Two more speakers, Robbie Vitrano and Ben Milne, have been added to the startup side of our Thinc Iowa speaker slate. Screenshot from thinciowa.com, a site made by Shift, design by Performance Marketing.
As we inch closer to Thinc Iowa, now just 27 days aways, we have lots more fun in store with our announcements. Today, we’re announcing more presenters speaking from the startup perspective: Robbie Vitrano and Ben Milne.
Based in New Orleans, Vitrano is a seasoned entrepreneur who has cofounded startups in a variety of industries, such as Trumpet Group, a creative agency, Naked Pizza, an all-natural pizza shop, and Idea Village, an innovative educational and support entity for entrepreneurs in his hometown.
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Our next speaker, Milne, is a familiar face in the Silicon Prairie and as he leads a startup becoming a more familiar name from Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley, we couldn’t be more excited he’ll be telling a unique part of his story at Thinc Iowa. As I wrote about in June, the Dwolla story is one of the primary example of why we’re having this conference. (Read the post: “Thinc Iowa is our next big thing“.)
Milne’s been on a speaking tear lately, in this month alone he’s presented at Carsonified‘s Future of Mobile in London and Ad Age’s Digital West in San Francisco. While we typically talk about the disruptive nature of Dwolla in the payments industry, this presentation from Milne will focus on what they’ve gained from working with large corpoations.
We’re also very pleased to announce two new major sponsors who have stepped up to support Thinc Iowa.
First, The Principal Financial Group has joined our wonderful slate of sponsors. We’re very excited to have The Principal on board. They are one of the most recognizable “big companies” in Iowa as well as one with a firm commitment to supporting entrepreneurship. As just one example of this, see this recent op/ed written by The Principal CEO Larry Zimpleman in the Wall Street Journal: “An Entrepreneural Fix for the US Economy.”
Next, Twilio, one of the most exciting startups on the West Coast has joined the slate, as well. Twilio provides the technology to let companies easily integrate voice and text messaging functionality into their apps. One recent example here in the Silicon Prairie is the Dollar Thoughts app built by James Arstead of Entreprenuerial Technologies and aforemented Milne.
Additionally, welcome aboard Startup Circle sponsors Canvis and Knowledge Bridge Partners. Thanks, too, to the growing list of “Friends of Thinc Iowa” now including OCA Ventures, Drake University and the University of Iowa.
Stay tuned to Silicon Praire News as we continue to roll announcements on additional speakers, new venues, and more over the next month leading up to Thinc Iowa. And in the meantime, help us welcome Vitrano, Milne, The Principal, Twilio and all others announced today!
To learn more about Thinc Iowa, including registration, visit thinciowa.com.
