Expand your skills, enhance your business savvy, and aim to accelerate growth to maximize profits. Two days of session topics cover traditional businesses and creative industries. Gain insight from content experts and boost your network.

Day 1 - August 30, 2016: Business Training

Day 2 -  August 31, 2016: Creative Industry Training

Palmer Events Center | 900 Barton Springs Road | Austin, TX 78704 | Free Parking

Aspiring Entrepreneurs and Existing Small Business Owners

We’re bringing in content experts to share the latest small business trends. Choose from helpful classes and panel discussions in areas specific to your needs.  Gain knowledge that can help you get started and grow a business.

Artists, Musicians and Creatives

You're a business too! Join in, we have classes, panel discussions, and mentoring specifically for you. Training and education for the creative community is an enhancement of this year’s event.

Walk-ins Welcome

Registration is required, click on session title to register.

Doors will be closed 10 minutes after session start time.
The cost of Creatives Education Day is 100% underwritten by the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts and Music and Entertainment Divisions.

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. | Keynote: A Soup Peddler's Journey | $15 includes light lunch

David Ansel began his business by peddling soup on the streets of South Austin in 2002. The Soup Peddler, has expanded into 4 Austin locations including a wholesale business. Come hear the local souperstar speak about his journey of transformation and success. Interviewer: Hopeton Hay, Director of HUB Programs, The University of Texas System

12:30pm – 2:00pm | Smart Start: City Permitting Demystified | Free

Join the Development Services Department for a Smart Start to your business! The department recently launched an online permitting system for trade permits (electric, plumbing and mechanical). This session will unveil the new and upcoming online resources for your City of Austin permitting needs. Speakers: Rodney Gonzales, Randi Jenkins, David Rodriguez of the City's Development Services Department

1:00pm – 4:15pm | Marketing Your Small Business | Fee: $10

Marketing requires a blend of traditional and emerging practices, creativity, and 100% tenacity. Learn the right strategies and tactics to maximize success and avoid wasting valuable time and money. Instructor: Chris Aarons, PulsePoint Group

2:00pm – 3:30pm | On Your Own as a Solopreneur | Fee: $10

Whether you consider yourself a freelancer, contractor or consultant, join us for an insightful panel discussion on building your career as a solopreneur. Make the jump and enter the world as your own business! Hear from four local entrepreneurs ready to share the intricacies of how they achieved success wearing various hats – sales, production/service, setting their rates, filling their calendar with work, billing, and customer service. Learn how to leverage your network, manage your work day, and transition from having a boss to being the boss. Moderator: Emily Leach, Texas Freelance Association | Panel: Christine Moline, Jane Doe Ink, Dashboard Priorities; Jamie Whitney, Richards Whitney Law; Amanda Guerassio, Studio Guerassio

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm | Austin’s Hottest Industry: Food & Beverage | $10

In this workshop, we will reveal the secret recipe for taking your food or beverage product from a daydream or a home-baked prototype to a cash flow-positive consumer product business. Topics covered include fundraising, pricing, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, merchandising, and branding. The session will be led by Ben Ponder, who is the COO of Siete Family Foods and the founder of Barcode, a monthly startup workshop serving the Austin CPG community. Speaker: Ben Ponder, Siete Family Foods

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm | Business Structure: Forming and Maintaining a Business Entity | Fee: $10

Many factors must be considered when choosing the best form of business ownership or structure. The choice you make impacts multiple aspects of your business, including taxes, personal liability, ownership succession, and others. In this session, you will receive an in-depth analysis of the most common entity types for Texas businesses and the types of documentation associated with those entity types taught by local business attorney James Howard.

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm | Capital Acumen: Essential to Your Success | Fee: $10

Whether you are a rookie entrepreneur or a seasoned one, the need to access funding for your business is a prevailing factor. We have all heard the famous cliché, “It takes money to make money”. Learn from a distinguished panel of funding experts eager to share their valuable industry knowledge, plus learn about the various resources available to help make your dream reality! Moderator: Vicky Valdez, Small Business Program | Panel: Hall Martin, Texas Entrepreneur Network; Rosa Rios Valdez, BCL of Texas; Xavier Zarate, Family Business Loan Program, City of Austin; Sue Malone, Strategies for Small Business

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm | The Art of Social Media | Fee: $10

Move beyond basic creation of a business page or account towards an integrated social media strategy with artful engagement. This interactive workshop will present how to stage photos and create content across platforms to drive customers to your business. Top Austin food blogger Jane Ko will guide you through creative photo taking, editing processes, campaign development, and overall branding strategy for your social media presence. Speaker: Jane Ko, A Taste of Koko

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. | Keynote: Made in Austin | Free

Austin is a major destination for creative thinkers and businesses. Hear from local creative entrepreneurs, receiving national attention, about why they were drawn to this city and how they were able to grow a successful and sustainable career at Getting Connected’s Keynote kick off. The panel will be moderated one of Austin’s biggest homegrown success stories, SXSW. Moderator: Stacey Wilhelm, SXSW Music Festival Programmer | Panel: Gina Chavez, Adrian Quesada, Allison Orr

12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. | No Shame in Your Game: Marketing Strategies for Artists  | Free

Promoting your work can and should be integrated into your everyday creative process. Learn about the necessary tools to effectively promote your work to new and targeted audiences. We will cover professional web presence, email communication and how to navigate which social media platforms will help you work towards outreach success.

1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | Proposal Perfection | Free

Hear from the Austin Art in Public Places staff about what it takes to qualify and build a successful project proposal for public art. Learn the terms and skills required to see your project move from concept to reality and the resources available for local artists interested in public projects. Speaker: Carrie Brown, Cultural Arts Division, City of Austin

2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. | Put the FUN in FUNdraising: Fiscal Sponsorship and Fundraising | Free

This workshop will help artists, of all disciplines, better understand fundraising opportunities such as grants and donations. Find out the steps required to make your project possible such as fiscal sponsorships, cultivating individual donors, and tips for writing grants. Speakers: Anne-Marie McKaskle Davis, Tiffany Coghill, Graham Reynolds

3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. | Protecting Your Assets | Free

For many filmmakers, musicians and productions, partnerships are necessary to bring your idea to fruition, but how do you protect your skin in the game? Learn of legal and contract jargon that will reduce your risks when working with others with entertainment lawyer and Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts Executive Board Member Brooks Rice of Brooks Rice Law.

3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. | Ask a City of Austin Staffer | Free

Are you looking for a guide to help you better understand City resources and opportunities, stick around for our "ask a staffer" mentoring session! Cultural Arts, Music and Entertainment, and Small Business Program staff will be available to answer all of your burning questions. Don't miss this chance to Get Connected with the City in person. 

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. | Portfolio Careers | Free

Artists with multiple and diverse income streams are often the most successful. Find out how the “odd job” economy keeps creatives afloat from local artists with sustainable careers. Speakers: Calder Kamin, SaulPaul

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | Austin Export | Free

What does it take to get your show on the road? Learn from local artists and musician’s personal experience about what it takes to execute a touring performance and how to build long lasting national and international relationships. We will cover the basics for artists working abroad and resources for international travel. Moderator: Casey Smith, Economic Development Department, City of Austin | Panel:  Nelson Gouda, Troy Campbell, Anuradha Naimpally

Creatives Meet Business Mentoring Round Tables | Free

Creatives Meet Business (CMB) is an event and podcast series based in Austin, TX that helps creatives reshape how they view themselves, not just as “artists” and “creatives” but also as “entrepreneurs” and “small business owners.” CMB is helping Austin-area creatives get connected” to the business-side of the creative industry through roundtable discussions with: a CPA, an Entertainment Attorney, an Insurance expert, a Financial Planner, a Social Media pro and a Website whiz. Each experts spends 15 minutes at a table with creatives - spanning all creative disciplines - before they rotate to the next table, speed dating style.

Session 1 | 1:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Session 2 | 3:45 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Sponsors

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