February 2015 marked the second time members of the Startup Grind Kalamazoo Chapter had the opportunity to attend the annual Startup Grind conference. While Chapter Director John Mueller traveled to Redwood City, California to join other directors on February 7th and all attendees on February 9th, Matt and I stayed in Kalamazoo. We didn't completely miss out, though, since the conference was recorded as it was streamed live.
Anyone following #startupgrind on Twitter would have seen what I did - pictures and quotes from the directors during sessions setup just for them. One of John's tweets at StartupGrindKAL on Saturday included a picture of a long view of the group of directors in the audience listening to the Startup Grind headquarters staff.
By Monday, as the starting time for the main event became closer, communications were more direct between Redwood City and Kalamazoo. It turned out that the streaming was not available on Monday night. The team in charge of the videos did have the recordings available before Tuesday's sessions began. Since there were only a few from Monday, I was excited to watch them all right away.
Tuesday was different for a couple of reasons. First, streaming would be available all day for those who wanted to watch. Second, The two of us in Kalamazoo were hosting a "watch party" in the evening. We were able to use our usual space, thanks to Maestro, and we were able to provide some food, thanks to the Western Michigan University Entrepreneur Club. John messaged to make sure all was well for the evening event. He sent a picture of the crowd gathering, and I put it on the large screen TV and took a picture in front of it. Does it look like I was there in person?
We had a small and highly engaged group watching for an hour and a half on Tuesday evening. Most of the attendees were new to Startup Grind and were excited that they could continue to watch more on their own on Wednesday. When someone asked where John was sitting in the audience, I relayed the question to which the reply was "In my normal place in the room. In the back, in the balcony."
The evening ended for the conference with a reception in Redwood City. For the Kalamazoo group, the evening ended with heading out of the building and, at least for me, going home. One more full day of the conference left.
By Wednesday, I could feel the excitement after watching many of the segments during the previous days. I knew I wouldn't be around to see all of it live. As soon as I could, though, I was glued to my computer screen and sometimes chatting with John or other friends who were viewing as I was. The segment I wanted to see the most was at the end, "The Man Behind the Pink Mustache," which was a conversation with Logan Green, Founder of Lyft.
It felt really quiet to me on Thursday after being a part of the conference, even with most of the action through the computer screen. When the Kalamazoo Chapter Team met in person a week later, John gave suggestions of more segments to watch. I am glad I did, too, since one of those suggestions was for Charity: Water, another of my favorite presentations. I also loved the interview for RockHealth at least partially because the interviewer and the founder were both women.
I have wanted to go to the conference since I first knew about Startup Grind in 2013. The answer for 2016 is still to be determined. If you would like to be able to see the 2015 agenda and the available segments, please click here and, as Startup Grind Founder Derek Andersen might say, "Keep grinding."