How to host a session at Austin Startup Week

I've been a part of the Austin startup community for about two years working on Gofleetly. During that time I've attended Austin Startup Week twice as a participant and just recently held my first session. Both experiences were phenomenal and I recommend them both. Touring around and spending the day seeing all the other local startups is a great way to network with people going through similar experiences.

This year I decided to be more involved and submitted a proposal for a talk I thought a broad audience would enjoy, here is what I wrote in with:

"In today's market, retail stores are closing their doors every day and eCommerce is surging. What can brick-and-mortar stores do to fight back? Innovate where online retail stores aren't, their storefronts. Stores are quickly transforming into learning centers, shipping hubs, service areas, and more. At the forefront is shipping and Same-day delivery. Brick-and-mortar can utilize their network of already built "mini-distribution centers" to offer their customers faster time to product and incredible convenience. Time is running out, and those who don't embrace this digital transformation while fully utilizing their existing assets will end up closing their doors as well."

Being in the retail space, I knew this kind of conversation would attract some attention. With as many as 8,000 brick-and-mortar locations anticipated to close in 2019, retail transformation is a hot topic. Top of mind for today's consumers is delivery speed. The retailers who are able to provide the fastest delivery at low costs are winning big. Here at Gofleetly, we believe that the solution for many of these retailers is to utilize what they already have, their store fronts, as an option to ship their inventory to their nearby customers.

Overall, the talk was well received. There was discussion throughout the entire presentation and the crowd was very responsive to the material we provided. For those thinking about hosting one themselves, I highly suggest it. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to see the slides that we put together or have any particular questions about our experience there. Thanks to ATX Startup week for the opportunity and see you again in 2020!