It’s official: we’re only weeks away from the kickoff of our third annual Celebrate Conference in Downtown Las Vegas on October 4! We’ve got a riveting schedule of sessions, keynote speakers, and startup competitions for all of our attendees, but that’s not all we have for you all this year.
A major cornerstone of our Celebrate Conference is the workshops we offer alongside all of the other content. They’re not only engaging and interactive, they’re also a way to get practical advice and the tools you need to successfully navigate your startup journey.
Each workshop we have will last for about 50 minutes, and you’ll have the opportunity to learn directly from experts and executive coaches. Specifically, they’ll help show you how to deliver on intended results, create great customer experiences, find success in failure, and celebrate the startup journey.
We’ve got quite the lineup this year, and we thought you might enjoy a quick preview of what we’re offering:
Imagining a Diverse & Inclusive Tech World
Melinda Briana Epler – Founder and CEO of Change Catalyst
Location: Commonwealth
Epler is a changemaker with over 20 years of experience elevating brands for social entrepreneurs, mature social enterprises, and innovation initiatives for Fortune 500 companies and NGOs. She’s also a gifted writer, speaker and award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her film and television work includes projects that exposed the AIDS crisis in South Africa, explored women’s rights in Turkey, and prepared communities for the effects of climate change. Attendees will explore the value and role of diversity and inclusion in early-stage startups and learn how to access capital and other resources for underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Create the Community you Want to Be Part Of
Greg Tehven – Cofounder of Emerging Prairie
Location: Inspire Theater – Main Stage
Tehven will give personal insights and lessons learned from building a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem while also sharing tips on funding options to support projects and explaining how Fargo has exceed low expectations. He’s a TEDx Curator and Organizer, 1 Million Cups Organizer, and on the Startup Weekend Fargo planning team. His workshop will focus on four simple principles: educate your city, infuse the arts, build on your bright spots, and practice radical inclusivity.
Making Payments Fun
Sneha Menon – Startup Advocate, Justin Woo – Developer Advocate at Braintree_PayPal
Location: Inspire Theater – Main Stage
Who ever said payments were complicated and boring? This is an introduction into the world of online payments and how to make it fun and enjoyable for your customers. Whether it be on your smartphone or website, Menon and Woo will show you how you can get setup and accept payments quickly. They’ll also show you some cool tricks, tips, best practices, and ways to get started. At the end of this workshop you can expect to be able to make the most fun, enjoyable, and seamless shopping cart checkout experience ever.
Next Level Results for Startups: Teams ‘n Talent
Stacy Parson – Principal at Knowetry Consulting, Susan Cooney – Startup Coach and Serial Entrepreneur
Location: Commonwealth
Parson is a professional coach and facilitator having lead talent programs for Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Deloitte Services. Cooney is a tech industry veteran having founded or been on the founding team of 9 startups, six with successful exits, including PayPal and LinkExchange. Their session will focus on teams and talent, and removing the friction that gets in the way of accelerated performance. Attendees will learn feedback resilience, self calibration, and how to create shifts in performance, influence, and relationships while maintaining momentum. They’ll also cover how to deliver on intended results while building teams that exhibit both high productivity and high positivity.
Customer Experience Architecture: Why it’s the Best Differentiator
Lauren Fritsch – Founder and CEO of TCC Consulting Group and The Coaching Collective
Location: Inspire Theater – Main Stage
Fritsch will teach attendees how to create customer experiences that keep them coming back for more and why it should be one of your biggest differentiators as a startup company. Participants will learn the exact CX process that informs content, marketing, sales, delivery, and loyalty life cycles. She’ll also present new models that allow you to pre engineer all customer touch points for desired outcomes. Attendees will learn about the customer journey, and how to create and apply it to their brand’s products and services leaving customers with an emotional, sticky connection to your brand.
Coaching for the Entrepreneur
Heather Wilde – Unicorn Whisperer and CTO at ROCeteer
Location: Commonwealth
What do professional athletes, A List actors, and various Forbes 500 business executives have in common? They work on goals, overcome challenges, and experience growth with a coach. At this workshop, learn how transformational coaching can take you and your team to the next level and unleash your potential to transcend awesome.
The Internet of Things Explained: Making sense of an Emerging Mega Trend
Maria Thomas – Former CEO of Etsy & CMO at SmartThings
Location: Commonwealth
There’s a lot of buzz around the Internet of Things (IoT), and it seems like we hear about another industry, device, or body part being connected to the internet every day – everything from home appliaces to entire factories and cities. Not to mention investors are enthusiastic about smart hardware and wearable tech, and IoT startups are popping up everywhere. Over the last three years Thomas has helped build SmartThings, one of the leading IoT platforms, from its Kickstarter roots to its acquisition by Samsung. In this session, she’ll share lessons from that experience and look beyond the hype to contextualize lasting impacts and applications of the IoT.
Image Credit: Our Celebrate 2014 Flickr gallery
“How To Nail Your Investor Meetings”
John Fein – Managing Director at Techstars
Location: Inspire Theatre – Main Stage
Techstars has invested in over 600 startups through our accelerators, and we also invest in seed and series A companies from our $150M Techstars Ventures fund. Overall we have $265M under management and our portfolio companies include Uber, SendGrid, Twilio, and Sphero.
When a startup first meets with a VC, they have limited time to make a positive impression. Many investors make their decision in the first 5-10 minutes, so it’s critical to have a solid game plan. Learn what most early stage VCs look for in the meeting – things to do, and things to avoid.