Iowa Venture Capital and Entrepreneur Conference Notes

October 16, 2008 by Doug Mitchell

I attended the Iowa Venture Capital and Entrepreneur Conference yesterday in downtown Des Moines. The conference was well attended as always and the breakout sessions had some great information from Iowa based entrepreneurs/start up companies.

The overwhelming message was to “look around you” and breathe in all the innovation, growth, and positive outlook. So true. I’d say, “What recession?” “What banking crisis?” “What credit crunch?”

Rooms were full of current and future business owners networking and connecting.

The AM keynote was given by Mark Thompson, co-author of Success Built to Last. His talk was inspirational. The key takeaway for me was listening to audience members define success. As you can imagine…all different. The point was that success and the path to success is different for all of us and often requires brazen disregard for what OTHERS define as reality. I’ll take that! How many entrepreneurs do you know that simply accept “the way things are.” No go.

I scanned as many company websites of presenters and keynote speakers, etc. as I could this morning to see how they leverage web video and rich media to enhance Internet findability. Not so much. I can think of no better time to leverage the powerful “explanatory nature” of video than early in a company’s lifespan. One firm I met said, “We have trouble explaining what we do to the masses.” I say, “Let video capture and display your best elevator pitch/explanation.”

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Filed under: findability, marketing, small business, video
Tagged: conference, Des Moines, Des Moines Iowa, entrepreneur, internet findability, Iowa, Mark Thompson, smb, start up, success, Venture capital, video

Comments

5 Responses to “Iowa Venture Capital and Entrepreneur Conference Notes”

video conferencing freeware on January 1st, 2009 2:27 am

I have read this post. This is very much true. Even I own a blog account on video conferencing. Video conferencing is indeed a great innovation in technology and communications. One day video conferencing will be like an ordinary house-hold item in the next 5-10 years.I will mention your post in my blog.
Teleconferencing on January 25th, 2009 11:07 pm

The idea which I got from a conference room environment that delivered an experience which is so true to life an executive could use the solution instead of spending time and money traveling to meetings. The investment which I made on time the returns of the company justify the expense. The profits margin has increased tremendously.
Teleconferencing on February 7th, 2009 1:00 am

I’ve heard about Courts using video conferencing technologies especially in the rural areas and villages. Even though it’s an expensive approach but it’s a great way for developing these areas.
Video Conferencing Hardware on February 10th, 2009 1:26 pm

As an event planner I have admired such events where video conferencing system is installed, especially such events that are broadcasted in different cities, this is a good approach of having a live interactive event.
Benefits of Vdeo Conferencing on February 12th, 2009 7:23 pm

Once I was video conferencing with my college classmate and I had to go on a bathroom break, my computer was completely idle till when my kid sister thought it was just a movie so while she was just playing around with the mouse and my classmate scared her by conferencing. It was very scary for her but it was funny.