To everyone I know or anyone who reads this blog: meet me at the University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center at 11:30 am this Friday, January 19th. Let’s get to the Guy Kawasaki talk early and schmooooze!!! I blogged about the event earlier here. (It starts at 1:00 pm.) The event quickly sold-out, but I’m sure many of you already have tickets. Even if you don’t, show up anyway! You can always try for standing-room-only space, or maybe you can nab somebody’s no-show ticket. Hey, Guy’s worth it! He packs ’em in everywhere he goes. 
We can talk about all kinds of stuff in advance of the talk: why Guy would come from California when we’re freezin’ our asses off here right now (it’s to play in the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships on Lake Nokomis)….what his topic is (it’s his classic “Art of the Start” talk)….or anything else you want to talk about, including my BlogHaus experience in Vegas last week. And getting there early should help us get locked-in for the best seats, or maybe those of you who need tickets can get on the list early for the no-shows.
Should be plenty of room to gather in the lobby area that’s closest to the auditorium where Guy will speak. (Check the signage on the way in.) And maybe we can even get coffee there…
Please spread the word to your lists and communities!
Let’s show Guy we’re one great startup community here in Minnesota!!! Indicate your interest here on my blog by adding a comment, and I’ll forward the whole thing to Guy beforehand. One of my VC friends tried to get me into a special lunch being held for Guy prior to the talk, with the local U of M muckety-mucks, etc, but I missed the cut. Who cares! This meetup will be lots more fun for me — and you! And maybe we can even continue the blog comments afterwards to tell Guy what we thought of his talk… See ya Friday!
Tags: Guy Kawasaki, Art of the Start, evangelism, The Mac, Apple, Steve Jobs
I’m crashing it. See you there.
I’ll see you there, Graeme. Maybe I’ll bring my tattered copy of The Macintosh Way, if I can find it, for an autograph (if the opportunity presents itself) 😉
—
Tim
Got a ticket through my involvement with the MN CUP last year. I’ll be there.
Go, Aaron — crash that baby! We need more party-crashers at this thing…. 🙂
And I look forward to celebrating your move to San Diego afterwards at whatever local drinking hole you decide. Should be fun!
Tim — yeah, bring that book! I’m bringing my old copy of “Selling the Dream,”
and whatever else of his I have. But he told me was gonna try to have a bookstore set up a table with his books, so people should be able to buy any of his more recent titles, including “Art of the Start.”
Just to make this clear, we won’t see Guy before his talk — this meetup is for us to schmooze! He’ll be at a lunch at that time with the sponsors, and that will be right after his first game at the Pond Hockey Tournament at Lake Nokomis. That game starts at 8:30 am, and his team has another one scheduled at 3:30 pm. So, unfortunately, he probably won’t be able to stay for a real long time after his talk. But, if we can get seats up front, we should be able meet him, get book autographs, etc. Then I plan to drive over to his 3:30 game to shoot some pix for my blog. His team is the Capitalist Pigs … 🙂 And they’ll be playing again on Saturday, I believe.
Graeme, thanks for taking the initiative on this. I had signed up for Guy’s talk a couple weeks back. I’d be interested in a pre-Guy MEETUP with you and others. I know Fred Haberman as well; he’s doing great things, Pond Hockey is just one of ’em. I look forward to seeing you.
I can’t believe I just found out about Guy coming to town. I would be there along with my development team. I am spearheading an open source/web 2.0/SaaS thingy these days so it would be blast for my team members. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the tickets as its all sold out so I hope we are able to get in to hear the talk somehow.
If you want to hear about the latest with Guy, check out this very recent PodTech interview.
Also, from what Jeff Pester tells me, it sounds like the crowd expected on Friday is overwhelming the event organizers. Seems the size of the designated auditorium at the McNamara Alumni Center won’t be adequate, and they’re now talking about having to bus the overflow to the Carlson School to watch a simulcast.
Good thing I suggested getting there early….