You’re never too old for summer camp—at least, that’s what the RXA Technology team would have you believe. On Thursday, attendees were transported back to the nostalgia of summer camp, if only for a few hours.
It was the third iteration of Base 3, a Sioux City, Iowa, event that brings together three speakers from various fields with community members to help cultivate a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation.
There was rustic decor, savory barbecue, locally produced beer and even a s’mores bar where attendees could toast marshmallows. Gathered around the (albeit faux) campfire, about 80 attendees listened to the stories of entrepreneurs from across the country.
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“Summer camp takes us away from the jobs we have every day,” Base 3 emcee Thomas Ritchie told the audience Thursday evening. “It’s a time to get away from all those things that keep us busy.”
Gathered on the eighth floor of the Ho Chunk Centre in downtown Sioux City, Base 3’s attendees took their seats to relax, sip brews and hear three speakers share their stories:
Tina Beal
When she takes the stage, Tina Beal confesses that she’s wearing her “back-up back-ups” on stage, a pair of highlighter yellow pumps she keeps in the trunk of her car for emergencies—the heel on one of the shoes she planned to wear broke. It’s clear early on that her shoes are outshone by Beal’s bubbly demeanor and ability to poke fun with her audience.
The founder of branding and marketing firm Social Bug and a Sioux Falls, S.D., resident, Beal says she was drawn to entrepreneurship for the ability to do what she was truly passionate about—social media—while realizing that not everything she did had to change the world.
“People just can’t all be Oprah,” she said. “There’s not enough room for us all to be Oprah. And that’s ok.”
But often, she says, the world of entrepreneurship is viewed through rose colored glasses.
Instead, she says the reality of owning your own business is spending “85 percent of what you despise for 15 percent of what you love.”
Beal also stressed the importance staying true to yourself and your company whether it’s in brand iterations or the types of clients you pursue.
Scott Conley
Initially, Scott Conley and his co-workers had just been looking for some sort of office space—preferably with a garage for tinkering—near his South Florida home. What he ended up finding, was a community of people looking for some infrastructure or means of coming together.
Now, he’s one of the organizers behind The Hacklab @ North Boynton, a not-for-profit makerspace that has helped harness the region’s creative and entrepreneurial community. Since the space’s creation, Conley explained that he’s started having conversations he could never have imagined about what types of communities attract and—more importantly—retain engineers and entrepreneurs.
“It shouldn’t be ‘If you build it, they will come.’ It’s ‘If you built it, a community, they will move here and not leave,” Conley said.
Since the space opened earlier this year they’ve received a fair amount of recognition, including a visit from Appetite for Life’s Andrew Zimmern.
“It’s not that much to look at yet, but it’s our landmark, it’s our beacon and it’s open.”
Alex Altomare
Two lifetimes ago, Alex Altomare was a freestyle ski instructor in Vail, Colo. Now, in his life as an entrepreneur, he says there’s a lot of similarities between the two.
“Starting a startup is like doing a backflip on skis,” he told the audience Thursday. “It’s a bit of a horrible idea and you could go through life and be totally fine without ever doing it.”
But nonetheless, Altomare has done both on numerous occasions. He’s now the co-founder of Kansas City incubators BetaBlox and The Lean Lab as well as a Techstars mentor. And through his experiences, he’s had lots of people tell him how lucky he’s gotten.
But Altomare says it’s not about luck—it’s about planning and analyzing potential for risk.
“If you’re an entrepreneur, think of yourself as a detective,” he said.
Read more about Base 3 and how the event came to be: “Base 3 helps spark entrepreneurial energy in northwest Iowa community.”
