Over 75 Events Related to Small Business, Food Innovation, Scale & Growth Slated For Week of June 22-28, 2015
Portland, Maine – Maine Startup & Create Week (MSCW) – a national conference and celebration of innovators, entrepreneurs and startups – has announced there are still some tickets available to the event, which will once again take place in Portland, Maine from June 22-28, 2015, with the aim of showcasing Maine’s vibrant, growing startup eco-system to the wider Maine community and attendees from around the country.
A Week Pass costs $499 and offers complete access to 75+ events, including daily keynote presentations, multiple sessions in three tracks, all evening events and daily access to the Red Thread Hub. A Day Pass, which costs $150, includes the keynote presentation, multiple sessions in three tracks, evening event and access to the Red Thread Hub. The Weekend Pass, at $225 includes all Friday and Saturday events
Presented by Norton Insurance • Financial and Blackstone Accelerates Growth, MSCW will host eight sessions each day that are focused on three tracks – Small Business, Food Innovation, Scale & Growth – while each afternoon a nationally recognized keynote speaker will share his/her thoughts, learnings and expertise with registrants.
The full schedule can be found online at www.mainestartupandcreateweek.com/schedule/, with some of the highlights listed below:
MONDAY, JUNE 22
Trends in Financing for Growth – Discussion of trends in financing for companies looking to grow quickly.
Making Maine a Great Place to Grow Food Companies.
What Growth Looks Like in Maine – Hear from three successful entrepreneurs about how they scaled their businesses, and whether being in Maine helped or hindered their success.
Rapid Prototyping: Learn how to expediently and efficiently prototype to ensure scaling quickly.
Innovate with Freelancers – Global Knowledge to Grow Your Enterprise, Right Here in Maine: Learn how to leverage this talent, and tap into their global knowledge base and skills to grow your enterprise, business or latest innovation.
Green, Clean and Stretching the Seasons: Learn how high-tech greenhouses, bio-digesters and other innovations are increasing efficiency, intensity, and sustainably for farmers.
Crafting Your Message: Make sure your brand is sending the right message to your consumers – A discussion on the ways in which to create the right brand message.
Getting Your Food Product Ready for Retail: Regional and national retail buyers discuss the details of getting into regional and national chains.
Donato Tramuto: Keynote Speaker
TUESDAY, JUNE 23
New Grocery Model: From Farmer’s Markets to National Chains – how to look ahead to food trends to better serve our customers and our businesses.
Stories of Successful Pivots: Discussion on successful pivots, in the face of changes in company culture, product development issues, design issues, user experience and customer research.
New News Media: Staying relevant in the evolving face of news media.
Market Share versus Consumer Share: The pros and cons of going after larger portions of your existing market or vertically integrating new products into your existing customer base.
Craft Spirits in America – A panel will explore the craft spirits space by looking at challenges associated with this growth category, as well as favorable trends among distillers and consumers.
Managing Conflict: How co-founders and partners manage conflict and come out on top of their business.
Customer Acquisition: Growing Your Customer Base. How to get your first 100 customers, and how that’s different from your next 10,000.
Your Early Hires: A panel discusses finding your skills gaps and hiring growth drivers before they get expensive, and learning to assess ROI and whether to hire at all.
From the Kitchen Stove to the Marketplace: Discussion on early problems of starting a food business, how they were solved, and how to avoid many before they happen.
Jules Piere: Keynote Speaker
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24
Coding, the New Literacy: Why and how communities and companies are building the workforce of the future.
Owner-Operator Syndrome: Learn how to delegate your business process to ease bottleneck and promote growth.
Farm to Fork 2.0: How connective software can improve farming, distributing and marketing about local food.
Ad Tech & Big Data: How big data and ad tech are evolving to create new advertising opportunities.
Food Company Sustainability: A 360 Degree View: Discussion on how to be a truly sustainable food company and the balancing act of staying true to your mission and profitable at the same time.
Brand Building for Growth in the Digital Age: Building and managing your brand in the digital age.
Crowdfunding Sales: How small businesses can use crowd funding to fuel business growth at the local level.
Reinvigorating and Innovating Traditional Crops: Learn how to get value from your harvest, moving beyond a commodity sale by telling the story of your harvest, sustainability and relationship with the source.
Cheryl Heller: Keynote Speaker
THURSDAY, JUNE 25
Falling Forward: Learning from stories of failure from people who have overcome theirs.
Social Media – Great When it Works: Learn from panelists who have built their businesses around social media, as well as entrepreneurs who use social media to drive non-sales indicators for their businesses.
Food Distribution: Learn how a food entrepreneur starts and how to grow successful partnerships with distributors.
Design Accelerant: Discussion on the role of art and design in value creation, differentiation and scale.
Food Distribution: A panel will cover different distribution types and provide insights on challenges of distributors working with different types of growing companies.
Valuation Narrative: Entrepreneurial tales of valuation and exit strategies
Agile Manufacturing: How do you plan for manufacturing growth in an innovation economy: A discussion on planning for growth in economy, how to find manufacturers, and how manufacturers can help fill skills gap.
The Art of Sales: Discussion on why sales people are the most important people in organizations and explain the recruitment, training and incentivizing of sales people.
Market Insights on a Shoestring: How to evaluate a market opportunity, and use the basic market research and market testing tools to fail fast and fail cheap even before the prototyping stage.
Financing Food Ventures: A panel of artists who are leading fast paced startups and prominent national companies discuss the role of art in design.
Steven Kotler: Keynote Speaker
FRIDAY, JUNE 26
The Abundance Cycle: Jay Friedlander discusses how he is helping sustainable companies reign supreme through an innovative and holistic framework.
Food Branding, Design and Marketing: How to tell your story while staying true to your brand and finding the right audience.
Build a Killer Team: Learn how industry leaders are recruiting and managing talent that they need to beat the competition.
When to Innovate: A discussion on when it makes sense for small companies to take on the risk and overhead to introduce product innovation.
Food Incubator Models: A panel will discuss what food incubators are, citing some examples from around the country.
East versus West: Why someone should start a business in Maine versus Silicon Valley or Boston.
Space Matters Workshop: Transition from a bootstrapped workspace to a thoughtful and effective place of business.
John Gosier: Keynote Speaker
SATURDAY, JUNE 27
Product Innovation Maine: An inside look at how great Maine companies are at positioning their products.
How to Live Well and Make A Living in Portland: A look at how transplant employees and their employers are solving the trailing spouse issue.
For additional information with regard to Maine Startup & Create Week, or to sign up for particular workshop, visit http://www.mainestartupandcreateweek.com/.
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Notes to Editors
MSCW is led by a dynamic group of individuals and organizations that are invested in the success of startups, entrepreneurs and innovators. This group includes volunteers from Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, Creative Portland, Mobilize Maine, Portland Public Library, Big Room Studios, Shines & Jecker Labs and Seaglass Events.
Sponsors of MSCW include Norton Insurance • Financial, Blackstone Accelerates Growth, Maine Magazine and Old Port Magazine, Maine Today Media, WCSH6, WBLZ 2, Portland Development Corporation, J.B. Brown, Maine Technology Institute, Bangor Savings Bank, Red Thread and Turnstone, Uber, Bernstein Shur, IDEXX, MEMIC, Verrill Dana, Gorham Savings Bank, Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, Pro Search, athenahealth, Planning Decisions, Perkins Thompson, CashStar, Portland Museum of Art, Industrium, and Visible Logic.
