5 Brands Travel the US Inspiring Entrepreneurship
Grasshopper, Mailchimp, Wufoo, Shopify, and Batchbook all joined forces in 2011 to create and execute the Barcamp Tour. We journeyed across the country together to work with 10 different entrepreneurial cities and help them put on a barcamp that would inspire / energize their communities. We shared our passions, listened to other peoples, and took in the unique character of each city we visited. Boy did we learn a lot. We would love to share those observations & experiences with you in hopes that you might take that passion back to your own community. We also wanted to explain why our 5 brands so strongly believe in free beer and hugs versus banner ads and trade shows. These word of mouth branding tactics have been a major part of all 5 of our company’s growth, and we are ready to share our secrets!
Presenters
Amy Ellis is the Head of Integrations and Partnerships at MailChimp. Her professional background stems from marketing and public relations for nonprofit organizations and she takes her job at MailChimp so seriously that she only eats bananas. In her spare time, Ms. Ellis manages social media and community for the Atlanta Rollergirls in addition to skating for one of the league’s home teams. She loves a good yarn bombing.
Christelle is the Brand Development Manager for Batchbook, a customer friendly CRM for Small Businesses. Christelle oversees Marketing and Events for Batchbook. Her days are filled dreaming up ways to make sure Batchbook customers have more fun while they are running their businesses. She loves to meet entrepreneurs and hear their inspiring stories. Christelle also likes to make things and is a huge fan of lunch.
Joey deVilla is Shopify's rock and roll accordion playing, casual-coding, trouble-making, public-speaking, mad-blogging Platform Evangelist. It's his job to talks to all sorts of people and help them get the most out of Shopify's ecommerce platform, from shopowners to designers to developers. He's rarely see without the accordion, and he takes requests!
In his previous lives, Joey has been a tech evangelist with Microsoft Canada (web and Windows Phone), Tucows and OpenCola. He's done software development for desktop, web and mobile. He's also the accordion player with the second-most appearances on MuchMusic, Canada's music video station -- Weird Al still has the record.
Jonathan is a co-founder of the Barcamp Tour. When he isn't traveling around to Barcamps he leads the daily operations and strategic direction as the founder of Apptopia - a marketplace that brokers the sale of mobile apps. Jonathan is extremely passionate about branding and story telling. As someone who believes deeply in the importance of customer engagement, he is constantly striving to find scalable intimacy. Jonathan originally made a name for himself in the startup community as the Ambassador of Buzz at Grasshopper, a company that provides Virtual Phone Systems for entrepreneurs. He created their “Buzz Department” from the ground up and was responsible for over 600 press mentions and a handful of big partnerships over his 3 years there. Jonathan is also the author behind Learn2Buzz.
Stephanie is the Ambassador of Buzz for Grasshopper, a virtual phone system for entrepreneurs. Stephanie handles all things "word-of-mouth" at Grasshopper including, press, events, customer relationships and any over-the-top ridiculous stunts! When she's not "buzzing" she loves finding a bargain, trying new restaurants and exploring the great city of Boston.
Sunday, March 11
