Featured Partner

FailCon- Embrace Your Mistakes, Build Your Success

Tuesday, Oct 8 2013 7:45AM to 7:00PM

Various Speakers and Panelists
UNC Charlotte Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) Charlotte, NC

FAILCON-  Embrace Your Mistakes, Build Your Success

Charlotte FailCon 

Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Location: UNC Charlotte

Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC)

Room G256 on Ground Floor of EPIC

Directions - Easy access- located directly off Hwy 29/ N Tyron St. near Harris Blvd. 

Parking: Free Parking in CRI Deck or open parking Lot 23 

(see campus map

For parking in CRI Deck,come out of the parking deck and follow the brick sidewalk to either the back of the EPIC building through the courtyard, or the other brick walkway to the front of the EPIC building. CRI Deck is located directly off Hwy 29/ N Tryon St. 

Uber will provide complimentary ride service up to $30 in value. Sign up at Uber.com, and use Promotional Code: UberFailCon

 Time:  Registration: 7:45 am ­- 8:30 am / Program: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm / Cocktail Reception 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm


Stop being afraid of failure and start embracing it!

FailCon is a one-day conference for entrepreneurs, investors, developers, designers, and even "corporate america" to study their own and others' failures and prepare for success.

We all have founded, worked for or invested in startups that have failed. We're smart, we keep up with the latest in technology trends, but sometimes just don't go as planned. How can you predict what will work and what won't? Well, you can't.

But that doesn't mean you should stop trying. It just means you should start exchanging stories of what didn't work and how you pivoted, why you couldn't raise money, what the wrong hires were like, and when you decided it was time to let go. Entrepreneurs need to hear that from each other: that it's okay to fail, it doesn't mean you're worthless. You're just like the rest of us, learning from our making mistakes and building something bigger next time.

FailCon was started in 2009 by Cass Phillipps in San Francisco, an event planner for startup events and Diane Loviglio, a founder of a cleantech startup.

They both produced or attended numerous events for the technology industry, but had begun to realize things were starting to get repetitive. Events put successful entrepreneurs on stage to talk about how they made their company great, something that's near-impossible to replicate, and never about what they learned from mistakes along the way. Their first event launched with over 400 attendees, and they have continued to grow since then.

Failure is still a taboo topic all over the world, but FailCon is working to change that one city at a time. FailCon has expanded to several global cities and Charlotte will be the first US city outside of San Francisco to host FailCon. Additionally, Finland has claimed October 13th as the International Day of Failure!

For real success to happen, a candid discussion and authentic learning from failure is critical.

We have lined up a great group of speakers…all with different perspectives and experiences with failure. (I will include the speaker bios in the next email blast.)

I hope you will join us for what will truly be a fun learning day!

Agenda:   Speaker Bios

7:45 am - 8:30 am   Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 am - 8:45 am   Opening Remarks

8:45 am - 9:00 am    FailCon Emcee, Craig Mathews: Kick off of Event

9:00 am - 10:00 am   Dave Rendall, The Freak Factor

10:00 am - 10:45 am  Allan Bacon, The Physics of Failure: Experiments in Life, Love & Work

10:45 am - 11:00 am  Share Your Failure Session- You the Audience!

11:00 am - 11:45 am  Chris Halligan, What I Learned When OtherScreen Failed

11:45 am - 1:00 pm   Box Lunch and Networking

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm   Ann Choiniere, Experience Why Failure Can Be a Good Thing! (Failure Simulation in the EPIC Courtyard- full audience participation )

2:00 pm - 2:15 pm  Share Your Failure Session- You the Audience!

2:15 pm - 3:00 pm  Bob Connor, Failure – Theory, Reality, Recommendations and My Experiences

3:00 pm - 3:15 pm  Trailer for Startup Land Documentary (coming to CLT 2014)

3:15 pm - 3:45 pm  Investor View of Failure

3:45 pm – 4:00 pm  Share Your Failure Session- You the Audience!

4:00 pm - 4:45 pm   Bill Bing, Horror Stories from Angel Pitches & Startup Lessons Learned

4:45 pm - 5:00 pm  Craig Mathews, Recap of the Day and Closing Remarks

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Networking Reception- Therapy!

A BIG thank you to our Sponsors!


Program Cost: BIG Members free

Guests $75 in advance, $95 at the door

Students $40

Registration: RSVP to terry@bigcouncil.com or register below.

Dress Attire: Casual