Business Plan Boot Camp

The Wisconsin Technology Council and Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, S.C. sponsored a 'business plan boot camp' today for the Phase 2 participants of the 2007 Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest.

The boot camp was held in Waukesha, Wisconsin at the Reinhart offices. Gathered in Reinhart's conference room were a group of 50 to 100 extremely interesting entrepreneurs and innovators. The time available to connect with the other Phase 2 participants was, unfortunately, quite limited for me. However, even in the few short breaks we had during the boot camp, I connected with five people. The probability is high that connecting with those five today will result in future discussions, meetings, collaborating and general networking.

The most important quality of the people in the Reinhart conference room today was their passion and desire to work on something important to them. Those kind of people are fun to meet, great to work with when your interests coincide, and fantastic to share connections with for other serendipitous opportunities. Two of the people I met appeared to have a single specific interest in common with me, although a longer conversation would no doubt reveal other areas of shared agendas or passions. Two people had two stated areas of shared interests, and the last person had three high interest areas that overlapped with mine.

Emails were sent out to all five this evening, with Great Expectations for future interaction with most or all of them.

The four hours spent in the boot camp today were absolutely worthwhile. Another four to eight hours connecting with those highly motivated Phase 2 participants would be equally worthwhile. If we're lucky, the Wisconsin Technology Council will help arrange another gathering with that same group of people.

The next eighteen days will be filled with lots of writing and re-writing of the Phase 2 submission -- a 1000 word executive summary for Abba Makolin Waldron & Associates, LLC's business plan. Meeting the five people during boot camp today made the effort put thus far into the business plan contest worthwhile. Continued efforts on this project will undoubtedly be likewise rewarded in one or more ways.

Opportunities appear each day as the Journey continues...

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