What do human connections and new business ventures have in common? Everything you need to know to start a new biz when businesses are shutting down:

Find what drives you

As you can read in my life story, I moved to New York City at the beginning of 2020. The city is so inspirational that I channeled my entrepreneur self and organized a startup battle at Microsoft 4 weeks after moving here. But I felt that there was something bigger coming. Not being able to quite figure out yet what to focus on, I dove deeper into the cultural life of New York, I tried all the food, went to comedy clubs, and saw beautiful Broadway performances. And it’s those kinds of experiences that gave me the idea of creating something absolutely new in the world of tech conferences — LinkUpConferenceShow. New places, being surrounded by inspiration and enjoying life let me tap into my creative force. And what drives you?

LinkUp What?? Or don’t underestimate the power of a great name

LinkUpConferenceShow. That was my choice for the new business that I was starting. I like unique names that explain the idea of the company but that’s not all. My personal recipe for a successful product name? Make it sound mm..unforgettable (and maybe slightly unreadable!) so that people pay more attention when reading it. Let me break down the 3 parts of the name that I picked:

1. To link-up: establishment of contact; meeting. It’s often used in New York, even among friends. I liked the use of this word so much that I needed this in the name of my conference.
2. Conference: because it is still a tech conference. Duh.
3. Show: we want to connect people in a unique way and incorporate some entertainment in the conference as well.

So there you have it. A very short explanation of LinkUpConferenceShow. I would love to hear how you choose a name for your product-baby?

PSA: the next paragraph is a shameless promotion of my new business venture

If you are curious about the LinkUpConferenceShow that I’m putting on, here’s a quick explanation:

LinkUpConferenceShow is a digital networking conference organized for tech professionals in the FinTech, HealthTech, and Telecom industries (of course we have big plans 😉, but we need to do this pilot first!). On November 12th, we’ll be connecting tech and business pros, investors, bloggers, media, and entrepreneurs through an online event to network and get inspired. Our first idea was to have this big event somewhere in New York City, but Covid-19 has shifted our focus from an offline to an online format. There you go! I’m totally using this platform to promote my new business and I suggest that you do the same! Normal programming now resumes, keep reading for more advice!

Find your unique value

When putting together the new product concept for LinkUpConferenceShow, I knew that I had a lot of competitors. First of all, it’s an online event and it’s no secret that the online event industry is now booming. However, from my experience attending events, I realized quite quickly that all events are speaker or content-centric and none of them focus on the attendee and their needs. So that was it — my unique value — offering my clients something that they haven’t experienced before. LinkUpConferenceShow is 70% networking and 30% conference. Speakers at my event are there to inspire attendees, but the real focus of LinkUpConferenceShow is building a meaningful and lasting network for all guests. In regular tech conferences, there are a lot of speakers and discussions but little time to network. At LinkUpConferenceShow, we have slots programmed in the agenda that are solely for networking. We also work with algorithms to make sure that attendees are perfectly matched with each other, and we have experienced LinkUp Managers in each group to ensure effective support. Pretty cool, huh?

See what I’ve done here? I took quite a saturated market and crafted a niche for my product by offering something unique. Can you do the same? Do you see opportunities that other companies didn’t take?

When things start to pick up, be prepared to pivot. A lot.

.. because that is part of entrepreneurship that no one really talks about. I pivoted 5 times when launching LinkUpConferenceShow. First, we had to shift from an offline event idea to an online one, partly because of Covid-19 and the uncertainty of how this is going to evolve. But it’s not the only change this pandemic has brought us. We had to pivot and twist ourselves in different directions to get this event organized and find the formula that we needed to provide smooth and streamlined personal networking. Everyone knows that online events can be long and tedious, so we also decided to spice things up with comedy and laughter.

And trust me, during these five pivots I have received a lot of emails saying “no, not interested,” without any further explanation. If you receive a lot of those, it can be upsetting and it made me question for a bit if it’s all worth it. But our whole team wholeheartedly believes in LinkUpConferenceShow and how it can be a turning point in the world of tech conferences. I think that is one of the things that keeps me going and it also attracts business leaders and cool speakers. It’s all about our passion. And, being ready to pivot….again, and again….

Be OK with uncertainty. Propose to it, marry it, and live happily ever after.

Well, now you know about my method for starting something new in a time of uncertainty. Do I know if it will be successful? I don’t. But I hope it will! This one is a pilot event and it’s as scary as it is exciting, but it will hopefully end in a continued series. At the end of the day, this challenge gives me inspiration and a feeling of joy. And that means I get to create ( see #1 🙂).

As you can see, we don’t have all the ingredients for our cocktail yet, but the whole team is working to refine the recipe every single day. Join us on November 12th to see the perfect mix for yourself. Cheers!