Jason Preston & Steve Broback

Jason Preston & Steve Broback co-founded the Dent Conference, an annual gathering and a year-round community of innovators looking to make a dent in the universe.

Jason and Steve launched the event with focus on content and programming. But they quickly realized that the event was really the centerpiece of an ongoing, year-round community they had created.

We talked about:

the origins of the Dent Conference

the benefits of getting people out of silos and interacting

how an advisory board can help guide programming and content

using "editorial pillars" to guide content decisions

"combinatorial creativity" - connecting people at the event so they can do great stuff together later

how a humming community vibe changed their fundamental thinking about the event

how panels are like PowerPoint presentations: "You can do a good one, but you probably won't."

the benefits of including non-traditional speakers in the mix

how to nurture year-round community among conference attendees

how creating safe spaces to connect leads to deeper connections

their induction into the Gender Avenger Hall of Fame

Jason's Bio

Jason Preston is a co-founder of Dent, a company that creates and supports a community of entrepreneurs, executives, and creatives who are driven to "put a dent in the universe." Dent began as an annual conference but quickly developed into a strong community of people who call themselves "Denters." The name Dent comes from the Steve Jobs quote: "we’re here to put a dent in the universe, why else even be here?". The conference focuses on drawing actionable insights from success and building an environment where peers from diverse backgrounds and fields of expertise are encouraged to build meaningful relationships through conversation and shared experience.

Steve's Bio

Steve Broback is the cofounder of the Dent Conference and Founder of the Parnassus Group, and is best known for his recent Tweet House and "140" Twitter Conferences produced by his company, the Parnassus Group. With Parnassus, Broback also hosted the Blog Business Summit and the Web Community Forum events.

Steve cofounded Thunder Lizard Productions, (a technology event production company) in 1991, which became a subsidiary of Fawcette Technical Publications in 2000. Steve is also the coauthor of Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business (Peachpit Press, 2006.) and was a professional magician for many years.

Video

Here's the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/SRwu8IgYtvQ

Show Notes/"Transcript"

[Not an actual transcript - just my quick notes on first listen-through]

0:50 - Steve intro - first Photoshop and Pagemaker conferences early 1990s, then web stuff in mid 90s - 300-1,400 folks per conference - sold company in 2000 - then Blog Business Summit 2005 - then world's first Twitter conference 2009, which morphed into The TweetHouse at SXSW, Sundance, etc. - that's era when he met Jason and early ideas about Dent emerged - death of Steve Jobs was catalyst - "dent the universe" -

Jason - why else even be here

3:25 - Jason intro - always entrepreneurial - Andrew Jason Aris Smythe - ARIS Software - TI-83 games and other convoluted schemes - also little interest in pop culture celebrities, but was always fascinated with greatness - how do people rise up and excel and change the course of the universe - and saw Dent as a great way to do that - to promote significant, meaningful, impactful activities - not just business but also - Marie Curie, JK Rowling - many ways to Dent the universe - great stuff often happens at the intersection of disciplines - cancer science, literature, leadership, business - bring those often-siloed groups together and you end...