The Das Greenhaus Summer Speaker Series
Recently, Das Greenhaus hosted a Summer Speaker Series open to the Boerne and Kendall County community. Over a three-week period, the featured speakers—Catie Campbell, Rod Collins, and Samuel Riehn—provided the community with education and inspiration over their lunch. From inspiration on how to stand out in a crowded industry, to information on doing business with the Department of Defense, this speaker series saw a wide variety of both topics and listeners.
Catie Campbell, the Board President of Das Greenhaus, kicked off our speaker series by talking about the Maverick Paradigm. This was an excellent talk that had the audience engaged from start to finish. Catie gave stories and background on how any entrepreneur can apply the characteristics of being a maverick to increase the visibility of their business. She detailed how a maverick breaks the rules, asks for what they want, and is not afraid to step out of their bubble. Catie provided insights into how this applies to the real world and left the audience feeling impacted by her words. Through her inspirational message, she supplied the community with advice that will make positive changes in every aspect of their lives.
Next in the speaker series was Rod Collins, an author and leadership coach. Rod talked about how the organization of management in a company really matters and how the traditional hierarchy model is no longer able to keep up with the rapidly changing world. Instead, Rod suggests that businesses use peer-to-peer networks, allowing decisions to be made by groups as opposed to one person. With the mass amount of information out in the world, no one knows everything, so it is important to use collective intelligence to come to the right decision. After the talk, Rod took time to sit and eat lunch with the participants, allowing curious individuals from the community to further explore his ideas and gain an understanding of what a peer-to-peer network looks like in practice.
Finally, the speaker series was wrapped up by Sam Riehn, a Das Greenhaus board member and CEO of SBIR Advisors. Sam talked to the community members about how their companies can get involved with the Department of Defense—more specifically, how they can help themselves secure SBIR/STTR contracts. Sam, who was formerly an Air Force Contracting Officer, supplied the audience with the ins and outs of what the process looks like and how anybody can establish themselves as a contender for these contracts. Sam stressed the importance of standing out above the crowd when applying for SBIR contracts and helped involve the audience throughout the whole presentation. After he spoke, Sam talked to more members of the community in greater detail over lunch, helping to supply them with the information they needed to move forward in the process. Sam also shared that this July, he will begin a 9-week bootcamp course at Das Greenhaus, to help local businesses go through the SBIR/STTR application process.
The Das Greenhaus Summer Speaker Series was inspirational and informative and successfully captivated the attention of its audience. The advice that each speaker had to offer was incredibly valuable to our audience, full of both early and experienced entrepreneurs We want to extend a huge thank you to Caite Campbell, Rod Collins, and Sam Riehn for their contributions and for being a part of this program. Keep an eye out for updates on the next Speaker Series, coming to you this fall, here at Das Greenhaus!
Article written by Tristan Forks, Das Greenhaus Summer Intern