SXSW
is an enormous opportunity for startups, entrepreneurs, investors and
technology enthusiasts. Sarah Snyder, meeting planner at Think Big Partners and
bizperc, attended GCUC for the second year in a row as well as SXSW for the first time this past week with dozens
of other local startups representing Midwestern innovation, traveling by bus
together to Austin. It was a fast-paced, engaging and exciting time. We sat
down with Sarah to hear more.
TBP: What was your
involvement with SXSW?
Sarah: I went to a coworking conference
Tuesday and Wednesday and then I went to SXSW. The first conference was called
Global Coworking Unconference Conference, or GCUC (pronounced “juicy”). 250 of the
coworking space owners and managers from all around the world gather to share
best practices, talk about the industry: trends, movements, patterns that we
see. We talk about our own spaces and what different people are doing. We
talked about how we’re influencing urban development and job creation, as well
as startup support and government relations. It was a two day conference and a
lot of valuable conversations and ideas came out of that first day.
TBP: What did you
do on the second day?
Sarah: The second day was the
“unconference” portion of GCUC, and the audience decided the topic. Then we
voted on which sessions we’d like to go to and then the most popular sessions
and common themes were combined. We chose an organic moderator, and the whole
unconference was very organic and engaging. All the discussions were
interactive and it was truly a discussion. It was not like one person talking
to the rest of the group, everyone was contributing. By the end of the sessions
you wanted to get everyone’s business cards because everyone was so
interesting. It was a really great way to connect, and I learned a lot about
different tools to implement in our space.
TBP: And you also
went to SXSW?
Sarah: Yes. SXSW started Friday. The
first meeting I had with all the Kansas City, MO folks was really exciting. We
met with Senator Jerry Moran at the Facebook Austin office. First of all, I’ve never
been in a Facebook office, and second of all, having an intimate conversation
with Jerry Moran was awesome.
TBP: For those who
don’t know, tell us a little about Jerry Moran.
Sarah: He is known as the person who
helped shut down the SOPA/PIPA proposal. His big proposal was
Startup Act 2.0, and at this year’s SXSW he was promoting Startup Act 3.0. He’s a big startup proponent.
He was so real with us. Even though he’s from the Kansas side and the SXSW
group is from the Missouri side – St. Louis, Kansas City – he said he thinks
Kansas City can be the most entrepreneurial city. He talked about Washington
and his drive for support and all the work he’s doing. It was really
interesting that he gave us the time of day.
We even went around the room talking about what each of us does.
TBP: He sounds very
supportive.
Sarah: He was really there to listen,
and he was engaged and interested in everything that’s going on. And Jerry
Moran was using Kansas City startup Phone2Action to promote jobs for Startup Act
3.0, and I got a picture of Phone2Action co-founder Jeb Ory showing Jerry Moran
how the application works. [shown below]
TBP: It sounds like
Kansas City was very well represented at SXSW.
Sarah: Everyone from Kansas City brought
the party down to Austin. We had a blast. As we went around, even though we
weren’t always together, at least once a day we all met up. I think people were
really impressed with the camaraderie of the Missouri startups. We were all
working together supporting each other. We brought down 30 to 40 startups, and
so people were very impressed with our Midwestern representation.
It
was a great time for all involved, but perhaps especially for Phone2Action, Think Big Partners Accelerator company, who beat out seven other startups to
win the SXSW Accelerator
challenge in the New Technologies category. Along with bragging rights and a
jump-start toward growth, Phone2Action won $4,000, free tickets to next year’s
SXSW, free web hosting for a year and Apple TV. This is an exciting development
for the young company, and if past winners are any indicator, the win means
that there are even bigger things ahead.
Want
more info from Sarah herself? Follow her on Twitter @SarahThinkBIG.
