Jonny Kot was part of the group of entrepreneurs who created a grassroots carpool at Big Kansas City.
Midwestern hospitality takes many forms, like a home-cooked meal or a “What can I get you?” Our inaugural Big Kansas City event last month was welcomed into the community by a group of entrepreneurs who wanted to get the local Big Series event off to a rousing start.
Weeks before the event, Claude Aldridge (right), co-founder of Kansas City startup Trellie, asked our community builder, Regan Carrizales, what he could do to help. It was clear we could use a hand getting attendees back and forth from downtown to our venue, the National Airline History Museum. Accepting the challenge, Aldridge enlisted other local entrepreneurs to help, including RFP365’s David Hulsen and Stuart Ludlow, Local Ruckus’ Adam Arredondo, 1.2 Consulting’s Chris Cooley, Home for Hackers’ Ben Barreth and Tech-Pointer’s Jonny Kot.
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Over the course of the conference, the group whisked eventgoers from hotels to Hangar 9, picked up those who had parked along the road on the way to the venue and shuttled even more from an overflow lot about a mile away. The gesture often came as a shock to attendees. “Really? You’re just driving people?” was a common refrain, Cooley said. Out of natural conversation, a warm and welcoming environment was created before reaching the venue. Meaningful experiences and connections came out of the happenstance, too.
Arredondo was hanging around at the end of the first day, asking if anyone needed a lift, and was ready to take one group until he realized they had already received a ride. So he extended the offer to other attendees. Event speaker and reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian hadn’t expected to get such an offer, but he took him up on it. Ohanian had filmed a segment of “Silicon Prairie: America’s New Economy” at Kansas City Startup Village, an organization co-founded by Arredondo.
“We talked about how it’s been night and day in six months,” Arredondo said of the community’s growth. “You would have a totally different picture today.”
RFP365’s Ludlow picked up event speakers Dan Martell and Abhi Nemani one night, and got into talking with Nemani—chief of staff at Code for America—about his startup. To his surprise, Nemani knew all about it. “He knew exactly what we were doing,” Ludlow said.
Later that day, Nemani brought up RFP365’s work with Kansas City Mayor Sly James at a meeting—the startup had been trying to get on the city’s radar for a while. At Big Kansas City’s closing party, James swung by and Ludlow had the chance to introduce himself. Nothing concrete has come of it, but the connection has been made.
Aldridge believes the group will provide the same grassroots effort at Big Kansas City next year — a helping hand of Midwestern hospitality our team will gladly welcome back.
Big Kansas City is a two-and-a-half-day event that aims to inspire, educate and celebrate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the heart of the Midwest. Produced by Silicon Prairie News, it’s part of the Big Series, the nation’s most ambitious events on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Credits: Jeep photo by Kenny Johnson Photography. Claude Aldridge photo from trellie.com.
