Skate Parks in Omaha
Hey Everybody
It seems that I hear more and more people saying that there is nowhere to skate in Omaha. Well, check out this site: http://www.nebraskaskateparks.com/.
So get out and skate everybody.
Best,
Will Flavell
BIG Omaha Rocked
Hey Everybody,
If you are from the Midwest and reading a blog then you probably heard about BIG Omaha. It was happened last Thursday night and all day and night Friday. It was amazing.

Here is a brief description of the event from the BIG Omaha site:
What happens when the country’s foremost creatives, entrepreneurs and innovators descend on one place? That place explodes. Which is precisely what we plan for Omaha.The energy will be impossible to contain. We will begin building communities, companies and friendships. We will inspire new thoughts and completely new ways of thinking. We will develop visions: personal, shared, and civic.
Speakers will come from some of the most innovative companies in the nation. And you’ll hear fantastic stories from numerous emerging businesses.In the end, you’ll take away a network and an energy that will propel those new connections to greatness. For you. For your business. For your community.
Come to the heart of the Midwest. And let’s rebuild this country from the inside out.
I have to agree, the energy and the connection of an event like this can really spark a community. I am really excited to see what will come in the next few weeks. I wanted to write a quick post to say thanks to Jeff and Dusty for putting this event together. Thanks guys, you really made your vision come true.
I also wanted to share a few quotes from some of the speakers that I really liked. So here goes. A little wisdom from BIG Omaha, in case you couldn’t be there:
Jason Fried of 37Signals
“You know more about a project while you are working on it, then you do before you start.”
“Whenever you make something, you make something else. We are in the business of byproducts. Ruby on the Rails was a byproduct, our book was a byproduct.”
“What can you share? What can you teach?”
“Pay attention to what won’t change. Think of Amazon, they invest in customer service, shipping, selection. Don’t always be chasing the next fad.”
“Nobody gives a shit about Dell.”
Adriana Gasciogne of Girls in Tech
“Of all the fortune 500 CEOs, only 8 are women, but women make up 46.5 percent of the US workforce.”
Micah Baldwin of Lijit Networks
“We all say ‘it was a learning experience’ — no it wasn’t it was a failure.”
“Sometimes the best way to learn to duck is to get punched in the face.”
“It’s about being open to the idea that your plans will change.”
Ben Rattray of Change.org
“If your company didn’t exist, would anyone really care?”
Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
“The Internet, this platform is going to fundamentally destroy everything (media)…TV is fucked.”
“The middle man is losing the game because the Internet as a platform is changing things.”
“One good business strategy — WIN.”
“I can’t beat math.”
“Everything that I believe in didn’t exist five years ago.”
“If you don’t go out and get it. I will.”

Here is a list of the amazing speakers that came to BIG Omaha. Thanks guys:
- Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
- Jason Fried of 37signals
- Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless
- Adriana Gascoigne of hi5 and Girls in Tech
- Ben Rattray of Change.org
- Micah Baldwin of Lijit Networks
Best Wishes and see you there in 2010.
Will Flavell
Twitter Out Loud
Saw this hilarious video the other day and wanted to share it:
The Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Blog
Hey Everybody,
If you are a long time reader than you know that I also write a few blogs for clients. One of my favorite projects is coming up this weekend.
It is blog that I write for Borsheims that follows the Annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Weekend in Omaha, NE. It is a really great experience. My job is to shoot video, stills and write posts on all of the events of the weekend. I try to provide a surrogate experience to all of the shareholders who can’t come to the event.
The event gets huge numbers of attendance. This year they are expecting more than 35,000 people. It is also a really fun time. Berkshire and Warren Buffett are big search terms during this time period and this blog allows our client to contribute to and gain from some of that high search traffic. Needless to say, the blog gets a lot of hits. Check out this case study from last year’s performance.
Anyway, if you are a reader, I hope that you will check out the blog. And if you are in Omaha, NE this weekend, maybe you will see me at the event.
Best of luck,
Will Flavell
Recession Question
Hey Everybody,
Just like everyone else, I have friends who are out of work because of the recession. I also work as an intern coordinator and interviewer at my current job. What do these two things have in common?
Answer: I talk to a lot to people who are out of work and looking. There are tons of posts out there on how to find jobs in a recession. There have been a lot of suggestions floating around to help you find work to pay the bills: more part-time work, more freelance, switching careers, and go back to school. Just to name a few. But I have something else to say whenever someone asks me about how they can find work. This is my advice:
Go home and write down on a piece of paper your five favorite things to do in a the world. Don’t sugar coat this with work-like activities. If you like watching pro wrestling, write it down. If you like knitting, write it down. Then look at that list. Did your last job let you do one of those five things? Did the job before that?
For most of us, the answer is invariably no. Well if the answers is going to be no at the next job, don’t take that job. Start your own business. Go work in the field of what you love doing. This will always be more profitable. It will make your life more enjoyable and you will naturally network more easily when you are happy and comfortable.
It seems to me, that all the best success stories that I have heard have started with a love, a passion, or at least the search for something interesting.
Go find what you love and get a job in it. If it doesn’t exist, create it. Life is too short to do what you hate.
Just an idea.
Will Flavell





