Showcasing the Entrepreneurial Enterprises that are Reinventing Michigan’s Economy

May 19, 2011 3 p.m.- 9 p.m.

Heading for the Big Leagues celebrates entrepreneurship in the mid-Michigan region and gives attendees an opportunity to network and see firsthand some of the innovative products and services being developed in the region.

For the third annual event, the concourse at Dow Diamond will be transformed to a technology and innovation showcase, providing exhibitors the opportunity to display and demonstrate their innovative products to potential investors as well as key business, community and political leaders.

Special recognition will be provided to entrepreneurs and businesses that have cultivated mid Michigan’s entrepreneurial environment, including established and emerging companies that are critical to growing Michigan’s economy.

Register Now

Please join us for the VIP program starting at 3:30 PM ($100) or at 6 PM for the general public ($10.)

Momentum presents

The Michigan Lean Startup Conference

featuring Eric Ries of The Lean Startup

Thursday, May 19th, 8:00 to 5:00

Eberhard Center at GVSU. Grand Rapids, MI

For information and registeration visit leanstartupmi.com

The Lean Startup movement is taking hold in companies both new and established to help entrepreneurs and managers do one important thing: make better, faster business decisions. By testing assumptions earlier, faster, and with more rigor, you can improve your success rate. Bringing principles from lean manufacturing and agile development to the process of innovation, the Lean Startup helps companies succeed in a business landscape riddled with risk.

The Lean Startup Conference is an event designed to unite those interested in what it takes to succeed in building a lean startup. The day long event will give startups, aspiring entrepreneurs, technology professionals, investors, educators and entrepreneurial stakeholders the opportunity to hear insights from national leaders in the lean startup movement and learn what it takes to build a lean startup.

Speakers

Eric Ries- Startup Lessons Learned

Patrick Vlaskovits & Brant Cooper- The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development

Dan Martell- Strategies for Fast Growth Entrepreneneurs

Rob Walling- Lessons Learned Moving From Developer to Entrepreneur

William Pietri- Agile Focus

Jeffrey Schox- Schox Patent Group

Michael Godwin & Jason Townsend- Resonate Venture Partners

Gagan Palrecha- Chirply

Zach Steindler- Olark.com

Jeff Epstein- Zferral

Dug Song- Duo Security

Additional speakers to be announced

“The Lean Startup is a disciplined approach to building companies that matter. It’s designed to dramatically reduce the risk associated with bringing a new product to market by building the company from the ground up for rapid iteration and learning. It requires dramatically less capital than older models, and can find profitability sooner. Most importantly, it breaks down the artificial dichotomy between pursuing the company’s vision and creating profitable value. Instead, it harnesses the power of the market in support of the company’s long-term mission”. Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup Methodology

7pm, 2470 E. NewCastle Ln, Midland, MI

Facebook Event

Connecting creative entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses! Come meet people with ideas, who are making their ideas happen. This month we will be talking about…

LEAN STARTUP PRINCIPLES (Part I)- Getting your product to market sooner faster by identifying your minimum viable product (MVP) and testing it with your customer base to understand what your product should include to create the most value and build demand for when you launch.

A TAXONOMY OF REVENUE MODELS- We will be exploring Michael Rappa’s business models on the web. This is one of the most complete taxonomy of ways businesses make money that I (Caryn) have come across and can be applied to internet and non-web based businesses alike. To prepare to talk about how we can apply this to our own businesses check out http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html.

THE SOAPBOX/ SHOW’N TELL (Free Forum)- Have you been learning something while developing your business? Have you stumbled upon some great resources. This is your chance to share with our growing entrepreneurial community.

Please bring a dish to pass of $5-10 to contribute toward food.

MBS International Airport (MBS)- MBS is located in Saginaw, MI and is approximately 20 mins from Midland, MI.  

Flint Bishop Airport (FNT)- Flint is located in Flint, MI and is approximately 1 hr from Midland, MI.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)- Detroit Metro Airport is located in Detroit, MI and is approximately 2 hrs from Midland, MI.

If you are flying in for an event please email cshick(at)opportunityanalysts.com to see if a carpool can be arranged with other attendees to Midland. Let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to meeting you.

Held at the Alden B. Dow Creativity Center, 2203 Eastman Road, Midland, Mich. 48640 (Click on address for map) on Monday, August 10 – Wednesday, Aug 12 from 10:30 am – 4:30 pm.

Do you have a great idea that you’d like to pursue? Come to our concept crafting bootcamp. Concept Crafting is a interactive workshop designed  help you walk through the steps needed to have a viable business proposal. Takeaways for the Concept Creation event are:

• Creating, clarifying, and articulating the participant’s organizational vision, and purpose
  • Including needs and problems being addressed and the desired impact of the business
• Understanding who the customer’s will be, identifying their primary and secondary needs, and defining the scope of the venture
• Service and product development
• Creating a viable business model
• Mapping the next steps in launching the organization

Monday, August 10, 2009

10:15 Welcome
10:30-11:30 Area Innovation Showcase
11:30- 12:30 Food Mixer
12:30- 4:30 Vision Crafting Workshop covering:
• Creating, clarifying, and articulating the organizational vision, and purpose
• Defining needs and problems being addressed by the startup and the desired impact of the business
• Learning and understanding who the customers will be, identifying their primary and secondary needs, and defining the scope of the venture in meeting these needs

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

10:30 -11:30 Participant Progress Review (Optional)
11:30- 12:30 Food Mixer
12:30- 4:30 Service/Product Development and Strategy Workshop covering:
• Identifying who is paying for the product, why they would pay, and the value of their purchase defined
• Identifying different groups that would be impacted by the business and how the business is attractive to each group
• Creating incentives
• Aligning strategy to customer needs
• Developing strategy to provide the service/product
• (Possible IP/ Idea protection mini-session)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

10:30 -11:30 Participant Progress Review (Optional)
11:30- 12:30 Food Mixer
12:30- 4:30 Defining Your Business Model and Mapping Future Action Workshop covering:
• Creating a viable business model
o Different online, and service business model options
o Pricing
o Industry benchmarks
• Your pro-forma statements
• Mapping the next steps in launching the organization

* This agenda is subject to change, any changes will be imediately posted.

These events are being hosted free on your behalf by Opportunity Analysts, LLC and our sponsors. There is a suggested donation of $65.00 for this event. The sponsors and many volunteers who will be bringing you these events will greatly appreciate any support you can provide. Register Now!

Do you have a new product that you are trying to launch? Have a startup that is doing something innovative and unique? Want to inspire young entrepreneurs and let people in Mid Michigan know what you are doing? Interested in what innovations other people are doing in the area?

Show off your concept or attend the:

Area Innovation Showcase
Monday, August 10th 10:30am-11:30am
Alden B. Dow Creativity Center
2203 Eastman Road, Midland, Michigan 48640

This event will kick off Incuba8′s Concept Crafting Bootcamp which will walk young entrepreneurs through the process of developing a concept into a viable business. Register Today!

2470 E NewCastle Lane, Midland, MI, 48640, 7 pm- 10 pm, www.entremeetup.com, Suggested donation: $5

Objective: We want to create connections among smart, driven people from all walks of life in Mid-Michigan to build a better community and world together.

Speakers:

CCS Robotics- Tony Diodato, Inventor and CTO. Gary Familian, acting CEO

CCS Robotics is the leader and first provider of autonomous mobile robots in the clinical and laboratory environment. The Speciminder and RoboCourier units have been successfully operating in the clinical space for almost three years.

Kinetic Wave Power- Joesph Blackmore

A technology company formed to commercialize the cost competitive wave energy conversion technology called PowerGin ™

Midland Downtown Development Authority- Tony Kulick, Director

Tony will introduce the Midland Downtown Development Authorities (DDA) new Retail Incubator Program launch. Hear about the type of new businesses the DDA is trying to attract to downtown Midland and learn about the incentives available to assist you with your startup.

Activities:
• Business card table
• Quick 20 second intros for first time attendees
• Birds of a feather- learn about other attendees interests, skill sets, and new opportunities
• Three or four presentations from recent startups (7 min presentation, 3 min Q&A)
• Quick elevator pitches, announcements, and life changing books nominations
• Fellowship and food- Please bring a dish to pass or a donation

Please email me if:
• You are interested in presenting your company, idea, social venture, or issue at a future meetup.
• You want to submit an announcement before the meetup
• You are traveling from out of town.

Please spread the word about the group and invite any of your friends who care about changing the world and are interested in entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, public policy, politics, investing, healthcare, education, law, poverty, marketing, or technology. All are welcome!

Contact: cshick@opportunityanalysts.com

* Note: Thank you Ryan Allis and others in Chapel Hill, NC who helped inspire this meetup!

The Business Launch weekend is held at the Sloan Family Building at Northwood University, 4000 Whiting Dr. Midland, MI 48640 (click on address for map) on Thursday August, 13 – Saturday, August 15.

We’re looking for people with big ideas, graphic designers, marketers, web developers, and finance people. Let’s work together to make concepts a reality.

Who?
• Young people with great business ideas
• Business mentors and presenters with startup expertise
• Entrepreneurial support organizations that would like to be included in the organizational fair

What?
The Business Launch Weekend will bring together people interested in starting up or contributing to businesses from the surrounding area to work on developing specific concepts over a weekend. The first night is spent discussing ideas, presenting possible launches, choosing opportunities to be pursued, and organizing into teams. The rest of the weekend will be spent creating a business plan, website, business systems, and operational plans. Students who participate may be able to apply for internship credit from their university.

Day 1 -Thursday August 13, 2009

6:00pm Arrival, Introduction of Volunteers and Participants
6:30pm New Venture Pitches (Open to all participants with business concept- please submit on website beforehand)
• 7 minute presentation with 3 minute Q&A follow-up
8:00pm Self-Selection Process of Teams
9:00pm Check Point 1- Elevator Pitch
• Description of elevator pitch components will be available on website.
10:00pm Social Mixer – Event breaks to local establishment to continue developing ideas and meet participants

Day 2 -Friday August 14, 2009

9:00am Building Opens (Teams can meet if desired)
9:30 – 10:00am Welcome & Overview of the Business Plan Blitz
12:00pm Check Point 2- Teams have completed name (keywords), tagline, executive summary, vision statement, and have purchased URL and hosting
12:30 Lunch Break and Debriefing
4:00pm Check Point 3- Create basic live website/ wire frame, personalized email
1 page description of your business to inform the public, credibility establishing plan, identify keywords & setup sample Google Adsense & Adword campaign, logo & business card design (possibility of extension)
5:00pm Event Break- Teams finish all check points and fully debrief

Tentative Presentations (10-20 minutes each throughout the day, optional attendance):
Website tips and trick
Simple strategies for securing web traffic
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn Integration

Day 3 –Saturday, August 15, 2009

9:00am Building Opens
9:30- 10:00am Official Start and Marketing Blitz Overview
12:30pm Lunch break
2:30pm Check Point 4- Basic survey for potential customers, pricing, sales strategy plan, startup costs, create web presence strategy integrating social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
5:00pm Checkpoint 5- Pro forma statements draft, report on what was learned, what worked, what didn’t work, and packet of all previous deliverables and accomplishments, elevator
pitch (take 2)
6:30pm Mixer and Final Debrief

Tentative Presentations (10-20 minutes each throughout the day, optional attendance):
From basement to board room: how to create business credibility & consumer confidence
Pricing models
Attract buyers: New strategies and new guarantees for generating sales.

Day 4 –Sunday, August 16, 2009

2:00pm Community Presentation of New Business Concepts & Entrepreneurship Fair
5:30pm Closing Comments

These events are being hosted free on your behalf by Opportunity Analysts, LLC and our sponsors. There is a suggested donation of $65.00 for this event. The sponsors and many volunteers who will be bringing you these events will greatly appreciate any support you can provide.

Register Now!

Speaker Series Presents:

Alex Lindahl, Co-founder of College Mogul/Director of Ultra Light Startups

Please join us for this exciting free event!

August 13, 2009 beginning at 4:30 p.m., Sloan Family Building at Northwood University, (click for map),  Social Hour and Networking to follow

Hailing from Boston, the MidMichigan Innovators would like to welcome Alex Lindahl, co-founder of College Mogul and director of the Boston chapter of Ultra Light Startups.  Alex will share his experiences as a young entrepreneur and talk about the open source world and the power of crowd sourcing to accelerate technology startups.

Register today!

This event "was made possible by funding Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) received through the Mid Michigan Innovation Team (MMIT) in the Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor-Employment and Training Administration."

Come here what has happened over the week at Incuba8 by attending our Community Presentation Day. We will have people present their concepts, progress made, and future plans. This event will take place at the Sloan Building at Northwood University on Sunday, Aug 16th at 2 pm.

This event is open to everyone.