A Different Kind of Entrepreneurship Conference

This post was co-written by Sarah Milstein & Eric Ries, co-hosts of The Lean Startup Conference.

We’ve just published the program for this year’s Lean Startup Conference, December 9 to 11 in San Francisco, and we can say without hesitation that it’s completely unlike any other entrepreneurship conference in existence. The difference matters, because while there are more than enough conferences aimed at startups—more of them every year it seems—so many of them look the same: a succession of speakers who are on the conference circuit, and a series of fast pitches and demos from early-stage startups. But entrepreneurs who are leading fast-growing companies or who are working in environments beyond Silicon Valley need more. They need deeper information on advanced entrepreneurship topics. So we’re covering important issues no one else talks about, and we’ve found terrific speakers you won’t see at other entrepreneurship conferences.

The conference is designed to help entrepreneurs learn from each other. But we now have a much bigger pool of experienced people to draw from—and we’ve taken the time to find folks from many kinds of companies, in a range of sectors, with new kinds of stories and advice that other entrepreneurs can benefit from, such as:
· Leading hyper-growth
· The fine art of experimentation
· Seriously leveling up tactics like A/B testing
· Understanding and applying the economic theories that make Lean Startup truly work
· The human factors that make Lean Startup hum in any organization
· How some of the world’s largest companies innovate
· Lean Startup for mission-driven organizations
· Getting started with Lean Startup

When it comes to speakers well-known in entrepreneurship communities, we’ve focused on bringing those with on-the-ground perspectives highly useful to businesspeople of all kinds: Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Reid Hoffman, Steve Blank. Many of the best-known speakers in the Lean Startup community—experts like Janice Fraser, Ash Maurya, Brant Cooper and Alistair Croll—will be giving hands-on workshops on December 11. Those sessions are designed for attendees seeking an even greater level of practical advice that you can you put to work right away; they’re available to anyone who registers for a Gold or VIP pass. And, because we had so many good speaking candidates this year, we added a night of Ignite talks open to all conference attendees.
We don’t follow the standard application process for conference presenters. Startup conferences are notoriously white and male, both in terms of speakers and attendees. In its first two years, The Lean Startup Conference was, too. But last year, when Sarah joined the conference as co-host, we decided to rethink how we were finding speakers. We began to create a more broadly merit-based approach, rather than employing the system that most conferences do, which relies on inviting people you already know or know of. We wrote last year about what we did and how our efforts took us from a conference with a speaker roster of almost entirely young, white, male speakers whom Eric knew personally to one featuring 40% women, 25% people of color, and many people we didn’t already know—while maintaining a very high level of attendee satisfaction. In other words, reaching out beyond our immediate networks helped us find great speakers we simply hadn’t been aware of previously. We’ve done the same this year, and that means we can bring you stories and advice from entrepreneurs who have incredible insights to share, whom you won’t hear from elsewhere.

Our speaker roster now better reflects our community. But what about our attendee base? To help ensure that people with a range of means can attend, we have two scholarship programs. To make sure that anyone who comes to the conference has a safe, respectful and professional experience among peers, we have a code of conduct that we enforce, and we’ll offer a number of ways for attendees and speakers to meet each other that don’t focus on drinking.

We think it’s pretty clear looking at all of this that Lean Startup is not like your average entrepreneurship conference at any level. Nor do we intend it to be. Register today to join us and get the best price possible. We sell tickets in blocks, and when one block sells out, the price goes up. The current block is already almost sold out, so register now. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone December 9 through 11 and hearing your feedback.
Photo: Getty Images

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