We see you, working hard and hustling every day, running your business, excelling at customer service, thinking of fresh ideas and innovations to your processes, and maybe asking yourself whether you should take the leap into something new or take further steps wherever you are (we’re all in varying stages of growth, professionally and personally, right?).
Stoke collaborated with TechMill, the Greater Denton Arts Council, and the City of Denton’s Economic Development department to host a new conference in 2019 for Denton’s creatives, techies, and entrepreneurs. And FlintConf came into being, the Denton startup conference for hipsters, hackers, and hustlers.
We asked via survey what content would be most useful for those of you who are
fresh, newly founded startups as well as those in their growth stages
small business owners handling marketing, sales, and service all on their own or with a tiny team,
the creative/maker running their own business or looking to become fully self-employed,
the tech-savvy navigating working for themselves,
and more. We took your responses and organized a day’s worth of pertinent, engaging content from accomplished experts and entrepreneurs.
In its inaugural year, FlintConf 2019 was better than we could’ve imagined.
The Flow of the Day for FlintConf 2019
We had people self-identify as hipsters (creatives, makers, musicians, artists), hackers (technologists, developers, engineers), and hustlers (sales, marketing, entrepreneurs, side gig starters) at the beginning of the day to figure out who to connect with during breaks or over lunch. Stoke conference rooms were used as breakout discussion areas so you could chat one-on-one with founders of their own companies, like Emile Stewart of Wildflower Art Studio and Josh Berthume of Swash Labs, and fundraising aficionados that included Marshall Culpepper, CEO and co-founder of satellite software startup Kubos, and crowdfunding success story (we’re talking millions!), Ed Pugh, CEO of Reaper Miniatures.
Moderator, Gigi McDowell, and fundraising panelists, PJ Scalf (CapitalSource), Marshall Culpepper (Kubos), Ed Pugh (Reaper Miniatures), and Shannon Mantaro (TWU Center for Women Entrepreneurs)
Chestnut Tree provided breakfast and lunch, and the weather was nice enough that we enjoyed sunshine with our meals. Creative Coffee LLC was here for the better part of the morning (just in case you wanted more concentrated caffeine than the coffee and tea provided).
Throughout the day, we watched people connect over personal takeaways from the speaker sessions and discuss their challenges and successes in breakout sessions. And then we went to Armadillo Ale Works for happy hour and more organic networking from the day’s events!
FlintConf 2020
In 2020, we’re looking forward to bringing you even more speakers who are informative, inspiring, and sage, and offering more options for sessions related to your specific hustle. Our goal is to provide you with resources and inspiration from the experts and connect you with people who will empower you and cheer you on. We believe you can accomplish whatever you’re setting out to do in the startup, side hustle, and business world.
Stay tuned for speakers as we announce them in the coming weeks, and visit our official FlintConf website for snapshots of FlintConf 2019 and 2020’s updates!
