Next week is our MeetUp in Austin, Texas, but before we party we are going to tackle the issue of how to use the Web to build grassroots support for a business, a cause, or a political candidate. Everyone loves to give lip service to grassroots campaigns, but do they really scale? When do they work and when is it best to use traditional mass marketing and outreach? To help answer these questions, we’ve put together with Austin Ventures a Roundtable: “The Web Starts At The Grassroots”. We are releasing the final 100 tickets here. They cost $50 each, proceeds will go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and each ticket will get you into the Austin MeetUp afterward (which is otherwise sold out).
Some new panelists joining me will be:
• Shawn Colo, cofounder of Demand Media
• Owen Van Natta, former chief revenue officer, Facebook
• Greg Lee, CFO Lance Armstrong Foundation (Livestrong)
• Mike Butler, Chief marketing officer HomeAway (formerly CMO of T-Mobile USA)
• Morgan Warstler, CTO & Co-Founder, SaysMe TV Inc.
• Clay Nichols, Chief Creative Officer, DadLabs Inc
• Bryan Menell, Austin StartupBlog
• Naveed Lalani, co-founder Piryx
• Chris Pacitti, General Partner, Austin Ventures
They will join the previously announced panelists:
• Greg Bettinelli, EVP of Business Development and Strategy at Live Nation
• Vinay Bhagat, Founder of Convio
• Andrew Busey, CEO of Challenge Games
• Matt Corey, VP of Marketing Golfsmith
• Jeff Dachis, Founder and former CEO of Razorfish
• Jay Hallberg, Founder and EVP Marketing of Spiceworks
• Brett Hurt, Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice.
• Paul Korzilius, Manager of Bon Jovi
• Sean McDonald, Director—Community | Conversations at Dell
And, best of all, the Ice Cream Man will be there. (He goes around giving away free ice cream and gets advertisers to pay for it).
If you have any questions for participants or topics you think the Roundtable should address in general, please add them in comments. Also we are looking for some video volunteers to help stream the event live (you need your own equipment, but will get a free ticket to both the Roundtable and the MeetUp; please email me if interested).
Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008
Roundtable: The Web Starts At The Grass Roots
- Time: 3:00 – 5:00 pm
- Location: AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, University of Texas at Austin campus
- Tickets: $50, available here with all of the proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
The MeetUp afterward will be at Pangea . We expect to have over 20 start-ups doing demos and participating at the event in front of 700 attendees. And we still have room for more creative sponsorship and demo opportunities (festive cocktails, giveaways, entertainment, etc.)
Austin MeetUp sponsors will receive special three-day VIP backstage passes to the Austin City Limits music festival, including backstage access and admission to the Austin Ventures tent. The VIP tickets include full access to the music festival and the Austin Ventures tent, where there will be food, drinks and clean bathrooms. Interested? contact Jeanne Logozzo or Heather Harde.
To attend either event as press, please contact Sarah Ross.
The TechCrunch MeetUp Austin:
- Time: 5:30 – 10:00 pm
- Location: Pangea
- Photo/Flickr Tag: TechcrunchMeetup14
- Tickets: here, based on availability, proceeds to be donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Attendee identification will be checked at the door. Tickets are not transferable and not refundable. If you use your name to purchase multiple tickets, your guests must arrive with you to check in at the door.
Can’t wait to meet our readers in Austin.