Who should attend Startup Iceland Conference

Since I published my Status Report on organizing the Startup Iceland Conference, there has been very good discussions and feedback and criticism of the message of the Conference on facebook and by my wife. I am extremely thankful for all the feedback and discussion, I will work with those helping me to fix all the challenges. In the end, I want to see a successful conference organized in Iceland and it becomes a yearly festival of celebration of Entrepreneurship and Startup culture in all our activities. I agree that the website could do a better job of communicating the message. I agree that most of the links, posts and items so far has been focused on the startup community.
Here is what I believe:

1. Startup Iceland Conference is not about Startups but about building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.
   I believe that Iceland has gone through a difficult phase and we are not out of the water yet but what we need is an Entrepreneurial Renaissance, what does this mean? How does this look? I want everyone in the world to believe that anything is possible as long as we set our minds to solving it, starting here in Iceland. Entrepreneurs know the feeling, I wanted to organize the conference so we can hear from those who have successfully walked the path. Is the message only for Entrepreneurs and Startups? Absolutely NOT! everyone, including those working in Civil Service, Government, Pension Fund, Venture Funds, People Reading and Writing Business Plans (thanks Toti), Educational Institutions, Financial Institutions, Laborers working in Construction and in Aluminum Smelter and those venturing into the deep sea to fish, Students, Bankers, former bankers etc… everyone can learn the life skills of Entrepreneurship.  When one walks the path of an Entrepreneur, one learns to let go of the comfort zone, why is this important? well, it teaches us to take on any challenge and not hide behind our jobs or our position or our skill set or lack thereof.
2. Alexander Osterwalders workshops is one of the hottest learning experiences in the world today. The book written by the team is used by the best of the best, global thought leaders and management consulting companies like Capgemini (I know, I used to work for them!), Deloitte, PwC, 3M, Ericsson etc I think it is important to bring attention to how we got Alexander to agree to visit Iceland. Alexander Richter contacted Alexander Osterwalder in 2009 and built a relationship with him, the same way I have been stalking Fred Wilson and Brad Feld‘s blog for the past 3 years. These people notice when someone is persistent and they want to help. That is why they have agreed to come to Startup Iceland Conference. We have an opportunity to attend this class right here in Reykjavik without getting on a plane, how cool is that?
3. The Business Model Generation workshop is not just about rethinking your company or business model, it can be applied to rethink about your career. Alexander has written a book with the title “Business Model You – A One Page Method for Reinventing your Career“, the philosophy, the methodology and the core concepts are all the same. Who would not want to reinvent their career?

I want to see Entrepreneurs Win… I work hard everyday to make that happen. If that sounds corny you should listen to my “I have a Dream Speech!…”