If you could keynote any business conference, which would you choose and why?
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. TEDx
“I would really love to give the keynote address at TEDx. The work we do in the culture space is something that is critical for business leaders to be aware of and to leverage as they grow their organizations. TEDx would give us an opportunity to share with the masses what only a relatively small number of high-performing organizations have understood for a while now.”
Chris Cancialosi, GothamCulture
2. LeWeb Paris
“I would give the keynote speech at LeWeb Paris because I’ve been before, it’s been the launch pad for many successful businesses such as Uber, a lot of my colleagues frequent LeWeb and I love Paris. I think entrepreneurs have to be able to speak about their company and should engage in public speaking at least twice per year. It’s easy to understand your concept yourself but harder to explain to others.”
Gideon Kimbrell, InList
3. FailCon
“I’ve always loved the FailCon conference. I’ve found this event to create more value for me than any other. Speakers talk about their failures and more importantly, what they learned from their mistakes. As a speaker, your goal is to influence the audience with lessons from your past. I’ve never seen more impact than lessons from an emotional story about failure.”
Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches
4. Davos
“Go big or go home! Davos is still one of the leading conferences for global leaders around the world. If you’re serious about driving change, I would think that getting a chance to influence some of the world’s most important people would certainly help!”
Tyler Arnold, SimplySocial Inc.
5. SXSW
“For years, many a successful startup has debuted at this conference. Giving the keynote address would require a lot of industry research and would be a huge challenge for me, but I believe I’d learn a tremendous amount and meet a ton of interesting people.”
Alexandra Levit, Inspiration at Work
6. Global Entrepreneurship Congress
“The Global Entrepreneurship Congress is a gathering of startup champions from around the world. Where entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, thought leaders and policymakers work together to help bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. Connecting entrepreneurs with policymakers and economic research is huge. I really like the mix of people and goals at this conference.”
Jason Grill, JGrill Media | Sock 101
7. Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Gala
“Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Gala — I can’t get enough of their stories. This is the future of business. It’s young, it’s nimble and it’s fresh.”
Kuba Jewgieniew, Realty ONE Group
8. IRCE
“The Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition is the largest and most well recognized business conference in the ecommerce space. It would be the perfect place to showcase my business and area of expertise.”
Josh Weiss, Bluegala
