1 Million Cups is a weekly educational program developed by the Kauffman Foundation. It is a place where entrepreneurs can come and connect with others in the community. There’s a real energy that supports entrepreneurs. So an entrepreneur will attend and present their business or product for about 6 minutes then after his or her presentation there is usually a 20 minute question and answer period. Then a question is asked at the end, “what can we people in this room do for you?”
After the first 30 minutes of the presentation segment, there is a mingle session out in the gathering space. This is where we all talked and got to know each other better. It was a great chance to build and expand our networks. I learned a lot from this workshop because I realized that no matter what kind of industry or field you choose to work in, the people that come to these meetings are very intelligent and helpful people who want to see you and help you improve in every aspect of your professional development.
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, there isn’t really that much to do. So, it was really hard finding something to attend such as a workshop, event, or presentation and etc. Since I was having a difficult time searching for something on the internet I used my great networking skills and contacted a new friend of mine. Brett Gauger, a nice gentleman that I interviewed a few weeks ago about a career that I was interested in. Brett is a very social guy, in fact his job is a social media account executive. So basically he is social media famous, especially in Fort Wayne. So I asked him if he knew of any events or workshops going on in Fort Wayne this month. Immediately he named off like 10 different things. A lot of the events were past this due date but he said, “Hey, Sweetwater hosts the 1 Million Cups presentations every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. you should go! They’re awesome and beneficial to anybody!” So since I couldn’t attend his presentation and workshop about Snapchat next week, I went to watch Morrison Agen this past week and get the insight about how he started his business and why he wanted to share. Apparently he has been in business with Neat Neat Neat records for about three years and is seeing that his target market is dying. Literally. So he needed our help, the audience’s help, to spread the word to millennials that vinyl music is back in style. It was very interesting studying his financial gains and goals and seeing how he worked online and through social media to market his business. All in all this experience was very interesting and I am very happy I attended. I am very eager to go every Wednesday and hopefully let this guide me into a more successful professional future.
