Omaha These days, Diana Kander has babies on the brain. And quite understandably so—the senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is six months pregnant. So naturally when she took the stage at Big Omaha on Friday morning, Kander spoke about how “toddlers and startups actually have an amazing amount of things in common.” Both require a name and people to take care of them and both need … read more

Omaha After he set the scene onstage with an armchair and a stiff drink, Marc Eckō this morning shared the ten rules of business he uncovered in The Notorious B.I.G.'s song, "Ten Crack Commandments". Never let no one know how much dough you hold. “In life, we use metrics,” Eckō said. “We will count everything. Quit counting.” Stop seeking validation that can only be found in finite. … read more

Omaha Every year since he was in sixth grade, Antonio Neves has received a nutcracker for Christmas from his mom—a reminder of the moment in his young life where he turned a corner. At Big Omaha today, he stepped away from his emcee duties to share why he has devoted so much of his time to supporting and coaching entrepreneurs. Living through his parents' divorce and 15 moves as a child … read more

Omaha According to Ben Milne, one of the biggest mistakes a founder can make is to abandon the Silicon Prairie and its Midwestern roots. And he should know. Without the community surrounding his Des Moines-based company, Milne said Dwolla probably wouldn't be thriving today. "Had we not stayed here, we would not have made the friendships with people in this room," he said. "Had we not stayed here … read more

Omaha A subtle shift is being felt at Big Omaha this year. Thanks to well-marked recycle bins, art installations, and even conference speakers themselves, the event has a new focus on sustainability. "As our conference gets bigger, it was hard to watch how sustainability wasn't a part of it," our event coordinator Brittany Mascio said before the event... read more

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

Omaha Catherine Rohr’s American dream is different than the average entrepreneur’s. Yes, she has a background in investments, but now she invests in people through Defy Ventures, a program that teaches former felons to be successful entrepreneurs. After visiting a Texas prison with a friend, Rohr’s world was turned upside down when she discovered many inmates are profitable businessmen and entrepreneurs, but are stuck in a cycle of incarceration ... read more

Omaha Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora, co-founders of Back to the Roots, developed their grow-at-home mushroom kits without knowing anything about mushrooms. Or even, really, food. After all, their careers after graduation from Berkeley were intended to be in investment banking and consulting. But they pressed on from their launch in 2009 to learn three key lessons, which they shared this afternoon at Big Omaha: read more

Omaha Big Omaha has gone 8bit. The annual event is nearly one day in, and even at this highly innovative tech conference, there's still room for old-school style—and Adam Nielsen is proving it. Nielsen is one of this year's Big Omaha artists, live-drawing (yep, that's right—live-drawing) caricatures of the 14 speakers while they're on stage. Images from his computer are projected onto a wall in the event … read more

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