Smoky Mountain Regional Business Summit

[guniv]

The L&N STEMpunks are hosting the first Smoky Mountain Regional Business Summit. The summit is on Saturday, May 17th from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, just a short walk away from the venue the regional competition is held at. At the summit, team members from around the region will meet to discuss the often-overlooked but critical aspect of a successful FRC team: business. Topics of discussion will include branding of your team, learning leadership skills, attacking award submissions, improving team communication, and much more.

The summit will be a day full of learning, brainstorming, and networking. The day will be organized by of two tracks of six 45-minute open discussions (for a total of twelve). Representatives from some of our corporate sponsors and the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce will also be on hand for networking opportunities. We encourage you to use this opportunity to network with other teams and learn from each other.

If you are interested and want to attend the Smoky Mountain Regional Business Summit, please go to the RSVP page on our website and RSVP by May 3rd. Payment is handled through PayPal. If you cannot RSVP through the website, please do not hesitate to contact us. We encourage bringing at least four members from your team so that two can be present at every session. Cost of attendance is $10 per person, which includes lunch and a T-shirt. Plan to stay the whole day. Location is the L&N STEM Academy, 401 Henley Street, Knoxville, TN 37902.

We're posting this open invitation on Chief Delphi to broaden our message. We've already emailed 30 teams from around the area that we met at SMR, but we wanted to make sure we left no one out. At this point it also looks like we will record each session, and we will update this thread with the videos as they become available.

The current itinerary is below. If you're attending and want to moderate a session or host one, we'd love to hear it!

8:30am
Welcome and Safety Message

8:35am
Keynote Speaker

8:50am
Team Introductions and Sharing Your Biggest Lesson Learned

9:30-10:15am
Transforming Your Business Plan
Something Your Team Can Actually Operate and Run

2013-2014 Business Lessons Learned
Looking Back on a Year with Successes and Challenges

10:25-11:10am
Engaging and Communicating with Everyone
Developing a Sustainable Team by Engaging Parents, Mentors, Your School, and Your Sponsors

Design, Branding, and Team Spirit
From the Pit...to the Robot…to Your Team Appearance and Behaviors

11:20-12:05pm
Do We Really Need to Vote?
Managing Talent, Identifying and Training Leaders, and Creating a
Culture of Accountability

Planning and Following a Team Budget
Getting the Most out of your Money

1:00-1:45pm
How to Build an Effective Fundraising Organization
Provide Real Value to Your Sponsors

Leveraging Media
Effective Tools for Improving Online, Print, and Social Media

1:55-2:40pm
Business Management and Psychology
How Do You Reward/Reinforce Good Team Behaviors and Redirect Unproductive Behaviors

Award Submissions
What are the FRC Judges Really Looking For?

2:50-3:35pm
Community Outreach
What's Your Plan, and How Does It Benefit Your Team, TN FIRST, and US FIRST?

More Than Safety Glasses
How to Build a Safety Culture

3:45-5:00pm
Developing a Regional Fundraising Organization

Thanks!
Josh Witt
Media Manager, L&N STEMpunks
http://lnstempunks.org

[HenryGertsen]

Excited for us to host the event!

[Sanchberry]

This is really cool. Some members of 1466 will probably be attending. We still need to figure out who though. Looking forward to it!

[guniv]

It seems like a lot of teams have sort of broken up post-competition and others are busy post-champs, so the deadline is getting pushed back to a TBD date. If you're planning on coming, please RSVP and pay on our website so we know how many people to expect and to plan accordingly.