Dec 6th, 2007 by Dan McComb
We teamed up with filmmaker Len Davis during BizJam last June to create this video, which explains what Biznik is all about and features footage from BizJam Seattle and interviews with many event attendees. Check it out!
Tags: bizjam, business conference, business networking, videoJun 30th, 2007 by Dan McComb
We’re not quite ready to start posting podcasts of the BizJam sessions that were recorded on June 9th. But Joe Shirley, who hosted “Ditch Your Vision, Launch a Revolution” at BizJam, made a recording of his own, and has posted it on his blog, where it’s a 13 MB download. We’ll begin releasing podcasts of sessions ourselves here, once we receive them from the production company, which will be no later than July 9th.
Tags: audio, bizjam, conference, podcasts, seattle, sessionsJun 14th, 2007 by Dan McComb
I’ve posted the first photos taken by official event photographer Malcolm Smith on ShareMyAlbums.com, which is the official photo sharing site for BizJam. Here’s the link:
http://events.sharemyalbums.com/PublicEventView.php?event=28&u=2247144826
You can also join the Biznik group on ShareMyAlbums.com, and upload your own photos. We’d love to see them! You can join from the event page link above.
Tags: bizjam, conference, photos, seattle, sharingJun 13th, 2007 by Dan McComb
We’ve posted a SurveyMonkey online conference evaluation form for those of you who attended BizJam last Saturday. Please take the 10 minutes or so that completing the survey takes, to share your thoughts with us about how we can improve the conference. Also, you can leave feedback on each of the specific sessions you attended. Here’s the link:
Tags: bizjam, evaluation, feedback, indie business conference, online survey, seattleJun 8th, 2007 by Dan McComb
BizJam is tomorrow, Saturday, June 9. If you’re among those attending, here’s some last-minute info for you. And if you haven’t RSVP’d yet but are planning to attend, please do it online and save yourself (and us) the hassle of waiting in line to process your registration. Here’s the link: https://biznik.com/bizjam/signup.lasso.
This message contains some reminders and additional information about the event.
BizJam is being held in TWO VENUES.
DAY: 8am to 5pm
Youngstown Cultural Art Center
4408 Delridge Way SW, Seattle 98106
view map
EVENING: 7pm to 2am
The NEW Little Red Studio
750 Harrison, Seattle 98109
view map
Registration.
If you’re receiving this message - you are registered.
Simply come to the door with your ID and get your packet.
You will be asked if you want a vegetarian or chicken lunch.
Registration opens at 8am.
Introductions & Keynote start at 9am.
If you are registered to attend the DAY AND EVENING portion of BizJam, you will also receive a blue wristband.
Wristbands are your entrance ticket to the evening event.
If you registered for the DAY event only and would like to come to the evening event, you can pay at the door.
Name Badges.
Biznik has teamed with WaggleLabs to provide Pathable Name Badges.
These aren’t your run-of-the-mill nametags - they’re NETWORKING badges based on tags you choose,
and it displays who you should meet who’s in attendance.
Skip waiting in line tomorrow.
Fill out your questionnaire online now and your name badge will be waiting for you in your packet.
Questionnaire: http://pathable.com/events/bizjam07/users/new
Learn more about the badges.
JamSession (workshops) selection.
No pre-registration for the workshops was necessary.
Check out the listings in the catalog (or online) and simply attend the ones that interest you.
Conference program.
The 36-page program containing the schedule and workshop descriptions in the form of a PDF
is available for download from: www.biznik.com/pdf/bizjam.pdf
Hard copies will also be available tomorrow at the venue.
Parking.
One of the great things about the Youngstown Cultural Art Center (day venue) is the plethora of parking!
There is ample free parking on the street,
in the parking lot of the city park across the street,
and in the Youth & Family Services lot, across the street.
The evening venue parking situation in the South Lake Union neighborhood is a tad more challenging - but you can park for free on the street.
Lunch & Dinnner.
Lunch:
We’ve contracted with Bizniks Scott & Beth Yockey Jones from Elemental Catering to prepare lunches for all BizJam attendees.
They’re making both a vegetarian option (roasted veggie sandwich) and a non-vegetarian option (chicken dijon sandwich).
You will receive a ticket for your lunch when you check in.
Dinner:
There is a two-hour break between the day event and the evening event.
Keep in mind that many schools are graduating tomorrow night, so some of the nicer restaurants might be crowded.
We’ve arranged for Dante’s Inferno Dogs stand to be parked outside the evening venue between 6 and 8pm.
Dante makes the best dogs in town - an assortment of sausages and condiments.
Evening event.
The evening event is packed with a:
Seattle Ignite presentation
Biznik Indie fashion show
Biznik Awards ceremony
A silk rope aerial performance by Beverly Sobelman
Tiberio Simone of LaFiga Catering is providing light appetizers and finger desserts.
A cash bar supporting local art group, the Space Virgins, will be open from 7pm to 2am.
Electronic dance beats will be spinning from 11pm to 2am.
If you registered for the FULL event - admission is FREE.
If you only registered for the day event and wish to come to the evening event afterall:
$20 admission.
$15 for supporting members.
No cover price after 11pm.
Bring your cell phone and participate in BizJam SMS!
Thanks to Jordan Schwartz and Waggle Labs, BizJam has it’s own conference SMS “backchannel.”
What is that?
It’s basically group SMS chatting on your cell phone - JUST for BizJammers.
You send out a message to the group, and everyone who’s signed up can see it and reply.
Signing up is easy and you can do it NOW.
Send a text message from your cellphone to
206 766 0955
that reads:
.join BizJam
(include the period!)
Your phone will receive a reply and ask you to set your name.
Reply with a message reading “.name yourname” (without quotes - but with period)
It has to be unique to you, so choose something like DanMcComb, instead of just Dan -
or better yet! YOUR BUSINESS NAME.
That’s it. You’re signed up!
To send a message to everyone else who is signed up,
send any text message to 206 766 0955
(Save that number in your phone’s address book as “BizJam SMS”)
If the chatter gets too much, just send “.quit”
to the same number to turn it off.
You can also invite people by sending “.invite
We’re looking forward to seeing you!
Lara Feltin & Dan McComb
Biznik co-founders
Jun 7th, 2007 by Dan McComb
This is a reminder to everyone attending (or thinking about attending) the evening side of BizJam. Evening events begin at 7pm at The New Little Red Studio in S. Lake Union. Admission to the evening BizJam events (catered deserts, Ask Later presentations, indie biz awards, fashion show and aerial performance) is included in your full pass purchase price. If you did not purchase a pass in advance, you can pay at the door - $20 ($15 for supporting members). At 11pm, when the Biznik 2.0 launch party begins, we’ll stop charging cover and open it up to everyone.
Invite your friends to come celebrate with us - we’ll have DJs Sweet Chris Bell and Mychosis throwing down until 2am.
Tags: bizjam, biznik launch party, indie biz conferenceA revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having.
– William Rockwood
Jun 7th, 2007 by Dan McComb
On Saturday evening I’m going to be handing out a dozen indie biz awards to outstanding Biznik members. And thanks to Kestral Vintners, I now actually have something to hand out besides praise: bottles of hand-crafted wine.
Kestrel would love to donate wine and thought we would do 6 of our Platinum series and 6 of our Lady in Red series. They are blends: the white is
a unique blend of Viognier and Gewertraminer, and the red is Cab/Merlot, Syrah
and Sangiovese. We are a vinyard estate winery and I am in charge of many fun
programs that would work great with all of you Biznik “peeps.” I look forward
to meeting you!!
Thank you Kestral - we look forward to meeting you too, and appreciate your support of Seattle’s indie business community.
Tags: bizjam, indie biz awards, wineryJun 4th, 2007 by Dan McComb
Wow, with less than a week to go to BizJam, we’re still getting new sponsors for Seattle’s first indie business conference! I want to send out a big “thank you” to chef Tiberio Simone, the creative force behind La Figa Catering. He’ll be providing appetizers and finger-food deserts on the evening side of BizJam events, and that means you can prepare to be amazed. Tiberio’s award-winning food has delighted audiences large and small, from 20-person weddings (Lara and I hired him for our tiny wedding) to hundreds at events like the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. If you see an Italian guy with a really big smile on his face offerring you a hand-made chocolate Saturday night, you’ll know you’ve met Tiberio. We’re all in for a treat!
Jun 2nd, 2007 by Dan McComb
We’re fortunate to have one of the world’s foremost authorities on business networking, Ron Sukenick, joining us at BizJam on June 9, where he’ll hosting a session titled “9 networking strategies every entrepreneur should know.” I’ve never met Ron in person, but from many phone conversations I’ve learned that his passion for business relationship-building is infectious. And as the author of two books about how to network effectively, he’s got a lot of say on the subject. So here he is, in his own words…
Q: What interests you so much in business networking, and how have you come to make a career of it?
What has interested me the most from inception is the opportunity meet and be with people. In fact, in a world where owning and operating a business is no easy task, the power of building, developing and implementing networks of contacts has been a life saver. I began back in the late 70’s in Los Angeles really taking an interest in the process and by the late 1980’s I was smack in the beginning of the biggest movement for expanding what today is considered the largest and most successful business-to-business contact networking in the world. That happens to an organization called BNI.
With a passion for being with and bringing people together, the word just kept getting out there and the next thing you know, people are interested in the message and paying to attend speaking engagements, workshops, and then other consulting opportunities as well. In fact, one day an editor from a publishing company heard me speak and he stated the following - “If you would promise that you would keep speaking about your passion on networking, and you could write a book, we would be more then happy to publish it. With that being said, it was clearly the fuel that kept the fire burning. The rest is all history.
Q: Tell me about the books you’ve written, and how you came to write them.
“Networking Your Way to Success” was published in 1995. The first book was easy to get out because it was very clear to me why a large percentage of people were not achieving the results they desired. I figured that if people would just develop the passion and form some strategy behind the process, then people can be in control of their efforts. This first book is about 9 networking strategies that, if implemented, will work for most people, most of the time.
My second book - “The Power is in the Connection” is really about taking networking to the next level. In essence, it’s beyond networking.
It is very interesting how this book concept actually came to me. Just picture this - I was getting ready to speak at a Jiffy Lube National Convention in Palm Spring in September 1995, and the excitement was building because my first book was also being published at that time.
I was on stage speaking to 600 people and within a split second it hit me that there was clearly a next level for the thing called networking.
As I kept speaking I stated that networking is awkward for most people, hit and miss for most people, and in more instances always about individual success.
If you think about it, I really started to tell them that while networking has served us well, there was clearly a next level for the process.
You see, people tend to use this incredible marketing tool as a way to make sales, and if they would spend more time and effort developing a relationship focus, and look for ways to co-create and collaborate, the idea of networking could easily be moved into a new philosophy for building business with others.
I ended building the basis of the new book around the philosophy called NetBeing, a word I coined that captures the Essence of a relationship mindset.
“The Power is in the Connection” helps individuals build out a roadmap for transforming their networking contacts into meaningful connections.
I’ve put in place with my writing partner 15 relationship building strategies that lay the foundation for long lasting business partnerships with others.
Q: Biznik makes a big point of emphasizing relationships over referrals. Do you think that’s a good approach?
In my opinion, it’s the most effective approach. Let’s be straightforward. As people, we want affiliations. And as human beings, we want relationship. From a business standpoint, there’s no doubt that relationships open doors. The fact is that relationships don’t always make sales.
But with all things being equal, and even if there not equal, people in business will more times then not gravitate toward doing business with people they or someone they know has a relationship with.
In closing, relationships add to the quality of life, and easily is translatable into enhanced revenue for all involved
Q: Is business networking different today than it was a few years ago? What trends do you see that affect how business networking takes place?
Networking it not like what it used to be.
Handing out your business card at monthly Chamber of Commerce meetings no longer qualifies as networking. Today’s business leaders know that real, profit-generating networking requires more. More strategy, more connectedness, and more trust.
I’d suggest we’re moving into an era where the relationship-based NetBeing, a set of attitudes and actions that foster real meaningful business relationships and build mutual trust, will overtake networking as a business development strategy.
Adapting to this new strategy brings its share of challenges but it can also yield great rewards. Partnerships form more easily. Sales and retention increases. Profits grow faster. After all success in business is all about relationships.
Q: What can people who attend your workshop at BizJam on June 9th expect to learn?
That’s a great question. In fact, I can hardly wait to hear what I’ve got to say! All joking aside, attendees will experience my tremendous passion behind the process that I’ve been building since the 70’s. I will help those in attendance implement a proven system of taking their existing networking relationships to another level. In fact, I’ll also provide a step-by-step approach in going from contacts to a meaningful connection. And if that’s not enough, I’ll throw in what I call the “Magic of Six.” This is a proven method for people to increase their frequency of interactions with others thus leading to mutually rewarding business relationships. And if that’s not enough, I’ll introduce what I call the “Small World” Theory. A method for reducing anything that is taking place at the point of interaction that has the ability to create the biggest impact on others.
In closing, I’m thrilled to be coming to BizJam on June 9, and looking forward to many exchange opportunities. Can’t wait to meet the people in one of my most favorite places in the world: Seattle, Washington.
Ron Sukenick is the Chief Relationship Officer and founder of the Relationship Strategies Institute, a training and Relationship development company that provides innovative, effective and relevant programs and systems for corporations, organizations, and associations. To learn more about the value of Relationship Development, visit their Web site at www.RelationshipStrategiesInstitute.com or e-mail him at - RS [at] RelationshipStrategiesInstitute [dot] com.
Tags: bizjam, business networking, networking, relationships, seattleMay 19th, 2007 by Dan McComb
Please take 2-3 minutes to complete this online survey, which will help us correctly assign classroom space based on the level of interest in each session. (Please only complete the survey if you are planning to attend or have already registered):
Tags: bizjam, business networking, seattle, survey
