A special note about Big Des Moines

Silicon Prairie News is dedicated to the grassroots building of the Midwest startup community. From writing about the region’s entrepreneurs to connecting attendees at our Big Series events, the development of a strong community is core to who we are; how we best serve you is a question we push ourselves to consider every day.…

Silicon Prairie News is dedicated to the grassroots building of the Midwest startup community. From writing about the region’s entrepreneurs to connecting attendees at our Big Series events, the development of a strong community is core to who we are; how we best serve you is a question we push ourselves to consider every day.

Answering that question as we approached Big Des Moines proved challenging: fully understanding why we put on Big Series events meant looking at ourselves honestly and listening to the region’s needs. We’ve learned it takes a village—all hands on deck—to execute the events we’re known for, which pulls our team away from engaging and supporting this incredible community. In the end, we realized we couldn’t deliver a high-quality experience—unique, inspirational, memorable—and still deliver on what the community needs from us each day. With that, we came to a difficult answer.

Today we are announcing we will no longer produce Big Des Moines. Although difficult in the short term, it is a decision the team believes will strengthen us as a community. As Silicon Prairie News is itself a startup, we are faced with the decision to push and preserve or re-evaluate and pivot. The launch of The Big Series this year has been exciting, but it also taught us a lot about who we are, and how we can operate effectively as a business working for the good of the community and region.

As we look to the future, we’re focused on those core tenets of SPN—in-depth stories, engagement within the community, impactful events large and small—that have gotten us to where we are today.

We’re thrilled to announce the first of those efforts will be a partnership with UP Global on its upcoming UP America Summit in October. We can’t wait to embark on the journey with them, so stay tuned for more information on activities surrounding the upcoming Summit.

Again, a heartfelt thank you, the community, for supporting us from the very beginning and into the future.

 

Credits: Photo by Anna Jones. 

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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