Thoughts about Touchpoint 2009

I’ve been enjoying thinking about last week’s Startup Princess annual conference, Touchpoint and connecting with all of the new Startup Princesses who attended for the first time. There was such a wonderful energy there of love, friendship, and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship among the attendees and presenters, sponsors and exhibitors. I’ll mention a few highlights…attendees (Here’s what attendee Ann Webb thought), we would love to hear your thoughts as well. (Photo: Heather Bailey)

We started off the day with a networking activity to help the attendees connect right off the start and a chance for attendees to meet different exhibitors. I love the magic when two people connect for the first time and realize how they can benefit one another in life and business. Then I started the event welcoming new Startup Princesses and spoke about inviting God to be an active part of their business. I invited the attendees to write down their three most pressing questions and to allow the possibility of receiving the answers they seek through the conference presentations, conversations, and keeping an open mind about what’s possible. Tony Litster also spoke at the start and helped set the tone for the event, inviting attendees to make a visual of what they wanted to feel and receive by having had attended the event.

Amy Rees Anderson, Founder and CEO of Mediconnect Global was the first keynote speaker. What an honor to have Amy join us, she had just returned from a trip to India for her company. Amy spoke about her story and how as a young single mom she started her first company. She created a goal poster of what she wanted to create and put it on her office wall. Everything on her goal poster has come true– and then went on to eventually raise $50M and has 1000 employees worldwide. One of my favorite quotes of the day was from Amy who shared an anonymous quote to inspire us when times get tough in life and business… “It’ll all be ok in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end.” Pam Baumeister also loved that quote.

Next was a keynote about creativity by craft goddess, Heather Bailey an all around favorite by attendees. Amy Smart wrote a great post about Heather’s presentation. One thing that really stood out to me is that Heather shared that when she was in her darkest moments when she said she was stuck and didn’t know what to do that’s precisely when she received the most inspiration—her Trash Ties and then her idea to start making fabric. I think a lot of us can relate to Heather’s experience, when we are humbled we are brought to our knees and that is when we can receive powerful insight.

Janice Croze, a true networking queen of 5 Minutes for Mom was the last keynote who shared her insights about how to build partnerships through networking. One of the first things she emphasized is to get out of your comfort zone then seize opportunities. She shared that as we give to others first we naturally can demonstrate our value and genuine interest in them and as a result the good karma comes back to us.

Lunch was next- during which attendees had a chance to see exhibitors and get to know others and put some of those networking tips to work. After lunch we had a media panel. I moderated and we featured Michelle McCullough my partner and owner of Doodads Promotional. Michelle had been on all of the big shows- Today Show, Good Morning America, etc. years ago when she was a guest because her father died of SARS and the media wanted to know about this disease. We also featured Nancy Cadjan who is one of the hostesses of the Babies and Moms Radio show with over 40,000 weekly listeners.  Nancy has been producing the show for nearly 3 years.  And we also featured Pam Baumeister, editor of Wasatch Woman magazine who previous to the magazine had a radio show on a popular station.  We covered a range of topics including don’t repeat yourself, speak in sound bites, build relationships with the producers for long term opportunities, don’t spam producers or editors with your press releases via email, rather write a personalized message that demonstrates that you know their audience and propose a story idea that might be a good fit, bring more than one outfit to tv interviews, and more. (Photo: Attendees Rian Krommenhoek and Rachel Hagen)

After lunch was breakout sessions. There were many choices (Carol Rice, Carla Meine, Karmel Larson, Ghennipher Weeks and Heather Bailey) and I’m sorry I don’t have notes on all of them. I was able to attend Tony Litster’s and he did an exercise with us called “the Conversation” You can see it here, I highly recommend it.

Then was the tough video marketing competition. Congrats to the winner, Carrie Lundell! Thanks for everyone who competed and donated all the fantastic prizes too. Here’s three of the finalists Justine Green, Carrie, and Marcel Walker (finalists not pictured: Heather Ledeboer and Amy Sharp)

And at the end we finished with a boutique with over 20 attendee vendors and with entertainment by April Meservy and Nicole Sheahan, a great way to just relax and have fun together, seeing each others’ products and services. (Photo: Pamela from Tom and Lucy’s Art Shoppe)

Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed! Especially thank you to our presenting sponsor, Bank of American Fork and to all of our speakers! Touchpoint 2009 was very special because of all of you.

Did you attend? What did you think?