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Denver Startup Week: Conferencing, Reimagined (Part Two of Six)

Monday


The first day kicks off with free breakfast burritos, coffee, and an annual group selfie with the mayor, who talks more like an MC than a politician.


“What’s up people? Welcome to Denver Startup Week!”


The lights are low – it was almost dark – which I guess is necessary to emphasize the laser lights and disco ball. The energy in the room is explosive. Denver seems to know something the rest of the country doesn’t know about yet.


I meet my first smiley event-goer within minutes, a woman representing her Energy company. After welcoming me to Denver, she saves my seat so I can seek out more burritos, before the real speeches begin.


The best speaker by far is the CEO of Meow Wolf, an experiential art company that is expanding into Denver this coming year. He talks of the special place Denver is in, that space where creativity is paramount, money is rolling in, and everything is possible.


This guy is so genuine it’s inspiring, even as he shits all over San Francisco for its gentrifying tech takeover. But he shits on Austin too, which makes me feel better. Judging from the applause, I’m not the only person who thinks this guy is awesome.

Castle, who came in late, nudges me in the ribs. “This guy is awesome. I’m doing a fireside chat with him later today at Basecamp. You have to come.”


I nod, just as someone comes over with a clipboard to pull Castle away.


After 4 more speakers, I leave the kickoff breakfast early to drive 10 minutes in my Scion to see learn about The Future of Work, as the name of the seminar denotes. The future is set in a tech café, with free bagels (for those that missed the burritos). This space is amazingly modern. Lots of glass, raw stone and wood and heaping tablespoons of sunlight pouring in through the floor to ceiling windows.


All the laptop stations are taken, as are most of the individual chairs. The room is quiet.


I find a well-used loveseat in the front row, which is where I meet Maureen, who was fine with being interrupted from thumbing through her iPhone. Thank God for Maureen.


Maureen’s from Denver but she’s lived in the Bay Area so she knows my landscape. She was welcoming, alive, and eager to learn about the future. She’s a second-career User Experience Designer, which means she makes a living figuring out the path people want to take; that’s what I do too, as a Career Counselor, only she works in products, I work in life.


Maureen and I talk right into our presenter’s intro. Turns out I know more than I thought about the future of work. Here are some of the key takeaways:


  • It’s a gig economy, meaning everything is done in small projects, big companies are trying to be smaller, and small businesses are popping up more than ever. Over 50% of the workforce is choosing an alternative work life, ie. not a 9 to 5 job.
  • The robots are coming! Enter Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Sensor-guided, internet-enabled machinery for home, work, and transit.


This seems like old news to me, though elegantly delivered in an engaging pitch. Not to be a snobby California butthead, but these things have been happening in Silly Valley for a while now.


Maureen and I pair up for the dyad exercise, but instead of doing it, we yammer on about the Bay Area, exchange business cards, and I tell her I’m presenting on Friday. She expresses interest and I get the sense that she’s telling the truth.

We head in different directions out the door. Places to go.


Next up, in staying with the career theme, a workshop entitled What Do You Do in what seems like a mall lobby. Not what you’re thinking. I didn’t realize mall lobbies could be so gorgeous. Picture all white tile and glass, and a set of blonde wooden bleachers running up the wall, peppered with people behind their laptops.


This presenter is courageous, and not just because she’s wearing a monotone pantsuit. She performs live career coaching right there in front of 100 people or so! She’s clearly an expert at molding stunted talking points into polished elevator pitches. I guess she’s done this all over the world. She’s a bit corporate for me but judging by the applause, she helped a lot of people.


Takeaways from the elevator pitch queen:

  • People need to hear or see a brand at least 12 times before it starts to sink in. Yikes! That explains those YouTube and NPR ads.
  • We hire on the future; we justify on the past.
  • To be remembered you must be compelling, unique, and authentic.
  • Be careful about being the Get Shit Done (GSD) person in the office; you won’t be invited into the conference room where the decisions are made.
  • Infighting and politics happen when people don’t realize how they’re contributing (or aren’t really contributing at all).
  • You have a lot of competition. There were 12 billion resumes submitted for jobs last year alone.

On the way out I meet Charles, who’s just moved from the Southeast to Denver. He’s a got some good things to say about race relations and social justice, which is unexpected, but easily carries us the 10 blocks back to Basecamp where Castle is doing her Fireside Chat with that Meow Wolf guy. I’ll end up doing that walk and seeing that “mall” a few more times throughout the week.


Highlight of the day, hands down, is this chat with Mr. Vince from Meow Wolf. Look him up; it’s worth it. Essentially, this guy walks the walk of making money with art and being damn proud of it. His whole business model revolves around getting artists paid. For Denver, he’s set to hire hundreds of artists to design rooms in a brand new experiential museum that will be lodged in the triangle of 3 different highways.


His message?

  • Stop blaming capitalism and take your art seriously; seek ways to make money with your art so you don’t have to suffer through a shitty day job, a bootstrapped (read: nonexistent) budget that limits your creativity, or the lack of control that goes hand-in-hand with outside funding.

The other thing I notice about this guy (and all of the other most memorable presenters) is that he cusses when it’s necessary. You can always tell when someone curbs their language with “stuff” or “freakin.” It’s disingenuine and everyone knows it. Not Vince. He let the F-bombs and S-grenades fly – a surefire way to show the audience you give a shit about your topic.


Before leaving, Vince begs Denver, sitting before him in folding chairs, to retain the “Vibrancy of the City” This translates to “protecting your artists and your creators, something no city in the US has succeeded in doing.”


Whoa. I didn’t expect to be knocked over with a pro-capitalism philosophical shout-out from an artist at a tech startup event. As I would continue discovering throughout the week, Denver’s got a lot of surprises.


I decide that’s enough for the day, jump in my Scion, pay the parking garage attendance $15 for all-day parking, and head back to my pool house for a dip in the 90-degree pool. After doing the deadman’s float for 30 minutes, I hop out, email Maureen and Charles, and change into evening-wear. There’s a kickoff party tonight at some beer garden. Gotta go to that.


Good call. The Uber driver knows exactly where I’m going. Castle is surrounded by a ring of people and I’m knighted with Brian’s employee pass to load up on G&T’s the sponsored drink of the night. We’re standing in the middle of the city in an open space with house music, dance floor, and food trucks. It’s a damn good time. We night-cap at an old-school Hip Hop dive bar called Rock Steady, with a discounted menu for Startup Week goers. It is a seriously unpretentious crowd, including the conference goers. The drinks are stiff and the bass is deep. No stuffy networking wine tours for Denver. Just shouted conversations, laughter, cigarettes (actual cigarettes) on the side patio, and the occasional flash of a business card.


We stay ‘til closing. I do the math. If I want to make the first presentation tomorrow, I have 4 hours of sleep ahead of me.


Lesson of the Day

Be bold, be genuine, and embrace your ability to make money with your creativity/art/business. Then go out with your friends and get hammered.


Check out Part One of this series.

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