Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, and they may very well be correct. As we continue to reminisce about this year’s Big Omaha, we find ourselves saying the same. With each of the photos taken by Malone & Company, it’s hard not to share your reflections and experiences from the conference. We’ve put together a spread of photos to take us through each day of the conference, providing enough snippets that there may be more than a thousand words to say.

Below are a few of the best from our collection from Thursday, May 12 (all taken by Malone & Company). To see pictures from the Big Omaha Opening Party presented by Rackspace, see our post: “A look back at Big Omaha 2011: Opening party photos.”

“7 a.m. waking up in the morning” is not just a catchy line from the internet meme Rebecca Black, it just so happened to be the exact time volunteers woke up and started Day 2 of Big Omaha. Pictured above, volunteer Shawna Soltis prepares breakfast for more than 600 attendees who would soon flood the gates of KANEKO.

As day broke, attendees assembled outside of KANEKO and awaited for the big day to commence.

Between breakfast, nine speakers, lunch and The Hood Internet concert to look forward to, attendees had a full day ahead of them. To map out their Big Omaha experience, the event program designed and cleverly folded by Oxide Design Co. provided all the need-to-knows and slipped conveniently into the pockets of attendees. And with the help of Ninth Division and Confurrent, attendees could also view the event schedule, #bigomaha Twitter feed and Flickr photo stream on their hand-held devices with the Big Omaha app (See our post: “Big Omaha – Ninth Division delivers with third rendition of iOs apps“).

A high-five to a job well colored, sir. Ben Lueders, winner of the What Cheer Coloring Contest (See our post: “With sketches of the Silicon Prairie, Ben Lueders wins a Big Omaha ticket“) celebrates the morning session with an spirited high-five, which he self-proclaimed as the “Greatest High Five” of the conference. And, as I was on the other side of that hand, I’d have to agree.

Whether it was a sleek silver look or an out-of-this world navy number, the Big Omaha store had options in stock for all attendees to complete their wardrobe. This year’s shirts and even posters and stickers replicated the changing flair found on bigomaha.com, and buyers had their choice of space station, moon or UFO to best represent their Big Omaha galactic adventure.

Dear: Worldian Andy Stoll and nearly every attendee had some ink work done during Big Omaha – and, although these ‘tats’ were painless and washable, each one represented a message to the world. The Dear World: Omaha photo booth had attendees marking their bodies with motivational phrases and posing for powerful photos throughout the conference. To view all the Big Omaha Dear World: Omaha photos and learn more about DearWorld, see our post: “Release of Dear World: Omaha photos and letter from founder“

As one of our four art installations, it’s safe to say the folks at What Cheer brought the most heat with the Selective Perspective Detective Objective (SPDO). Their competitive edge – or, matrix barcode – coupled by a find-and-seek game had attendees savaging around venues in search of hidden QR codes racking up big points and bragging rights on the leader board.

Although this attendee sported an unorthodox space pack, most were just as prepared for the happenings at KANEKO to skyrocket them through the coming days.

Before speakers took the stage and the signature standing ovations started, attendees staked claim on their seats. And, with good reason. The packed house sold-out within eight days, and more than 300 waitlisted individuals across the country had to sit elsewhere and participate remotely.

Don’t let the moonscape backdrop and Leno blazers fool you, Big Omaha co-founders Jeff Sloboski and Dusty Davidson were not hosting a Late-Night talk show. They were, however, welcoming attendees to the third annual conference with their own Big Omaha monologues, setting the tone and throwing in a few laughs.

Director of KANEKO, Hal France took heed of the ambiance in the entrepreneurial arena when he explained KANEKO’s vision and direction, further emphasizing how this mission cultivates Big Omaha.

As the day rolled, so did the camera. Three Pillars Media captured all our speaker presentations from starting standing ovation to finish. Stay tuned for videos of all our speaker presentations in the upcoming video series sponsored by CoSentry.

Big Omaha 2010 veteran David Hauser of Grasshopper played host to the conference as this year’s MC.

Oh hai, thx 4 joinin us, Ben Huh. This man behind the humor empire Cheezburger Network delivered the opening speech complete with compelling visuals including the notable “Haters Gonna Hate” eagle spawning one of the most catchy mantras of the conference. For more on Ben Huh’s presentation, see our post: “Ben Huh: ‘Things that excite us are things that would make other people cringe’“

As a change of pace, the conference’s second speaker, Leila Janah of Samasource, presented an international look on social entrepreneurship. For more on this talk, see our post: “Leila Janah: Providing ‘digital work’ to people living in poverty.”

On behalf of our premier sponsor, Nick Seguin (pictured above) represented the Kauffman Foundation on stage. Many thanks to the Kauffman Foundation for their continued support of Big Omaha.

From a funny guy entrepreneur to a social entrepreneur and a presidential co-worker, the speaker lineup continued to diversify throughout Day 1. The United States Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra joined Shervin Pishevar founder of the Social Gaming Network and Robert Scoble of Rackspace in an interactive Q&A session. To read more on Chopra’s talk, see our post: “Aneesh Chopra: ‘There’s never been a better time to be an innovator.’ “

Throngs of attendees sprawled between Nomad Lounge and Urban Wine Company for the midday lunch break sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.

Your mom didn’t pack this sack lunch for the Big Omaha field trip but we’d bet she would have approved of the boxed lunches Patrick’s Market provided.

Local Omaha ice cream shop, eCreamery, dished up three of their custom creations for a sweet after lunch treat. Our thanks to eCreamery for providing these tasty treats for our attendees.

Dan Martell of Flowtown picked up the post-lunch pace, by keeping up the hustle & flow of the conference, sharing his working knowledge on life and entrepreneurship, and emphasizing the importance of starting now. For a rundown on Martell’s presentation and key ‘unconventional’ pointers, see our post: “Dan Martell: ‘I realized it’s not about not failing. It’s about not dying.’ “

Erich Broksas from Startup America Partnership spoke on the emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem across the country and provided attendees with a detailed explanation of the Startup America Partnership. For more on Broksas’ presentation, see our post: “Erich Broksas: ‘Entrepreneurship is happening all over.’ “

“The answer is always no — 100 percent of the time — if you don’t ask.” Shervin Pishevar, founder of the Social Gaming Network shared this insight with Big Omaha crowd and providing some inspiration and wisdom on building the right relationships for business and life. For more on his presentation, see our post: “Big Omaha 2011: Day 1 live blog“

After a humbling tip of the hat to the Big Omaha team, Pishevar continued his presentation as co-founder Jeff Slobotski and his wife Molly smiled and watched from the back. 

Taking entrepreneurial talk to an international level, Sarah Lacy of TechCrunch shared her experience with emerging markets around the world and urged attendees to take the stories of others as inspiration to capitalize on their own ‘head spinning’ opportunities. Following her talk, attendees received a copy of her book, “Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos.” To read more on Lacy’s take on innovation in international markets, see our post: “Sarah Lacy: ‘Every time you think you can’t do this in Omaha, think of these people.’ “

After a rather memorable opening answer, Marc Eckō joined the rest of the day’s speakers for quite the engaging Q&A. The lively back-and-forth between speakers welcomed the opportunity for audience memebers to ask anything from – family to business – and participate personally with the speakers.

After a full day of speakers, including Aneesh Chopra, Shervin Pishevar and Sarah Lacy, Day 2 wrapped up at KANEKO and picked up with the Microsoft BizSpark post-party at The Slowdown.

Down one-part of the duo, Steve Sleeve of The Hood Internet still brought the Big Omaha crowd to their dancing feet as they busted a move to hip-hop and indie rock mashups

As Day 1 came to a close, many attendees felt the rhthym of the night and danced – quite literally – until the morning light. Day 2 awaited and the conference was all but over. Stay tuned for a photo walk through Day 2 of Big Omaha 2011 memory lane.

Big thanks to Malone & Company for documenting the movement of the conference. To view the complete album of Big Omaha Day 2, see flickr.com/photos/siliconprairienews.