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Silicon Prairie Social
By Rob | October 9, 2007
I recently had the chance to interview Tim Courtney of Silicon Prairie Social. It’s an interesting idea and Tim seems to be having lots of success with it. The Q&A is below.
1. How did Silicon Prairie originate? Where did the idea come from?
Our company, XNet is a successful Internet startup from 15 years ago. Over that time there hasn’t really been a cohesive technology community in the western Chicago suburbs where we are located. The idea for Silicon Prairie Social came to us when we saw social events in the tech industry happening in other places like downtown Chicago, but not in our area, where there’s also a large and established industry.
Earlier this year, I attended a few TechCocktail events downtown Chicago. That gave us the inspiration as a company as a company to step up and host a cocktail event closer to home from which the businesses and entrepreneurs in the western suburbs could benefit.
One thing we’ve noticed through our collective experience is events that have come and gone have all been formatted so the attendees come with a “what’s in it for me” focus, and the spotlight has been shone on just a few parties. To make ours different, we designed special icebreaker name tags with “I Need” and “I Know” at the top to get people talking to each other. The result: People are still calling and emailing a week after the event, thanking us for the number of highly targeted contacts they’ve made to help them advance their goals.
Over time, we believe formats like this will build a tightly woven community that brings value to everyone.
2. What has the response been so far?
The response has exceeded even our expectations. Our official attendee count was just over 200, but others have estimated the number in attendance as closer to 300. I have to go off of our count officially, but it did feel like more than that.
Because we held the event in the suburbs, we drew a lot more established businesses from the mature IT industry in the area. This complimented the energies of the younger generation (from which I come) where web2.0 startups are popular. We believe this mix of generations will facilitate connections where seasoned pros can offer ‘gray hair’ to young entrepreneurs, and the young generation can offer energy and an innate knowledge of social media and new technology to established businesses. Hence, we’re really excited to see what comes of this in the long run.
3. Entrepreneurs are often busy people working under the radar. How do you get the word out and find entrepreneurs?
At first, we tapped the same community that’s emerged around TechCocktail. Several of our initial sponsors came as referrals from the TechCocktail organizers, and together we got the word out to popular Chicago blogs like TechCocktail and WindyBits, event calendars like TechSocial, and outreach to associations like the Technology Executives Club and the ITA, who promoted us on their sites and in their newsletters.
Eventually, news of the event reached the Chicago Sun-Times via a reporter and also through TechVenue.com, who feeds the technology event calendar they publish in the paper and online.
4. Building a startup takes a lot of time. Why do you think there is value in leaving the office to go network?
Startups are looking for these three critical things: customers, talent, and funding. Talking up your idea or product at a networking event gets you exposure to users, people with opinions (free advice/help!), and possibly even the media. It could even be an introduction to a paying customer, depending on your product. Also, the others who attend a tech networking event have the skills and ambitions startup comapnies are looking for. Finally, venture capitalists also attend these meetings (I’m aware of a couple who attended the first Silicon Prairie Social) and it’s a good way to meet those people in an informal setting without walking through the front door.
Case-in-point: PunchEngine is a startup who sponsored our first event. They’re launching soon and are looking for users and funding. They left ecstatic over the people who were interested in their site — from potential partners and talent to leads on funding to well-wishers with good ideas to give them.
5. Entrepreneur clubs often end up overrun with service providers in the long term. I’ve been to some that had 3 lawyers, 2 accountants, and a banker for every 1 entrepreneur in attendance. Are you ok with that, and if not, how will you prevent it from happening?
We’ve been aware of the same thing from the very beginning, and we are working to keep the audience focused at future events so quality doesn’t degrade over time.
We’re OK with having service providers, so long as they are active participants in the community contributing value to the group. We’re more concerned with is professional recruiters headhunting talent and people who only attend to gather as many cards as possible for a sales gig that doesn’t build the community (such as multi-level marketing types or something outside the industry such as insurance).
For future events, we may add to the event details a list of the types of job roles the event is for, and who it isn’t for. Since we collect companies and titles, we’re considering refusing RSVPs from certain categories like MLMs or recruiters. Obviously this isn’t foolproof, but we can show the group we’re making our best efforts towards presenting them with a focused audience of peers who they can gain value from versus being overrun by people who are more interested in business cards to make a quick sale.
Now that it’s been a week since the event, we’ve had the chance to digest the outcome of the first event and start looking towards SPS2 and expanding the group with events in other formats. Stay tuned for some exciting announcements over the next couple months!
Topics: Midwest |
