a canadian startup

How to Run a Startup Conference

Read this quotation from Founders at Work – Startup School 2008:

The event is free, because we know that the one thing most startup founders lack is money. It always seemed odd to me that so many conferences having to do with the web charged so much to attend. Many founders we knew (even ones with some funding) who were at ground zero of all the new things happening on the web, tended to be priced out of these events.We run Startup School like a startup. We offer bagels and coffee in the morning and not much else. There’s none of the extra stuff usually associated with conferences– no sponsors, no introductory remarks, no exhibitors, no bags full of schwag. Startup School is just about the content. And like a startup it has grown by word of mouth.

Great content, no schwag. Conferences that are designed for the participants (not profit, the media, or self-promotion) — how brilliant!