Five years of Big Omaha branding

Almost five ago, I was having a beer at Crescent Moon with a man I’d never met before. His name was Jeff Slobotski. He was pitching me his concept for Big Omaha. He had recently partnered with Dusty Davidson (who I knew from his web development shop Brightmix) to launch Silicon Prairie News, a media…

About the author: Drew Davies is the founder of Oxide Design Co., a communications and information design firm in Omaha.

Note: We’ve been fortunate to have Oxide as our exclusive design partner since the inaugural Big Omaha in 2009. For this post, we invited Davies to share his reflections on creating the Big Omaha brand the past five years.


Almost five ago, I was having a beer at Crescent Moon with a man I’d never met before. His name was Jeff Slobotski.

He was pitching me his concept for Big Omaha. He had recently partnered with Dusty Davidson (who I knew from his web development shop Brightmix) to launch Silicon Prairie News, a media site centered around celebrating entrepreneurial efforts in the Midwest. Big Omaha was to be the in-person manifestation of their ideas—an event highlighting regional innovation and entrepreneurship.

While the reputation of Oxide Design Co. may also have played a part, I still have a sneaking suspicion that I got the initial invite for that beer because I own the domain bigomaha.com. Whatever the reason, this was clearly the start of something great. He told me their hopes and dreams for the conference and what it could become. My enthusiasm must have been apparent, because it wasn’t long before we were talking about how Oxide could help to brand Big Omaha.

The conference sounded like everything we like to support—innovative thinking, the creative spirit, and our hometown. Saying yes was the only option. So I agreed we’d brand the conference from top to bottom, pro bono (back then, no one even knew if this idea would make it through the first year). Jeff promised to trust our professional design expertise and give us complete creative latitude, knowing we’d put the conference on the cutting edge but always make decisions in the best interest of the event.

Five years later, Jeff and Dusty have held true to their promise. When we bring them the creative concept for each new year of Big Omaha, they enthusiastically say “yes!” and let us do what we do best. Together with the rest of the SPN team, they continue to be some of our very best clients. And it’s safe to say that some of Oxide’s best work over the last five years has been our annual branding of Big Omaha. (See the work and read about the design thinking from each year here: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.)

More than that, Jeff, Dusty, and SPN have made good on their grand plan to deliver the region’s (and arguably the nation’s) premier conference on innovation and entrepreneurship, year after year. While Oxide’s visual branding from identity to floor decals is valuable in creating the overall experience, it can’t compare to the work the whole SPN team does in putting together the best combination in the world of tech conference, entrepreneurial meet-up, and summer camp.

All of us at Oxide are honored to have been a part of Big Omaha for all five years of the event. We’re proud to have contributed to its success, and even more excited to have built great relationships with a collection of fabulous people. Thanks, Giant Cow!

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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