by John Gaudio,
EntConnect is more than a conference. It's a retreat for high tech entrepreneurs, and boasts roots going back to the first EntCon in 1992. EntCon, short for Entrepreneur's Conference, was the brain child of Bill Gates, publisher of Midnight Engineering Magazine. It was an excellent excuse for entrepreneurial engineers to come together for skiing, good company, and the opportunity to spend time with wonderful, independent, like minded, and sometimes geeky souls here in the Colorado Rockies.
We start Thursday, March 25th, with a day of world class Colorado spring skiing, typically Keystone, Breckenridge, or A Basin, whichever has the best snow, followed by drinks and tall tales in the hotel bar.
Friday we race go karts on a challenging track with very hot cars, followed by experiments using gun powder and lead to blow little orange disks from the sky. Known by some as shooting trap. Friday evening we gather for a traditional Italian Feast at Maggiano's Little Italy, just a block from our hotel.
These first two days are optional, but offer a jump start for getting to know one another, building new friendships, renewing old acquaintances, and learning how fellow entrepreneurs deal with some of the issues we all face. Plenty of time is built in for relaxing, talking, swapping stories and ideas, and letting the backs of our brains work through the big picture problems we never take the time to deal with at work.
The "conference proper" starts Saturday morning and runs through the wee hours Saturday night, with breaks for lunch and dinner. Did I mention it includes a poker tournament late Saturday evening? More sessions follow on Sunday morning, and by 2:00 PM Sunday the conference comes to an end, and the last of the die hards head out for a final lunch.
Yes there will be technical topics, and we'll look at marketing, sales, issues with customers, employees, family members and the like, and technically that's what makes it a conference. But it's also a time to relax and learn from entrepreneurs like yourself, taking the time to shoot the bull, while learning from, teaching, and building relationships with new friends and potential business partners. That's what makes it a retreat.
Specific topics will be discussed in a future post, but you can visit http://EntConnect.org to learn of past topics and speakers. Sign up if you like, we offer a money back guarantee. I think you'll like it. :-)
(FYI, our Bill Gates is a few years older than the one who started Microsoft, but he's still a most interesting character.) :-) |
