Business & Professional
ENTREPRENEUR
Midwest Tech Fest
Conference to focus on social media and digital technology.
Robin Schwartz
Special to the Jewish News
F
or those who are hip to today's
social media outlets, a two-
day technology conference
to be held this week in Royal Oak is
something to tweet, blog and Facebook
about.
The big event is called
FutureMidwest, a high tech extrava-
ganza that will combine entertainment
and education April 16 17 at the Royal
Oak Music Theatre.
The conference includes presenta-
tions from 10 industry experts, includ-
ing Jay Adelson of Bloomfield Hills,
an entrepreneur and former CEO of
-
the social news Web site Digg. He will
deliver the keynote address.
Adelson is nationally recognized for
his work in technology and the social
Web. Under his direction, Digg grew
to more than 40 million visitors per
month.
The event also will include a street
fair with live music and vendors, and
interactive breakout sessions designed
to educate Michigan business owners
about how to use social media tools to
grow their businesses.
"I want attendees to leave with
a sense of excitement about the
future potential for the state and the
region," says Zach Lipson, 24, of West
Bloomfield, one of the organizers. "I
hope FutureMidwest can put this region
on the national radar. I hope it can be a
catalyst to change the negative percep-
tions that the Midwest is just a 'rust
belt' that lacks innovation."
Lipson's "day job" is running Leftos.
com , a Troy-based online relation-
ship forum he founded. He put the
conference together along with Jordan
Wolfe, 27, of Royal Oak, director of
CommunityNEXT, a new program at
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit created this year to attract and
retain young Jewish professionals. Wolfe
also owns an educational software com-
pany (uwemp.com ).
The third event organizer is Adrian
Pittman, 33, also of Royal Oak, direc-
tor of technology at Daggerfin, a
Rochester-based branding agency. All
three have organized conferences like
this before.
"Zach and I put on TechNow09 last
year as a way to highlight new technol-
ogy businesses in the region," Wolfe
explained. "We attracted more than
800 people. In November, I met Adrian
Pittman who put on a social media con-
ference called Module. Within 15 min-
utes of meeting, I realized we needed to
join forces. That's how FutureMidwest
was born."
So who should attend? The organiz-
ers say it's an "ideal conference for
anyone involved in business develop-
ment, entrepreneurs, brand managers,
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34
April 15 * 2010