Attend One of These Small Business Events: Network and Grow Your Skills |  |
- Attend One of These Small Business Events: Network and Grow Your Skills
- Kidworth Aims to Help One Million Young Entrepreneurs Launch Businesses
- Head Straight for Sideways
| Attend One of These Small Business Events: Network and Grow Your Skills Posted: 28 Jul 2012 11:30 AM PDT You can find plenty of events for small businesses and startups this summer and fall, to educate yourself and your staff, and to network with your peers. Here is our hand-picked list of conferences, seminars and events. Don’t miss out on these excellent opportunities to help you start a business, grow it and run it like a pro! * * * * *
Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations. Participants create working startups during the event and are able to collaborate with like-minded individuals outside of their daily networks. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurials. The weekend is centered around action, innovation, and education. Whether you are looking for feedback on a idea, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekends are the perfect environment in which to test your idea and take the first steps towards launching your own startup.
Led by Tory Johnson, the jam-packed, high-energy day enables you to experience big breakthroughs in your business and yourself. Meet great people who can help with product development and packaging; manufacturing and distribution; multiple revenue streams and collaborations; mental preparedness for monumental success; and so much more.
The Federal Government awards nearly $100 billion in contracts annually to small business owners. Are you ready to learn how to help grow your business through government contracting? This event gives attendees the access to buyer/seller connections (VIP Contract Connections), interactive and engaging workshops on government contracting for small business, networking opportunities and keynote speeches by government officials and experts.
This series features a full day of strategies, tips and marketing best practices from the experts at Infusionsoft. You’ll receive hands-on instructions on how to develop a highly effective sales and marketing plan you can start implementing right away. You’ll learn to: Drive higher customer referral traffic tomorrow
The DON OSBP is conducting its annual Gold Coast Small Business Opportunity Conference in San Diego, CA on 06-08 August 2012. The primary purpose of the event is to provide a forum to educate, guide and assist small businesses in working with the government primarily the Department of Defense. NDIA and NAVSUP have collaborated to bring interesting and motivating speakers that will present topics of interest with regards to working with the government. Plan on attending informative and relevant general/plenary and break-out sessions including Industry Day with five of the Navy commands. Visit over 250 industry and government exhibitors along with dozens of posters containing company information and opportunities. As with any of these events, there are also plenty of opportunities for networking.
The Forum is designed to give small business owners essential tools to help their businesses succeed, provide jobs for Texans and strengthen the South Plains economy. The Texas Workforce Commission will present information on the many services available for small business owners, including the $2 million dollar Skills for Small Business Fund, which provides grants to community colleges that small businesses may access for employee training needs.
MacTech Boot Camp is a one day event for those that support the home user, and small business market held around the country. MacTech Boot Camp is a single-track, hotel based seminar that is specifically geared to serve the needs of consultants and techs wanting to serve their base better. This event is geared toward those that already support the home and SMB communities, or that want to become a consultant supporting these areas.
Join 200 others for big laughs, engaging conversation, and an intimate networking space. Attended by accomplished professionals & entrepreneurs + all around fun crowd from a variety of industries including: Tech, Fashion, Mobile, Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, Real Estate, Hospitality, Green Energy/Sustainability, and many more! Network with Entrepreneurs, Investors and/or come find a co-founder.
Sage Summit is the premier conference for Sage customers and partners. It's the destination for learning better ways to leverage the software you already own and know and discovering new technologies. Plus you'll hear what's working for other people in your industry and gain insight on how to overcome the challenges your organization faces. Small Business Trends CEO Anita Campbell will be moderating a panel about social media by small businesses, on Wednesday August 15, from 10:30 am to noon. Look for Session ID C-0128 – hurry, limited slots left.
Kansas Business Matchmaker 2012 brings buyers and small business suppliers together for pre-matched one-on-one meetings in a 1 day conference. Small Business Suppliers pre-register for the event, using their company NAICS codes, and are pre-matched with registered buyers for 10 minute meetings.
“Changing the Face of Business One Woman at a Time” is the theme of the taking place Aug. 17 and Aug. 18 at Sugar Land Marriott Town Square. The two-day conference will give business owners, entrepreneurs and corporate employees the chance to network with like-minded decision makers.The conference also features a trade show exhibiting products, services and business opportunities. Speakers will discuss industry trends and business growth strategies. Supplier diversity officers will talk about how to better serve the small business community and meet new potential suppliers.There will also be a "Youth Explosion” program for young entrepreneurs. One Woman is an annual women’s business promotion, advocacy and development forum.
Vendor Outreach Sessions are a series of pre-arranged 15-minute appointments with Small Business Specialists from various components of the Homeland Security Procurement offices. These sessions provide the small business community an opportunity to discuss their capabilities and learn of potential procurement opportunities. Also in attendance will be Prime Contractor Small Business Liaisons from several of the large businesses who have contracts with DHS. Sign up for the August 23rd VOS will be on August 16th 2012 beginning at 12:00 noon Eastern Time. Please read the instructions carefully as the sessions fill up quickly. Instructions can be found at http://www.dhs.gov/xopnbiz/smallbusiness/gc_1297786003006.shtm.
For women entrepreneurs, tech knowledge is freedom…freedom from fear, freedom to pursue their dreams of venturing out on their own. No longer will they be out of the loop from their tech team, no longer will they be held hostage by their consultants who “know more”. At TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs, you will learn: Early bird pricing expires July 30th.
B2B Forum isn’t just another event. It’s the event for B2B marketers who don’t just follow yesterday’s best practices; they create the next practices needed to move their businesses—and industries—forward. Five programming tracks covering the modern marketing mix: lead gen, content, social media, mobile, and marketing essentials.
Inc. 500|5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony is the must-attend event for the nation's leading entrepreneurs. Join your colleagues and peers for three days of unparalleled networking and learning from the leaders of America's fastest-growing companies. This year’s speakers include Captain Mark Kelly, Commander of the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission, Guy Kawasaki, Founding Partner of Garage Technology Ventures, and Marie Tillman, Founder of the Pat Tillman Foundation.
This year's theme celebrates the entrepreneurial, innovative and adventurous spirit of women business owners. They are starting businesses at record rates and running these businesses on their own terms. They refuse to sit idle, waiting and watching. They have confidence and power to shake things up, take smart risks and do things differently to move forward. They are impacting positive change at every turn, speaking out on issues of public policy, lightening their environmental footprint and creating jobs that fuel the economy. They are part of something much greater than themselves—a grassroots movement of women business owners and their community of supporters all dedicated to helping one another grow, thrive, give back and leave a legacy.
The New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards is the annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of the 500,000+ small businesses throughout the tri-state area. Now in its 7th year, the Awards gala attracts more than 400 business owners and executives and is often referred to as "the networking event of the year." Don't miss the chance to do business with the "who's who" of the New York small business community.
Supported by the industry’s leading businesses, exhibitors and sponsors involved in social media, Internet marketing, search engines, and online advertising, Pubcon Las Vegas 2012 will offer a week-long look at the future of technology presented by over 200 of the world’s best speakers in more than 100 bold cutting-edge sessions.
Small Business Influencer Awards Gala The Small Business Influencer Awards will honor the Top 100 small business influencer champions at a festive Awards Gala on the evening of October 17, 2012 at the Javits Convention Center. Last year’s event had a capacity crowd at a smaller venue. This year it will be bigger than ever — with the Awards Gala as the evening event at the New York XPO Small Business Conference. Don’t miss this exciting event! See last year’s recap. Meanwhile, be sure to nominate someone for the Small Business Influencer Awards (perhaps yourself?).
Small Business Expo is a full day networking event, trade show & conference of the year for business owners, C-Level Executives & company decision-makers. Network with other business professionals & check out the exciting exhibitor hall
Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world's largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.
NMX, formerly Blog World & New Media Expo, is the first and only industry-wide conference, tradeshow and media event dedicated to providing valuable content for Bloggers, Podcasters and Web TV producers. Pre-register now and receive Super Early Bird rates.
To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit the Small Business Events Calendar. If you are putting on a small business event or contest, and want to get the word out, please submit it through our Events & Contests Submission Form (it’s free). Only events of interest to small business people, freelancers and entrepreneurs will be included. Brought to you as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com. From Small Business Trends |
| Kidworth Aims to Help One Million Young Entrepreneurs Launch Businesses Posted: 28 Jul 2012 08:10 AM PDT Kidworth, a company that aims to help young entrepreneurs start their own businesses, is re-launching its site as Kidworth 2.0, with a new, ambitious goal to help over one million kids and teens launch startups.
Kidworth allows children and teens to launch a new company in just three minutes or less. Young entrepreneurs can offer products or services, manage payments, and even promote their new business all with the help of Kidworth's easy-to-use platform. Kidworth 2.0 also offers an online marketplace where kids can set up a storefront and sell used goods or even handmade items. In addition, Kidworth can help young entrepreneurs get business cards, start an email marketing campaign, and even set up promotions on Facebook. Kidworth's Founder, Rudy DeFelice, says:
Kidworth has just over 24,000 users so far. The youth-powered companies provide computer assistance, do yard work, create original artwork, and even offer design and marketing services for other companies. DeFelice says:
When young entrepreneurs have set up their business, they can send their link to prospective customers, who can purchase goods and services via credit card. Then the young entrepreneur can reach out to their customer to discuss delivery of the product or service. Individual companies on Kidworth are not crawled by search engines and the URLs are masked, so the only people who can purchase goods and services from Kidworth entrepreneurs are those who have received the direct link. Kidworth also has other safety precautions in place to protect young entrepreneurs' personal information. Kidworth gives parents the ability to create a master account for their children, which they can run on their own or give their children permission to run part of the business. Teens can create and manage their own accounts so they can learn the ins and outs of starting and running a business. Child Entrepreneur Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Posted: 28 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT
Well, there are books for that kind of thing. I've got several of them on my shelf. Some of them are rather large and cumbersome and hard to carry around but my latest find in the brainstorming and new idea book category actually came to me from one of my newest guest authors on DIYMarketers, Tamara Kleinberg (@imaginibbles) called Think Sideways: A Game-Changing Playbook for Disruptive Thinking. Tamara Kleinberg is the New Voice of Bright Ideas I didn't know about Tamara Kleinberg before she sent me her article and her new book. But as I started reading Sideways I could see that she is becoming a new voice for generating new and innovative ideas that you can use to develop new products, services or marketing campaigns. Tamara is the founder of Imaginibbles, an edu-training company that unleashes sideways thinking with media, products and events that inspire creativity. She is the creator and host of the hit web show imagi-NATION. Tamara is a speaker, serial entrepreneur and martial artist. As a kid in computer camp she won the "I'll try anything once" award – and these are words she still lives by. A special treat at the back of the book is her extended story. You know how you read someone's bio and want to puke because it seems like they've accomplished so much in so little time with what seems like hardly any obstacles? You won't see that here. Tamara has had a plethora of wide-ranging experiences that have taken her to failure and back. I found myself respecting her failures over her successes because of what she did with them. She didn't let any of them stop her, she didn't take on any self-deprecating stories. Instead, she took all of it on as a possibility, opportunity and a vital ingredient in what comes next – BRAVO! Sideways is Fun to Read and Fun to Do – That's Why it's a PLAYBOOK Tamara calls Sideways a "playbook" for a reason. You don't just read this book, you interact with it. And I'd recommend taking the word PLAYBOOK seriously and playing with what's inside rather than interacting or doing. Because if you take this book on as a task – you will enjoy the content, but your inner critical voice will pop up and you will put it down – just before something good comes out of it. I'm telling you this from experience – because that's what I did. I started by reading the book and "imagining" doing the exercises. There were a couple of things wrong with this approach:
That's when I decided to take this book on with a vengeance and use the book in the way it was intended – as a recipe for new ideas and thoughts. Your Guide to Sideways I think, like playing, doing Sideways would be a lot more fun as a group. I'd recommend you get a few copies and give them to some friends and have a Sideways party. Everyone come with a challenge or idea you'd like to flush out and then take turns playing with the different idea generating strategies that are outlined in the book. If you're going to read it on your own, you can still have fun with it. I recommend setting a time aside for your "Sideways Session" and getting all your materials together. You'll want to go to the links and print off some of the forms ahead of time. You might also consider grabbing a white board with some dry erase markers. This way, you won't make the same mistake that I did and have to run around looking for stuff and downloading stuff so that you can do the exercise. That was distracting and got me all flustered so that I couldn't think straight. Grrrrr I have one complaint with this book – it should have been bigger. The paperback copy is about 5×7 and that just didn't seem big enough because inside the book are lots of real-life illustrations of brainstorming sessions that are useful as examples, but not very easy to read. Another interesting aspect of the book is that it has QR codes by each exercise – and a web link that takes you to the page where you can download the form. This makes me think that this book should almost come in a tablet version so that you can carry it with you and pull up these worksheets while you are mobile and can see them. But I'm not sure if they've come up with the technology to have you write on a PDF – so I'm not sure where that leaves me. I'm just telling you about the small things that distracted me from the stellar content. Go Straight for Sideways Overall, Sideways is a book you want to have close at hand. I've already used it a couple of times to brainstorm some messaging for client web sites and positioning and branding strategies. It's fun to read and will help to put you in that wonderfully creative childlike state of curiosity and wonder. And that is the land where all good ideas come from. From Small Business Trends |
How many new and amazing ideas have you had today? I thought so – not nearly as many as you would like or that would really make a difference in the world or your business – right?| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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