May 10, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Omaha "What if we were to stop putting our companies first?" asked Micah Baldwin at Big Omaha Friday afternoon. "Right now all of your stomachs turned. 'But we’re from the Midwest. That’s what we do.'" But what if we stopped thinking our startups were us? What if the one thing we’ve been told – the harder you work, the better – is wrong? read more
May 10, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Omaha By now, Big Omaha attendees have been in and out of their seat several dozen times, and some may be wondering: what gives with giving each speaker a standing ovation before they begin? Credit David Hauser of Grasshopper, who started the tradition when he spoke at the second Big Omaha in 2010. "I remember sitting there next to the tech table, with my mic on, going over my notes and … read more
May 9, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Omaha Anil Dash challenged the crowd at Big Omaha to recognize the ethics, legal principles and cycles of expression and economization that are developing in the tech world, and to think harder about how things should be done. “We’ve forgotten that technology has values,” said the Internet veteran, who has been blogging for almost 15 years. One issue he touched on is the industry's disposable attitude. Will our digital content be considered art in the ... read more
May 9, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Omaha Dr. Peter Hudson had "almost a cathartic journey" planned for Big Omaha 2013. "My thesis today is that if you experience life, and you live it to the fullest, and you do things that you're interested in," he said, "you will have experiences that lead you to big problems, problems that really matter." He took the audience back to when he was 10 years old, saw his father have a grand mal seizure and kept a cool head. Then he talked about inventing a fence-climbing ... read more
March 29, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Kansas City Ryan Downs, the CEO of Omaha-based Proxibid whose career spans working on a rural Nebraska farm as an 8-year-old to helping guide PayPal through its initial public offering, credits the Midwest's entrepreneurial ecosystem to helping him advance in his career. At our Big Kansas City event Wednesday, he broke down that ecosystem into six elements: Education - His Nebraska public school education, from kindergarten through … read more
February 27, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Lincoln East Coast native Mark Crawford is often asked why he moved to Omaha last June. He has some answers down pat. "Besides Dan's sell job on the beautiful beaches and 70-degree days, I can go up to the mountains and ski," joked the CEO of Invest Nebraska, referring to the organization's COO, Dan Hoffman, who recruited him. No, really. Well, he said, he had no wife, no kids, no mortgage, so "I could." For real though. At Invest Nebraska, "there's an opportunity to make a true impact" as an investor … read more
February 25, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Lincoln Sarah Gauger knows that if the resale and consignment shop her mother started in the late '70s is to survive, she needs to attract a new generation of customers. So she and her mother and sister rebranded the Lincoln store two years ago, changing the name from One More Time to omt! She also started loading photos of merchandise onto Facebook, but found it cumbersome, tedious … read more
February 7, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Lincoln Lawyer Brett Stohs is walking a mile in his clients' shoes this spring, launching the Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic at the University of Nebraska College of Law last month. "Within the legal construct, this feels about as entrepreneurial as it gets. It's incredibly exciting and incredibly terrifying," he said. "This is a beta semester." His "beta" test involves eight third-year law students who will each spend about … read more
January 28, 2013 by Patti Vannoy
Lincoln In honor of Data Privacy Day today, Calvin Pappas launched a new look for his online privacy management site, SelectOut. He also added features aimed at helping individuals protect their online privacy and companies shore up their privacy practices. "Give or take, well over half of companies on the web don't have any privacy policy," SelectOut founder Pappas said, noting that many of those … read more
December 17, 2012 by Patti Vannoy
Lincoln Last year, the director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management told us that, over the past decade, the focus of many Raikes students has shifted from landing a job with a West Coast tech giant to staying in the Midwest and working for local startups. ... read more
Through August 22, help us decide the winners of our inaugural Silicon Prairie Awards, which will recognize 12
companies and individuals. You can vote once per day per category.
Winners will be announced live on stage at
our August 30 event.