Guest post by Tom Douglass, Founder and CEO at Catapult Consulting LLC of Arkansas
When I stood back and thought about what should be different for the 2019 NWA Tech Summit, I wasn’t sure where to begin, so I did what every good consultant does—I asked the clients. It was great to have honest and constructive feedback.
- We have a multi-faceted outdoor tech and trek welcoming social event.
- For the first five years we used only one venue; this year we are giving our guests a true NWA experience and using 14 new and different venues.
- For the first time, we are visiting two of our progressive and innovative schools.
- We will have five podcasts during the event, two prior to the event (previously no on-premise podcasts were produced).
- Two art installations will take place for the summit.
- Five separate bands and entertainers will be on hand during summit sponsored events.
- We estimate there will be 2 million trackable impressions outside of NWA, a record for the event.
- We have added 21 new sponsors to the event.
- We increased the funding from the anchor sponsors by 10%.
What I’m looking forward to most is seeing all our attendees experience a new version of our tech summit. I hope that every person who ventures out and is part of this event finds this year’s tech summit to be inspiring, educational and fun.
I want to thank all of you that responded to my request for feedback. Now that I’ve told you what’s next, I’m looking forward to the feedback on this year’s summit, so we can start planning What’s Next…After Next.
The NWA Tech Summit will feature 60+ speakers from across the globe!
Backstage Capital
Arlan Hamilton, CEO
Arlan Hamilton is a remarkable entrepreneur who built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT.
Started in 2015, Backstage has now invested nearly $5M into 100 startups led by underestimated founders and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Quartz.
Walmart
Bill Groves, Chief Data & Analytics Officer
Bill Groves is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer for Walmart — and has previously served in positions at FICO, comScore, D&B, Solera Holdings, and Honeywell.
“Northwest Arkansas is ripe to become a hub for deep technologists and data scientists because of the diverse group of large employers — Walmart, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, Arvest Bank, Mercy, Simmons Foods, and multiple startups in retail, finance, and supply chain tech – with operations in need of digital and analytical talent to grow their businesses”, says Groves. “Along with the major employers, The Northwest Arkansas Council and the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber recognize both the need for tech talent across the region and the opportunity that our region’s high quality of life, low cost of living equation offers.”
Walmart
Bill Groves, Chief Data & Analytics Officer
Bill Groves is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer for Walmart — and has previously served in positions at FICO, comScore, D&B, Solera Holdings, and Honeywell.
“Northwest Arkansas is ripe to become a hub for deep technologists and data scientists because of the diverse group of large employers — Walmart, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, Arvest Bank, Mercy, Simmons Foods, and multiple startups in retail, finance, and supply chain tech – with operations in need of digital and analytical talent to grow their businesses”, says Groves. “Along with the major employers, The Northwest Arkansas Council and the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber recognize both the need for tech talent across the region and the opportunity that our region’s high quality of life, low cost of living equation offers.”
More featured speakers!
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Dr. Mary Lacity was previously Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. She has held visiting positions at MIT, the London School of Economics, Washington University, and Oxford University. Her recent research focuses on improving business services using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Cognitive Automation (CA), and Blockchain technologies.
Millions of UAS, hundreds of industry developers, and hundreds of airspace managers and stakeholders rely on AirMap’s airspace intelligence and services to fly safely and communicate with others in low-altitude airspace.
AirMap connects the majority of the world’s UAS to airspace authorities through integrations with major drone manufacturers and applications. Deployed in Switzerland, Czech Republic, Japan, and the United States, AirMap leads the industry in delivering technology solutions globally for UAS Traffic Management (UTM) and U - space to enable safe and responsible drone operations at scale.
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What distinguishes Strava from other fitness trackers and social media platforms is the positive emotional connection it engenders. Encouraging and community oriented, it’s devoid of the negativity and toxicity that plagues most sharing networks.⠀
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Horvath says the bottom line is: People crave interaction of a meaningful kind.
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Inspectorio is a leader in the inspection software industry. Their cloud-based platforms are disrupting quality inspections by increasing productivity, transparency, and efficiency. Like many great solutions, Inspectorio was born from the frustration of three serial entrepreneurs who had to deal with the slow, manual process of quality inspections – while receiving little to no visibility. Today, Inspectorio is the platform used by some of the world’s most recognized retailers and brands, inspection agencies and vendors and factories.⠀
