Picture the scene. You enter a room. The room has windows and doors, sometimes music and usually drinks. People fill this room, talking, smiling, and bunched in groups like a Roman Tortoise Shield formation.

This is no start to some mind-boggling brain teaser. No. This is something FAR worse. This is a networking event. Enough to send shivers down the spine of any self-respecting introvert.

Bill Aulet is a (successful) serial entrepreneur turned teacher. This talk questions the entrepreneurial support industry, gurus, entrepreneurial education, Donald Trump and the notion that there is a recipe for entrepreneurial success. Don’t watch it to learn how to teach entrepreneurs, watch it to have your own entrepreneurial instincts challenged.

“This is my goal… I want to promote entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurs to be seen as a profession; not some bunch of crazy people”.

“What does ‘Disciplined Entrepreneurship‘ really mean today?

Slides, Video & Transcript below

What separates brilliant conference speakers from the also rans, the meh, the downright painful? Whether you are speaking at Business or Software Conference or a small group of colleagues, here are some thoughts on what the very best speakers do to be so great. It was prompted by a question…

Last week we took over Cambridge, UK for the second BoS Europe Conference Europe. As ever, the speakers produced a great show for those in attendance, delivering thought provoking presentations with software businesses in mind.

The slides from most of the presentations are here – with thanks to the speakers for permission to share the slides with the wider BoS Community.

Inevitably, I get asked a lot post-conference:

“What was the best talk you heard this week?”

Last week as we gathered in Cambridge, England for the 2nd Business of Software Conference Europe. Inspired by talks that will change the way we work together as a team and meeting some wonderful people. Post conference, as we gathered for a drink and a spot of punting along the river, Stephen Hawking swooped by. A remarkable week.

To answer the question. This is the best talk I’ve seen this week. Possibly ever.

Inspiring, emotional, eloquent, thoughtful, brilliant, tackling some HUGE issues and problems.

We’re all guilty. The world is moving too fast and we all have to deal with customers, employees, family, friends, investors, events, unexpected problems, Unicorns, smart phones, 24x7x365 availability. Do you honestly feel you’re in control of your life? If you do and can share the secret, I want to hear from you – please.

Last week we had the absolute pleasure of catching up with an well known BoS Community member, and meeting some new faces too. We held three hangouts with Jaideep Prabhu, Jenni Jepsen, and Des Traynor ahead of their talks at BoS Europe in two weeks time. Each were very different, but what they did have in common was exciting things of what is to come.

Lightning talks are always highly entertaining, varied affairs at BoS. A 15 slide deck progresses every 30 seconds, which produce 7 and a half minutes of entertaining, fast paced ideas delivered in manageable presentation chunks.

Here are the first four from last years BoS Europe. Touching on subjects ranging from Agile, to UX, to Gamification, to Changing the World.

We’re less than two weeks away from BoS Europe, so to join us for more great ideas click here and begin your BoS Europe Journey.

Business of Software has been a spa for entrepreneurs, CEO, geeks and people that care about building good software companies for the past ten years. We’re privileged that over the years the tribe has swelled to form an incredible community of inspiring people with great stories to tell – many of which have begun at a Business of Software Conference.

Product Strategy is hard. This is one reason that Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, is a Business of Software favourite. Every time he steps on the BoS Stage it is hard to not be impressed by his laser-guided focus on getting product strategy right by focusing on what makes your company special.

Michael Skok is one of those people who when he speaks, you simply need to listen and you will leave a wiser person than when he started talking.

So much to enjoy in this article from the New York Times almost 30 years ago on the demise of the laptop computer. (not just the telephone number to contact companies and the nostalgia of companies like Tandy.)

Not so long ago I asked for your help to build the BoS, BLN email lists by sharing your knowledge of best practice in this pursuit. The BoS Community came shining through, with Rob Walling (also the subject of my first BoS video review) providing podcasts he has completed in his ‘Startups For the Rest of Us’ series which, among many useful things for start up people, has three podcasts based on this very topic.

“A story of Zero to a Couple of Billions of Dollars”

We had Michael Skok share some of the learnings from his Harvard iLab class on “Building Products into Valuable and Sustainable Businesses” at BoS 2014.

Slides, Video and AMA Below

We love this idea from Sara Breeding at Axosoft who came to BoS Conference last year and heard Brianna Wu’s talk about helping women in technology.

15 Slides. 30 seconds each. Your Subject. Our Stage. Haven’t worried you yet? Great! Let’s see what you have to say.

Last week we had the absolute pleasure and privilege of welcoming back Chris Savage, Co-Founder and CEO of Wistia for a BoS Hangout following his BoS USA Talk in 2014. A talk about his talk soon turned into a conversation about the state of video marketing in general and a play list for anyone thinking about using video in their marketing.

Most people are familiar with the story of how the first Obama campaign harnessed split testing to build their war chest for the election. Regardless of your political views, it was a big win for analytics. With the general election on the horizon, we thought it would be a good time to repost this for all to see and understand.

Slides & Video Below

At The BLN and BoS we try, hard, to produce the world’s best conferences.

For those whom I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet – my job is to let people know about these conferences. The most effective method in terms of creating an instant reaction we have found is via our email newsletter that we send every couple of weeks.

Hard to believe that Wendi Labbie has kids at college. She had children very young. A proud moment for us all to see her son pitch a ‘no hitter’ when she was over here a couple of weeks ago for our IoT Forum.

Here is a short video of the final pitches….