So I’ve been waiting a bit to write about the aftermath of Startup Riot. I’m glad I did – a lot has happened in the last few days that I want to talk about. First, you probably want to know if the event is a success. Well, since I organized Startup Riot, I’d probably say “yes”. So instead, why don’t you read what Dan Greenfield, Stephen Fleming, Lance Weatherby, Paul Stamatiou, Paul Freet, Ashish Mistry, Scott Burkett, LenderFlex (presumably David Jones posted this), Mathew Sweezey, and Buddy Ray and Anand Amin had to say. It may look like I only linked to positive posts but I can’t find any negative ones. At least, not yet.

So I have two major personal lessons learned. First, I should start taking Advil right in the morning and throughout the day. I was on my feet the whole day (mostly concerned with keeping people on time during presentations). At one point during the after party, I thought my back was starting to spasm. I immediately sat down so I was good but I’m not going to risk that again next year. I plan on sitting more and taking some preventative medicines.

The second major lesson learned is never be surprised by the actions and attitudes of people. More on this in a minute.

The Good – The Presentations

Man, there was a lot of good stuff. I can’t believe how awesome the presenters were. Sure, some stumbled through their presentations. Some had slides that were hard to read (blame me – I should have realized some of this and will be more on the ball next year). But no one went so grossly over their allocated 3 minutes that I had to get them off stage. Some folks were at the very edge of their time and I had to make a threatening shuffle towards the stage. This was enough to make people wrap up quickly. Honestly, I’m not sure what I would have done if I had to pull someone off stage but undoubtedly it would have been embarrassing plus that company would have lost the chance to have a clean video presentation for their marketing/PR uses (BTW I’ll post video as soon as I get it into my hands). Peer pressure also played a part I think. No one wanted to be known as the first person that had to be pulled off stage. With each additional presentation, I think the pressure to abide by the rules grew on the remaining presenters.

The Good – The Keynote

Everyone I have spoken with really enjoyed Drew Curtis’ talk about Fark.com and what he went through to build and maintain the site and the company. And even though Drew was self deprecating, don’t be fooled – he’s a smart cookie and I’m sure that has contributed to his success. Drew also commented to me that the companies were all over the place in terms of industry and stage which made for a more interesting pitch session. Unfortunately Drew only got to stick around for the first hour of pitches.

The Good – Sponsors

The sponsors for the event were all awesome. None of them had a bad thing to say and they were all supportive the entire day. Pretty impressive since they all signed up and had no idea what to expect. Especially since I didn’t have any idea as to what to expect. I’ll give them all one more plug because they were all so awesome.

If you need help with insurance and benefits stuff, it starts and ends with Angus McRae. Talk to Angus himself or Suzanne Wildt over there. Also thanks to Angus for a bunch of the photos that I have on my Flickr set for Startup Riot. Note that Angus also publishes a blog too (what benefits folks do you know that are savvy enough to write a blog?!?).

If you need to figure out how to get somewhere, there is no better GPS device than the Dash (my review of this kick ass device coming soon). You don’t need to talk to anyone there – just head over to dash.net and buy one! Those of you who attended Startup Riot hopefully snagged a coupon which expires on Friday I think.

If you need to keep your data secure in a cost effective manner, Jungle Disk coupled with Amazon S3 is the way to go. Again, you don’t need to talk to them – just go and buy a copy right now. You won’t regret it. I’ve backed up all the data in my house (especially our precious digital photos) using Jungle Disk. Excrypted, secure, and easy to use. What else is there to know?

Want to have a great after party? Talk to Nelson Mullins. I hear they also do some kick butt legal stuff but I’m not sure how they do that while having such a great view to the city. If you want to talk to them and figure out how they work while having this great view, talk to Brennan Ryan, Billy Ching, or Hemant Dutta. If you figure out the secret, let me know. I’d end up daydreaming all day long with that view.

And finally, once you’ve made it big and realize you really would rather focus on something other than investing all your new found wealth, call my man Langley Respess over at UBS. He’ll take good care of your windfall while you go do something else productive.

The Good – The A/V Guys

You would not believe how much the Flashpoint Group guys did. When I showed up at 7am, they were nearly 80% setup. These guys swooped in at 6am or earlier and got everything done. These folks gave us the hook up because the A/V would not have been nearly as good had they not. Mind you, these guys do BIG events all over the place. They’ve done red carpet events, events at SXSW, and the co-founder, Steven Jasmin, who was at the event was jetting out to Las Vegas Monday evening to do another event. He was originally not supposed to show but he made his schedule work so he could come.

Most of the reason the day stayed on schedule was because of one man – Ian Anthony from Flashpoint Group. He kept on me and made sure everything moved along.

Everyone has said the production was flawless. And it was. And I didn’t lift a finger to make it so. I’m pretty sure if I had used anyone else, the production wouldn’t have been even 10% as good. These guys rocked it and they’re one of my heroes of Startup Riot.

If you ever need folks to do an event (they do full event management, not just A/V stuff), you shouldn’t go anywhere except to the Flashpoint Group.

The Good – The Venue

No one has said anything good/bad about the venue but I think the location was pretty good. I heard some gripes about signage at the hotel and I totally agree that it kinda stinks. I think that’s an Atlantic Station issue and not that the hotel doesn’t want better signage. Overall though, having close access to restaurants, etc. was good for those who went out to eat lunch. If we do this again at Atlantic Station, I’ll try to setup something so folks can coordinate going to lunch together so people can meet new folks over lunch. That was one really good suggestion from this year. (I’m planning on covering Startup Riot suggestions in another post.)

The Good – The After Party

Yeah, this rocked. Thanks a ton to Nelson Mullins and Dash for getting this together. I can’t even express in words how awesome this was. Just look at the photos and hopefully you didn’t miss the fun.

The Bad – The Gatecrashers

You knew with all that good, there had to be some bad. The biggest bad of the day were those who were and tried to be gate crashers. A number of folks who were clearly rejected folks or who had never even tried to register tried to show up and get into the venue. Most of the reason this didn’t happen is because of Kathy Duncan. She rocked the registration table and played the role of bouncer very well. Many kudos to Kathy for doing that!

But there was one group who snuck by all the filters including my own. One guy from Administaff posed as an entrepreneur and fooled me. I’m pretty sure he changed his LinkedIn profile to seem more entrepreneurial than he is because looking at his profile now, I would have never let him in. This person (I won’t name him in a post because I don’t want to give him publicity – but contact me and I’ll let you know about them) took the presenting company list, gave it to his colleague who then started emailing companies saying he (the colleague) was at the event and wanted to meet. Yeah, the colleague never got into the event.

Does everyone remember when I put up this picture and said “if you do happen to be a service provider that got into this event – do not pitch the startups because this is about them succeeding and not you selling your wares”? Well, I said something to that effect and these guys clearly don’t think the rules apply to them. So if the rules don’t apply to them, then none of us should help them by giving them business.

So good job, you fooled me. But now I know your name and I know your company and I’ll make it my mission to make sure startups don’t use you or your company in the future. This kind of self serving behavior is what prevents good events from happening. No one likes attending events where they have to avoid sales pitches and I am determined to make sure my events don’t devolve into that. So please, don’t buy any services from Administaff. Their people only care about one thing – their own self interests.

What’s Next?

A lot of you asked me when the next Startup Riot will be held. And a lot of you asked me while I was still worrying about THIS Startup Riot. Man, you guys are punishing. :-) Now that I’ve recovered a bit and heard the feedback, yes – there will be another Startup Riot. It’ll be next year sometime. I’m going to start working on logistics soon so we can get another awesome venue and do another awesome event. A lot of you have volunteered your services. If you’re serious, you should probably drop me an email so I can keep a list of folks. Those of you who attended already have my contact info. If you didn’t attend and don’t know me, then you can either contact me via Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. (Note: I don’t accept friend requests on Facebook/LinkedIn except from people I know really well – but you can still use these to send me messages.)

Everyone who attended this Startup Riot will get an email (assuming I have your email address – you should have gotten one email after the event soliciting suggestions/comments/complaints if I do) next year when registration opens up both for attendees and startups wanting to pitch. If you don’t attend next year, that will be the last Startup Riot email you’ll get from me. I hate being forever on conference mailing lists so I won’t subject you to the same punishment.

Thanks again everyone for making the inaugural Startup Riot a great event. I had fun and I hope you did too!

UPDATE: Joe Uhl also did a post on the event.

UPDATE 2: Josh Luber has by far the most entertaining and laugh out loud recap of the days leading up to and including Startup Riot.

UPDATE 3: Dang, I forgot Angus McRae’s recap.

UPDATE 4: Michael Mealing just put up his thoughts.