Weren’t able to make it to KANEKO today for our fifth annual Big Omaha? Don’t worry. We’re providing a free live stream starting at 9:00 a.m., thanks to our sponsor Hayneedle.

Here’s today’s schedule … Continue reading →

To get a jump on the action of the final day of Big Omaha, join Des Moines entrepreneur Christopher New and Silicon Prairie News’ Jeff Slobotski for AM Reboot, a morning podcast for geeks. Today’s hour-long live video show is focused on the people, places and events of Big Omaha.

AM Reboot is the flagship program of our streaming media partner, Quadrant5.

Here’s what’s in store for today … Continue reading →

According to Ben Milne, one of the biggest mistakes a founder can make is to abandon the Silicon Prairie and its Midwestern roots.

And he should know. Without the community surrounding his Des Moines-based company, Milne said Dwolla probably wouldn’t be thriving today.

"Had we not stayed here, we would not have made the friendships with people in this room," he said. "Had we not stayed here … Continue reading →

A subtle shift is being felt at Big Omaha this year. Thanks to well-marked recycle bins, art installations, and even conference speakers themselves, the event has a new focus on sustainability.

"As our conference gets bigger, it was hard to watch how sustainability wasn’t a part of it," our event coordinator Brittany Mascio said before the event… Continue reading →

Anil Dash challenged the crowd at Big Omaha to recognize the ethics, legal principles and cycles of expression and economization that are developing in the tech world, and to think harder about how things should be done.

“We’ve forgotten that technology has values,” said the Internet veteran, who has been blogging for almost 15 years.

One issue he touched on is the industry’s disposable attitude. Will our digital content be considered art in the … Continue reading →

Catherine Rohr’s American dream is different than the average entrepreneur’s. Yes, she has a background in investments, but now she invests in people through Defy Ventures, a program that teaches former felons to be successful entrepreneurs.

After visiting a Texas prison with a friend, Rohr’s world was turned upside down when she discovered many inmates are profitable businessmen and entrepreneurs, but are stuck in a cycle of incarceration … Continue reading →

Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora, co-founders of Back to the Roots, developed their grow-at-home mushroom kits without knowing anything about mushrooms. Or even, really, food. After all, their careers after graduation from Berkeley were intended to be in investment banking and consulting. But they pressed on from their launch in 2009 to learn three key lessons, which they shared this afternoon at Big Omaha: Continue reading →

Big Omaha has gone 8bit. The annual event is nearly one day in, and even at this highly innovative tech conference, there’s still room for old-school style—and Adam Nielsen is proving it.

Nielsen is one of this year’s Big Omaha artists, live-drawing (yep, that’s right—live-drawing) caricatures of the 14 speakers while they’re on stage. Images from his computer are projected onto a wall in the event … Continue reading →

One more shout out to our Big Omaha sponsors! It’s almost cliche to say it, but it’s the commitment of these companies—from here in Omaha, throughout the Silicon Prairie and around the world—that allows both our Big Series events to happen and our team to work on Silicon Prairie news year round. It’s in that spirit that we’d like to toast the final 15 Big Omaha sponsors … Continue reading →

Megan Casey had a great thing going at Squidoo. She spent seven years building a successful site for users to generate content. But she wanted to throw herself "back in the deep end."

At Big Omaha, she shared how she did just that, and stand for something in the process. "I wanted to scare the pants off myself," she said.

Pack, a site that states it’s "for dogs and the people who love them," stands for the need to "slow down in life," Casey said. "There’s … Continue reading →