The 2009 edition of Highlight Midwest ended with a set of keynote presentations from leaders of innovative companies in each of the event’s three core cities: Kansas City, Des Moines and Omaha. These keynotes were my “highlight” of the day and I found them to be informational, identifiable, and even inspiring. I’ve pulled anecdotes from each of them and will be presenting them here throughout the week.
The second presenter was Mike Draper, the owner of host city-Des Moines’ SMASH. SMASH is an innovative screen printing and retail store that Mike originally founded in Philadelphia before strategically relocating it to the Midwest.
Mike’s talk ran counter to some conventional wisdom of this age, stressing that much of his success has come from his ability to respond immediately to e-mail and his decision to open a brick and mortar retail establishment rather than basing his revenue model on online sales. Other points included how Des Moines itself actually made his business possible and the story of the famous “Des Moines: Hell Yes” t-shirt that brought much of the early notoriety to his endeavor.
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Check out the video below to view the anecdotes from Mike’s keynote presentation.
