eCommerceFuel Live: The Event for Independent Store Owners – eCommerceFuel

Andrew Youderian • July 10, 2014

If you’re an independent store owner or eCommerce professional who’s serious about networking with and learning from some of the best in our field, you won’t want to miss eCommercefuel Live.  It’s this August 22nd – 24th in Austin, TX.

Join us for a weekend of connecting, sharing eCommerce strategies, expert speakers, breakout sessions and swapping stories from the trenches. We’ll also mix in plenty of fun group activities planned around Austin, including an opening party at Bigcommerce headquarters.

Originally created for members of our private forum (who have already snagged many of the tickets), we’re opening up the remaining available spots publicly to qualified candidates.

Top-Notch Attendees

Everyone attending will be an established store owner or professional with real-world experience.  How experienced?

Of the attendees already signed-up, more than 1/3  have businesses doing more than a million dollars per year in revenue.  The others are all either savvy eCommerce professionals or experienced store owners.

Making great connections and networking opportunities are the most valuable aspect of any event.  While attendees from our private forum are already pre-screened, all other attendees will need to have real-world eCommerce experience to ensure a great networking and learning environment for everyone.

Opening Party at Bigcommerce

We’ll be kicking off the festivities Friday night with a welcoming party at Bigcommerce’s official headquarters. Get a chance to tour their incredible office space, enjoy an open bar and hors d’oeuvres and mingle with both Bigcommerce employees and forum members alike.

Accomplished Speakers

You’ll hear from speakers with proven track records and real-world case studies, all of whom are forum members themselves.

Learn how Bill D’Alessandro purchased a laggard skin care company and tripled sales through rebranding.  Eric Bandholz will be sharing how he built BeardBrand.com into a seven figure business in less than a year.  And eCommerce guru and Facebook marketing expert Ezra Firestone will be teaching advanced techniques for rapidly growing your store’s revenue.

The speaker list is still being finalized, but you can count on actionable and transparent presentations from experienced entrepreneurs.

Focus on Networking & Breakout Sessions

By far, my favorite part of events is connecting with other great entrepreneurs – and that’s what we’ll be focusing on for ECF Live. We’ll be limiting the number of traditional speaker presentations and making more time for breakout sessions, networking activities and group events.

What are “breakout sessions”? It’s where you can connect with area-specific experts and forum members in a smaller, intimate setting to discuss a specific issue in depth. This was one of the biggest requests for the event by forum members, and we’re making sure to prioritize it.

Here’s a list of some of the sessions we’ll be offering:

• Finding a Chinese Supplier You Can Take Home to Meet Your Mother | Peter Keller from FringeSport.com 
• Explode Your Margins with Custom Proprietary Products | Bryan Walthall from iAmThomasNorth.com
• How To Create A Mobile Optimized Shopping Experience And Double Your Conversion Rate | Steve Chou from MyWifeQuitHerJob.com
• Facebook Advertising Lessons Learned from 50 Million Ad Impressions | John Larkin from PropelAd.com
• Brand first, eCommerce Second | Ben Jenkins from OneFastBuffalo.com
• Shaping the Future of eCommerce | Kirsten Knipp from Bigcommerce.com
• Success Strategies for Buying a Business | Dana Juanzemis from HomeHealthTesting.com
• Using Google Analytics to Steal Your Competitors Market Share | Chad Vangas from eCommerceInfluence.com
• Advanced Video Production & Marketing Strategies | Charlie Rall from Video Review Labs

…..and many more.

Location – Hyatt Regency on the Water

The event will be held at the Hyatt on Lady Bird Lake, a beautiful venue right on the water in downtown Austin. We’ve reserved a block of rooms at discounted rates for attendees.  Information on how to book those will be provided after you complete registration.

Limited Spots Available

This conference isn’t going to be a massive 500+ gathering of lemmings. Instead, we want to replicate the feeling of our private forum: an intimate gathering of legitimate, experienced store owners and eCommerce professionals.

If you’re interested in coming, it’s recommended you book soon.  Now that we’ve opened up the event publicly to qualified attendees outside the forum, the remaining slots will likely go quickly.

Who Can Register?

As we mentioned, this event is reserved for existing store owners and eCommerce professionals.

If you’re a store owner, you should be doing a minimum of $5,000 to $10,000 per month in revenues.  Non-store owners should have worked professionally in the eCommerce space, or in a role to help store owners succeed.  Examples include being a paid traffic or SEO expert, product designer, shopping cart developer, eCommerce SAAS app founder or web designer – just to name a few.

We’ll be reviewing and/or following up with all registrants to ensure proper experience before the event, so please only register if you know you meet the guidelines.

Tentative Schedule

Friday Night:
Opening party at Bigcommerce headquarters w/ open bar and hors d’oeuvres

Saturday:
Morning:  Welcome + speaker presentations
Afternoon:  Lunch + breakout sessions
Evening:  On-the-town evening meetup in Austin (location TBA)

Sunday:
Morning:  Final speaker presentation + breakout sessions/workshops
Afternoon: Lunch break and then group event (TBA) + networking
Evening: Closing party (location TBA)

How Much Does It Cost?

The event is $499.  This covers your admission to all speaker and breakout sessions, the opening party, food and drink, complimentary breakfast for those staying at the Hyatt and transportation from the hotel to some events. Plus, of course, our overhead and venue costs.

We’ve negotiated a special rate of $149/night with the Hyatt for a limited number of rooms. Booking details to be provided after registration.

Questions

Can I bring a spouse/significant other/friend?

Absolutely! While they won’t be able to attend the daytime sessions without officially signing up, they’re more than welcome to join us for the afternoon and evening events. Some additional costs may apply if they’re attending a comped event; if so, we’ll fill you in with more details as the date arrives.

What is the cancellation policy?

We can offer a full refund through August 1, 2014.  After that, we can’t issue a refund, but you can transfer your ticket to another eligible attendee at no charge and be reimbursed by them.  If you’re on the fence or unsure about your schedule, I’d recommend purchasing now and refunding before August 1st to reserve your spot.

I’m thinking about staying on AirBnB, with a friend, etc. Thoughts?

Austin is an incredible city but its public transit leaves a bit to be desired.  If you’re staying offsite, you’ll likely need to have a rental car or pay for taxis when coming and going – although Uber recently was rolled out in Austin which should make things a bit easier.  If you’re able, staying right at the Hyatt is your best bet.

I’d love to speak/lead a breakout session. How can I do that?

If you’re coming and interested in leading a breakout session on a particular topic, please let us know! Ditto if you’d like to give a talk, but we have far fewer spots available for full-on presentations. Please contact our community manager Laura Serino (laura@ecommercefuel.com) with what you’re interested in doing and we’ll be in touch.

When should I fly in and out?

We’d recommend getting into Austin no later than 5:00 CST on Friday to make sure you have plenty of time to make it to the opening party.  We’ll have a bus taking attendees from the hotel to Bigcommerce at 6:30, so you’ll want to make sure you don’t miss that.

The event schedule goes through most of the weekend, with things wrapping up on Sunday evening – so we’d recommend sticking around and catching a Monday morning flight if possible.  If you need to get back Sunday, our afternoon group event (TBA, but likely involving getting out on the water or touring some local eCommerce businesses) should run from approximately 2 to 5pm CST.

You didn’t answer my questions …

So sorry! Please reach out to Laura (laura@ecommercefuel.com), and she’ll do her best to help answer it for you.

Post by Andrew Youderian

Andrew is the founder of eCommerceFuel and has been building eCommerce businesses ever since gleefully leaving the corporate world in 2008.  Join him and 1,000+ vetted 7- and 8-figure store owners inside the eCommerceFuel Community.