I said that I wasn’t going to post again until after my adventures in October. However, I didn’t know that there were going to be so many different stops over so many weeks next month until I put together the itinerary just the other day. Actually, things stretch into the first part of November, so it’s a month-plus. It’s going to be an exhausting series of weeks, and I can’t wait!
The rush of travel and events coming up in a couple of weeks feels much the same as July did – cramming half a year’s worth of activities into a single month. July represented the first half of the year, and October represents the second half. My hope is that next year, we’ll be back to an event schedule that’s more evenly distributed throughout the year. I’ve already decided that I’m not attending any virtual conferences in 2022, and I feel as though many others have made the same decision. The only thing that would change this is if I’m asked to present or lead a discussion. Much like my stand against paying to network and paying to pitch a business, I now refuse to pay for virtual conferences. The ROI just isn’t there.
So, where am I going on what I’ve named the “Delta Be Damned” tour?
- October 3-10: Denver Startup Week and visits to several Denver-area cider makers – My last trip to the base of the Rockies was two years ago, several months before the start of Coronaworld. Denver Startup Week 2019 had their biggest-ever attendance numbers, and I had an amazing time zipping around on electric scooters from one venue to another. While a handful of in-person events are back for 2021, most of the sessions will be online-only. Denver Startup Week is actually not the main reason for heading west this year. I’ll be visiting a number of cider makers throughout Denver – most will be first-time visits, but there might be a return visit in there as well.
- October 12-14: Startup Champions Network Summit, Des Moines – I had a chance to attend SCN’s virtual summit last year and got to meet a number of entrepreneurial ecosystem builders located throughout the United States. This year’s conference happens to be in Des Moines at the downtown Gravitate location, so deciding to attend this in person took about three seconds. From some emails I’ve received, there are going to be a number of Startup Weekend people attending, and we’re planning some sort of reunion/get-together during the summit. Unfortunately, I’ll be in town long enough to attend the summit and meet with other attendees before heading to the airport to make it to the next stop.
- October 14-17: San Antonio Startup Week – If all of my flights go as scheduled, I should make it to downtown San Antonio about an hour before Tech Fuel, a large pitch competition with a big pool of prize money that’s part of the larger San Antonio Startup Week program. I’m not going to pitch anything – I was invited down there by one of the San Antonio Startup Week organizers to experience a bigger chunk of the entrepreneurial ecosystem than I was able to see during my short stay around the Startup Weekend event back in July. During my three days in Texas, I’m hoping to catch up with the folks at Geekdom and make a bunch of new connections in the area. I’ll also have some time to do a bit more sightseeing – last time I was there, I heard something about a revolving restaurant at the top of the Tower of the Americas. Food plus spinning? A winning combo.
- October 23-24: Iowa Startup Games – this one’s not exactly traveling, but something I’ve missed during the last couple of years, so I’m adding it to the tour. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, I’ve had the opportunity to mentor the students who go through this program, usually held in the fall and spring each academic year. It’s a lot of fun to just show up for a few hours, distribute some knowledge, and cheer on the teams at the demo day on Sunday afternoon.
- October 30: Ames for Young Entrepreneur Convention – I didn’t know if the team in Ames was going to actually run this event in 2021, so I was extremely happy to get the email a couple of weeks ago announcing its return. I know that the organizers have wanted to show off the new student entrepreneurial center at Iowa State, and they were bummed that they couldn’t do it in 2020. The speaker schedule looks intriguing, and there’s always a bunch of opportunities for networking in between speakers. I’m just crossing my fingers that we don’t have a surprise snowstorm that weekend. I will actually be staying in Des Moines the night before, so I don’t have to leave the house at 5 am on the 30th.
- November 4-9: Startup Weekend Anchorage and Startup Week Alaska – to round out the end of the tour, I’ve signed on to facilitate Startup Weekend in Anchorage the first weekend in November. I jumped at the opportunity to head north, as I’ve never had the opportunity to visit Alaska. They traditionally use Startup Weekend – specifically demo day on Sunday evening – as the big kick-off event for their Startup Week. The organizing team is still considering holds these events virtually, but would like me to still make the trip, so I can get a feel for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Anchorage. However this ends up playing out, it should be a great way to connect what we’re doing here in eastern Iowa to their programs.
The other big thing that I’m not really including on the tour is 1MC Iowa City on October 20: my final day as the “face” of the chapter. After a bit more than two years at the helm, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to step back as the emcee and lead organizer and pass the torch to another member of the committee. It’s never a good idea for one person to permanently run one or more segments of the startup community – it should be a rotating, community effort. I’ve led the chapter through 18 months of Coronaworld, and I’ve scheduled the chapter into February of next year, so I’ve given them plenty of notice and lead time to start picking up the reins and steer.
Stepping away as lead organizer has been a while in the making. I’d actually started discussing it with a few close friends back in early 2020, before the pandemic hit, and I thought I’d be doing a ton of traveling for Cider Finder by the end of 2020. Then, we took 1MC online in the middle of March and all travel ceased, so I decided to stick it out until we got things back in person on the other side. Weeks turned into months, turned into more than a year straight online. The organizing committee decided that we’d go back in-person at the beginning of August, so that’s when I made the announcement to the group that I was stepping down at emcee on October 20, 2021. Unfortunately, we were only back in person for two weeks before MERGE closed down to outside events for another few weeks, but that didn’t change my decision.
It was a tough decision to make – I’ve loved every moment leading this group, and bringing our chapter through the pandemic while everyone else shut down for a few months has probably earned me a boatload of entrepreneurial karma. However, there’s a certain point where paying it forward loses its luster. I feel like I’ve reached that point. Actually, I’ve felt like I reached that point a number of times over the last 18 months with a number of entrepreneurial ecosystem-building projects – feelings I know from past experience are the first stages of burnout. The private thank-yous and kind words along the way have prevented me from completely abandoning ship in the last year or so, and I do appreciate that. The unfortunate reality, however, is that shouldering much of the work in managing these entrepreneurial events, not receiving public recognition for it, and being passed over for opportunities to contribute in a bigger way elsewhere in the entrepreneurial sphere has been grinding me down to the point where I don’t want to keep helping. So, it’s time to take my energy and focus it completely on building out my own stuff.
We’re going to have a lot of fun on the morning of October 20. Come hell or high water, it’s going to be in person, either at MERGE if they are open again or somewhere else if they aren’t. I’m going to talk about what’s next for Cider Finder, both Startup Weekends Iowa City and Iowa Online, Iowa City Open Coffee, and myself. Also, it’s my birthday – the main reason I set this as the date for the passing of the torch. There might be cake and/or cider involved that morning as well. You’ll just have to attend to see what happens!
There you have it. The blog post I didn’t know I was going to write before the month or so of travel I didn’t know was actually going to come together until just a couple of weeks ago. Now that I know everything has fallen together so well, it’s time to get a huge pile of tasks done. It’s helped a lot in the last three weeks that the kids are both at school most of the day, as I’ve already worked through a number of projects and have made a bunch of progress on others. There’s still a lot to do and a lot to build before the end of the month, though.
I hope that I’m able to touch base with a lot of friends during the weeks on the road. If you’re reading this and want to grab coffee, lunch, dinner, or drinks when I’m in your part of the world, let me know. I’ve tried not to overbook Denver Startup Week or San Antonio Startup Week so that I’d have a chance to work in some meetings and fun along the way. It’s been 18 months or longer since I’ve seen a lot of you in person – let’s make the most of October. Who knows what else could be around the next bend!