Registration is open for the second annual HUSTLE Conference, which aims to bring together Midwest entrepreneurs for engaged learning and networking. Half-price early bird tickets are available until Aug. 22.

“Having a face-to-face opportunity for people to come together is a really good thing,” said HUSTLE co-founder Eric Gautschi. “We believe that when you put a bunch of entrepreneurs in a room together that good things are going to happen.”

The conference is Oct. 9-10 at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business. Benjamin Hardy, an organizational psychologist and entrepreneurship coach, is the featured keynote speaker. Other speakers include Gallup researcher Sangeeta Badal, Dundee Venture Capital founder Mark Hasebroock and longtime nonprofit leader Kimbery Goins.

HUSTLE comes with some changes this year, including an expansion from one day to two. “Our thinking this year is that we give everything a little bit more room to breathe, just build in some more breaks, and then just go deeper on some of the stuff,” Gautschi said.

Rather than last year’s breakout sessions, this year’s conference is focused on workshops. Several topics will be available in each workshop time slot for participants to find what best fits their interests and needs.

Workshops will range from exploring how artificial intelligence tools can help businesses to building mission-driven work cultures, as well as a legal clinic from conference sponsor Goosmann Law Firm.

Gautschi said he created HUSTLE in response to a rapidly changing business environment — with perhaps the two biggest developments being AI and a strained global economy. 

“The state of the economy and international trade obviously has been much more uncertain this year than it was last year,” he said. “But at the same time, I think there’s still tremendous optimism and excitement when it comes to entrepreneurship.”

Channeling that means continuing to evolve the HUSTLE Conference to meet the needs of today’s entrepreneurs. “We don’t want to just run back the same playbook as last year,” Gautschi said. “The goal is to make (HUSTLE) bigger and better each year, and so that’s what we’re trying to do for year two.”

Lev Gringauz is a Report for America corps member who writes about corporate innovation and workforce development for Silicon Prairie News.