(The eagle-eyed among you will note that for the past two years, the conference has been called SLLCONF, after Startup Lessons Learned. I think it's time to rename it since that's the phrase people actually use.)
Although we’ve changed the name, the format will be the same as the past two years. We'll continue our rule of “by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.” We’re assembling a lineup of speakers and case studies, from famous companies you've heard of as well as up and coming ones you haven't. They’ll share real-world stories of lean startup principles in action and answer your questions. We'll be long on case studies, examples, and how-to, and short on propaganda and exhortation.
Want to get a taste of what the conference will be like? Be sure to check out complete (and free video) of our past events at justin.tv and Udemy. Or you may prefer Sean Murphy's outstanding conference summaries.
In addition to our conference day, we’re thinking of adding two new elements this year: a day of intensive workshops, and site visits to actual practicing startups. We’ll launch registration soon, promise.
In the meantime, we’re looking for a few things:
* Speaker nominations. We’re particularly interested in hearing from people we don’t yet know who have teachable experience implementing lean startup practices. Some of those folks might be speaker newbies. At the same time, we want really engaging presenters. So we’ve created a short nomination form where you have to include a link to a video of the speaker. Our preference is for videos of speakers in action at a conference, meetup, Ignite or anywhere else they’re presenting in a traditional setting. For totally new speakers, however, we’ll accept a two-minute video of the person describing the lean startup experience they want to share on stage at our conference. For people who are promising and who have unique stories to share, we’ll provide hands-on help developing presentations, plus speaker training.
Because we want speakers that our community can vouch for, you can’t nominate yourself, and you can’t be the nominator if you’re a PR agent and the speaker is your client
Note that we’re keen on lean startup stories from unusual industries or types of companies. We’re particularly interested in bringing in the perspectives of women, people of color and other groups typically under-represented at tech conferences. If you work with somebody who fits that description and who has a usable lean startup story to share, hit the form--it’s mercifully short.
* Bay area startups that want to host a stop on the group tour. Let us know if that’s you.
* Sponsors. If you’re interested in sponsoring or want more info, email us.
Finally, I want to note that this year’s conference is being produced by New Context, where I’m a general partner. They’ll bring a terrific team to work on the event, and I expect this to be our strongest conference yet.
