Office 2.0 Conference: That Which Does Not Kill You Makes You Stronger

Saw some big news from Ismael Ghalimi about the upcoming Office 2.0 conference, to be held 3-5 September in San Francisco. First of all, Ismael always challenges gravity by concentrating his execution of the conference into a two month period, which is astonishing, considering the professionalism of the event. But this time, some last minute jitters led to a major sponsor dropping out. But Ismael, undaunted, has regrouped and added a launchpad to the event as a means of countering the loss of revenue:

[from Office 2.0 Conference : Office 2.0 Blog: Community Power]

Losing our Diamond Sponsor 10 days before the conference was definitely a huge blow ($75,000), but it forced us to be creative, and focus our efforts on what makes this conference unique, as Susan and Gadi so eloquently pointed out — its community-driven nature. The Office 2.0 Conference would not exist without the help it receives from its sponsors, but many early-stage startups cannot afford even our entry-level package ($2,500). In fact, they can barely afford the cost of flying to California today. Yet many innovations come from the smallest companies with the tightest budgets, and we’ve always been looking for ways to engage with them. The Office 2.0 Launchpad might be the answer.

Less than 24 hours after announcing it, we confirmed the participation of 8 companies, and are reviewing another 5. With a little bit more help from the bloggers community, we should easily reach 20 to 30, creating a nice balance with our more established paying sponsors. This is a perfect example of how powerful a community of online contributors can be, and a real-time illustration of how this event is put together, in less than 2 months.

I am a strong supporter of the event, and plan to help Ismael however I can in the next few weeks.

Update: 27 August 2008 - /Message readers can get a $100 discount on attendance at Office 2.0. See here.