The Combine is a display of talent, entrepreneurship and creativity. It’s an event about tech, specifically the people, ideas and environments that drive technology. We’re bringing together top thinkers and doers to explore the spark that occurs at the intersection of community, culture, creativity, capital and code.
Speakers
- Merlin Mann
- Independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster
- Friday, 5:00pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Merlin created 43 Folders, co-hosts You Look Nice Today and Back to Work, and speaks and consults about things like email, time & attention, and creative work. Sure, Merlin also makes and does other stuff, including kinda-famous things like Inbox Zero, the Hipster PDA, the Procrastination Dash, 5ives, That Phone Guy, and, of course, his personal favorite, "Cranking." Merlin strongly discourages you from following him on Twitter.
- Micah Baldwin
- CEO, Graphic.ly
- Friday, 2:00pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Micah Baldwin is CEO/Chief Community Caretaker of Graphic.ly, which provides an immersive social experience and marketplace around digital comics and associated merchandise. Previously, Micah was VP, Business Development and Chief Evangelist for Lijit Networks, his sixth startup (having sold his last startup, Current Wisdom, at beginning of 2007). Micah got his start as a university fundraiser, being one of the first to fuse online activities and marketing strategies into alumni fund-raising. Over his career, Micah helped universities such as The Catholic University of America and the University of San Diego see annual giving programs grow by more than 150%. Focusing on business development, online marketing and advertising, and product strategy, Micah was instrumental in the growth of companies such as MyPersonal (now Synacor – IPO), ServiceMagic (acquired by IAC), and Indigio Group (acquired by Bridgeline Software). Micah has helped author several books on internet and search marketing, and started the #followfriday meme on Twitter. Micah is also a frequent speaker and with appearances on CNN and articles in many of the leading blogs, including Mashable and ReadWriteWeb.
- Paige Craig
- CEO & Co-Founder of BetterWorks
- Saturday, 12:00pm: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
Paige Craig grew up in Sacramento; was recruited to West Point in 1992, he then dropped out his last year and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He worked in the intelligence and counter-terrorism community until 2003 when he drove into Baghdad and launched the Lincoln Group. In 2007 he “retired”, traveled the world and moved to LA in late 2008 to start his career as an “Adrenaline Fueled Angel”. Two years and forty companies later he joined forces with Zao & George to "Make Work Rewarding!" He loves entrepreneurs, outdoor adventure and foreign travel.
- Mimi Henderlong
- Community Manager, Threadless
- Friday, 3:00pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
As the head of Community at Threadless, Mimi unlocks opportunities and resources for Threadless members and artists, engaging and inspiring them to create mind-blowing designs, collaborate, participate, meetup, network and most importantly — have fun. Mimi has also launched the Threadless 101 art education program, which brings the idea of community and feedback, the backbone of Threadless, into the classroom. Before moving West to join Threadless, Mimi managed an international art gallery in NYC and grabbed a Masters degree in Arts Administration from NYU. She has an abnormal love for Classic Rock, fake mustaches and hiking. Mimi currently lives in Boulder, CO with her husband, Dustin, and cat, Phyllis.
- Ade Olonoh
- CEO and Founder, Formspring
- Friday, 4:30pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Ade Olonoh is the CEO and Founder of Formspring, a rapidly growing service with over 25 million members that gives people a fun, new way to find out more about each other. Before founding Formspring, Ade founded and managed Formstack, a profitable startup based in Indianapolis. Ade ran two other startups, including Recursive Function, where he created several web-based apps, and Bottled Software, a custom software development consultancy. He has a B.A. in Computer Science & Mathematics from Anderson University.
- Christian Briggs
- Co-Founder, SociaLens; PhD Student
- Friday, 10:00am: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Christian Briggs is working on a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction and Complex Systems at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, where he occasionally teaches courses in new media theory. His research focuses primarily on how people, businesses, and other types of organizations get things done together using digital technology. Christian has also worked in various creative, management and consultative roles for Palladium Group, Ziff Davis Interactive, Surfwatch, Walt Disney Imagineering, One to One Interactive and Walmart. Christian co-founded SociaLens in 2009 to provide research, training and consulting to help organizations to thrive in the digital age.
- Johan Bollen
- Associate Professor, IU School of Informatics and Computing
- Friday, 2:30pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Johan Bollen is associate professor at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing. He was formerly a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He obtained his PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Brussels in 2001 on the subject of cognitive models of human hypertext navigation. His research takes place at the intersection of informatics and social science, an emerging domain which is now frequently referred to as computational social science. He has published more than 70 research papers and taught numerous courses on these subjects. His research has been applied in industry to develop advanced recommender systems and tools that track online sentiment for market prediction. His present interests are the study of social phenomena such as public mood states and social contagion from large-scale online networking data. More information on Johan Bollen's work can be found online at http://informatics.indiana.edu/jbollen/
- Jay Baer
- Social media strategist, speaker, and author
- Friday Master of Ceremonies: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Our Master of Ceremonies this year will be Jay Baer, a hype-free, tequila-loving social media strategist, speaker, and author. A digital marketing pioneer, he's worked with more than 700 brands since 1994, including Nike, Sony, MetLife, AllState, and 29 of the Fortune 500. He was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of America's leading social media consultants, and his blog, ConvinceAndConvert.com is ranked as the #1 content marketing blog in the world, and the #3 social media blog in the world. He's the co-author of the leading book on social media for business, The NOW Revolution: 7 Steps to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social.
- Brandon West
- Developer Evangelist,SendGrid
- Saturday, 4:15: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
Brandon West is a Developer Evangelist for SendGrid. His focus is on empowering developers to build things, gathering feedback for new features and improvements, and fostering a cooperative developer community for anything that needs email integration. You can find him at hackdays and conferences around the country and in the Denver/Boulder area. Brandon has been a web developer for the last 10 years and has a wide base of experience, from database integration to user interactivity for companies ranging from startups to enterprise application providers.
- Raquel Richardson
- Principal, Silver Square
- Saturday, 4:15: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
Idea girl Raquel Richardson is an urban wannabe, Butler grad and mother of two cupcake-eating boys. After working at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Bates USA Midwest, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and Charles Schwab, Raquel launched Silver Square Inc. in 2000. This creative, trusted marketing and design firm based in Carmel is known for hitting it out of the park, using funny as a business tactic, being brutally honest and reveling in clients' successes.
- Clay Mabbitt
- COO, Silver Square
- Saturday, 4:15: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
Clay Mabbitt has been with Silver Square “since the Bears were in the Super Bowl” and it’s been one blissful blur since. Clay is a master at taking a complicated topic and breaking it down into really simple ideas – including thoughts on branding, online marketing and social media. He’s one funny dude who thinks humor is one of the best ways to learn – and a sign of brilliance. (sigh)
- D. Mike Allen
- Attorney
- Saturday, 2:15: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
D. Mike is an attorney with Mallor | Grodner LLP. He helps startups get started. He also helps them stay out of trouble as they grow. He was the original organizer of Ignite Bloomington and now serves as Vice-president of Humanetrix Foundation, the sponsor of a number of Bloomington tech events, including The Combine.
- James Paden
- Vice President of Product, Compendium
- Saturday, 11:00: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
James Paden is Vice President of Product at Compendium, the business blogging and content marketing platform. Prior to joining Compendium, he founded Emailium, an email marketing search engine, and Xemion, a web designer portfolio gallery. James has previously held technology and marketing positions at several other Indiana-based startups. It should be noted that he refuses to wear skinny ties.
- Kevin Makice
- SociaLens Co-Founder, PhD Candidate
- Saturday, 10:00: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
Kevin Makice is a co-founder of SociaLens, a research and consulting firm helping organizations to succeed in the digital age. Kevin is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing. His past research is eclectic, including political wikis, tangible interfaces for children’s games, machinima, and network analysis of ball movement in basketball. In 2009, Kevin authored the first technical book about Twitter, Twitter API: Up and Running, published by O'Reilly Media. Kevin is a contributor to Wired’s GeekDad blog.
Panelists
- Jen Proctor
- Filmmaker, Scholar, and Media Combatant
Jen Proctor is a filmmaker, scholar, and media combatant based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her award-winning original and found footage work has screened around the world, although her most popular video is on YouTube and features Keyboard Cat. She's an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Screen Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
- Hillary Elmore
- CEO, Code Together LLC
Third generation entrepreneur Hillary Elmore is excited to carry on her family’s tradition with her first venture, Squad. A Bloomington, Indiana native, she is thrilled to work with SproutBox and the thriving tech startup community there.
- Wreck & Salvage
- Video producers
Wreck & Salvage is a package of three video producers called Erik Nelson (Vermont), Adam Quirk (Indiana), and Aaron Valdez (Michigan) who make media for the web. They repurpose a lot of appropriated video, television, movies, screencasts, motion graphics, VHS tape, surveillance video, MIDI, animated gifs, and other forms of new and old media technology. For more about them, please visit: www.wreckandsalvage.com
- Chris Weagel
- Multimedia Artist and Educator
Chris Weagel develops and teaches animation & video programs for youth and adults in and around Detroit, Michigan. He is currently a board member with DAFT (Digital, Arts, Film & Television) a Michigan-Based Non-Profit Media Arts education organization and a production coordinator at CMNtv Public Access TV in Metro Detroit. His creative and documentary video work exploring the horrors of American working class life can be found at humandog.tv.
Slot 2
- Thursday, October 20
-
Join us for the opening night party at Alumni Hall. Network and hear some great ideas at our Open Pitch Session and Tech Cocktail. Doors open at 7:00pm
- Open Pitch Session
- Pick up the mic and pitch your idea to a room full of entrepreneurs, investors and venture capitalists.
- Thursday, 7:00pm: IU Alumni Hall
- Tech Cocktail
- Mingle with other tech enthusiasts, VCs, bloggers, and entrepreneurs as we showcase local startups.
- Thursday, 8:00pm: IU Alumni Hall
- Friday, October 21
-
A full day of inspiration from our line up of amazing speakers.
- Introduction
- Jay Baer, Jenn Hileman and Mike Trotzke welcome attendees to the Buskirk Chumley for the main speaking event of The Combine 2011. Doors open at 9:00am.
- Friday, 9:45am: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Digital Fluency: On Becoming Jackie Chan
- Christian Briggs
- Friday, 10:00am: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Startup Myths Perpetuated
- Ade Olonoh
- Friday, 10:30am: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Morning Break
- Sponsored by Bloomingfoods
- Friday, 11:00am: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- The Founder’s Game
- SproutBox
- Friday, 11:15am: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Community Driver: Using Technology and Creativity to Stay Human
- Mimi Henderlong
- Friday, 11:45am: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Lunch
- Enjoy lunch in one of Bloomington's several fantastic dining venues, all within easy walking distance from the Buskirk-Chumley
- Friday, 12:15am: Bloomington
- Welcome Back
- Jay Baer, Jenn Hileman, and Mike Trotzke welcome attendees to the second half of the main speaker event.
- Friday, 2:15pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- The Power of Storytelling
- Micah Baldwin
- Friday, 2:30pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Measuring the Zeitgeist from Social Media
- Johan Bollen
- Friday, 3:00pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Afternoon Break
- Sponsored by FormAssembly
- Friday, 3:30pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Campfire Stories from the Post-Apocalyptic
Media Wasteland - Wreck & Salvage, Jen Proctor, Chris Weagel
- Friday, 4:00pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- The [Insert Your Company] Developer Community: the Why, the How and the What
- Tim Falls
- Friday, 4:30pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- What IS a Priority?
- Merlin Mann
- Friday, 5:00pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Ignite Bloomington 6
- Short, dynamic speeches by Bloomington residents.
- Friday, 8:00pm: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
- Saturday, October 22
-
Learn some new skills from some very talented and experienced people.
- Business Track Workshops
- Rapid Collaboration Strategy with SociaLens; Gaming Your Way to Funding with Paige Craig; Startup Law with D. Mike Allen; Top 10 Legal Pitfalls with Tami Earnhart; Beyond the Boys Club with Cathi Crabtree, Hillary Elmore, and Jenn Hileman
- Saturday, 10:00am: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
- Marketing Track Workshops
- Matching the Tool to the Story with Monarch Media Studios INC; Practical Marketing Content with Compendium; SEO in 5 Steps with Slingshot SEO; It's Ok to Have ? About Social Media with Leah Jones; Your Brand: Your Most Valuable Asset with Silver Square
- Saturday, 10:00am: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
- Cornucopia Track Workshops
- How To Be The Most Interesting Man In The World with Greg Bagues; Video Bullets & Media Triage with Wreck & Salvage, Jen Proctor, and Chris Weagel; Pitching Practice with Social Lens; APIs Demystified with SendGrid
- Saturday, 10:00am: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
- API Hackday
- Developers can join us at our API Hackday for an all-day coding fest focused on building apps with API's. Developers of all experience levels can share ideas, collaborate on projects, start new ventures, and discover great new tools and API's to play with.
- Saturday, 9:00am: Indiana Memorial Union Tree Suites
- Closing Party
- Come out for a night on the town! Join us for a night of fun as we visit some of our favorite spots around town.
- Saturday, 9:00pm: Downtown Bloomington
Sponsors
Founding
Cultivator
Seedling
API Hack Day Sponsors
About
Explore the spark that occurs at the intersection of community, culture, creativity and code. The Combine is a 3-day conference that brings together creative thinkers and entrepreneurs from across the country to a remarkable Midwestern setting to learn, network and be inspired.
Set in America’s heartland, the amazing college town of Bloomington, Indiana is a Midwestern tech culture hot spot and an escape from the typical. Whether you’re starting your own company or looking for ways to innovate within you current company or organization, you’ll walk away with a love of Bloomington and loads of ideas for how to maximize technology in any environment.
Learn from proven experts in internet marketing, product development, revenue generation, and content creation. Network with some of the nation’s foremost technologists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Be inspired by stories of success and failure from ground breaking executives and creators. If you’re into entrepreneurship, product development, design, marketing, social media, blogging, coding, personal branding, business development or community, The Combine is designed for you.
Launched in 2010 to a sell-out crowd, The Combine is a volunteer run, non-profit endeavor that seeks to spur growth and creativity through technology. We believe that the Midwest is a great place for tech and creative work and this is one of the things we do to build an active and engaged community. Learn more about the team and view the conference schedule.