[StartupDigest] Summary: NextGen Conference with Cory Levy
NextGen Conference was the last event I attended for this week. It took place yesterday all day so it might be a bit early for a summary but I’ll be adding in more content as it comes in during the week.
Full Disclosure: I had the pleasure to help organize, speak, and throw the after-party for the conference so I personally might be a bit biased in how cool it was 
The conference was put on by Cory Levy, 18 year old entrepreneur who has already worked for 2, yes 2!, venture capital firms at his age. He literally cold called me a couple months ago asking for advice and help with this conference idea of his and there was no way I could refuse. Here was the premise of the conference:
The inspiration
The Next Generation Conference is primed—uniquely so—to take on the extraordinary challenge of renewing our economy. It’s not recovery that is needed; it’s the revitalization that comes from innovation, creativity, value building, and entrepreneurial spirit invested in all of our work. NextGen has been founded to help you.
About the conference
NextGen is a one-day conference at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley.
NextGen’s mission is to help you succeed, by providing lectures, panels and networking opportunities on areas that are vital in building and maintaining your business.
Some of the topics will include:
- How to pitch (what you need to present in your deck and how to be prepared)
- Importance of asking for help / mentorship
- And plenty more topics!
Overall the conference was a little long but a lot of fun. Here are some videos of the talk, the lineup of speakers, and a couple blog posts about it.
Video’s of Conference
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nextgenconf
Lineup of Speakers
http://www.nextgenconf.com/speakers.php
Blog posts about conference
http://www.corylevy.com/2009/10/05/nextgenconference/
http://www.danielbru.com/2009/10/04/nextgen-conf/
[Startup Digest] Summary: ETL Talk – Steve Blank, Stanford Professor and Serial Entrepreneur
Sadly I couldn’t make it to this weeks Entreprenuerial Thought Leaders series with Steve Blank 
but as I’ve highlited before in my last ETL post here, they are some of my favorite events and talks.
So for not being able to make it I thought I would highlight his last talk here and info on where to find future ETL talks:
All of Steve Blank’s E-Corner Video’s here:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2048
MP3 of his 2009 ETL talk:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/edcorner/uploads/podcast/blank091111.mp3
Post about what is customer development by Eric Ries
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/what-is-customer-development.html
For future ETL talks go here
http://etl.stanford.edu/
http://bases.stanford.edu/
[Startup Digest] Summary: Cal Poly Venture Challenge
Hey everyone and welcome to a new week of [Startup Digest] Summaries! The test last week of this new column went so well I am going to continue to write these summaries every week of the events I attend for the week.
This week was a bit slow for Startup Events but on Tuesday I had the pleasure of speaking at my Alma Mater Cal Poly San Luis Obispo during their entrepreneurs workshop series. A lot of big changes are happening at Cal Poly and I wanted to dedicated a summary to their main initiative the Cal Poly Venture Challenge.
Basically the Cal Poly Venture Challenge (CPVC) is a collection of a startup competition, engineering competition, speaker series, and summer incubator program very similar to what BASES at Stanford is doing. In fact we are copying much of what BASES has done at Stanford during its early years since its one of the best entrepreneurial organization models at a University I have ever seen.
The event I spoke at was how to effectively write an Executive Summary to move forward in the competition. Sadly there is no video or pictures of the event (Come on Cal Poly!) but here are a few links of interest about the program. And if you are in the San Luis Obispo area I would highly encourage you to get involved and attend all of their events.
Cal Poly Venture Challenge main website:
http://calpolyventurechallenge.com/
A few articles about the program
http://pacbiztimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=963&Itemid=47
http://calpolynews.calpoly.edu/news_releases/2006/July/iq_awards.html
http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/announcements/cal-poly-venture-challenge-and-innovation-quest
http://www.billtrammel.com/2009-ray-scherr/
A few of my own blog posts about the program
http://entrepreneurialactivism.com/2009/03/14/bill-trammel-cal-poly-business-plan-competition-the-wrap-up/
http://entrepreneurialactivism.com/2009/03/22/2009-cal-poly-business-plan-competition-photos/
leave a comment