How Big Omaha Created A Profitable Tech Conference In The Midwest – with Jeff Slobotski

Jeff Slobotski, Big Omaha, Traffic

I got to see how hot Big Omaha was when people in my audience asked me to help them score tickets after it sold out. The conference was nothing but an idea when I first met Jeff Slobotski a few years ago at the SxSW conference. But everyone at SxSW seems to have an idea for a conference because they see how much fun a conference can be and they count up the conference’s revenues in their heads and imagine what it must be like to get a piece of that action. What they don’t realize is that it’s tougher to pull off than it seems.

So why did Jeff’s conference do so well? And just how well did it do? That’s what I set out to find out in this interview.

If you appreciate Jeff’s openness in this interview, don’t just sit there. Tell him on Twitter!

Jeff Slobotski

Big Omaha

Jeff Slobotski is the co-founder of Big Omaha, the event whose mission is to inspire attendees to follow their passions, build the businesses they love and strengthen their creative communities. He’s also the co-founder of Silicon Prairie News, a blog that interviews the midwest’s leading entrepreneurs and creatives, reports on startups and established companies and announces events.

 

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