It’s been quite the couple of months of entrepreneurial ecosystem building through online events. One big event down, another now on the horizon, and a great celebration of what we’ve accomplished at 1 Million Cups Iowa City over the past three years. Since the beginning of the year, and specifically in the last few weeks, I really feel like the momentum to make the entrepreneurial ecosystem better has finally started to take off. Perhaps what I’ve been preaching over the last few years is finally starting to stick!
Startup Weekend Iowa Online wrapped up nearly four weeks ago after a six-week sprint to get the event up and running. This was the first statewide online event – we’ve done Startup Weekends in multiple cities at the same time – Startup Weekend Iowa City 2015 was part of the most recent one – but there’s never been an opportunity to have the entire state come together at a single event from the comfort of their own homes. Not only did we have participants from across Iowa, we also ended up with participants from across the world! It was an amazing chance to show off the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and I feel like we did a great job.
Techstars gave us the opportunity to play around with some of the formatting of the weekend, including shortening the event from 54 hours down to 26 hours – Friday evening to Saturday night. They didn’t have much data regarding the online experience, since there haven’t been too many online events since the concept was birthed just over a year ago. I had participated in the first nationwide online event back at the beginning of the pandemic, so I used my experience of being a bit disconnected by the end of the weekend to guide our decision to cut roughly a day out of the event. Sitting at my computer at home all weekend seemed way more exhausting than being around others for the same length of time. As I’ve said before, there’s just something about the energy of others that you can’t replicate online.
We were also able to pick our online platforms for the weekend. We ended up using Discord most of the weekend, and then used Restream to livestream the public facing events on YouTube and the Startup Weekend Iowa City Facebook page. There were a few hiccups getting some people on the Discord server, but I received a lot of feedback that the tech stack we used was the best experience they’d had with any Corona World virtual event. During no other event over the last 14 months have I heard the phrase, “It just works!” The few issues we had with Discord were relatively easily fixed, and now I have a better idea how to manage events like this in the future.
The major issue that occurred during the weekend was participant retention. We had nearly 75 people register for the event – numbers I’ve not had at any other Startup Weekend event that I’ve organized or facilitated. Unfortunately, only about a third of the people bothered to get on to Discord by Friday evening. We ended up with 17 people participating during the event, and a couple of participants dropped out because they were too wedded to their own ideas and didn’t want to jump onto another team when those ideas didn’t gain any traction. I also blame the low conversion between sign-ups and participation on the fact that tickets were free. People had essentially no skin the game, so it didn’t matter if they showed up or not.
Startup Weekend Iowa Online wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing team that came together across the state. Most of the team was based in Des Moines, where they haven’t had an in-person Startup Weekend in over six years. I’m glad that there are a few people over that way who want to start carrying the torch for entrepreneurial events again. There have been a few scattered, one-off events before Corona World plus the Young Entrepreneur Convention yearly and 1MC weekly in Des Moines, but nothing else really continuous that builds the cohesion needed for a strong startup community. I feel like that’s finally starting to change.
Also, having others across the state begin to gain interest in regular entrepreneurial events gives me hope that I’m not going to be the only one doing the heavy lifting forever. There are times where I feel like I’ve been yelling into the void about the importance of regular events in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. It’s a tried and tested way to keep momentum going, and was a major part of the Boulder Thesis in the book Startup Communities. I proposed a talk on this very topic for last year’s EntreFest, but their selection committee composed primarily of corporate middle management types unsurprisingly rejected it.
Fortunately for the statewide startup community, there now seems to be a growing number of people who “get it.” With this momentum, we now have an opportunity to launch a bunch of really awesome projects. Talking with the folks in Des Moines, I found out that we have many of the same types of events in mind – Startup Weeks, tech crawls, hackathons, and open coffees. Weekly, monthly, and yearly events, many of which are free or very low-cost, with a minimal amount of existing community gatekeeping. Outreach to non-traditional entrepreneurs outside of the tech space – brick-and-mortar retail, freelancers, and makers of physical products. Highlighting traditionally overlooked segments of the community and bringing in the superconnectors in those segments.
You can’t wait for people to come to you in order to build a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem: you have to open up the ecosystem and bring the message to entrepreneurs and connectors of all stripes.
So, what’s next? Here in Iowa City, live events are returning soon, starting with another Startup Weekend! We’re in the first stages of planning Startup Weekend Iowa City 2021: EdTech Edition. I’m coming together with the Iowa EdTech Collaborative to create an educational technology-focused Startup Weekend with participants ranging from traditional entrepreneurs to educators and students. We’re planning to hold the event July 16-18, but tickets aren’t available yet. The official announcement should be coming in about a week, so hang in there as we get the last few pieces in place.
Beyond Startup Weekend Iowa City, 1MC Iowa City is planning a return to in-person events before the end of the summer. We promised the University of Iowa’s Hawkeye Student Accelerator that their students’ presentations in June and July could be done online, so we’re going to wait until at least August to resume meeting face-to-face. While it’s been more time efficient to do an online show from home each Wednesday, I’m really looking forward to spending Wednesdays downtown again. After what will be almost 18 months of Zoom, a change of venue is sorely needed. Open Coffee will also start meeting at 8 am again, expanded back to an hour from the half hour we’ve been doing since going online last spring.
I have a great feeling about what we can build this spring and summer. It’s going to take persistence and a lot of hard work, but the wheels seem to be in motion once again.
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