More than 1,000 entrepreneurs from coast to coast will meet in Cincinnati at the end of September to showcase their ideas and business prospects.
Everywhere Else Cincinnati, a national startup conference that aims to bring together entrepreneurs and venture capitalists outside of Silicon Valley to Cincinnati, will be held Sept. 29 through Oct. 1—the two days leading up to
The Brandery’s Demo Day.
“Our goal with the conference, and the series, is to help startups and entrepreneurs through education, connection and inspiration,” says Nick Tippmann, co-founder and CEO of
Nibletz—the company hosting the event. “And we do that through connecting them with our speakers and mentors that are going to be at the event.”
The first Everywhere Else event, held in Memphis last February, drew more than 1,200 people, inspiring Tippmann to expand the conference to more cities throughout the nation.
“It went so well that we thought, ‘Hey, we could do this same thing up in Cincinnati,'” Tippmann says. “We’re trying to really bring together the regions, different startup communities everywhere from Indianapolis, up to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburg, Philidelphia—really all around the region—to come to Cincinnati and see what’s going on in Cincinnati, really unite everyone.”
“The second goal of the event is to invigorate and unite the local startup communities,” Tippmann, 23, says.
Tippmann’s passion for entrepreneurship bloomed early. He began his first business in high school and, shortly after, enrolled at Indiana University to study marketing and entrepreneurship.
After attending his first technology conference in 2011,
The Combine in Bloomington, IN, Tippman moved to Cincinnati to work with
The Brandery and AndTix.
“That really opened my eyes to this whole world of entrepreneurship that I didn’t even know existed,” Tippmann says. “And I found out that this is really where all the action and entrepreneurship is happening in the world, that I really needed to get involved with it.”
However, upon realizing AndTix wasn’t going to work out, he joined
The Brandery graduate Impulcity—an app that allows people to find events and other places in their city—shortly after to help with marketing and business development.
“The Brandery gave me some real-world experience working with high-tech companies,” Tippmann says. “Really working with investors and building a product.”
Then, in June 2012, he joined
Nibletz, an online media publication and event production company, which started in March at
South By Southwest by entrepreneur Kyle Sandler.
“I never planned on going to get a job after college,” Tippmann says. “The idea was always to open my own business.”
Nibletz then put together the Everywhere Else events to unite the disparate startup communities throughout the region.
“[Sandler] wanted to come up with an idea to put together a conference, originally called Pitch Miss, but we couldn’t get the ideas to work together in such a short time,” Tippmann says. “It started from the humble beginnings of getting 500 people [to the Memphis convention], but we quickly sold over 1,000 tickets to the event and had to move to a bigger venue.”
One of the convention’s primary events, The Startup Avenue, will host nearly 60 fundable companies that are either looking for investment or just received investment, in an environment where they can all meet at one expo.
Keynote speakers at Everywhere Else Cincinnati include
Scott Gerber, founder of the
Young Entrepreneurship Council, and
Joe Medved, partner at
SoftBank Capital.
Each night, following the main event at
Duke Energy Convention Center, after-parties will be held throughout the city, where attendees will be able to meet event speakers. Locations will be determined in the coming weeks and will be announced through
Everywhere Else’s website.
“We really put an emphasis on allowing our attendees to reach our speakers,” Tippmann says. “That’s kind of one way we try to differentiate ourselves from some of the other larger conferences on the coast. “We really want to give a chance to our attendees and startups at the event to meet our speakers and mentors.”
While Nibletz is primarily a Memphis-based business, Tippmann is looking to expand more of his work to the Cincinnati area.
“The goal is to keep a presence in Memphis as well as open up an office here in Cincinnati sometime in 2013,” Tippmann says. “My goal is to stick around and do the event here annually and see where it goes from there. I’ve really had a great experience with the community here, and I’ve really gotten involved in the past 12 months I’ve been here and plan to stick around.”
Everywhere Else Cincinnati’s kickoff party starts at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29, and is open to the public.
“For attendees, we really look for them to register for the event and be ready to make connections, be ready to meet new people, [and be] outgoing,” Tippmann says.
For more information about Everywhere Else Cincinnati, including speakers, schedules, or how to register for the event and get involved, check out the
Everywhere Else Cincinnati website.
Soapbox Media is a sponsor of Everywhere Else Cincinnati. Use the code “sbee20” to redeem a 20% discount on event tickets.