I’m looking forward to joining you next week for the New View luncheon. I’m the COO and local boots-on-the-ground Silicon Prairie News a blog, community-organizing and event production startup that’s working to grow the Silicon Prairie - the region that includes Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City and surrounding - as a national Center of Innovation.
We’re the group that put on Thinc Iowa last November and also do Big Omaha each May. Day-to-day we work to cover the people, companies, issues and culture throughout the region and put a megaphone to that activity so that others locally and across the globe know what’s happening here.
Brad Phillips asked me to put together a panel highlighting the growing technology startup community in Central Iowa. Charise Flynn, the COO of cash-transfer startup Dwolla, has agreed to join me to share information on what they’re building. Dwolla’s national profile has risen a thousand-fold in the last 18 months and is bringing a ton of positive attention to our city. Jake Kerber will also join in to talk about his startup Locusic, which can be described as a “Pandora for local music”. Locusic was born nearly a year ago at Startup Weekend Des Moines, a 54 hour event that allows people to pitch ideas for companies and develop them throughout the weekend. Through Jake and his team’s hard work Locusic is now live in Des Moines with plans to launch in Minneapolis and Austin soon.
Speaking of Startup Weekend Des Moines, the 2012 event is the day following the luncheon. Limited tickets remain so if you’re interested in taking a peak at this unique event or getting a feel of what its like to work for a startup, grab your ticket now: dsm.startupweekend.org.
We’ll be taking questions from the floor but feel free to send them in ahead of time (hint: you’ll probably get better answers, er, at least more thought out ones). Feel free to send to Brad or Lindsey or hit me up on twitter: @geoffwood.
Thank you all in advance and we all look forward to joining you!
COO, Silicon Prairie News
