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Speakers put on the spot for Q&A to close Big Omaha’s opening day
At the end of a day during which the audience repeatedly rose to greet speakers with standing ovations, those speakers were the ones on their feet — or thinking on them, anyway. The opening day of Big Omaha 2012 concluded with four speakers being put on the spot during a question-and-answer session this afternoon. The…
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Philip Rosedale: ‘Work together and help each other.’
Philip Rosedale, the founder of Coffee and Power, referred to humans as herd animals and reminded listeners that we all have a desire to feel safe, then turned around and asked the audience to consider whether companies need CEOs at all. The founder of Second Life wove the final speech of Day 1 of Big…
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Yael Cohen: ‘We are the generation that can change the world’
Yael Cohen is on a mission to F— Cancer, and based on this afternoon’s talk at KANEKO during the first day of Big Omaha 2012, she’ll be tough to stop. Cohen is the founder and president of F— Cancer, a movement that is working to make a real impact in the fight against cancer. F—…
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Seth Goldstein: 10 tweets for startups
Seth Goldstein, investor, serial entrepreneur and chairman of Turntable.fm, prefers to tweet his advice. He gave the crowd at KANEKO his top 10 tips for entrepreneurs in under 140 characters — plus this more lengthy challenge to create something different. “I think your ideas should be strange and weird and nonsensical,” Goldstein said. “If everyone…
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Jim McKelvey: ‘Just go ahead and build it’
Jim McKelvey, the co-founder of Square, is someone who can definitely sport the title of a serial entrepreneur. After starting seven companies — five of which he still owns — over the past 20 years, McKelvey has the insight to inspire entrepreneurs to strive for more than mediocre. As the last speaker of the morning…
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Join the Big Omaha conversation on DiscussCreativity.com
Our Big Omaha venue partner, KANEKO, is not only providing a physical space for attendees to gather this year, but an online space, as well. Found at DiscussCreativity.com – a site available to non-Big Omaha attendees, too – users can either participate …
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Sahil Lavingia: ‘Build products to scale yourself.’
Sahil Lavingia is a 19-year-old who likes to build things. Apparently big things. The founder of Gumroad, a site that “lets you sell like you share,” Lavingia draws on his background with Pinterest and Turntable to produce more, better, faster. “I build products to scale myself,” the founding Pinterest designer said during his morning talk…
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Ben Lerer: ‘It isn’t about the light at the end … it’s about the tunnel’
Ben Lerer of Thrillist was the second speaker to take the stage at The KANEKO for Big Omaha 2012. Lerer is the co-founder of Thrillist, a digital media company; of JackThreads, a members only fashion site for men; and of Lerer Ventures, a venture capital firm that he started with his father. Lerer used his…
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Ted Rheingold: ‘You have great days and then crushing days.’
Ted Rheingold, founder and general manager at SAY Media, has ridden the entrepreneurial roller coaster. As founder of popular pet-networking sites Dogster and Catster, Rheingold saw tremendous revenue in the early 2000s, survived the recession of 2008 and came out on top. He opened Big Omaha 2012 and shared his story with a buzzing crowd…
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Big Omaha 2012 breaks out with Kauffman’s Opening Bash (Photos)
A near-capacity crowd filled The Slowdown on Wednesday night to kick off Big Omaha 2012 with an event that featured beverages, breakdancing, badge decoration … and plenty of other enjoyable things that don’t fit this half-baked attempt at alliteration. Before taking in a day of talks today at the KANEKO, conference-goers and a large contingent…