Austin: the Lean Startup tour continues

Next week I head to Austin, TX for my first visit ever. I'm going to be speaking on June 3rd at an event sponsored by the Technology Entrepreneurs Exchange (TeXchange), "the premier networking organization in Texas for business executives and entrepreneurs to meet, exchange ideas and share experiences." (Also see below for details of another event the day before)

Normally, these events are for members only, but they are making an exception for the lean startup, and the dinner will be open to the public. You can register here. There is also a special discounted rate available for entrepreneurs and bootstrappers, about which you can learn more here. I really like their event format, which includes dinner, moderated table discussions - and then a Q&A session. I expect that will lead to much deeper (and tougher) questions. Bring it on!

Here's their description of the event:

The current macroeconomic climate presents unparalleled opportunities for those that can thrive with constrained resources. The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight. It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0, and lean manufacturing to guide the creation of technology businesses that create disruptive innovation.

This presentation will empower entrepreneurs and managers to:

-Identify a profitable business model faster and cheaper than your competitors.

-Continuously discover what customers want to buy before building or making follow-on investments in new features.

-Ship new software at a dizzying pace: multiple times a day while improving quality and lowering costs.

-Build a company-wide culture of decision-making based on real facts, not opinions.

In this presentation, serial entrepreneur Eric Ries will share practical solutions based in his work building IMVU to more than 25 million members worldwide and his experiences consulting to more than a dozen technology startups.

Learn more here.

On the day before the TeXchange event (June 2nd), I'll be at a much smaller invite-only gathering sponsored by Austin Ventures. This will be an in-depth discussion with a handful of entrepreneurs and founders that have been pre-selected. This event is being organized by Manuel Rosso, an EIR at Austin Ventures, and my former collaborator back when he was VP of Marketing at IMVU. I asked him to reserve a seat or two for blog readers; if you're interested in coming to the event, you need to email him directly and explain why you want to be there.

Once again, thanks to everyone who can come out to join the discussion in Austin. As usual, if you're a reader, please come say hello - and bring your questions.