A note from the #bbatx team: THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. Please stay tuned for future iterations of this conference and the release of our #WORKbook at the conclusion of the event on Jan. 20. Sign up for inbox updates on this event's next iteration and the release of our #WORKbook here.
Presented by #bossbabesATX and powered by Texas MSTC, #WORK is a one-day pop-up conference designed to share resources, new ideas and approaches to creative and entrepreneurial work. Produced by women for women in collaboration with Women Who Code: Austin and other community partners, the event's panels, workshops and speaker sessions will explore personal and professional development, marketing, business management and entrepreneurship. Complimentary coffee beverages will be provided by #bbatx's friends at Chameleon Cold-Brew.
Join us for this inaugural event on Jan. 20, 2018 from 1 to 5 PM at The Refinery! Tickets are $15 and available in limited quantities. Learn more below.
#WORK SCHEDULE:
1:00 to 1:30 PM
Light refreshments and mingling
1:30 to 2:00 PM
An Introduction from Mellie Price
Mellie Price, a 25-year Austinite, is the Executive Director of Technology Innovation at the Dell Medical School. She is an experienced investor, executive, fund manager and eight-time entrepreneur with a range of business experience from small private sector to a large publicly traded organization. She has created and managed both organic and explosive growth scenarios for variety of organizations. Mellie is a founding mentor and Managing Director of Capital Factory as well as a General Partner to its investment fund. She is the co-founder of SoftMatch, which connects enterprises interested in innovation to the highly fragmented global startup ecosystem. Ms. Price was also the Founder & CEO of Austin’s own Front Gate Solutions and Front Gate Tickets, one of the largest privately held ticketing companies in the US/Canada from 2002 to 2015 when it was sold to Live Nation.
Ms. Price is an active member of the Texas entrepreneurship community and a winner of the prestigious Austin Business Journal’s 2015 Profiles in Power Award as well as the 2014 Tech Titan Award. She is a proud member of the Board of Directors for Leadership Austin and the Sustainable Food Center. She is also a founding Advisor to Texas Competes and currently serves on the Social Innovation Council and the Technology Advisory Committee for Austin Mayor Steve Adler.
2:00 to 3:00 PM
Finding Your Niche As Creatives And Entrepreneurs, featuring Jennifer Sinski of RSVPster and Giant Noise, artist Calder Kamin, entrepreneur Terry Pierre Mitchell (of Elon & Company and The Austin Socialite) and artist/cultural programmer Xochi Solis
Through the stories of four multihyphenate creatives and entrepreneurs, attendees will learn how to maximize their skill-set and center in on viable products.
Terry P. Mitchell (panelist) prides herself in being the steer-head and foundation to E'lon & Company (software & mobile development), The Austin Socialite (events/marketing/media) and Glam Hair Only (an international hair extensions franchise). Her faith, quick wit and unwavering determination to succeed has propelled her to levels beyond her imagination. Very early on, Mitchell knew she would be an entrepreneur, as her family is filled with self-made successors and risk takers. It only felt natural for Pierre to slide into this multi-tasked position. As a native of 'the music capital of the world', Austin TX, and a first-generation descendant of Trinidad and Tobago, Mitchell has cultivated a sincere adoration for traveling, culture and diversity. Mitchell graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, with a bachelors degree in Corporate Communications and certification in Business Foundations. Directly after graduation, Pierre was recruited to help boost several Fortune 500 companies. Now, she is expanding her very own empire, all the while, developing her expertise in the areas of strategic planning, business development, marketing, management and public affairs.
Artist, educator and activist, Calder Kamin's (panelist) art sparks an opportunity to participate in the greater good by transforming waste materials and her audiences through the Plastic Planet series and Neocortex Classroom. She has a background working in galleries, education and city government providing professional development for artists. She is the Artist-in-Residence at the DoSeum in San Antonio, Texas and the Artist Liaison for the City of Austin Small Business Program.
Xochi Solis (panelist) is an Austin, TX based artist sharing her studio time between Texas and Mexico. Her works include multilayered, collaged paintings constructed of paint, hand-dyed paper, vinyl, plastics, and images from found books and magazines. Solis considers the repeated act of layering in her work a meditation on color, texture, and shape, all leading to a greater awareness of the visual intricacies found in her immediate environment. She received her B.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Texas in 2005. Recent exhibitions include: Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (2017); We must build as if the sand were stone, South Texas College Library Gallery, McAllen, TX (2016); Rivers of our Vision, Lawndale Art Center in Houston, TX (2013); Summer Invitational, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York City, NY; Flatlander, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (2015); New Art in Austin: 20 to Watch, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX (2008); and currently Shaped by Subtraction, BOX 13 Artspace in Houston, TX (2017). In 2016, Solis held a residency at Pele Prints in St. Louis, MO and in 2013 was a resident artist at Arquetopia in Oaxaca, MX learning to work with natural pigments. Solis is one of 30 artists featured in the book Collage: Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform (Chronicle Books, 2014). In addition to her studio practice, she manages and spins records with the Austin chapter of Chulita Vinyl Club.
Jennifer Sinski (panelist) is the Vice President at Giant Noise, a public relations and social media management firm, based in Austin, Texas with offices in New York City and San Antonio, Texas. Sinski is a graduate of Southwestern University and joined the Giant Noise team in 2014. Prior to Giant Noise, Sinski worked as freelance publicist for a variety of lifestyle clients and was the campaign planner and special projects director at lookthinkmake, an Austin-based advertising agency, where she gained extensive experience with event promotion and marketing. Her clients included national nonprofits such as The National Campaign, real estate developments, alcohol brands, and more. Additionally, Sinski worked with Austin-based advertising agency Tilted Chair Creative on the public relations initiatives and strategy for a wide range of clients. Her PR expertise in alcohol, lifestyle, media, culinary, hospitality, corporate, and entertainment includes working with such diverse clients as Texas Monthly; travel and hospitality clients such as Native Hostel, and events during SXSW for The New York Times, CNN, and WIRED, among many others. Sinski started RSVPster.com, a service that RSVPs users to all unofficial events during South by Southwest interactive and music, in 2011. The company has grown to over 40,000 followers across Twitter, Facebook, and a newsletter and has received press in The Guardian, Billboard, Business Insider, CNBC, Thrillist, and more.
2:00 to 3:00 PM
Pitch Development with Melissa Murphy of Pitch Academy
How do you tell your story? Melissa Murphy will show us how to use language as a tool when marketing our ideas.
Dr. Melissa Murphy is the Founder and Chief Communication Coach of The Pitch Academy. She is an award-winning teacher and scholar in Organizational Communication and Technology at The University of Texas at Austin. She has published work on web conferencing in the classroom, international crisis communication and narrative, and professionalism for students and recent college graduates. She has presented research at the National Communication Association and NISOD’s International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence as well as leads numerous professional communication skills workshops in Austin, Texas.
3:00 to 4:00 PM
It's All About the Paper: A Workshop On Business Management
In this session, attendees will learn the mechanics of business management—from invoicing to the IRS, with workshop leaders Sunshine Gonzalez-Goodman (on operations) and Koreena Malone (on accounting).
Koreena Malone is the Managing Principal of KM Business Solutions, LLC, offer ing bookkeeping, payroll, and tax services to a wide variety of clients; including small to mid-size business, not-for-profit entities, and individuals. Malone has over 25 years of experience, and has worked for Maxwell, Locke & Ritter, Brown Graham & Company, Clifton Larson Allen, and Erickson Demel and Company.
Sunshine Gonzalez-Goodman is the Director of Operations at Antonelli’s Cheese Shop in Austin, Texas. She joined the Antonelli’s team in 2015 as the Retail Manager and, through her leadership and people skills, she helped drive the company to its most profitable year after a period of significant reinvestment and growth and her team earned three noteworthy accolades that year alone: Best US Cheese Shops (The Gourmet Retailer), Best Gourmet Food Shop (Austin Monthly), and Local Hero Food Shop (Edible Austin). Sunshine has always been in the industry of customer service and people management.
3:00 to 4:00 PM
The Perfect Price with Aileen Passariello of MamaLingua
How should we price our work? In this talk, Aileen Passariello of MamaLingua will discuss how she determined her market value and share actionable advice.
Aileen Passariello - McAleer is an American of Venezuelan descent from Miami, FL. Her parents immigrated to the United States to provide their future children with better opportunities. She has a bachelor's degree in Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Post graduation, she pursued a career with IBM in New York City. Her work in the healthcare space as a client manager inspired her to pursue an MBA, which she completed at the University of Texas in Austin Texas. She decided to stay in Austin because of the exciting and dynamic startup culture. After working with various startups in Austin, she realized it was time to create something of her own. She began raising her children in a bilingual household and wanted to share her experiences with others. She taught Spanish out of her home to parents that also wanted to raise bilingual children. Her methodology of "learning like a child” attracted many parents with young children. MamaLingua was born out of these experiences and months later in 2012, Aileen formally launched it with one of her students, Christia Hoffman. Today, MamaLingua has evolved from a home classroom to a language learning platform, including a bilingual app for Android and iOS that can be used to implement introductory words and phrases in Spanish or English. The MamaLingua community has reached well beyond Austin, Texas, expanding nationally and globally. She blogs about her experiences raising bilingual children sharing her stories, adventures, and strategies for creating a bilingual household for your children. Visit MamaLingua to learn more.
4:00 to 4:30 PM
On Failure and Figuring it Out, a panel featuring Hayley Swindell of The Refinery, Sharon Mays of Baby Greens, Nina Berenato of Nina Berenato Jewelry and Cristina Tzintzun of Jolt Texas
Panelists will talk candidly about persistence in entrepreneurship, hearing/saying 'no,' and when a closed door might be a sign to change course versus a sign to quit altogether.
Hayley Swindell (panelist) is the Founder and Creative Director at The Refinery, a coworking and event space build for creatives. Hayley graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in government in 2012 and has a background in nonprofit development, fundraising, event planning and community engagement. Her creation of The Refinery grew from her experience in starting and closing a subscription box company in 2014. She lives in a tiny home with her puppy and fiance in the back of his moonshine distillery. When she isn't building the community at The Refinery, she can be found eating queso, walking Town Lake, sipping on wine at The Buzz in Bee Cave and dreaming up her next business idea! Photo by Taylor Prinson Photgraphy
Sharon Mays (panelist) is the owner and founder of Baby Greens, one of the first fast food salad restaurant concepts. She also serves on the Austin/Travis County Sustainable Food Policy Board. Mays started her first company at 25 years old (a marketing agency called M City Marketing). She started Baby Greens in 2003 when I was 30; opened 3 stores in the Austin and grew the company to a value of over $1MM, then she closed all of the stores in 2009. She had created Baby Greens to be a franchise but the operations were not meeting her vision for the company, so she closed to realign Baby Greens' mission, values and operational goals. Baby Greens reopened in 2016 and was one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings in Austin that year. On top of being a community activist and realtor, she's also launched a consulting agency called Embark which focuses on helping entrepreneurs and soon-to-be-entrepreneurs open and/or expand their business.
Tania Mejia (panelist) is the Communication Director at Jolt, a Texas-based nonprofit working to increase Latino civic engagement. Tania oversees earned media and digital strategies to spur young people to action. Previously, Tania worked as State Deputy Digital Director for Hillary for America in Florida. Tania helped build the state's digital team and oversaw the SMS program, reaching almost 3,000 million voters. She also managed a digital organizing training program for 700 field organizers. In 2015, Tania served as Deputy Press Secretary for the U.S. General Services Administration. In this role, Tania was responsible for developing and executing communications strategies for the agency's technology portfolio. She was also responsible for managing the agency's digital communications program. Prior to joining the U.S. General Services, Tania served as Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Labor. She helped plan and execute communications campaigns to support White House priorities including raising the minimum wage, modernizing overtime pay rules and promoting paid leave in the workplace. She also served as on-the-record spokesperson for paid leave and LGBT labor issues for national news outlets. Tania was born in Lima, Peru and grew up in North Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and an Masters of Public Administration from American University.
Even after 6 years in business, each piece of Nina Berenato’s (panelist) collection still touches the designer’s hands. From her humble beginnings as a metalsmith’s apprentice in Brooklyn to gracing the pages of Vogue, W, Cosmopolitan, MTV and outfitting fashion forward celebrities like Alicia Keys, Lena Dunham, FKA Twigs and Lady Gaga, it’s obvious that Nina walks through life with her eyes open, bringing a one of a kind vision to each design. A large part of Nina Berenato's brand identity rests on her goal to use her gift for design to make all women feel powerful, beautiful and capable of anything. Since opening up her first retail store location in Austin, TX inside of a re-furbished 1959 Airstream Bambi in 2016, Nina has become a fixture in Austin’s growing maker community. You can shop the Nina Berenato Work/Shop now open in THE DOMAIN in ATX where she employs a gifted group of local women.
4:30 to 5:00 PM
To close the event, we'll engage in a communal Q&A / resource-sharing session. Together, we'll discuss the day's panels and talks, as well as go through the digital handbooks provided to every attendee. (In addition to the day's programming, attendees will also receive a complimentary #WORK book, a digital guide to Austin's creative and entrepreneurial resources.)
GET YOUR TICKET:
Missed the first #WORK conference? Download our Winter '18 #WORKbook. This resources guide contains a full overview of the conference, plus additional resources, tips and suggestions for creatives and entrepreneurs.
(The $5 fee facilitates the cost for the download; this book was compiled and produced through the collaborative efforts of #bossbabesATX, the Texas MSTC Program, Women Who Code: Austin and additional community partners and its contents are not available for sale or resale.)
MEET THE PRODUCERS, PARTNERS AND VENUE:
About #bossbabesATX, the producer: Through our programming, we hope to foster community, conversation and commerce around women in creative industry and the arts and women-owned businesses. Our productions center on personal and professional development, activism, the arts, entrepreneurialism, and community infrastructure. We believe intersectionality, informed decision-making, sharing professional resources and actively advocating for women's rights and the rights of marginalized peoples are inherently valuable and beneficial. Learn more about our programming and mission at bossbabes.org/why. *Our events prioritize the voices of self-identifying women and non-binary folks. We are not gender-discriminant; all are welcome to attend.
About Texas MSTC, the presenting partner: The Texas MSTC program is a one year masters focused on the intersection of business, technology and innovation. Designed for working professionals, their students learn the skills to take real-world technologies to market either within a corporation or through a venture of their own. Learn more about Texas MSTC.
About Women Who Code, a community partner: Women Who Code is a global non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. Its Austin chapter organizes educational programming year-round, including Austin’s Diversity Hackathon at Capital Factory.
About The Refinery, the venue: The Refinery is a creative coworking and event space offering local makers, chefs, photographers, e-commerce retailers, bloggers, creatives agencies and local tastemakers a place to work, connect and grow in the heart of downtown Austin.