Future Big Kansas City speaker Micah Baldwin (far left) and Iowa expat Ben Silbermann (middle) attend the Silicon Prairie Expat Meetup in San Francisco.
I arrived back in Omaha, aka the “Winter Tundra,” Friday afternoon, returning from the beautiful weather of San Francisco, fresh off a few days visiting one of the world’s leading startup communities.
The goal of my solo three-day trip, which revolved around hosting a Silicon Prairie Expat Meetup on Thursday, was to strengthen existing relationships and develop new ties with key leaders in an effort to increase the collaboration between San Francisco’s community and Silicon Prairie entrepreneurs.
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The trip was filled with more than a dozen coffees, lunches and office visits from sun-up to way past sun-down. Those consisted of catching up with old friends as well as meeting new investors, founders and many other entrepreneurs. I also connected with past and future speakers of our Big Series events.
Thursday night, more than 75 people from the local startup community stopped by for our expat meetup at the Press Club of San Francisco. Iowa natives Ben Silbermann and Lindsay Crittendon as well as Nebraska native Micah Laaker were in attendance, along with upcoming Big Kansas City speakers Micah Baldwin and Jamie Wong.
A special thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City for partnering with us to hold five expat meetups this year. Stay tuned for future details on upcoming meetups in New York, Los Angeles and again in San Francisco.
Read about our efforts to connect with expats: “Growing the Silicon Prairie: Connecting with our expats.”
Here are a few photos from the event, courtesy of meetup attendee Derek Overbey.
Early attendees pose for a group picture.
San Francisco attendees Aaron Batalion, Liza Sperling, Holly McNamara and Mike Walsh connect at the event.
Future Big Kansas City speaker Jamie Wong (far right) with some of the meetup’s attendees.
Wisconsin native Marcus Nelson (far left) and Iowa native Ben Silbermann (far right).
Credits: Photos courtesy of Derek Overbey.
