In a way, you could consider this my “2020 vision.” Hardy-har-har.
Horrible puns aside, my vision for the next 12 months involves a great deal of amazing things coming together and programs and products launching. In addition to the new, there are also a lot of familiar events on the calendar for the coming year. Some events that conflicted in 2019 have moved to separate weeks in 2020, so I should be able to make it to more events this coming year than I did over the past 12 months. However, it’s going to make for an incredibly packed calendar, which means I may have to institute the “no new things” rule again.
To add a bit of perspective: a couple of years back, I decided that I’d stop agreeing to take on new projects for a while, to help move my current projects forward and start “clearing the board” of things that had been waiting for my attention. If the state of my home office is an indication of the number of current projects waiting for my attention, it’s definitely time to institute the “no new things” rule again. Beyond the things I discuss in this half of the year-end post, I won’t be taking on any further new clients for 2020, adding any travel, or starting any new initiatives. 2020 is officially fully booked.
So, where am I headed this coming year? I’ll be visiting all four mainland time zones, sampling cider in nearly every part of the country, attending and running a litany of entrepreneurial events in Iowa and beyond, and launching some great new content across different media. In just a month, I’ll be rubbing elbows with cider makers and enthusiasts at CiderCon in Oakland, California. This spring will once again be “entrepreneurial season,” with events in Ames, Des Moines, and Cedar Rapids. This summer is going to be an amazing time in Iowa City to celebrate entrepreneurs, creatives, freelancers, and small business owners. Just before the start of fall, I’ll once again head west to the front range, spending a bit of time in the startup community, with the rest of the time devoted to experiencing cider in the other parts of Colorado I’ve yet to visit. 2020 will finish out with another trip to New England for next year’s Franklin County Cider Days. All along the way, I’ll be helping to advance the entrepreneurial community right here in eastern Iowa with the rebirth of events which have gone by the wayside in the past few years.
Here’s a breakdown of the biggest events I have on my calendar for 2020 (dates with question marks are guesses, based on previous years, where event organizers haven’t yet posted the 2020 dates):
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CiderCon (January 28-31): This year’s CiderCon should be a bit less icy and snowy than 2019’s adventure in Chicago. I’ll be heading to Oakland, California, to learn more about the industry and to visit as many cider makers in the Bay Area as I possibly can during the week of the event. The day before the main convention begins, the organizers are putting together four separate cider tours in different parts of the area – one to the East Bay, one to San Jose, one about California apple history, and the one I’m planning to attend in Sonoma County. The rest of the week will involve educational seminars, the trade show, and plenty of tastings and food pairings. This will be my first trip to California, so I’m planning to hit a few of the usual tourist traps in the area. Here’s hoping the weather in the Midwest holds out long enough to fly out, and then fly back a week later.
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Young Entrepreneur Convention (April 4): As I mentioned in the first half of the post, the Young Entrepreneur Convention made the move from Des Moines to Ames in 2019 and organizers have started retooling the format of the event. In 2020, they are moving to a one-day event and dropping the Friday evening networking event and keynote. This will be the fifth year of the event, and as of April, I’ll be proud to say that I’ve stuck with them through all five years. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of line-up the convention will have, and what different topics are discussed over the course of the day. Let’s hope the snow stays away this year, as the 2020 event will be a couple of weeks earlier than the past four years.
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Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition (May 13-15?): I learned more about cider during the two days of stewarding at GLINTCAP in 2019 than I ever could have just exploring the topic on my own. I plan to steward again in 2020 and stick around for the Great Lakes Cider Festival (if it lines up with GLINTCAP again) to promote Cider Finder and possibly guest pour with one of the cideries in attendance.
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Monetery (May 19-21): Just like 2019, I’ll be combining GLINTCAP and Monetery into the “spring mega-trip” once again. I’m looking forward to seeing if the Monetery organizers make any more changes to the format of the conference – it grew from a free half-day event the first year to a paid full day plus optional second day meetings with investors, moving to three days in 2020. The talk were great, but the multiple quality networking opportunities are what really set this conference apart from others I’ve attended in the past.
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EntreFEST (June 4-5): I wasn’t able to make it to EntreFEST 2019 because it was on the same week as GLINTCAP 2019. I had a chance to talk with EntreFEST organizers a few months ago, and one of the things we discussed was how full May tends to be with other events and the end of the school year. With NewBoCo’s heavy emphasis on education, having the convention in early June might allow educators and ed-tech companies to better participate. We’ll see how it pans out in June.
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Johnson County Entrepreneurship Week (July 13-17): I haven’t released a lot of details about this project just yet, but I’m hoping that in the future, Johnson County Entrepreneurship Week can become the crown jewel for our local entrepreneurial ecosystem in the years to come. Modeled heavily on Denver Startup Week, we’re planning to keep the event as low cost as possible, while allowing local and regional entrepreneurs – everyone from small business owners, to freelancers, to startup founders – the opportunity to connect and learn over the course of the week. I’ll have more information about this event here on the blog in the next couple of months as we work out more of the details.
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Startup Weekend Iowa City (July 17-19): To finish out Johnson County Entrepreneurship Week, we’re bringing back Startup Weekend Iowa City again for 2020. Our goal remains 50 attendees, and tickets will go on sale for SWIC in April. The SWIC Kickoff Party on Friday evening will also function as the wrap-up party for Johnson County Entrepreneurship Week, and I’m hoping we’re able to drag in a few stragglers to join us for the rest of the weekend, to build something awesome over the course of 54 hours.
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Denver Startup Week (September 14-18): I’ll be traveling to Denver for my fourth straight Denver Startup Week. However, I’m only planning to attend the first couple of days of this year’s event – luckily, Denver Startup Week tends to be front-loaded, so I’ll be able to catch most of the good stuff before I leave. From Denver, I will then travel to western Colorado to visit several different cider makers in that part of the state. Then, I will travel to New Mexico for a couple of days and experience the cider scenes in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, followed by a return trip along Interstate 25 through Pueblo and Colorado Springs before I land in Denver again for the Great American Beer Festival.
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Great American Beer Festival (September 24-26): While Cider Finder doesn’t serve the craft beer community, there is a bit of overlap between the beer and cider communities. I’ve wanted to attend GABF in past years, but Denver Startup Week and GABF were too far apart to justify spending that much time away from home. They are close enough together in 2020 where I can spend the week in between visiting cider makers to promote Cider Finder. I plan to attend the Friday, September 25 session of GABF before returning home on Sunday, September 27.
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Franklin County Cider Days (November 6-8?): My trip to New England nearly two months ago was a fantastic experience, and I feel like I only scratched the surface of the cider community in that part of the country. My focus beyond the core Cider Days program will be the parts of New England I missed in 2019, potentially visiting cider makers elsewhere in New England or upstate New York. I haven’t created a full itinerary for this trip as of yet, as new cider makers continue popping up practically each week. I’ll have more information on this trip in a few months.
While the cider and entrepreneurial events tend to get the most column inches in this blog, I do have some awesome projects coming along that I’ll be releasing over the course of the next year. The Cider Finder beta will wrap up in 2020, and after (hopefully few) bug fixes, I’ll be able to release the full version of the app for all platforms. It’s been a long three years in the making, and it will be a great test to see whether or not there’s a market for this product. If there really is, the money should start rolling in over the next year. If not, this is a great test case to move into app development on the freelance side, to complement the Web, audio, and video products I already create.
I have the first few Freelance Media Podcast interviews lined up, so that podcast should finally see the light of day early in 2020. I had the idea for this podcast a couple of years ago, but I haven’t had a chance to actually produce the episodes. I’m looking forward to getting this out there, along with several video projects that have been sitting there on several hard drives, just waiting for me to find the time to get things put together. Video and audio production, while a ton of fun, is a time consuming process. It’s not exactly something that can be done in small chunks of time, like answering email or doing a bit of writing. The best time to work on this stuff is the darkest part of winter, and now is that time. Keep an eye on the blog and on the Freelance Media Newsletter for updates on these projects.
BondingBox also has several things in the pipeline. We’re pivoting toward more of a date idea clearinghouse, moving away from just another company that provides a subscription service for date nights at home. Between retooling our Web site and our DateBuilder card game, we’re moving toward the business of providing ideas and the tools to make those ideas a reality. We’re going to release some amazing things over the next year with the help of our partners, and I can’t wait to share what we’ve been building. Stay tuned for more information on this in the coming months.
To wrap up my look into the year 2020, I’d like to end with three predictions for the coming year about the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in eastern Iowa:
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There will be at least one big acquisition of a startup in eastern Iowa by a large Fortune 500 company in the next 12 months. I have this sinking feeling we’re really close to another TelePharm-like acquisition with the number of well performing startups in Johnson County. We have some fantastic ed-tech companies and amazing biotechnology firms operating here. I think it will probably be one of the biotechnology firms operating out of The University of Iowa Research Park that will be the next company to be acquired. We will have to see what occurs over the next year with regards to health policy, and whether any movement in this area will lead to consolidation among players in the industry. Whatever happens, I think we’re due for some big news in the coming months.
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Iowa City will become an educational technology hub in the same way Des Moines is a hub for insurance and banking. Between the programs at The University of Iowa, large companies like ACT and Pearson, and successful startups like Higher Learning Technologies and PearDeck, Iowa City is quickly becoming the place to go for educational technology. The hub for this industry has already begun to form in Iowa City and in Johnson County, and this is where the bulk of the activity will take place. Players in the ed-tech space outside Iowa City will definitely contribute, but will have to rely on resources from, and at times travel to Iowa City to fully participate in the movement.
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Iowa City’s entrepreneurial events will continue to grow, in spite of the lack of interest from government, quasi-governmental organizations, and local media. Completely through word of mouth and people sharing our information through social media, our local entrepreneurial events (Iowa City Open Coffee, 1MC Iowa City, Startup Weekend Iowa City) have continued to grow steadily over the past three years. We’ve had essentially no buy-in from city or county government, no help from the Chamber of Commerce or the Downtown District, and no coverage from local TV, radio, newspapers, or other publications. The chairs are all filled thanks to the hard work of organizers and the willingness of the community to support a local effort. I don’t see this situation changing in the next year – our elected officials and quasi-governmental organizations are too busy putting artwork in alleys and roads on diets, and our local media market is pretty useless (it’s sure telling that I’m able to get more coverage of our events from journalists in Des Moines than I ever can get from the Gazette and the Corridor Business Journal, located just minutes to our north.) We’ll see if any of them show up during Johnson County Entrepreneurship Week.
I think that 2020 is going to be an amazing year, both for the things I’m creating, and for entrepreneurs, creatives, and freelancers here in eastern Iowa. I’m incredibly optimistic about the future of my businesses, and we’re going to have an amazing time building the events planned for this summer. I’d love to hear what you think about the coming year, and I’d really like to hear about your big plans for 2020. Send me a message on your social media platform of choice, or send me an email about your outlook for next year. I think the momentum is finally moving in the right direction, and if we all keep pushing, we can really do great things. Hopefully, you’re willing to join in the journey and help continue moving things forward.