style investment program. Mentorship-based seed funds exist all over the country, I’ve compiled a listing here)

So where are the gaps? Well, here’s what I see:

  1. The “Moving Companies to Louisiana” Strategy – one of the biggest stated goals of the digital media tax credit, and a strategy I see LED & GNO Inc among others pursing is trying to lure companies to move to Louisiana with the tax credits, etc. GNO Inc put together a great deck, on what makes New Orleans so appealing. Probably the most visible impact thus far is the EA Sports testing facility in Baton Rouge. Here’s the thing: Established companies have employees. Employees have families, houses, schools located near where the company is currently based. Even though knowledge-based industries like digital media don’t have large infrastructure needs, their employees have established lives.
  2. Supporting the “Shoot for the Moon” Companies – I had a conversation with a Launch Pad member on Friday who has been through the startup process several times, and he and many others feel we don’t have the deal flow in Louisiana right now. The problem is that were not quite at the point where people are seeing the wealth creation of other successful companies, and frankly we’re just new to building a startup ecosystem. Deal flow is directly related to entrepreneurs willing to take huge risks. Entrepreneurs willing to take huge risks and “shoot for the moon” is directly related to having an ecosystem that supports risk-taking and acknowledges and accepts failure.
  3. Bridging the Gap Between Business Plan and Business - having a great idea doesn’t mean you are prepared to run a company. Most people starting a company have great subject matter expertise or talent, but may not have a fully rounded skill set in the ancillary areas of building a company. First time entrepreneurs get bogged down in this stuff: accounting, legal, personnel management.

So, how does a mentorship-based seed meet these needs and more:

  1. Move Folks when its Easy to Move – Start young. Most people entering Y Combinator are just graduating from college or in their 20’s. People are portable at this stage and many digital nomads would love nothing more try out New Orleans for a stint. We’re already seeing this with all the amazing young people coming down here post-K for Teach for America and programs like that. There is a huge difference in a person’s willingness to move based on what stage they are in their lives.
  2. Go Big - A lot of people have a “go big” idea, and given the opportunity to pursue it, even for 3-6 months will usually determine if there is something there or not. Of course, this is the riskiest stage of an idea, but most people never get the shot to really go for it. I know so many people trying to bootstrap a startup right now, but paying the bills with freelance work. The freelance work engulfs you and you never really get to go for the big idea. Often times (I am an example), people build service businesses to pay the bills, and though they may be successful, they aren’t investable and aren’t the big win that we all want to see happen. A seed fund that provides Ramen-soup money for founders to pursue an idea and get it to a prototype without having to divide their time to pay the bills really gives entrepreneurs a shot to go big. Think what would happen in Louisiana if every summer we gave 10 young startups enough funding to build out their big idea.
  3. Mentorship – these funds are called mentorship-based seed funds for a reason. They don’t just hand entrepreneurs $25k. They have a curriculum and program that teaches the skills required to run a business. Already in New Orleans we’ve created a set of entrepreneurial hubs. This is a huge start, because startups can ask each other questions, and tackle problems together. Filling this out with a true curriculum that removes the headaches of setting up your accounting, legal, etc would enable entrepreneurs to have a singular focus on building their product. We have people in this city willing to devote the time and effort, but the value of this contribution needs to be acknowledged and compensated.

What kind of investment are we talking about?

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When the going gets tough…

A friend emailed me this afternoon with a question:

How do you deal with the negative reviews/press/self doubt phase in this entrepreneurial world?

This is a great question, and one that we all have faced as entrepreneurs and undoubtedly will face again. Building a business, launching a product, producing anything is incredibly difficult. It is all-consuming and an emotional rollercoaster.

First, its important to understand that we all go through it. I’ve felt on the brink of collapse before:

  • I was producing a Mardi Gras event in 2004, and lost control of it before it even started. I can’t bring myself to say what happened but for a little while it looked like it wasn’t going to happen, and I was going to lose $25,000 deposit and refund $25,000 in tickets. Ugh. I went to my good friend Vaughn Mordentti and he bailed me out of the situation (not literally). I went to him hat in hand, and he saved my butt.
  • In December 2008, I pulled the plug on siteMighty, a web app that I had put years and lots of investment into.
  • I had dinner with my wife at Slice Pizza in 2003 and she told me that she felt if nothing happened with Destination VIP, I needed to start making arrangements to close it down. I had 14 employees on payroll at the time.

Looking back, each of those fit the old saying: things are darkest before the dawn. We pulled off the Mardi Gras event. Letting go of siteMighty allowed renewed focus on Flatsourcing and Launch Pad. And I sold Destination VIP three months after that conversation.

A few thoughts on how to get through these difficult moments when you face the self doubt and are thinking “what the hell am I doing, and how did I get myself into this.”

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Stay Positive

imagesThe last few months have been invigorating in New Orleans. There have a ton of exciting things going on in New Orleans, and the momentum in the entrepreneurial ecosystem is swelling to a head.

One thing that I’ve noticed myself slipping into, that I’m calling myself out on is the human tendency to lift yourself up by pulling others down. Something we’ve all known about and experienced since grade school. It’s a human tendency to compete, but I think its so important to understand that we are competing globally and nationally. The work we are all doing is to expand the pie, not slice it up in ever smaller pieces amongst ourselves.

With that in mind, I pledge to:

  • Support my tribe, New Orleans entrepreneurs (and not just those in Launch Pad).
  • When I have something nice to say, I’ll sing it to the world. When I don’t, I’ll keep my mouth shut.
  • Focus on family, work & friends. Balance.
  • Help people achieve, succeed, and go further than I have.
  • Not succumb to the petty or get sucked into squabbles.
  • Give what I can when I can, and be honest when I can’t.

I’ve been so inspired by working around the Launch Pad family. It is such a great vibe here, and we’re just getting started. I know that a big part of that is the support that we all provide for eachother and the successes we do and will celebrate together.

Negativity is such an energy suck and so unproductive. Positive energy is all I have time for right now. So, I’m brushing it off and ready to rock n’ roll.

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