Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Conferences/Events (Page 2 of 80)

Explore the World of Ecommerce Best Practices, Technology, and Trends in Minneapolis Sept 27

Irish Titan has announced its fourth annual Ecomm Forum conference to be held at the Aria event  center in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, September 27, 2018.  The event, which attracted 300+ last year, will feature a host of great speakers, panelists, and sponsors. Registration begins at 1:00 pm, and  the event closes with a reception that wraps up at 7:00 pm (See a schedule here, which will be updated as the date gets closer.)

If you are involved in any way in ecommerce (who isn’t?), you should get yourself there. Tickets are only $30-40, right here on Eventbrite.

Ecomm Forum 2017 wide shot

The scene at last year’s Ecomm Forum.

Sponsors include many established players in the ecomm space, including DotMailer, ShopifyPlus, Magento, Big Commerce, Vertex, Avalara, Akeneo, Emarsys, and Siteimprove.

Darin Lynch

Darin Lynch, Founder, Irish Titan

IrishTitan, an ecommerce and digital strategy agency, has come  a long way since Darin Lynch launched it in 2004. I love what he’s built, the branding, the tagline (“Business First, Online Second”), the culture, the team. They have a ton of fun, support the community with sponsorships of their own, and the make the list of ‘Best Places to Work’ over and over again. Clients include Haskell’s, ApplianceSmart, Bank Cherokee, Fidelity Bank, Funky Chunky, Harbinger Partners, Heartland Equity Partners, National Camera Exchange, Rave Sports, The Patchery, and more.

Kudos to you, Darin, and the staff who puts such a great conference together!

My Live Blog of the 10th Annual Defrag Conference…

defragx-logodates

Once again, I live-blogged the Defrag Conference in Denver. This is the tenth year of this great annual tech event, and I’ve attended them all. The original idea was to get together to defrag our brains and stop to think about where technology is headed — what’s coming next. I’ve met and interviewed so many great people at this event over the years: Brad Feld, Seth Levine, Fred Wilson, David Cohen, T.A. McCann, and tons of other tech leaders, investors, authors, and more.  Not to speak of many fellow tech observers, analysts, writers, bloggers, PR people, and notable geeks who’ve come to be frequent collaborators and friends. I’ve also connected with old buddies, like the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, and shared some huge laughs. Attending this conference is almost like going to camp each year. I just wouldn’t miss it! (Especially when I was one of only three guys who had perfect 10-year attendance records.) Eric and Kim Norlin and their team do such a great job putting on Defrag.

So, what was on tap for discussion at the 10th annual? Lots of topics: AWS Lambda, microservices, blockchain, APIs, machine learning, AI, insights about developer marketing, bare-metal cloud, and other geeky stuff — presented by an impressive band of speakers… founders, CTOs, rock-star developers, tech evangelists, and other crazy folks. Always a fun event. And what you don’t learn in the big room, well, you can learn in the Tap Room each night till the wee hours. (Oh, and we talk a lot about sports, too!)

I posted my play-by-play updates from Wednesday morning November 16 through Thursday afternoon November 17, 2016 — live, in real-time from the Omni Interlocken Resort, in beautiful (warm and sunny!) Colorado… well, until it snowed in the final hours.

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NOTE: Unfortunately, updates to WordPress software since I originally published this post caused the live blog plugin to break. I got no warning. Nice going, WordPress! So, my content appears to be lost forever… 🙁  

I guess you just had to be there! Trust me, it was good.

My Live Blog of the 2016 ‘Pioneer Summit’…

pioneersummit-ggbridgeskyline

I just wrapped up my live blogging at the Pioneer Summit in Redwood City, CA, covering both days of the conference, September 14 and 15, 2016. More than 1,500 attended. Here’s how the organizers described the conference:

“The agenda is packed with thrilling conversations on the ideas and people who will shape the world. Whether you’re inspired by game-changing entrepreneurs building our robotic future, or determined investors that fuel billion-dollar startups, the Pioneer Summit is bringing the Global Silicon Valley’s best and brightest to Redwood City.”

They weren’t kidding — it was packed with awesomeness!

What follows is my complete live blog, now archived in chronological order.

(Also see a selection of the photos I took at the event in this Flickr Album.)

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NOTE: Unfortunately, updates to WordPress software since I originally published this post caused the Live Blog plugin to break. I got no warning. Nice going, WordPress! So, my content appears to be lost forever… 🙁  

I guess you just had to be there! Trust me, it was good.

I’ll Be Live-Blogging the ‘Pioneer Summit’ Again Next Week

pioneersummit-logodatesI’m heading out to the Bay Area in a few days to once again cover a great tech conference called the Pioneer Summit, put on by GSV Labs in Redwood City, CA. I loved reporting on it last year — as evidenced by my extensive liveblog. (They moved it up from October to September this year.)

I’m looking forward to the program, which is jam-packed. Is this enough speakers for you? Here’s one my data geek friends would like. And hearing what this Silicon Valley legend has to say will be pretty awesome as well.

What is GSV Labs, you ask? It’s “a campus of innovation” — I like that description! A very cool place indeed. It’s focused on accelerating high-growth, high-impact verticals in the areas of EdTech, Sustainability, Big Data, and Mobility. Utilizingpioneersummit-celebrate GSV Labs’ resources, founders and entrepreneurs join a global network of ecosystem partners, including corporations, international agencies, mentors, universities, investors, thought leaders, and non-profits. From its Silicon Valley campus, GSV Labs houses about 100 startups, provides acceleration programs, and hosts events.

My connection to GSV Labs is through my colleague Mark Moe (who lives here in the Twin Cities) — he’s VP of Global Business Development. Look forward to seeing you there, Mark, and I’m sure some other Minnesotans who’ll be in attendance, as there were last year.

I guess I’d better start getting my live-blogging fingers loosened up — which means not just providing commentary, but shooting a whole lot of iPhone pics to go along with it. This will be fun!

The Pioneer Summit Liveblog

I was in the Bay Area live blogging the Pioneer Summit, October 7-9, 2015, in Redwood City.  The conference was put on by the awesome accelerator/innovation hub  GSV Labs, and I really enjoyed it! My live blog is now archived. It spans two and half days of the event, beginning just before sunrise on the first day…

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NOTE: Unfortunately, updates to WordPress software since I originally published this post caused the Live Blog plugin to break. I got no warning. Nice going, WordPress! So, my content appears to be lost forever… 🙁  

I guess you just had to be there! Trust me, it was good.

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