Acroment recently returned from the COSE sponsored Small Business Conference held at the Cleveland IX Center. This two day event featured educational workshops, a business-to-business tradeshow floor, tons of networking opportunities and outstanding keynote speakers.
The conference was kicked off by keynote speaker Daymond John (Founder and CEO of FUBU and current star of ABC’s Shark Tank. John weaved his discussion around 5 “Shark Points” for businesses to be successful:
- S – Setting at goal.
- H – Homework… do it.
- A – Amore. Do what you LOVE to do.
- R – Remember. YOU are the brand way before anything else.
- K – Keep moving, and keep trying.
Even though I’d never heard the man speak before and had only been introduced to his “character” on Shark Tank this was a very engaging talk. We attended some great workshops for the rest of the day and talked to a ton of local businesses.
The next day’s keynote address was by Jeffrey Rayport a nationally known digital marketing, media and ecommerce expert. My Rayport had the crowd enthralled with facts and figures about social media, mobile and ecommerce and the speed at which the digital landscape is changing.
The conference closed with a panel of successful local business owners:
- Matt Fish from Melt Bar & Grilled – http://meltbarandgrilled.com/
- Joe Lopez from Aster Elements – http://www.aster.us/
- Tricia & Rich Kaman from Kaman Art Shoppes – http://www.kamansart.com/
- Joel Domino from Kent Displays – http://www.kentdisplays.com/
All of the panelists gave valuable insights into what has made their businesses successful and clearly showed their passion for what they do in the Cleveland community.
You can see some photos from the event posted on our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/acroment We’re already looking forward to next year!