If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is the time.
Social media has leveled the playing field. As startup and small business entrepreneurs, we can now grow our personal brand and passion a lot faster than in the old days.

Learn from Ben Huh, Founder of Cheezburger Network:

• His own story of how he made it happen: I Can Has Cheezburger, I Has A Hotdog, FAIL Blog and Failbook
• How to find your passion and continue to stay true and be real on social media
• How to build your brand and online empire
• How to find and motivate passionate people to help build your community
• How to deal with negative feedback and competition online

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9:45 – 9:50 a.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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10:00 – 10:20 a.m.

Joe Whinney, Founder of Theo Chocolate

COMPETITION: Labor of Love: How to compete with the big boys (large companies)

Today, small companies often make more money than large companies. As small startup entrepreneur, you can make decision quickly. You can listen and talk to your customers directly. You can quickly change your business model and direction.

You know you will win because you are good, not because you are big.

Learn from Joe Whinney, Founder of Theo Chocolate:

His own story of how he made it happen for Theo Chocolate.
How to differentiate yourself and find your competitive edge when competing with the big boys
How to overcome the challenges in building a brand from the ground up with little funding
What TO DO and what NOT TO DO when competing with the big boys
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10:20 – 10:30 a.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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10:30 – 10:50 a.m.

Dave Schappell, Founder & CEO of Teachstreet.com

REVENUE MODEL: What is the best way to charge your customers?

In the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all, argues Anderson (The Long Tail).

Savvy small business entrepreneurs are now raking it in with new ways to charge their customers. From freemium model (offering free while selling the premium features for a cost) to recurring pricing, these new billing models are slowly shifting the way we charge our customers.

Learn from Dave Schappell, Founder & CEO of Teachstreet.com:
His story and challenges in defining and implementing his revenue model for his customers
what should we be aware of when defining and implementing own own revenue model:
Recurring billing
Usage-based billing
One-Time billing
Renewals billing
Freemium billing
Or Free?

What TO DO or NOT TO DO when introducing new revenue model/pricing structure
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10:50 – 11:00 a.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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11:00 – 11:20 a.m.

Greg Gottesman, Managing Director with Madrona Venture

FUNDING: How to Pitch a VC in 15 minutes or less

Got a dream? Got a brilliant business idea?

You are determined to make it happen, but you need cash to get it off the ground? No matter how groundbreaking your business idea, you won’t get past the starting gate without funding.
But wait… there are some smart, fast and simple funding ideas for you.

Learn from Greg Gottesman, Managing Director with Madrona Venture:
What can you pitch a VC like Greg
What does he look for
What to pitch and how to pitch your idea
Greg served on the board of AdReady, Bocada, BuddyTV, Intrepid Learning Solutions, Physware, ThinkFire, and WildTangent.
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11:20 – 11:30 a.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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11:30 – 11:50 a.m.

Bill Wixey, Q13 Fox News Anchor

PUBLIC RELATIONS: How to Get Media Attention to Your Business

The media landscape has changed immensely and companies need to approach media coverage more strategically. There is a real art to giving relevance to your company and your brand by pegging products, services and even company identity to current events and trends.

Learn from Bill Wixey, Q13 Fox News Anchor and learn:
How companies should pitch to the media to propel your brand, launch a product, get attention from the media
What you should and should not do when pitching to media outlets
How to craft your stories and soundbite that worth talking about
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11:50 – 12:00 a.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch

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1:30 – 2:15 p.m.

Colleen McCreary, Zynga Chief People Office

PEOPLE: How to recruit, screen and keep great talents

“Leaders of great companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.” ~ Excerpt from Good to Great by Jim Collins

With the right people, your business could go a lot faster and further. And that’s why you need to find great talent. So you post your job opening on Craigslist. Get a big pile of resumes from people you don’t want to hire. You screen them. Talk to them. You end up spending hours and hours with no luck.

Now you realize – finding a great talent is no walk in the park…

You can’t just pick the kid you grew up with. Or the person you like the most. Or random people who are willing to work for free. You want find to find someone not only technical competent, but also highly intelligent, energetic with high integrity.
Learn from Colleen McCreary, Zynga Chief People Officer and learn:
Creative ways to find the best talent
Ways to weed out people you don’t want
Where to find the best people
Ways to motivate them so they will stay forever
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2:15 – 2:30 p.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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2:30 – 2:50 p.m.

Lara Feltin, Cofounder of Biznik

Community Marketing 2.0: The art of engaging a community and marketing your brand

The key to engaging inside a business community is to view the other members as collaborators not competition. Identify those who have something to offer you, as well as those you have something to offer.

Don’t sell to the community. Listen. Engage. Contribute. Community marketing is about participation not promotion.

Meet Lara Feltin, Cofounder of Biznik and learn:
What is community marketing
How to promote your business inside a community
How to use social networking tools for business networking
How to engage and build long-term relationships inside a community
How to deal with criticism (or “bad press”) from your community
What to do if a community’s not a good fit

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2:50 – 3:00 p.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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3:00 – 3:20 p.m.

Victoria Ransom, Founder of Wildfire Apps

FACEBOOK MARKETING: How to Turn Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers into Real Customers

So you got 10,000 followers on Twitter and 5 million Facebook fans. So what?
If they are not turning into real customers, you are just wasting your social media brain juice and time

Learn from Victoria Ransom, Founder of Wildfire Apps:

Her stories of how she discovered ways to turn Twitter followers and Facebook Fans into real customers
Strategies and insights in using online contest and sweepstakes to get real customer leads
Processes and potential challenges in setting up your own online campaign
What makes a GREAT campaign and how should we measure success

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3:20 – 3:30 p.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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3:30 – 3:50 p.m.

Jen Joyce, Social Media Strategist for Hotel Max

ONLINE SELLING: How to sell fast, big and more on social media?

If you can’t sell, you might as well forget about being an entrepreneur. You need to sell. You need to sell fast. Sell more! Sell big! You know ‘your’ money is just waiting in your customer’s pocket, but how do you get it out?

Learn from Jen Joyce, social media strategist for Hotel Max:

Learn how Hotel Max made it happen on Social Media
Build trust with your customers online with tools such as AdWords, Twitter and Facebook
How to sell your vision online
How to sell by partnering with the right organizations
How to up-sell, cross sell and more

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3:50 – 4:00 p.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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4:00 – 4:20 p.m.

Megan Casey, Cofounder of Squidoo

GAME MARKETING: How You Can Use Game Mechanics to Market Your Business?

We’ve all heard of Farmville, Mafia Wars, and other Facebook games, but did you know that you don’t have to be a game company in order to use game mechanics? Welcome to this year’s hottest catch phrase, and at last, a clear look at what it can mean for your startup or small business.

Learn from Groupon, Foursquare, HuffPo, VirginAmerica, Starwood Hotels, Threadless or even a local yoga studio and understand the psychology of game mechanics to drive customer acquisition, repeat visits, and your bottom line.

Meet Megan Casey, cofounder of Squidoo. In this colorful talk she lays out the landscape of “gaming as marketing”, asks a lot of what-if questions to get your brain churning with ideas, and shares her own story of applying game mechanics to one of the top 100 websites in the world. Learn how you can:

How you can use game mechanics and psychology to direct your customer experience (training new users, celebrating their successful interactions, rewarding them for the behavior that affects your business most).
Leverage your best members or customers.
See real results from applying game systems to your business (conversation rates, virality, etc)
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4:20 – 4:30 p.m. 5 MINUTES DEMO and BREAK

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4:30 – 5:30 p.m. ENTREPRENEUR PITCH AND MATCHING

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6:00 – 9:00 p.m. AFTER PARTY (Sponsored by Infusionsoft)

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