UNIVERSITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

ROB WILLIAMS | PATRICK LUENSMANN

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA – REGIONAL BUSINESS CENTER

No Conference -> Let’s Make One!

Timeline

Idea Planted by UNI Team in 2007 after seeing a gap

Roundtable Engaged & Planning Committee Formed

First Conference Held in 2008

EntreFest! Matures

Leadership & Collaboration

Partnerships Formed Every Year with City, Chamber, Main Street Orgs, etc

Expanded Planning Committee

Over 1,000 Iowa small business owners touched

Iowa Service Provider Smorgasboard

Successful Five Year Run

Inspiration & Innovation

Traveling- highlighting five entrepreneur communities

Surprise and Delight

Informational Sessions on Emerging Technologies, Social Media, Guerilla Marketing

Inspiring Speakers Recruited

Eschewing the Conference Model

Entrepreneurs Leading New Models

BarCamp

1 Million Cups

Startup Weekend

Our Approach:

Listen, Imagine, Collaborate, Evaluate

We need entrepreneur partners...

A New Collaboration Begins

Public/Private Partnership Formed

Reimagined “EntreFEST”

New Conference Born

Collaboration at Work

Speakers

Venue

Content

Impact and Outcomes

Attendance Records Broken, and Unprecedented

New Relationships Forged in Entire Entrepreneur Stack

Several Startups Launched

Major Media Coverage of Innovation in Iowa

Sustainability

Shared Ownership

Constant Relevance

Broad Audience

Institutional Support

Scalability & Replicability

Open Sourced EntreFEST

Multi-State Attraction

Shared Ownership and Resources

Universities Best Positioned to Lead or Support

Come to EntreFEST 2015!

May 20-22, 2015

Iowa City, IA

http://www.EntreFEST.com

Join us at EntreFEST 2015