Is YOUR passion contagious? (What I learned at Big Omaha...)

When you think of tech and innovation conferences, it’s likely that the first place that comes to mind isn’t the Midwest. While Silicon Valley and the East Coast seem to be hot spots for those types of gatherings, we Midwesterners had a chance to gather for an awesome and exciting event in a place much closer to home than usual: Omaha, Nebraska.

For the millions of you East and West Coast readers who don’t travel much to our humble Midwest region, try to contain your snickers and smiles. While it may not be New York City or Los Angeles, Omaha has plenty of action and excitement of its own. This action and excitement was encapsulated in last Thursday and Friday’s FANTASTIC event known as Big Omaha.

Featuring some unbelievable guest speakers, top-notch facilities and rockin’ pre/post parties, Big Omaha’s goal was simple: “What happens when the country’s foremost creatives, entrepreneurs and innovators descend on one place? That place explodes. Which is precisely what we plan for Omaha…The energy will be impossible to contain. We will begin building communities, companies and friendships. We will inspire new thoughts and completely new ways of thinking. We will develop visions: personal, shared, and civic.”

They succeeded. Big time. With some unbelievable presenters sharing their thoughts on entrepreneurship (or Jason Fried’s dislike of the word entrepreneurship), success and failure (or Jason’s disdain for the concept of failing early and often) and how to maintain your company’s culture as your environment changes around you, as well as a glimpse of the fun and energy of Omaha’s community and the people that represent it, Big Omaha proved that the Midwest can be just as innovative and tech-savvy as any other region of the U.S.

Beyond the great speakers themselves (Gary Vaynerchuk, Micah Baldwin, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Jason Fried, Micah Laaker, Ben Rattray, and Adriana Gascoigne), the guys putting on the conference (Jeff Slobotski and Dusty Davidson) did an unbelievable job of providing a great conference environment, engaging people with fun pre- and post-event parties, and keeping the show running as smoothly as a freshly-zambonied hockey rink.

Although I could take time trying to recap what it was that the speakers said (or, for more humor, I could recap my first lesson in driving a stick shift from the Omaha airport to downtown Omaha…which was a self-taught lesson, mind you), I’d rather focus on what I feel is the most important element of Big Omaha, and that is this:

If you believe in the creative community of your region and you believe that your region has plenty to offer the rest of the world, you can build an extremely strong and engaging event to reflect the brainpower and passion of your creative community.

Don’t think small!

Don’t think that because you live in a (relatively) smaller community, you can’t make BIG things happen. Dusty and Jeff felt like they could truly represent the passion of Omaha’s creative community and they did so with abundant success.

And I don’t mean that strictly in the sense of building a conference either. I’m talking about it in any form of life or business. There is NO client or project too big for you if you truly have the desire to work with someone great or do something amazing.

It’s up to you. Big Omaha proved that. Every speaker at the conference shared how he or she was blown away by what Omaha had to offer. But here’s the important part: if Jeff and Dusty hadn’t brought their passion to this project, those speakers probably might not have ever known Omaha had so much to offer.

That’s what you can do. Bring your passion to the table every single day. Show the world that you love what you do and that your passion is contagious. How could someone NOT want to work with a team of people completely thrilled with and invigorated by what they’re doing?

Big Omaha wasn’t just about Omaha. It was about taking your passion and turning it into everyone’s passion. From the people of Omaha themselves to the many visitors from around the country, it seemed like just about everybody was ready to up and move to Omaha by the time Friday night rolled around. How can you build that kind of excitement for your brand or your clients?

Most importantly, how can you build and maintain that passion for yourself?

P.S. - If you want to see some awesome photos from Big Omaha, check out our friend Aaron Mentele's shots in his flickr photostream. As soon as the videos from the event are up online, we'll link to those as well.

Did you go to Big Omaha last week? Share your thoughts on the event in the comments section below. What did you enjoy? What could have been done better? What did you learn from the experience? If you weren’t there, why do you wish you could have been? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so drop us your insight below or hit us up on Twitter at @deepbench (or hit me up personally at @mikebilleter).