The Next Invest Conference
I guess this will be online learning weekend. Yesterday I talked about MBA Mondays Live and the fact that it will be available via livestream and via archive.
Today, I'd like to tell you about an online conference being put on by our portfolio company Covestor. It is called the Next Invest Conference and it takes place this tuesday and wednesday (3/20 and 3/21). The conference partners include Motley Fool, Stocktwits, Seeking Alpha, Benzinga, TedX Wall Street and many of the biggest names in online investing.
Best of all, it is free to attend. If you are into online investing, either personally or via your startup, you should check this conference out. Details are here.
Comments (Archived):
cool, i signed up. the virtual conference thing i’m a bit skeptical of though, wish it was real world. i suspect i’ll go there, download a bunch of stuff, and then possibly email some people. in other words, engage in activity that does not require or benefit from synchronicity or serendipidity.
There is something huge to be said for serendipity. It’s really driven by like-energy to guide us, to connect us with people that would have a higher potential of getting along with, etc..Edit: I’m actually writing a blog post a bit on serendipity currently. Hope I’ll get it done by the week’s end!
totally. i lived in san francisco for the past year (in process of moving out now), and if you’re in the software development scene, that place is like serendipity heaven. that’s the thing about hubs, conferences, and dense gatherings of all kinds; opportunities for serendipity grow alongside the density.
MAIN BENEFIT OF CONFERENCE IS MEET PEOPLE THERE IN PERSON.REMOVE MAIN BENEFIT BY PUT ON-LINE? WASTE OF TIME.
i tend to agree, though hope i am wrong. there is a huge opportunity in internet-ifying conferences, though. looking forward to seeing that opportunity actualized.
I see the benefit in teaching people and preparing them and getting them to want to interact in person, to get to the next step. 🙂
right, although as fake grimlock alluded to in his comment, i don’t see the advantage of a virtual conference over less immersive, simpler things — like a blog, forum, twitter, disqus, etc
Let’s not forget that the key benefit of a virtual conference is that it extends the reach to those that can’t be there physically. That’s a good benefit in of itself.
true — although in this case, there is no corresponding real world event. what fred is doing with his concert, where you pay $25 for a ticket or you can stream for free if you are not able to attend, makes sense and is great.
@kidmercury:disqus It’s comparing apples and oranges. They both have their main benefit.
I prefer sagactity to serendipity.
SAGACITY = SIT AT HOME, THINK ABOUT LUCK.SERENDIPITY = GET OUT AND MAKE LUCK HAPPEN.
Bingo… what I said in more words ….I’ll just let you speak for me. 😉
A little preparation gives you SUPERSONIC hearing at conferences helps you filter signal from noise (that said Grimlock bite is bleeding, I need to be more careful with my choice of words on blogs)
Sagacity = do home work…then go to conference…then make serendipity happen.
TIL New word sagacity!I feel sagacity can help with creating strategic serendipity, so being clever allows more serendipity to occur.So I still prefer serendipity, but I like it to happen a lot, so I plan to create the space and therefore opportunities for it. 🙂
I like the idea of an open wall street, which is what this seems like.Why was something like this not done before?
1) What do you mean by “an open wall street”.2) Why do you think this is an example of that?
I think this is an example of wall street being open in that anyone can sign up for this conference – its run by a brokerage, and its about educating people. Its not investor specific, or topic specific.That’s sort of fascinating to me – what benefit does the brokerage have to educate its customers, especially with the model that covestor has. To me that’s fairly open.
I will check it out. Amazing what you are able to do without attending anything.By the way we launched our service, http://www.retailpitch.com. Amazing how little money it has taken and how viral you can make something grow.
congrats on your launch. i really like the idea, sounds promising.
Thanks. We have had a great response so far. You can see some of the companies involved at retailpitch.wordpress.com
I just sent some guys who have built a great little salsa and rub company in the ATX your way. Sounds like a great concept. Congratulations and good luck.Well played!
Appreciate it. Tell them to use coupon code “90days”. Free unlimited access.
Just curious how you address the JIT supply chain needs and the fact that most retailers don’t like to deal with single (or small # of) SKU vendors?
That is the point of retailpitch.com, to help small vendors and small retailers work together. There are over 2M retail locations and like people, they are made in all shapes and sizes. Go to http://www.ecochicbaby.org she buys in small sizes directly from vendors in small amounts. Large retailers have a big supply chain and buy that way, small ones don’t. And for every big box (or multiple location retailer) there are 9 small ones. http://youtu.be/WDO9tuXhLTI
Got it. In this case, my feedback is that your entry page doesn’t make that very obvious. Put those stats there. 2M retailers etc…I suggest you clarify your positioning and get SEO working for you according to how these 2M will find you.
Congratulations, Brad.We need confetti on AVC. Not to steal Brad’s thunder, but I’m two “likes” away from 1000 — that deserves some confetti too!
not anymore! congrats on 1,000 likes! *claps*
I thought I was the 1000th? She was sitting at 999 when I liked her Comment. I demand a recount.
it was definitely you. i thought i would be 1,000 but then i clicked through and saw i was one like too late. damn you william! 🙂
It’s all about timing :)She’s over the top now at 1003. Let’s take a couple back.
Thanks, Kid.
where do i like?
shucks, I thought you had a thousand just from me 🙂
Nope, only about 500 or so.
Congrats. I have a couple of ideas for retail products bubbling around. Will check it out.Seems to be a promising space, btw. In addition to Quirky a few years ago, now there’s Ahhha.
I love Quirky and Ahha. Helping people develop products is such a key to the whole process.
IT INTERESTING SPACE. WHEN THINGMAKERS REALITY, IT BE MAIN WAY ALL PRODUCTS CREATED.RIGHT NOW, STILL UNDERGROUND, WAITING FOR WORLD TO CATCH UP.
Congrats Brad. I’ll take a look. Spent a few years battling the small business purchasing issue so interested.
Congrats Brad.
Congratulations! Best of luck!
Go Brad, you took the roles of design and consumption and flipped them on their head.
And with our own @howardlindzon:twitter as a speaker. Yeah! There should be more virtual conferences like this one, and with an online social networking support software attached to it, where you can interact with and meet other attendees almost as if you were there. There must be some software that does that well?
Twitter? Being a bit of a smart-ass. You’re right though, there very well could be enough features to solicit the need of a separate network for support purposes.
THERE LOTS AND LOTS OF SOFTWARE THAT DO THIS.VERY BADLY.NOT EASY PROBLEM TO SOLVE. IT TURN OUT NO ONE REALLY WANT CONFERENCE YOUTUBE CHANNEL DUCT TAPED TO CHAT ROULETTE.(HMMM… MAYBE THAT NOT SO BAD. WATCH VIDEO OF BORING SPEAKER, THEN RANDOM VIDEO CHAT WITH 3 ATTENDEES IN ROW, THEN NEXT SPEAKER. SOMEONE CALL VC!)
I THINK SPACE READY FOR DISRUPTION. IF IT FITS THE DUCT TAPE TEST, IT WILL FIT THE STARTUP MODEL.
IT TRUE. MAYBE WORTH THINK MORE ABOUT.
I’m with @FakeGrimlock:disqus and @kidmercury:disqus on this. This is not a software or a platform issue. The idea of virtual in itself, to me, is boring and makes me bristle. Blogs at their best are not virtual conversations. Marketplaces at their best, not virtual malls. Nor platforms at their best virtual communities.When they work it is not just bolting on shares and visibility into the real time behaviors of what others are doing.Sometimes these’ virtual’ meetings work because of the sheer appeal of the participants. I think what is lacking is imagination. Is discovering how to make these more than downloading a YouTube video with curated chat surrounding it.I consider this area virgin territory. I’m subscribing to this event and maybe they will change my mind. Topic is right on. People are excellent. Hopefully there is an X factor there.
The technology can unleash new possibilities. I believe that. I’ve seen something close for the Enterprise 2.0 conference, although being a physical conference. You knew a lot about each attendee and you could ping them ahead of time if you wanted to meet them. Same thing for virtual. What’s a conference? It’s 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 people with similar interests, getting together. You have to find the 3-4 new ones you will meet that will impact your life and become new friends. There must be a better way to do that than walking the conference space and looking at what the badge says.
It’s interesting to note that according to a recent Edelman Barometer survey, Banking/Financial Services are the LEAST trusted industries in the World (and in the US too) at 45%. Guess which industry is the MOST trusted…..OURS TRULY: TECHNOLOGY at 79%! Hooray as the Grim would say. http://www.huffingtonpost.c…
But a contrarian investor would look at those numbers and think it’s about to change and go the other way. Cycles.
Whatever happened to Occupy Wall Street?
Not saying the need for derivative regs are gone but that market sentiment changes over time.
they’re around. Most of what I have heard is about prepping for may day.There also was another round of arrests at Zuccotti park.
ME WOULD SAY IN ALL CAPS.
True, but I don’t like to impersonate you too often. AFRAID OF BEING EATEN.
ME PRETTY SURE YOU ON NO EAT LIST. THAT MEAN YOU SAFE. PROBABLY.
lol, that’s funny…..because guess who owns the funded startup industry, and who’s pushing bubble 2.0?
Well…let’s be nice to each other, ok?
i don’t get this response. it doesn’t exactly deal with the point kid made.
If Kid’s point was to shoot down the fact that tech industry is the highest trusted industry, my response was – let’s not do that.
i can see that point of view.i think there’s room for questioning in the ecosystem. by remaining vigilant and questioning the intrinsic value of companies, valuations will more closely meet expectation. imo
I think these rankings are all relative.
they are literally relative, being in percent.but, i assume you mean there’s no absolute or universal application for such rankings. in this case, is there a correlation between ‘trust’ and bubbles? not sure.
indeed, that was my point! 🙂 we can ignore the fact that silicon valley has sold its soul to wall st, but in my opinion that will only magnify the problem in the long run.
Bravo! I know a few things about this space and the regulatory hurdle for covestor was and is pretty high. GIPS is the standard for ensuring that covestor reports accurate and consistent investment performance and avoid the cherry picking. To do this real time,across multiple brokerage accounts, is quite an undertaking. Looking forward to learning more about covestors trade capture and execution methods.
Hi Fred, Thank you so much for sharing. We would love to involve Trusted Insight http://www.thetrustedinsight.com, a Linkedin for institutional investors with over 5,000+ LP’s as members. Engagement is steadily increasing as daily return vistors track upwards.Also, thanks to your outstanding portfolio company StackExchange, Trusted Insight was able to secure a great tech hire.
I don’t see @rohan:disqus on here yet today, but today is his birthday.Happy Birthday, Rohan! You bring an added measure of kindness, cleverness and fun to AVC.I only know it’s his birthday because he has taken to wishing AVCers Happy Birthday, so I asked him when his is.
I just Liked you as the 1000th ! And I meant it, not because it was sitting at 999.ROHAN – HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND. So, we are both Pisces. Take that!
Haha — thank you, William!
Pisceans FTW! ;-)THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR WILLIAM! 😀
Thank you for the “heads-up”, Donna. Happy Birthday, Rohan!!! Hope you’re having a great day!
Thank you SO much Dale! 🙂 Indeed, had a wonderful day. First half with tons of phone calls and second half getting to David Semeria land (Italy) for 2 days. 🙂 Very different birthday.. 🙂
Travel safely, and enjoy!
You’re in Milan? Ciao bello.
Ciao bello indeed. Except I’m in Rome! 🙂
Nice!
italy! no better way to spend a birthday
enjoy your birthday!!!
Thanks a lot Shana! 🙂
Oops — used the wrong disqus name for Rohan in my earlier comment. Let’s try this one @rrohan189:disqus
You know, Donna – on a separate note. I don’t ever see these @donnawhite:disqus notes pop up anywhere.They only seem to work if I come to a thread and do a search for rohan. Is it different from you/others?And once again, thanks a lot!
I think Disqus sends you an email notification if you get mentioned.
Come to think of it, I don’t know that I get the email when my name is mentioned. I didn’t get this one. Sometimes it shows up in my Disqus replies I think.
That’s never happened for me, atleast! Let’s test with @wmoug:disqus . Email, Will?
So sweet of you Donna!! Really really kind and nice of you.Thanks so much for the wishes! 🙂
Interesting. When you click on the sponsor or attendee guide PDFs though, they say, “Coming Soon”.
I figured their web department got ahead of their marketing department 🙂
HOW VIRTUAL CONFERENCE DIFFERENT FROM POST TO FORUM OR TWITTER?IT LESS USEFUL, THAT HOW.BEST WAY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INTERNET NOT SHOVE SQUARE PEGS INTO ROUND HOLES IN IT.
i think it could be very different — like the virtual reality/second life type of stuff. but i struggle to see how that is going to be truly awesome. i think augmented reality in a real world conference is a much better route.
US 3000% IN AGREEMENT.UNTIL INVENT MATRIX, STILL NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PUT LOTS OF PEOPLE WITH ALIGNED INTERESTS IN SAME SPACE.
Yes and No. Just streaming a speaker’s presentation does not a Virtual Conference make. A virtual conference could have inherent social networking capabilities so you know for example who is in listening with you and who they are, and what are their interests, etc….and you need a way to interact with them. If that is enabled, then you can “meet” people except that you can’t have beers with them.
maybe. i’m going to reserve judgement until i see how it goes
IT PROBLEM ME, GRIMLOCK, TRY TO SOLVE BEFORE.VERY HARD TO FIX WITH TECHNOLOGY. IT VIOLATE GRIMLOCK RULE #1 OF STARTUPS, NOT BE SHOES. INSTEAD REQUIRE HUMANS ACT IN NEW WAYS TO MAKE WORK.IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE WORK? ME THINK YES. BUT REQUIRE LOTS OF SMART THINKING.
Agreeing with FG here, one problem with virtual/online conferences is that there is no real way to get over the ‘stranger’ factor. Meeting someone in person, looking them in the eye and shaking hands or whatever, let’s you build rapport quickly. Call it a human failing, but that’s the reality for most people. And as others have said here already, if you aren’t in person, there isn’t that group energy that makes things happen.The closest thing I can think of to a successful virtual conference is AVC.com! Here there is an energy, camaraderie, and sharing of ideas with mutual respect. And while the comments are persistent, the prime comment time in the few hours after Fred posts is where a lot of the action takes place and feels different than the rest of the posts throughout the day. The trick is that it takes weeks (months) of watching, learning, commenting, etc., to build that trust and shared learning, something that doesn’t happen now at a virtual conference.To say that another way, I think a virtual conference of regular AVCers could work very well. Strangers, not so much. And the missing link is how to really virtualize human interaction. Solve that and virtual conferences won’t be the only thing you fix.
fred: sent you email with sketches to #integrate_everything
can you post them here please? find stuff like that interesting. unless they’re secret for whatever reason.
thnx — i’d like to hear fred’s comments first
saw it
Thank you. My brother taking up online investing and it’ll be great for him to know the ropes.
Listening to some of the discussion around this, maybe part of the problem is thinking of this in terms of being a “virtual” conference. The sponsors call it an “online conference” rather than virtual and I wonder if this is intentional. It may seem like semantics but certain terms set up certain expectations. Virtual implies that you are going to experience something remotely. So you think conference and all that implies and “virtual” implies that you will experience those things. Although, they do mention “simulating” some elements of a “traditional” conference.The purpose and subject matter of some “conferences” might make online the preferable model. This particular “conference” is an online learning event featuring an assortment of presenters. It seems that the subject matter is more conducive to individual remote participation and that more of the focus is on connecting with the presenters than on fellow “attendees.” With the relatively low barriers to participation they will reach attendees that they wouldn’t ordinarily attract and who might become leads, customers or even attendees at a future physical conference. The option to approach something as “exploratory” without making a huge commitment/investment is a very effective hook!
I think you hit the nail on the head here. This can be a very successful event for “individual remote participation”, not much different than the webinars and other online learning events that happen all over the internet every day. But the main benefit of a conference, the reason people spend money and give up time to travel and spend all day in a conference hall, that isn’t replicated successfully yet.
I’m not sure the conference hall experience should be replicated. It has inherent value — as has been elaborated already in the comments.I think it would be a mistake to judge the online model based on how well it replicates a traditional conference. (I realize that you were not suggesting that it should.)This can be another option, priced accordingly and used as appropriate. I don’t think it needs to replace anything — except those conferences that you pay to go to and the benefits aren’t commensurate with the costs because you really could have accomplished what you needed without physically being there or attending the entire event.I also see this model as a great supplement to a traditional conference, expanding the attendance to an online audience. An additional revenue stream.For a moment I thought I was onto something but someone is already doing this — using some of my same language — of course… http://www.learningtimes.com/
You said it better than I, you don’t want to replace a conference. But how does the virtual conference work better than a one-directional webinar. I think it comes down to the people at the conference being able to interact with each other and that’s the part I don’t see being done very well (yet).
VoiceBunny makes me feel happy.