Summit Series Recap: Day Two

Friday’s Summit Series was exhausting yet exhilarating. So many spectacular people! 115 young entrepreneurs under the age of 35 gathered in one resort in Aspen, Colorado. This included four social entrepreneurs – young leaders of very successful non-profit organizations. They each served on a panel talking about their missions, and participated in an interactive session where they were able to benefit from audience perspective on how they can be more effective in spreading the word about their respective causes.

Lauren Bush: 25 years old and niece of George W. Bush, together with Ellen Maura Gustafson, co-founded the FEED Projects, which in its first year, raised $4.5M, enough to fund the school-feeding program in Rwanda for the entire year! Beautiful, kind, and a very articulate speaker, Lauren went up against all odds to bring her sustainable FEED bags to Whole Foods Market.

Ethan Zohn: a great, funny speaker – we had walked around town earlier in the day, and he talked about what inspired him to get involved in AIDS/HIV testing and awareness. After he spent time in Africa for the TV show Survivor: Africa (and winning the million dollars), he said he saw first hand how HIV/AIDS affected the region, and decided to incorporate a passion of his into a campaign to educate and evangelize. As a former professional soccer player, he launched the concept of Grassroot Soccer to help spread the word.

Bobby Bailey and Ben Keesey spoke about Invisible Children and its efforts to bring to light the longest running war in Africa. The guerilla movement by northern Ugandan Joseph Kony involves numerous accounts of abductions (1.4M estimated) of children as young as 8 years old who are forced into military service for his army. Bobby is a filmmaker, and uses his talents to express his outrage and shed light on the human rights violations that are taking place. April 25, 2009 is the date of their next big demonstration to help build awarness.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) will be Elizabeth Gore of the UN Foundation and the Nothing But Nets campaign – it was her idea, along with Elliott Bisnow, founder of Summit Series, to pull together this impressive panel. Stay tuned…

Other great attendees I had the pleasure to get to know better include:

Owen Cook: 29, CEO and co-founder of Real Social Dynamics was a hoot – he got altitude sickness his first day here and was spotted thereafter inhaling oxygen from the micro-canister you can buy in your room. His co-founder Nicholas Kho was there too – an Ironman triathelete – and they both talked me through the benefits of alcohol-free living. Their company helps guys figure out how to “attract women”--no kidding--and Owen is known for being, in his own words, quite the pickup artist. He still manages to teach courses every weekend! Very charming.

Barry Silbert: CEO and founder of SecondMarket was the fourth or fifth former Wall Streeter-turned entrepreneur that I met this weekend. Barry has a brilliant business model, and he’s incredibly bright and unassuming. After spending time on Wall Street as an investment banker, he saw a growing need for companies and markets with distressed assets - a common topic these days. He helps bring them together with folks who want to buy. His company now boasts an impressive management team, 100+ employees, fast growth, and new sectors opening up every few months. He’s young, driven, and very easygoing. I am in awe...

Jessica Scorpio: arriving in on Saturday like a breath of fresh Canadian air, Jessica inspired me by how much she has accomplished in such a short time! When she was 18 she founded a leadership network for Canadian entrepreneurs called IDEAL, which brings together young talent with recognized leaders in their field in a matchmaking sort of venue. It’s a great way for the different generations to learn from one another, and participate in her social networking site www.idealmesh.com. Now at 21 years of age, she holds a full-time job supporting the Prime Minister of Canada, and just happened to make time to freelance and launch Canadian company Gazaro at DEMO this year. She told me she can only keep up by working 20 hours a day. Wow. Wonder what her 22nd year will bring?

Brian Smith: Principal at In-Q-Tel: As an strategic investor, Brian sees many kinds of technologies and startups. Brian is a great guy, and seems to love his job even though he travels quite a bit to the west coast. In a small world story, Brian shared that he knows my SpeakerBox co-founder Kristi Hedges, and her husband Mike Graninger, also at In-Q-Tel, really well! It sounds like things are going great for him, and he also gave a shout out for SpeakerBox friend Carahsoft, who holds some of the GSA schedules for In-Q-Tel portfolio companies.

Alexis Jones: wow, what a bundle of energy! This woman is amazing. She is the founder of I Am That Girl, which is a non-profit entity dedicated to the empowerment of girls. “Smart is Sexy” and “Death to the Comotose Barbie” are mantras of hers. She conducts leadership courses, empowerment groups, and creates an online magazine for Gen Y women and girls. She can add professional model, Survivor contestant, Masters degree recipient, and co-creator of a new television series entitled "I Am That Girl" to her bio. She is producing a new series with her great friend Bryce Dallas Howard, also in attendance at Summit. Bryce was delightful, almost shy, and demure in a wonderful inauspicious way; it’s no secret I’m a huge fan of her work in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and Lady in the Water. Her support for the I Am That Girl movement will help put them on the map. Just see her endorsement! A little anecdote here: when Alexis told her agent she wanted to pursue her Masters' degree, and thus, would be leaving a lucrative modeling career, he told her, "that's a good waste of pretty." Come on! Smart is Sexy, Alexis! Go girl.

A special mention of three sponsors that were in attendance that were awesome: Steve Burman, our realtor from Jones Lang LaSalle, who was great to spend time with and get to know better. This is his 2nd or 3rd Summit Series - he's known Elliott Bisnow for years. It's thanks to him that I was introduced to Summit Series. Glad you are my commercial real estate guy! For any of you out there that needs a smart agent...

James Bogart from RBC Wealth Management, who at 21 has a sense of goal-setting and ambition like I've never seen! He's terrific. I hope he earns his watch.

And the monster of all sponsors, Staples, who brought us Bill Peterson, who was super enjoyable, especially when he opted to stay out late. He paid for dinner for 125 folks, left great jackets and treats in the room, and whooped it up when Michigan won Saturday night. I love ya Bill.

It's been great getting to know such great people!

- Elizabeth Shea