Amber Brandner, Founder Connected Dreamers. An entrepreneur, mentor, speaker, and producer working with a global community of entrepreneurs and creatives for a changing economy. Amber creates connection driven experiences. Recent productions include San Diego Startup Week. Amber is a Purdue University Graduate. @joyfulwreason
CO-ORGANIZER
PRODUCER
AMBER BRANDNER
Brant Cooper helps organizations big and small innovate.He is the co-author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Lean Entrepreneur and is a sought after speaker, advisor and mentor.
BRANT COOPER
WORKSHOP FACILITATOR & MENTOR
JEREMIAH GARDNER
WORKSHOP FACILITATOR & MENTOR
Jeremiah Gardner
Author of @theleanbrand. Mind + Mouthpiece + Mentor + Bulldog Lover.
His work is about helping reframe brand innovation.
CO-ORGANIZER
HOST
BRIAN HAWKINS
Brian Hawkins is a graduate of USD and has his MBA from The Thunderbird School of Global Management. He started his first agency Catalyst in San Diego at 22, in 17 years he created campaigns including Think Blue. A passionate entrepreneur, mentor and professor, he is co-founder of top 10 fashion tech start-up of 2013, StyleSeek and My Taste Bud, and in December, he created PreFAB, a co-working incubator, pop-up retail, and special event venue for the lifestyle industries including, fashion, art, and music. He is a professor at UCSD, FIDM and CIBU and has resided in downtown since 1999.
Josh Baylin, is a Founding Partner of Velocity Growth, a San Diego-based, for-profit accelerator, that works with Mobile, Consumer Internet, Wireless Health and Aerobot (UAV,Drones) companies looking to use crowdfunding as an integral part of value creation. Velocity Growth is also the creator of Velocity Kick, a crowdfunding campaign management platform. Mr. Baylin works alongside found partners Jeffrey Belk and Andy Abramson in creating investment process, strategic direction and financial due diligence.
MENTOR
JOSH BAYLIN
FOUNDER
VELOCITY KICK
Nik consulted with Accenture to major corporations for 7 years and outside of his consulting has since either started or joined 6 early stage ventures that he either buried or grew to acquisition / public market. An industrial engineer by education via Purdue University, Nik is well versed in LEAN engineering methods and has also completed coursework at Harvard Business School.
Nik is "de-regulating" social networks by giving organizers online/mobile sites where their followers can hangout, connect and be themselves.
Nik Souris is a leading advisor and consultant on driving offline/online engagement. Nik helps organizers unite and develop the in-real-life consumers/fans of brands/artists on the internet. Currently working with the likes of Guns N' Roses, Cirque du Soleil and others -
MENTOR
NIK SOURIS
ENTREPRENEURS ARE JOINED BY LEADING MENTORS IN THE AREAS OF TECH. FASHION. FABRICATION. WEB. DESIGN. SOFTWARE. SOCIAL MEDIA. SEO. MARKETING. PRODUCTION. BRAND STORYTELLING. and MORE.
PAST MENTORS INCLUDE:
MENTOR
GREG SMITH
MENTOR
GOFUNDME EXPERT
Greg Smith is VP of Customer Operations at GoFundMe. He has grown the Customer Happiness team to 25 employees in the last 2 years which bridges the gap between our users and the GoFundMe Product Team. Greg has worked with several San Diego technology companies before GoFundMe, including co-owning a web and mobile development shop for 3 years.
GoFundMe is the most popular personal fundraising site in the World. Over $400M has been raised by our users for their personal causes - making GoFundMe a Top 400 Website in the USA based on traffic. Nearly 25M unique people interact with GoFundMe each month. GoFundMe is a brand that people trust - known for its ease-of-use, real results and 5-minute customer service response times.
OSCEOLA
DUBOIS
LEAD
PHOTOGRAPHER
Osceola DuBois
Is a freelance Photographer living in San Diego, CA
Where beauty is in abundance and the food is fantastic.
That being said he likes his meals just like his images Clean and Well Executed.
His career was fostered under the tutelage of 6 Wise Wizards and a Grumpy Hobbit
who taught him to shoot early and shoot often.
When you have the opportunity to create you capture the light, the love and the grace.
From Newborn Photography to Landscape
Wedding Photos to Street Imagery there is only one thing that matters and that is
...." THE MOMENT" .
" I'm trying to find and extract the moments within the moments,, stitch them into a flag
and raise that fabric as high as the sun. "
