By 
Phew, our first Accelerate conference in the Bay went off without a hitch. 55 leaders of fast moving companies descended on the area and were shown the region in style.
Wednesday night a few early attendees headed for dinner at Pipi’s. Many commented how beautiful it was here and how it felt like Marin county.
Today kicked off with a full on session from Andy Lark, head of Enterprise marketing at Dell. Andy is all about scale and even those feeling good about our businesses were fired up to go bigger and harder.
Before lunch we got a quick rundown on BlackBarn by advertising and communication legend Kim Thorp. Then we spoilt the visitors with some fantastic local produce in the Bistro – not your normal Auckland or Wellington conference experience.
It was great to have Sam Morgan in town, pictured here with Simon Hendrey, who writes for the Herald, and Andy Lark.
Another after session about business funding and other issues led into drinks and more fantastic BlackBarn food and what must have been genetically modified giant crayfish caught by Odettes dad. Mayor Lawrence came into support the event and help with our recruitment of more smart people into the Bay.
Next up was drinks in the Market area and Katchafire who filled out the cellar with a fantastic show.
The overwhelming feedback from the visitors was that they loved being able to come to our fantastic region and can see the quality of life we have. I believe we showed them that you can build businesses from the region and got them thinking about how they get the lifestyle. For the locals I think it was great for them to be exposed to some very exciting people and develop their networks.
There were lots of funny events during the day but if someone had of told me that a corporate photo shoot in the vineyards would have lead to completely natural artistic pictures I would have asked what they were smoking. Not sure how we’ll top that next time. Massive.
Thanks Odette for your fantastic event management. That was one of the best run events I’ve been involved with. Thank you to the BlackBarn team who all got behind the event and showed the Bay at it’s best.
That was a blast. Lets do it again next year.
07:29, 18.02.2010
What a great business event to have in the Bay! Well done to those involved this is another positive local business initiative. I’ll have to save my moolah for the next one!
08:56, 18.02.2010
OMG – I went to the after-match and I had the best time! I met the most amazing and interesting people, and hats-off to Odette and Rod for putting on a wonderful event.
10:54, 19.02.2010
It was an inspiring, challenging (delicious day!) – thanks Rod, Odette, Kim and everyone else who attended. Interesting people from such diverse backgrounds. Felt like running for cover when Andy from Dell starting slating a few topics close to my heart, but his comments just reinforced the challenges we know lie ahead. Bring it on! It’s a small world too – last night reading Idealog magazine I flicked the page and there was Ari from Powershop, who I’d sat next to during lunch. Meeting the guys from Massive was cool too, as I read about them and their crowdscene software in an industry mag, and then there was Paul from Maven who’s doing fascinating work in Wellington and beyond. Here’s to some steep acceleration in the coming months!
22:02, 23.02.2010
Ha ha I’m one of the ’smart ‘people you are talking about. What an amazing day start to finish so much to think about and follow up on. Acceleration is where it’s at and we had a lesson in how to ‘just do it’ that is for sure. If you don’t know who Andy Lark is make sure you find out, loved him a lot, no sign of any spin just REAL and sooooooo out there doing it!! Loving the 14 Rules of which I ticked a few but still a few unticked. I think I have number one down – Just One Thing!! I am such a work in progress……… Don’t forget it’s not the big that eat the small it’s the fast that eat the slow – thanks Rod for the opportunity.